THE VERVE are back. Ten years after their bitter split, the Wigan lads have returned with a towering, psychedelic rock album.I’m one of the few journalists on the planet to have heard Four and can confirm that, while a bit bleak in places, it’s still a triumphant return.
The release by RICHARD ASHCROFT and the boys still has a taste of the terrace-slaying anthems of their classic ’97 release Urban Hymns.
Love Is Noise is a throbbing rock gem. It’s like THE KILLERS jamming with FLEETWOOD MAC. And Mona Lisa is the most similar to old classics like Lucky Man.
Massive guitar chords echo SLADE’s hit Cum On Feel The Noize while Rich mulls over celebrity, singing: “Fame picked a man with so much sorrow.” The eerie blues of Numbness and the STOOGES-like Noise Epic, though, point to a band not content to merely trot out an album of comfortable crowd-pleasers.
It’s out on August 18 — and I’ll give it Four out of five.
Source: The Sun
