The new The Verve material

[Freebasser]

Thoughts? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf3xhX7zITA)

Opinions? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aDR2U7_G3M)

I like muchly. Best band to come out of Wigan :cool:

I wonder how many trendy people who missed out on them first time around and who only know "Bittersweet Symphony" and "Sonnet" will buy/download the new album and be disappointed with all the awesome shoegaze jazz-noodling?

[camo]

Yeah I loved the Verve first time round. I was more of an awkward punk kid in my teens but I loved their 'every man' approach to indie music. Plus, in my opinion, Ashcroft has the best voice out of all the bands who came out in that scene. He put's all of the recent spate of ironic indie bollox bands to shame buy showing that they can't even bloody sing. See the Wombats glasto appearance in comparison to the Verves.

Plus I can't remember who it was, but two of them went to my high school for a few years.

[saz]

a while back i posted a link to download the thaw session on here. i was really impressed with it. it really left me with the impression that the band, ie nick, simon and peter, would be writing and arranging the band's music as they had once before, and not ashcroft, whose cheeseball antics nearly destroyed the band for good with urban hymns. i loved all of their old psychedelic stuff, right up to a northern soul. it was a bit different and took me a while to get into it, a much more straight forward rock album, but still great nonetheless. they had everything going for them, but then ashcroft couldn't keep his ego and cheese tendencies in check and nearly screwed everything up for good. there are a few good tunes i like from urban hymns, such as come on which is a good rock song, plus great psychedelic tracks like neon wilderness and catching the butterfly. those were the songs written by the band. but lucky man, the drugs don't work, one day, sonnet etc. were written by ashcroft and i think they are corny ballads, just like his cheesy solo material, which is adult contemporary soft rock bullshit, the kind of stuff you'd expect to hear in a waiting room at a doctor's or dentist's office.

the dude's a hypocrite: in '93 ashcroft was slagging off other bands for being radio friendly, that received more air play (in particular, he slagged the wonder stuff). then four years later comes urban hymns - a ballad heavy album for the masses - with his ego taking over and pushing nick, peter and simon out of composing and arranging the music and songs, when nick was the true musical force behind the band. at this point it turned quite nasty between nick and richard over the direction of the band.

even in 1995, ashcroft couldn't give credit to william blake for the lyrics on history. he's a mick jagger wannabe and just like jagger, he is only interested in media standing and adulation. despite this, he tries so hard to give the impression of a purist. i can't take him seriously.

anyways, love is noise sounds alright, but ashcroft's lyrics sound pretty meh. i am optimistic though, mover sounds great.

[Freebasser]

Whole album is up for a week (http://www.myspace.com/theverve) (y)

[Planetary]

the verse are ok but richard ashcroft is a bell end (!)

[Freebasser]

Yeah, I agree, Richard Ashcroft is a tool - never got interested in his solo stuff in the slightest.

The Verse are shit though.

[Randetica]

shove it up your british rear

[Planetary]

The Verse are shit though.

tell me about it...

:(

[saz]

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RJUUR32N

i tried listening to the new album, and could just barely get through it. in fact, i wanted to throw my discman against the wall. there is a real lack of well, rock n' roll on this album. sit and wonder is decent though, very decent in fact. i hate love is noise, i think it sounds like very generic dance-orientated remix fodder for the masses. rather be is decent, it kind of sounds like a much more positive track. judas is okay, great psychedelic guitar noodling from mccabe, but his guitar is buried in the mix, and in fact the song sounds like nothing more than a b-side. numbness, well finally a tune that is guitar-based or orientated. still, it's very layed back and mellow. a nice change though for the album, but still nothing outstanding. i see houses is pretty cheesy, and noise epic really sucks. valium skies sounds like it's right off of urban hymns, essentially more lame ass aschcroft love ballad cheese, it has to be an ashcroft original. this man really has turned into a huge nerd. columbo is probably the one track on this album that sort of resembles their previous psych rock glory, but it's actually more ambient than rock or psych. i'm sure it would sound far superior live, as once again mccabe's guitar work is kind of buried in the mix. appalachian springs is another layed back, mellow ambient ballad. not necessarily terrible, but not remarkable at all.

