I need Cut Copy Tickts BADLY!!!!
I JUST WANTED TO POST THIS BECAUSE IT IS KILLING ME, THE SHOW IS SOLD OUT AND I'M LOSING MY MIND.
HELP!!!!!
HELP!!!!!
HELP!!!!!
fUCK!
LATER.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
Ashcroft, McCabe, Jones and Salisbury...The Verve all together...FINALLY!
Back in 1998 I was a young kid of 18 years, a kid who at the time was just finishing high school, preparing myself for the university life, all the while loving the tunes of the verve. Their 1997 breakout CD "Urban Hymns" not only changed me forever with its pure beauty and sheer splendor, it also gave me hope that with this quartet I would forever (well at least for the next few decades) have a band that would continue to show me how awesome music can be. Well, that was then and this is now, and unless you've been living under a rock for the last decade, you all know that Richard and Nick got into a good spat during the 1998 summer tour and well said fuck this shit and went their separate ways. So then for the past 11 years I've been waiting for them to mend their differences and get this band back together. Well ladies and gents the wait is finally over. After last fall's dramatic and quite surprising announcement that the band had reformed, the wait, the drought, was finally over. Yeah!!!
"Forth", a title that doesn't need much of an explanation, quite easily shows the coming of age of this band. No longer young twenty somethings trying to prove themselves with lofty spiritual titles, with "Forth" we are presented with a group of men who just want to play music and nothing else. From the very first song on this album "Sit and Wonder" you come to notice very early on that they haven't missed a beat during the layoff and that this isn't bittersweet symphony. The song pulls me back to the early Storm in Heaven/A Northern Soul days, a complete return to the rock and instrumental verve. I will be the first to say that this is not a "Pop" album in the conventional sense, ala Coldplay. This is the verve; the verve the way they should be, brass, loud, harmonic and a little more rocky. Don't get me wrong, there are a few songs in which the old "Pop" verve do appear, the first single, track 2 "Love is Noise" is by far the closest thing to a "Lucky man" the verve can do at this time in their lives. The song is great and an appropriate choice as the first out of the blocks on this album, a great way to bring in the masses. But as a true die hard fan, I feel that the band really hit their stride from songs 3 on; "Rather Be is by far the standout track on the album, it has a soft eloquence and a happiness energy that gets you going. Their's a true flow to this song, it really shows their talent, especially since the title kind of gets you thinking that Richard is happy to back with his mates, as he sings "is their anywhere better than here", I get a sense the man is happy to be home.
"Judas" is full on early verve, instrumental, very little singing, long and very beautiful, the kind of song you could drive with and not miss a beat or a tune you could let you sing you to sleep; this one has Nick written all over it. Which brings me back to the point that this album, way more than Urban Hymns ever could, feels like a true verve album. After the band first broke up in 1995, Nick went his separate way, mostly due to mad Richards hyper controlling ways, this split invariably led Richard to writing for himself, which he did. By early 1997, he'd written close to all of Urban Hymns, alone. Later that year he would convince Simon and Pete back and a new mate Simon Tong to creating a new verve album. Nick would rejoin later and ad a little of his flavour, but not much seeing as most had been written. Late 1997 comes and Urban Hymns is received as a huge critical success, Bittersweet Symphony cements their status as the new it band of the year, however, by late 1998 they split once more, with many of us fans thinking that "it just wasn't meant to be". However, that was then and here we are now and once you hit song 4 "Numbness" you clearly see why that this verve, the oldish/newish verve are more verve than their previous record shows. I see no split after this one, "Numbness is fucking awesome, in the realm of "Already there and "Beautiful Mind", energetic and psychedelic, however, maybe with a little less drugs. "Noise Epic" is straight out of A Northern Soul territory, a rocky jam with an ending that pays homage to a light Queens of the Stone Age. My girl with laugh at me for that reference, but hey I say "light".
