I really, really tried to like this. I've been a fan of the Verve since the early 1990s (I lean more towards their pre-"Urban Hymns" material—but even their final album, "Forth", had its brilliant moments.) However, this album is a tone-deaf (not literally tone-deaf) mess. Ploddy and facile, preachy, with limp, lackluster attempts at Mad Richard's tried and true soul-stirring bombast of the past. Yet this is all ego and fluff with no anchoring underpinnings. It only takes a few songs before you realize that Richard now surrounds himself only with yes-men (and -women). He's certainly madder now than he was twenty years ago, but not in a good way. He has more in common with "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" than Syd Barrett. Alas. An outrageously awful and disappointing album.

The decline of Ashcroft as a creative force is truly depressing. Same with the most recent album. Forth was pretty good, all told, as was the Glastonbury performance that capped it off, but everything he's done (outside of the brief Verve return) since the first few solo singles (which were demoed in The Verve period) has been cliched garbage. I can't see any way back for the man. The wheels are off.

2 x Vinyl