mover is one of the bonus tracks, and finally, we get a great rock tune. why couldn't the album sound more like this?! the other bonus track is alright, chic dub, and even though it sort of sounds like another b-side, it is soo much better than the weak filler on the album.

bloody hell, they need to get back on psychedelic drugs. or something is up again between mccabe and ashcroft. regardless, this album is a colossal disappointment, the biggest let down of the year. they've become like another limp-fisted or weak coldplay-type soft rock band. i want rock, not bullshit.



a couple of interesting reviews from the guardian:

So: the lyrics are terrible, a lot of the music is directionless. No wonder several critics - including Jude Rogers in these pages - have already dismissed Forth as unmitigated rubbish. But to me, there is something undeniable about the album, a self-belief that is as hypnotising as it is arrogant. The source of that assurance is generally believed to be Ashcroft, a man in thrall to one of the most pernicious images in rock: that of the genius poet, a direct descendant of the romantics, unbearably moved by life's horrors and beauties. But Forth confirms that Ashcroft is no Byron, and that his ego is the Verve's greatest weakness.

You get the impression that, for McCabe, life in the Verve has been one long battle with Ashcroft's ego. Rumours already abound that he will be leaving the band again before long. But it's McCabe's self-possessed musicianship that makes Forth worth hearing. He is consumed by the alchemist's belief that such base materials as guitars and amps can be transformed into gold. Sometimes he fails. But when he succeeds, it's sublime.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/aug/22/rockreview.theverve


For all the ballyhooing of their comeback, the Verve are not granting any interviews to promote this album. Industry rumours suggest that this is because the members are already back to their old bickering ways. Certainly, these songs suggest a band who fled the studio with their unfinished business still unfinished, the better to make their cash-dash to the lucrative summer festival circuit before things became unbearable again.

The opening quartet of songs notwithstanding, this is not so much Forth, and not even Back, but Wobbling Sideways, Downwards. I doubt we'll hear a Fifth.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/aug/10/popandrock.verve


Then comes the Verve's Forth and the sound of Richard Ashcroft, a man who never got over being hero-worshipped by Noel Gallagher, the crown prince of past-pinching. Track five on Forth, Numbness, is so nakedly Breathe by Pink Floyd that it's embarrassing. Then there's some Gallagher-style lyrical barrel-scraping on track two, the new single, Love Is Noise. In short: Richard was blind, he didn't see, he was lost, and the road was way too long.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2008/jul/11/filmandmusic1.filmandmusic

[Freebasser]

Pretty similar opinion here, sazi.

'Sit and Wonder' is great - a nice surprise after hearing the piss-poor live version.

I've actually found it hard to get beyond 'Numbness' without feeling like I've been sucked into some great big spongey dirgey reverb hell. I look up and three tracks have gone by without me even noticing because it all sounds the damn same. I agree about the Coldplay comment - 'I See Houses' sounds like Chris Martin and co trying to pass themselves off as 'The Verve Cover Band'.

Waiting for my hard copy in the post, but I don't think 'Mover' is on it, which is a damn shame. I think I'll be ripping the 3-4 songs off the album and onto my iPod when it arrives before letting it gather dust for the foreseeable future.

[ToucanSpam]

'Love is Noise' is annoying. If they took out that effect that sounds like children saying 'oh-oh' or whatever I could listen to it a second time. The lyrics in that song sound very humdrum as well.

'Mover' on the other hand is a great listen that I would go out of my way to download.


I don't want to poop on the party but 'Bittersweet Symphony' is still their best song, period.

[saz]

you obviously haven't heard a storm in heaven, no come down, or a northern soul.