The final 3 tunes, "Valium Skies", "Columbo" and "Appalachian Springs" follow the same light as with "Numbness"and "Judas", a reach back to the past, however "Valium Skies" could be mistaken for a continuation to Urban's "Come On" so excuse me if I might be all over the place here. So as we end the album, I will inform you all that if you are looking for the Bittersweet Songs here, you might have to look elsewhere. This is no pop album, this is the verve as they used to be, and you can surely feel that they are happy with this. This album may not bring them the sales and critical number 1's of the past but it will make their diehards very happy, myself being one. I fucking love this album, it pulls you in the more you hear it. There are no letdowns here and well no major standouts either, but this album is great. It is a great new beginning for a band trying to bring its past with them while also trying to re-invent themselves in this new and very busy 21st century music scene. It's a great start and with much hope a sign of greater things to come...let's only hope they can get along this time around. Cross your fingers with me.
8/10
"Forth", a title that doesn't need much of an explanation, quite easily shows the coming of age of this band. No longer young twenty somethings trying to prove themselves with lofty spiritual titles, with "Forth" we are presented with a group of men who just want to play music and nothing else. From the very first song on this album "Sit and Wonder" you come to notice very early on that they haven't missed a beat during the layoff and that this isn't bittersweet symphony. The song pulls me back to the early Storm in Heaven/A Northern Soul days, a complete return to the rock and instrumental verve. I will be the first to say that this is not a "Pop" album in the conventional sense, ala Coldplay. This is the verve; the verve the way they should be, brass, loud, harmonic and a little more rocky. Don't get me wrong, there are a few songs in which the old "Pop" verve do appear, the first single, track 2 "Love is Noise" is by far the closest thing to a "Lucky man" the verve can do at this time in their lives. The song is great and an appropriate choice as the first out of the blocks on this album, a great way to bring in the masses. But as a true die hard fan, I feel that the band really hit their stride from songs 3 on; "Rather Be is by far the standout track on the album, it has a soft eloquence and a happiness energy that gets you going. Their's a true flow to this song, it really shows their talent, especially since the title kind of gets you thinking that Richard is happy to back with his mates, as he sings "is their anywhere better than here", I get a sense the man is happy to be home.
"Judas" is full on early verve, instrumental, very little singing, long and very beautiful, the kind of song you could drive with and not miss a beat or a tune you could let you sing you to sleep; this one has Nick written all over it. Which brings me back to the point that this album, way more than Urban Hymns ever could, feels like a true verve album. After the band first broke up in 1995, Nick went his separate way, mostly due to mad Richards hyper controlling ways, this split invariably led Richard to writing for himself, which he did. By early 1997, he'd written close to all of Urban Hymns, alone. Later that year he would convince Simon and Pete back and a new mate Simon Tong to creating a new verve album. Nick would rejoin later and ad a little of his flavour, but not much seeing as most had been written. Late 1997 comes and Urban Hymns is received as a huge critical success, Bittersweet Symphony cements their status as the new it band of the year, however, by late 1998 they split once more, with many of us fans thinking that "it just wasn't meant to be". However, that was then and here we are now and once you hit song 4 "Numbness" you clearly see why that this verve, the oldish/newish verve are more verve than their previous record shows. I see no split after this one, "Numbness is fucking awesome, in the realm of "Already there and "Beautiful Mind", energetic and psychedelic, however, maybe with a little less drugs. "Noise Epic" is straight out of A Northern Soul territory, a rocky jam with an ending that pays homage to a light Queens of the Stone Age. My girl with laugh at me for that reference, but hey I say "light".
The final 3 tunes, "Valium Skies", "Columbo" and "Appalachian Springs" follow the same light as with "Numbness"and "Judas", a reach back to the past, however "Valium Skies" could be mistaken for a continuation to Urban's "Come On" so excuse me if I might be all over the place here. So as we end the album, I will inform you all that if you are looking for the Bittersweet Songs here, you might have to look elsewhere. This is no pop album, this is the verve as they used to be, and you can surely feel that they are happy with this. This album may not bring them the sales and critical number 1's of the past but it will make their diehards very happy, myself being one. I fucking love this album, it pulls you in the more you hear it. There are no letdowns here and well no major standouts either, but this album is great. It is a great new beginning for a band trying to bring its past with them while also trying to re-invent themselves in this new and very busy 21st century music scene. It's a great start and with much hope a sign of greater things to come...let's only hope they can get along this time around. Cross your fingers with me.
8/10
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