theverve-forth music reviews Virgin Media
Britpop visionaries reform... and go through the motions
It's been 11 years since The Verve's Urban Hymns, and in particular The Drugs Don't Work, appeared temporarily to annex the zeitgeist of post-Britpop, post-Diana Britain. Before they split shortly afterwards, rent asunder by out-of-control egos, Richard Ashcroft and Nick McCabe occupied a space at the very heart of UK music and popular culture. How things change.
From the limp, lazy wordplay of its title, The Verve's fourth (geddit?), and comeback, album is an empty, gratuitous fart, a once-fine band on autopilot, Verve-by-numbers. As McCabe phones in guitar lines for which the phrase "epic bluster" seems scarcely adequate, Ashcroft yawns his way through his reheated lyrical ideas about faith, love and, y'know, transcendence. Even the song's names appear to have emerged from a Random Verve Song Title Generator: Love Is Noise, Noise Epic, Valium Skies. Rumour has it that Ashcroft and McCabe are already bickering and ready to pull the plug again. Sadly, on this evidence, they will not be missed.
More to try: Oasis: Be Here Now Embrace: The Good Will Out The Music: Strength In Numbers
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