The Verve

Posted: 29th October 2007

Gnnnnngh. This is an annoying album to review. I've gone around in endless circles (listen, attempt a review, listen again, attempt another review, etc) and wasted countless hours of my life in the process. All because the consensus (Amazon reviewers and Adrian Denning) really likes this album, and I think it's just "alright". Yes, merely "alright". But if you like formless psychedelia with sometimes muddy production, and a lead singer who spends most of his time mumbling incomprehensibly, this could be the album for you!

First of all, I can see why people enjoy this album. When the band are loud and noisy, it's damn cool. Swirling, crashing psychedelia with fuzzed-out guitars layered all over the place, coming at you like a huge wall of noise. I'll bet these guys ruled live. Album opener Star Sail sounds freaking cool: moody, with guitars everywhere, lotsa feedback, and distortion, all crammed into the song. There's quite a few songs like this, and they're great to listen to loud. Some songs also conclude with some neat jamming, which is quite fun. My two favourite songs fall into this category: The Sun, The Sea, is a huge spacey rocker, with a monstrous guitar tone, and has a lengthy horn noodling outro, while the chugging acoustic rocker Butterfly, finishes with more horns, and lots of epic guitar noise. It sounds incredible! Guitarist Nick McCabe, despite never playing anything overly astounding, is undoubtedly the star of the show.

Yet while McCabe makes his presence felt, frontman Richard Ashcroft curiously doesn't. He doesn't even sound like a frontman, since he's ridiculously low in the mix and frequently gets drowned out by the band. What, did they decide to record his vocals a room away from the microphone, and with a bucket on his head or something? Bah, he mumbles, mutters and rants through this album as well and being so low in the mix makes it even harder to interpret him. Wish he was clearer on the pretty album closer See You in the Next One. (Seriously, what the hell is he singing in the verses?! *sigh*) I'm not sold on the production either: it can be rather blurry and messy (duh, it is almost shoegaze...) at times, but there's still some neat touches, like the chanting harmonies in Star Sail and the reversed drums in Blue. Win some, lose some, I guess.

And sure, the songs musically sound cool, but damnit, as actual songs they're so... so... forgettable. Star Sail sure sounds cool, but by the time it pointlessly fades out, I've forgotten almost all the finer details. It happens throughout the album a lot: I've listened to this album enough to recognise the songs (most of them, anyway...), but ask me to discuss song structure or lyrics, and I'll probably desperately struggle. I've honestly no idea whether this problem comes from the production, Ashcroft's muttering, weak songwriting, or a combination of the three. That being said, there are a few hooks: both Slide Away and Blue have decent choruses, and the latter I really enjoy. It's possibly the briskest thing the band ever did!

What really bugs me though are the three quiet atmospheric songs: they're all horribly boring and shockingly unmemorable! Already There and Beautiful Mind are brilliantly sequenced (not!) one after the other for a combined eleven minutes of almost go nowhere boredom, and to this day I still have trouble distinguishing which is which! (One of them Ashcroft rants about "water mixed with sand" Wha?!) Make It 'Til Monday only goes for three minutes, but still just as unmemorable and buried in murky atmosphere as the other two time-wasters. Whatever.

Pfft, this review came out just as negative as previous ones! I'm not going to waste any more time rewriting and trying to sugarcoat my opinions. It's not hideous, but it's nothing brilliant either. The production has it's pros (lots of guitars and noise, sounds great loud) and cons (can be blurry, buried Ashcroft), the songs with jamming are fun (including the slightly boring Virtual World - dig that flute and acoustic guitar!), while the quiet atmospheric ones are excruciating. It's pretty cool at times, yet I end up forgetting most of the details on almost all the songs. In the end, it's just "alright". Alright?

Seriously, I'm not rewriting this goddamn review anymore.

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Posted: 17th December 2007

I'm not British (my teeth are passable and it never goddamn rains here...), so my first exposure to The Verve was their blockbuster, Urban Hymns (which I'll bet was quite the money-earner for the Stones that year!). It's a spiffy album, but a fair distance from their beginnings. After hearing their debut, if I didn't know better I could've sworn they started life as an psychedelic instrumental trio, whose first album was produced on the cheap by some inexperienced producer, and vocals were unexpectedly added to the songs late one night when a scizophrenic drifter broke into the studio and poorly recorded his ramblings onto the songs...

Shhh, I know John Leckie produced the thing.

It still underwhelms to this day. This album though, is considerably better, and it improves upon everything that I moaned endlessly about in the previous review. First of all: a different producer (Owen Morris), and now the band sound huge and powerful instead of like a bunch of amateurs. Just wait until the band kick in on opener A New Decade: they detonate like an atomic bomb, and sound razor sharp. Ashcroft actually sounds like a frontman too: he's managed to climb out from under that pile of Nick McCabe's guitars that he was buried under. He sings with force, and is actually (mostly) intelligble! Thank God!

And in terms of songwriting: Bam! They've knocked it up a notch! The first three songs on the album are quite possibly the most focussed the band ever got. They're short, sharp and excellent. And holy crap! They're memorable too! A New Decade is an excellent rocker, with cool dynamics, and is quickly followed by the fiery This is Music, which kicks even more ass. Then to slow it down, a lovely acoustic ballad, On Your Own, complete with Ashcroft falsetto and handclaps! They're excellent songs, and it's certainly a fantastic start to the album.

From here, everything else is longer than five minutes, and the album stetches out to over an hour. There's a six minute continuation of On Your Own (So It Goes) straight after the aforementioned song. Two instrumentals, one a bizarre mash of acid guitar, vocal loops and choppy drums (Brainstorm Interlude - excellent!), the other, a lengthy, feedback generating exercise ((Reprise) - kinda pointless!). The last two "proper" songs are similar, atmospheric dirges (Life's an Ocean and Stormy Clouds). And there's a slow, quiet song that wanders over six and a half minutes, and spends a lot of time with long open stretches of guitar noodling (Drive You Home). There's no lengthy jamming; the songs are simply longer this time.

