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Rating: Once upon a time, there was Brit Pop.
There were Blur, there were Oasis, Pulp, Suede, and there were the Verve.
Everyone loved the Smiths, some also loved the Beatles, some also liked Bowie, some the Velvet Underground, but what united them was the music. They lived in the countryside, playing joyfully and carefree through the unspoiled valleys. One day, some fools arrived with paper and pen, with a conceited air, sipping a dry tea. Hearing the soothing melodies that took them back in time to their teenage years (all Beatles and Rolling Stones), they jotted down a cacophonic and disgusting word in the notebook: Brit Pop! So, all the know-it-alls and friends of the fool came to the countryside, seduced by the music.
Before long, the unspoiled valley became a metropolis.
The four or five small bands took a job, leveraging their musical ability, and made a lot of money in a short time. Brit Pop! Brit Pop! Everyone in the metropolis rushed into the streets uttering this word. But slowly over the years, the four or five small bands noticed that the music suffered from metropolitan pollution, traffic, and too much noise, and they could no longer play as in the good old days. Their passion had waned over time, and money had taken over. Sadly, Pulp and Suede perished, suffocated by metropolitan pollution, as their music was not compatible with the fools.
Brit Pop was turning against its own creators.
Thus, they reached a crossroads: either stay or flee, leaving all their possessions in the metropolis. Oasis, who owed so much, indeed too much, to the fools, decided to stay in the metropolis, making music reminiscent of youthful times and changing their identity to "The new Beatles." Blur, forever lovers of music and devoted to their idols, tried to escape. They found a path and a sign. The sign said: "To continue on this path you need to turn off."
The path was extremely tortuous, wild, natural, but it was full of traps and pitfalls, and the turn was daunting and steep, yet decisive and essential for escape. Nonetheless, Blur took the issue head-on, embarked on the journey, and upon reaching the end of the path, showed the way to the Verve. The latter took more time, also because their leader attempted to annul the plan by trying to return to the metropolis to reclaim the money and brazen fame, but soon changed his mind seeing what had happened to Oasis. So, the Verve made it and immediately began working and making music in the valleys again.
And so Ashcroft and company take the situation back into their own hands. They make a turn, indeed they make a turn. The turn is the change, the only way to get out of the city streets to purify the music. Eleven years after that "Bitter Sweet Symphony" which brought them so much success, here are the Verve with "Forth", the result of a lot of work in the countryside. Forth, which means ahead. One must look forward, developing what was good yesterday and forgetting the awful.
And indeed, conceptually it can be defined as a progressive album. Not progressive as a musical genre, to be clear. But progressive because it renews their old. Do you recall the psychedelic and dreamlike rides of "A Storm in Heaven" and the pop anthems of "Urban Hymns"? Well, this can be defined as a revival that renews the best music of the Verve's career, adding a few more touches. The call to the Smiths is steady, it’s everywhere. An example is the synthetic/electronic pop of "Love is Noise" (one of the hits of the year, the chorus kills), with its '80s callbacks and distant psychedelic echoes. The innovation and radical change are all demonstrated in the first track, "Sit and Wonder," a sort of Verve’s "Tomorrow Never Knows," in my opinion the most successful piece on the record. There's a bit of everything, from the Beatles to Primal Scream, with a pinch of Moby. Another important piece is "Judas," a very imaginative pop where on a measured rhythm Ashcroft spins effect fillets and Cocteau Twins, creating a soft but sophisticated melody.
The last part of the album is the most pressing and, in a certain sense, the most rarefied. If "Noise Epic" may seem clear at first, Ashcroft's whisper leads us to the second half of the track, which launches us straight among Sonic Youth and noise. While "Valium Skies" and its calm and (indeed) Valium atmosphere winks at Galaxie 500, "Columbo" is a mellifluous pop reminiscent of Slowdive. It’s up to "Appalachian Springs" to close the album, a light ballad supported by the drums, wavering between psychedelia and rock, but the fading finale is just enough.
All in all, it’s an album that confirms the wait, a surprise for those who grew up with the Verve, and a pleasant and varied record for those in search of good music. It joins the year’s sensational releases, those "gossip" ones, that the dry tea sippers love so much.
