The Verve
Forth
By Chris Blais
The fathers of the rebirth of British guitar rock in the ’90’s have, once again, put aside their differences and pooled their efforts for a new album.
The Verve’s fourth album, auspiciously titled "Forth", brings Nick McCabe back to the fray rounding out the original cast that quite possibly was the only band that Noel Gallagher ever, publicly, said he liked. While lead singer Richard Ashcroft’s free-flowing lyrics that were prominent on their 1997 hit album Urban Hymns are still present, those looking for the kind of sampled loops that were part of their big single "Bitter Sweet Symphony" should look elsewhere. McCabe’s return to the band is felt throughout as the space-rock and shoe-gaze sound that band had founded themselves on comes back in full guitar-layered force as evident in "Noise Epic", “Gravity Grave" and the opening track "Sit and Wonder".
Repetition is the one major downfall to some of the album, especially the siren-like “ah-ah’s and “ooh-ooh’s” of the first single release “Love is Noise” which sound more like a non-stop underwater rave. Distorted caterwauling aside, the record flows well from start to finish with only a few bumps along the way (“Rather Be” sounds like it’s right off of U2’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind) and the tracks will definitely make Verve fans happy at concerts as the wall-of-sound “Forth” feels like it was recorded with that in mind