Now, I will admit that maybe the songs could be trimmed. That maybe the album's second half is weaker. That maybe it doesn't need (Reprise), or a second dirge-y song. That most times Drive You Home bores me senseless. And that, ugh, History sounds like the beginning of Ashcroft's attempts to write Big Important Statements, which I suspect he's probably tried to fill his solo albums with. Sure, it sounds great with lovely strings, "sensitive" acoustic guitar, and lots of pretty melodies, but he manages to ramble his way through most of it. And I goddamn hate the lyric "the bed ain't made but it's filled full of hope / i've got a skin full of dope". Maybe he should've borrowed from more old poetry, since the first two verses are paraphrased from William Blake's London.

But regardless, most of the songs are really good. Even Drive You Home or History have their moments. They're all memorable and interesting, and the improved songwriting means they all have decent melodies and what not. And see, decent production helps! It prevents the two dirges from being sucked into an atmospheric black-hole; instead of sucking like that boring stuff on the debut, they're both rather neat, all moody and menacing. And Brainstorm Interlude and the title track sound phenomenal. They probably wouldn't be possible on the debut! (Seriously, check out the ultra-processed guitar tone on the latter. Fwoar!) Finally, hidden amongst the second half is my fave song, No Knock on My Door, a roaring rocker like the first two songs, but beefed up to five minutes. It's exceedingly cool.

Honestly, I like this album a lot, and I'm going to give it a low 12 (B+). It's so much better than the debut, and it's damn kick-ass most of the time, too. I think it's their best album, though the next album comes close. For details, read on!

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Posted: 17th December 2007

Ahh yes. The album that introduced the wider world to Dick Ashcroft and his inability to share a footpath. According to some reports, Urban Hymns is actually Ashcroft's first solo album, paired with an EP of Verve songs. Looking at the credits, we've got eight songs credited to Ashcroft, four to The Verve, and a cover of an unreleased Stones song, so there's probably some truth to those statements.

It's a rather good album, too! The songwriting has improved again, so we've got even more melodies and hooks this time around, which is always good. And most likely due to Ashcroft taking the songwriting lead, quite a few songs are exceedingly pretty as well. In terms of songwriting, Dick's certainly come a fair way from the days where he'd indistinctly rant and mutter while being drowned out by the rest of the band.

There's also a noticable difference between Ashcroft's songs and the band-credited songs. The band songs sound like "traditional" Verve songs: walls of guitar, and tinges of psychedelia and shoegaze throughout. Ashcroft's songs on the other hand are modelled on On Your Own and History from the last album: mid-tempo, semi-ballads and Big Important Statements. Yep, there's lots of acoustic guitar, too.

Honestly, I think most of his songs are pretty good, baring the "soulful" One Day (too long, samey) and This Time (different, but fillerish). Dick's attempts at writing Big Important Statements on this album are better than History (Attempt #1), too. Now we get Bitter Sweet Symphony (Attempt #2) and The Drugs Don't Work (Attempt #3). I'm a tad sick of the former, but it's still spiffy, and Ashcroft actually sounds like he thought about the lyrics instead of rambling about being stoned and too lazy to make the bed. The latter's excellent too, going from whisper quiet to a dramatic string-driven climax and Ashcroft claiming he's "never coming down". And the pretty stuff: whoah. Despite Sonnet annoyingly rhyming "sonnet" with "want it", it's a well constructed, exceedingly pretty song that I dig immensely. Velvet Morning's hyper-pretty, too.

Unfortunately, there isn't really much variety in the style of his songs. On the album's first half, it's not a problem since band songs are sequenced in to break up the flow, but on the second half, there's a big pile of mid-tempo Ashcroft to stumble through. Individually, I dig most of the songs in this stretch, but taken as a whole... whoah, it's a bit too much! I mean, Space and Time? It's anthemic and gorgeous! Weeping Willow? One of my faves! Lucky Man? Really lovely! But some variation on the non-rocking, not-really-a-ballad-either style please?!

Thankfully, the band do rock out... on two of the band songs. Both are excellent, mixing epic guitars with massive singalong choruses: like Northern Soul rockers "enchanced" for performance in your nearest stadium. The Rolling People is seven minutes long, and never once bores me or feels overlong, despite the rather lengthy "come-down" at the end. Same goes for the six minute album closer Come On, which climaxes with Ashcroft ranting in his "homeless drifter" style of the old days (He yells "Fuck You!" a lot, too). It kicks ass! The other two band songs include the decent Catching the Butterfly, which is a cruisy, six minute psychedelic droner, and Neon Wilderness, two minutes of atmospheric pointlessness, included because the band had to remind listeners of how damn annoying those songs on the debut were. Seriously, why did they have to include it?! (Nick McCabe would throw a tantrum if they didn't?! Ashcroft wanted to make his songs look better by comparison?! The illusion of "band democracy"?!) At least it's brief and well produced, and doesn't really annoy me, I guess.

Anyway, at times this album comes pretty close to the level of A Northern Soul. It's melodic and hooky, really quite pretty, and the songwriting's even better. But at the same time, it's just not as exciting or intriguing as that album, and they could probably stand to drop a few songs (Neon Wilderness! One Day! This Time!) and resequence it, so it's not so much of a trudge to get through the second half. Still, it's a really good album, packed full of excellent songs, and it comes so shockingly close to getting a 12, that I'm going to award it an 11 (B+). Definitely worth checking out, in other words.

Now... how's that reunion album going to turn out...?

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