the Verve - Forth

Linguistic philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein famously intoned that anything worth saying can be said clearly. The Verve did just that with 1997’s Urban Hymns, a bombastic yet heartfelt album that anyone with a pulse can identify with. ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ endeared itself to millions and secured a spot in a generation’s soundtrack, lifting the band to the notoriety they had worked so hard to achieve.
More than simply writing songs and playing music, The Verve preached it. “Music is Power,” frontman Richard Ashcroft would later declare on one of his piddling solo albums. For a couple of years, the band backed up the sentiment and became a justified musical juggernaut.
Eleven years later, comes the band’s fourth LP, Forth. If you can’t tell by the pitiful attempt at irony that passes for the album’s title, subtlety is absent here. Whereas the band’s catalogue material still gives the listener elements to discover anew a decade later, Forth feels frustratingly stale and irrelevant.
‘Sit and Wonder’ opens the album with reverb and a distorted drone that hearkens their Storm in Heaven days and would have fit nicely into the band’s formative years, but seems pedantic as the start to a comeback. ‘Love is Noise’ follows it and serves as the album’s driving single and brightest spot. It is a euphoric, catchy number and Ashcroft’s lyrics revolve around themes that Verve fans will latch onto with familiar joy; happiness despite anomie and strident individualism. It’s hook relies on an uncharacteristically computer generated loop though, instead of Nick McCabe’s distinctive guitar work. Ultimately, it feels contrived in its aim for airplay, although it is nice to see a burst of energy on an album that is otherwise lacking. ‘Rather Be’, the third track, is the last stop worth noting before the album runs away into insignificance. It is a rhythm-driven ballad that finds Ashcroft coming off as a sincere musical prophet.
Had this been a first album, a collection of unreleased material, or even recorded under another name, it would earn itself a stronger place. However, The Verve have shown what they are capable of and fall far short of it with Forth. Optimistic fans can only hope that it is but a warm-up for a true return to form that The Verve hint at, but never quite clarify.