Power of the Forth
September 4th, 2008 - Written by stevek
Two CDs have come out this year that have been awesome just for the fact that they came out at all.
The first was Portishead’s ‘Third’.
The latest Musical Awesomeness is the aptly-titled ‘Forth’, by The Verve.
The Verve!
A NEW CD BY THE VERVE!
Really, do you need an actual review of this product? Isn’t the fact that the Verve are freaking well back together, and releasing new music, awesome enough in and of itself?
If not, then the rest of this review is for you:
This album is freaking awesome!
Okay, fine…let’s go back to 1997 when the Verve peaked at their previous awesomeness level, with the release of ‘Urban Hymns’ concept album, featuring the quintessential The Verve song, “Bitter Sweet Symphony”.
‘Forth’ blows that album out of the water. While there isn’t as of yet any immediately-recognizable song destined to become a new signature tune on ‘Forth’, the fact is that the album as a whole delivers a more richly layered and textured album than ‘Urban Hymns’. They have surpassed themselves with this one, and if ‘Hymns’ was a masterpiece, then ‘Forth’ is, arguably, a magnum opus.
The alum opens with “Sit and Wonder”, a song that has a creeping intensity, a musical slow burn with cinematic intensity. “Love is Noise”, the first single off the album is next, followed with another, brilliant number, “Rather Be”. Typical of the Verve, the album is divided between simple ballads and heavily-layered space rock numbers, and most of the album is a collection of brilliant examples of both.
Typical of the Verve, the shortest song on the album is a hair under four minutes, with most of the tracks running between five and six. The longest track is the appropriately-named “Noise Epic”, a brilliant oeuvre which takes a brilliant swipe at the grotesque current events we live with. Tracking down the various bonus tracks available on alternate versions of the album is a worthwhile pursuit. You should have as much of this album as possible.
Many of you may not be acquainted with the music of the Verve, owing perhaps to previous snobbery, a refusal to jump onto the bandwagon of all your other coffee-clutching friends back in the late 1990s. Perhaps the Verve were one of those groups your smelly older sibling (or—yikes—your parents), or perhaps you just got so fed up of hearing “Bittersweet Symphony” and “The Drugs Don’t Work” on the radio that you couldn’t be arsed to listen to the album. In any event, ‘Forth’ is not only an excellent reintroduction to the Verve, it’s an excellent way for those of you who lived under rocks since the 1990s to get acquainted with the band.
This album isn’t a must. It’s an absolute must. Just as ‘Urban Hymns’ was and still is vital part of nearly everyone’s music collections, so, too is ‘Forth’.
The Verve: Forth
MRI Associated
Steve’s Rating: 10/10
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