The Verve are back but not better than ever
356075
While "Forth" is a welcome return for The Verve, it is probably the least compelling of their four studio albums. And I think the fault lies with Ashcroft, who has once again made The Verve his band.

Four of the songs on this album are credited to Ashcroft alone - "Rather Be," "I See Houses," "Valium Skies," and "Appalachian Springs." One song is credited to Richard Achroft/The Verve - "Love Is Noise," whose origins I suspect are similar to "Bittersweet Symphony" - Ashcroft came up with the basic idea for the song (loop, lyrics) and the band embellished it. These 5 songs are the most poppy songs on the album (and all are ballads except LIN), and songs that would have been on an Ashcroft solo album. So, essentially, these 4 songs are The Verve playing on Ashcroft solo material (like most of Urban Hymns but not as good), and while the songs sound great, so would "Science of Silence" and "Why Not Nothing" if The Verve played on those tracks.

That means that only 6 songs on the album are true collaborative efforts by The Verve. "Sit And Wonder," which I thought was kind of forced on first listen, has grown on me and it is one of the best songs on the album. "Love Is Noise," whose loop was annoying at first though catchy, is actually a very good pop song though lyrically rather daft. "Judas," which is solid musically, features some terrible lyrics about a "latte double shot," which for some reason the band chose to showcase in the CD booklet. "Numbness," while good, is just another rather forgettable mid-tempo song.

This points to the biggest problem with this album - the pacing. Right off the bat we get an almost-7-minute song, and from there just one mid-tempo song after the next, most in the 5-7 minute range. Even Urban Hymns broke up the pacing better than this, and their other 2 albums did as well, with some faster, 3-minute songs ("This Is Music," "Blue"). There are none of those type of songs on "Forth." Which would be fine, if the Verve were really doing something different, but the band is more or less stretching songs out longer than they need to be.

"Noise Epic" is the closest we come to "Rolling People" or "Come On," and it is one of my favorite songs here, and Ashcroft's spoken lyrics are thankfully buried in the mix. What is disappointing is the band never really jams out on the song. I guess the title refers to the constant noise from Ashcroft.

I think the album should have ended with "Valium Skies," because "Columbo" is easily the worst of the band material, a song that goes nowhere. "Appalachian Springs" is another Ashcroft composition that, despite its interesting title, just isn't that great of an album closer, even though McCabe gives us a beautiful guitar coda.

So, in the end, this is a decent reunion album from the boys, but it is Ashcroft that really ruins things. There is no going back to pre-solo Verve, and I think Ashcroft's songwriting skills are permanently damaged. Ashcroft can't seem to write any interesting lyrics - the best here are just okay, nothing memorable. It is as if he can't really write any really dark lyrics anymore, but tries to do so out of sheer habit, giving us watered-down stuff from the "life gets you down"/"tasting tears"/"i'm here for you" school of songwriting. His vocals are strong throughout,  but he is always there in front, rarely giving the band a chance to really play.

I saw the Verve in NYC in April, and it's the band I really like - McCabe, Jones, and Salisbury. They really rocked at some points. And they do it on "Forth" too, but not often enough. I'll grant that the album sounds great - possibly their best produced album.

Another thought: If this didn't have "The Verve" name on it, I doubt "Forth" would garner any press or good reviews at all. I rarely respect this argument about other albums, but here it seems obvious considering the album's mediocrity and musical anachronism.
1977588
This is in reference to the 2014 remastering of All Things Must Pass, which I found to be a disappointment.  The 30th anniversary set from 2001 is a  solid remaster, it sounds very much like vinyl, similar for example to the Doors catalog on CDs that came out around the same time (not that ATMP sounds like a Doors album, rather that it's faithful to the original vinyl).  The new set sounds boomy by comparison, the soundstage sounds artificially enhanced, which works well enough on the smaller scale songs like I'd Have You Anytime and If Not For You, but turns the bigger, Spector numbers like Wah-Wah and What Is Life into mush.  YMMV, but if you're happy with 2001, 2014 isn't an upgrade.  Remastering in the past couple of years has become hit or miss: the Clash reissues from last year are stunning, while Oasis's Definitely Maybe and Nirvana's Nevermind sound better on the original CDs, to name a few random examples.  I'm hoping the success of the recent Beatle mono LPs will lead to further AAA reissues from the analog era.

Marc
4826887
There were a couple of good songs. Per Gessle is one of my favorite artists but his latest stuff isn't as good as what he used to produce.
1324514
The music is really good, has a good blues /jazz feel to it, but it doesn't compare to any of their earlier stuff.
4934794
It was nice seeing all these old songs played by a great band using the ORIGINAL arrangements. After all, you don't bring in three of the Motown studio players and tell them to learn new parts. The band sounds great but even on DTS the guitars, bass and keyboards are too often buried in the mix. No doubt Phil could have sung better 20 years ago. But he is being compared to recordings made by guys in their 20's who were always told to sing these songs as high as possible. Phil doesn't have the right look or sound and people singing these songs usually have at least some of the moves. But he succeeds because this is 60's pop. While James Brown, Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding were making great R&B/Soul music, Motown was aiming for the pop charts because that's where the money was. Nothing wrong with that.
2351255
Two (maybe 2,5 if I'm stretching it) stars for the effort.

When Europe returned in 2004, they were very different, but still OK. They still had some melodic sense and Joey still sounded like a great singer. Well, I think they are losing it more and more. After "Last Look at Eden" it seems like Joey's singing has changed, sounding darker, cracked and lazy - Go back to late 80's, early 90's his vocals were bright, strong and energetic, simply perfect. All I hear is a total decline.