And so the Verve lived happily ever after. Without Brit Pop.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
02 Love Is Noise (05:29)
Will those feet, In modern times
Walk on soles, That are made in China
Feel the bright prosaic malls
In the corridors that go on And on and on
Are we blind, Can we see?
We are one, Incomplete
Are we blind, In the shade
Waiting for lightning, To be saved
Cause Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Singing Again
Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Singing Again,
[Again, Again] [Again, Again]
Will those feet, In modern times
Understand, This world's affliction
Recognize, The righteous anger
Understand, This world's addiction
I was blind, Couldn't see
What was here, In me
I was blind, Insecure
I felt like the road, Was way too long,
Yeah
Cause Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Singing Again
Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Singing Again,
Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Feeling Again
Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Singing Again,
[Again, Again] [Again, Again]
Cause Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Feeling Again
Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Singing Again,
Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Feeling Again
Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Singing Again,
[Again, Again] [Again, Again]
Will those feet, In modern times
Walk on soles made in China
Will those feet In modern times
See the bright, Prosaic malls?
Will those feet, In modern times
Recognize, The everything up
Will those feet, In modern times
Pardon Me For My Sins
Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Feeling Again,
Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Singing Again,
[Again, Again] [Again, Again]
08 Valium Skies (04:34)
Can you keep yourself on for good
Seems like the whole world is losing
How do you stop yourself up
Even if seems like the whole world is crying
Aaaah Oooooh
Aaaah Oooooh
She got all I need
The air I breath
When it comes to my valium skies
She don't mind if I cry
How do you stop your love from crying
Even if you knew she was lying
How do you stop this world from loathing
Still no knocking with all these cards I'm holding
Aaaah Oooooh
Aaaah Oooooh
She got all I need
The air I breath
When it comes to my valium skies
She don't mind if I cry
She don't mind if I cry
She don't mind if I cry
Aaaah Oooooh
Aaaah Oooooh
She got all I need
The air I breath
When it comes to my valium skies
She don't mind if I cry
When it comes to my valium skies
She don't mind if I cry
09 Columbo (07:30)
Baby why are you wasting time crying
Like it's the only thing to do?
Baby don't you worry, you're still crying
Your instincts all it's got, I knew
Baby don't you worry, you're still crying
I can see the sadness in your eye
Baby why are you wasting time crying
Trying to find out the reasons why?
Baby don't believe it when they say it
Love is just a feeling that you give
You're the universe and you're all I need
Tell me all the secrets that I forget
Ooh-yeah-yeah, oooh-yeah-yeah, yeah-yeah
All right, ooh yeah, all right
Just watch the lights go down over this town
Watch it ten feet down, whilst we learn
Watch the city boys leave, full of bluster
Oh where are we now?
Take it easy, for you must keep digging, yourself's only star
We don't know, we don't know (oh yeah)
We don't know, we don't know (oh yeah)
We don't know, we don't know
we don't know, we don't know (a-ha)
Fame, a celebrity cocksuck, flash light, flash light
Fame, bullet proof bathroom
Inside, fixing up
Fame, a sealing-up number one
Vacuum, a vacuum
Fame, miracle accent,
Inside, start it up
Shoot it up, shoot it up, shoot it up, shoot your gun
Fame, the vanity minstrel
Fame, the mirror of the wet dream
And I love you, and I'm feeling that accent
Dying on the inside, I'm dying on the inside
Love's like oxygen
Love's like oxygen
Love's like oxygen
Love's like oxygen
Love's like oxygen
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Other reviews
By GrantNicholas
"Love is noise/love is pain/love is these blues that I’m singing again,"
"Richard seems rejuvenated by ten years, and he has also gained greater expressive depth in his voice."
By Doherty
The album opens with the track Sit and Wonder, certainly the best song with strong reminiscence of early Verve.
'Forth' is an album a bit too homogeneous with too few epic moments to highlight for it to be an album of those The Verve everyone knows... or rather knew.
By Keith
The album immediately surprises with the band’s state of grace and Ashcroft’s vocal cords which practically do whatever he wants.
'Love Is Noise' already a band classic, catchy and contagious with a chorus that sticks and is supported by an almost three-dimensional production.
By CaptainRock
The title 'Forth' and the cover suggest a celestial record, as if to say 'forward! up in the sky'.
'Numbness' is Verve’s tribute to Pink Floyd featuring a strikingly sharp guitar with a stunning solo.
