Sometimes it's great to go back to the music of the '90s. Amazingly, amid the boy bands and neon-colored pants, rock with staying power weaseled its way in.
After a nine-year hiatus, The Verve is bringing us back to that time, and taking a step into the future. They start right where they left off with 1997's Urban Hymns and the hit now present at every rite of passage, Bitter Sweet Symphony.
Forth still holds the English band's psychedelic roots close, creating euphoric lines and expansive atmospheres of sound. They breed the velvet symphonies of Coldplay with the slurred vocals of Bob Dylan and sprinkle in a bit of the complexity that is Thom Yorke and Radiohead.
Obviously, there is a little more production this time around. The single, Love is Noise
is modern computer-rock, with harmonies coming from almost mocking robotic voices. Lead singer Richard Ashcroft adds the human element, croaking out his bitterness at the cruel thing called love.
Even with the heavier production, the straight-laced rock is still easily spotted. Numbness the most stripped-down of the songs on Forth, harks back to Urban Hymns. Its fantastic blues riffs and drifting vocals will blow your mind if you're ever in a drunken Saturday night stupor.
Noise Epic has the musical skeleton of mid-to-late Beatles, with guitar lines reminiscent of Get Back and Paperback Writer.
A lot of the time, however, Forth is a balancing act: the band walks a thin line between soulful jaunts and songs that just plod along, empty of momentum or energy, as in Rather Be and Judas.
But The Verve deserves to stay around, if just for their songwriting. It is almost on par with Death Cab For Cutie ' bluntly honest and packing as much or more power than the music that surrounds it. It is true rock, where the words are the focus and hold actual meaning. Will those feet in modern times / Understand this world's affliction? / Recognize the righteous anger? / Understand this world's addiction? proclaims Love is Noise.
Forth is definitely music for a really hot day or a rainy day spent inside, when the brain doesn't want to move faster than a snail's pace. When the meaning of life just begs for contemplation, Forth can provide the soundtrack.
17
Archives
Susan Tebben
200808288516midsize.jpeg