Moving on - I don't get any of these songs. There's nothing there that sticks with me. If they try to sound like Deep Purple they probably succeeded, but then again, haven't heard much of them that I like either. I think even the production here is 70's inspired, to me it sounds tiresome and boring. So - don't like the songs, don't like the production, don't like Joey's vocals. Anything more? Well, they look kind of boring as well compared to how awesome they looked in the 80's and 90's.

My favorite period with Europe is 1988-1991. Joey's vocals was on top. The clothes - the hair was pure awesomeness. The sound was great. Not only are Out of this World and Prisoners in Paradise two masterpieces (5 stars) but even the demo songs from 1989-1990 that never made it are almost as good as those two albums. In fact, they're magical and certainly miles better than War of Kings.

Nothing that they've done after the reunion in 2003 comes close to anything they did before it. In early days they had soaring choruses with great melodic hooks, beautiful melodic guitar solos that you can even sing along with (because they're so melodic), a singer with a divine voice and lots of keyboards in the sound with some fanfare influences. On top of that, they looked great and even lyrically there were more interesting things going on. Unusual lyrics like Seven Doors Hotel, Cherokee, Tower's Callin', The King will Return and Seventh Sign really captured my interest.

Really don't know what people hear on this that makes it so great - but those frequencies are clearly inaudible to me.
4002042
Overall it was good, though considering the bar they set with their previous two albums (sky-high), this one is "meh" by comparison.
3800190
I am a long time fan of the warhols, but this album was in first place a bit disapponting to me. They changed style. "Thirteen tales from Bohemia" was a great album, and I was hoping to hear an album similar in quality like that. It isn't, it's very electronical, too monotome sometimes. Allthough this album has some cool songs like "Last High", "We used to be friends" and "Plan A"(produced by Duran Duran), the rest is not bad, not good. If you expect this album to be like Thirteen tales, you'll be disappointed. This album is a step to a new sound of the Warhols: I hope (and expect) that the Warhols bring out a new album in a year or two, combining the strong points of Thirteen tales and Monkeyhouse together. In that case, the next album will be great.
1479297
I was very disappointing when one of my favorite bands, Byzantine, broke up.  I was ecstatic when I heard that they released a new album, but after giving it several listens I am pretty disappointed.  It just doesn't have the technicality of "The Fundamental Component" or the energy of "...And They Shall Take up Serpents", which is easily my favorite.  All in all, if you love Byzantine, this album is good to have in your collection.  If you only like an album, or a few songs of theirs, you may want to wait and see if they get back to full form before spending time and money on this one.
3295683
I realize that bands can't make the same album over and over, but this album is a bit too mellow for my taste. It lacks some of the grit, sexiness, and fun that the first two albums had.

The songs aren't bad, they just lack the energy that the band has live, or that they previously had. Bottom line is, if you are still debating about getting this one, skip it.
477254
This band hasn't put out a good album since The Colour and the Shape. Every new album the Foos put out starts to sound like what has come before it. Originality is certainly not one of their strong suits. You think Grohl could take a cue from Josh Homme...he has certainly worked with him enough
3615219
10,000 Fists was a far more coherent and musically exciting album.  This album is for the most part as flat as North Dakota.  For me, their saving grace are tracks 1, 2, 8 and 11.  Listening to them talk about putting down the "nastiest" stuff they ever have was a bunch of promotional talk.  The riffs just aren't as powerful as their previous efforts.  It's almost like they're trying too hard.  The flow in some songs isn't there and the lyrics don't sound as edgy.  I think "Divide" is the most powerful lyrically.  Not a bad album, but it will largely be forgotten once the newness wears off.
3704924
I don't think people normally are compelled to write 3 star reviews, normally they only write when the really are blown away or really don't like something. However as a huge Verve fan, this album, although huge, is much more mainstream and doesn't reflect the sonic beauty reflected on their earlier and unappreciated albums. As other reviews had said, Storm in Heaven (and the Verve EP), is not just the best Verve albums, but one of the best albums period. It is sonic and similar to 'shoegazer' music but somehow a warmer, lusher, gentler take on the genre than say My Bloody Valentine (i know, heresy).

Urban Hymns isn't an album in the same sense, but more a discrete collection of songs, individual, composed and mainstream. If you like Urban Hymns work your way backwards to the earlier stuff, you might be blown away. If you don't like Urban Hymns or think "bittersweet Symphony" is the Verve's highpoint, it's not, don't write them off on this forgettable offering.

* Edit - Several years later *
So bumped the review up to 4 stars, have with a lot of strong tracks like Sonnet, Drugs Don't Works, Space and Time. I still prefer the earlier work for sure and the early work is still worth checking out
104226
I like this album.  There are a few great songs on here but I just don't think it measures up to the earlier albums.  I think the band sounds a little hollower without Isbell and would like to see him back.
713228
Like old Verve Pipe but with the pop sensibility turned up a tad. A bit less experimental than their previous releases, albeit still very well written material. Vander Ark's voice and expression is as always awesome. In particular "Only Words" and "Happiness Is" will have you rockin' out like it's nobody's business :)
4304037
Being that this is Symphony X's first album, and looking at what they've become, it's really hard to get upset about the quality of this album. The production quality is not the best and the singing doesn't sound all that great, but I think it's just because they didn't balance everything right. My favourite thing about the album is the old version of Masquerade (you can find a newer & heavier version on the Odyssey album). You can really see how far the band has come by comparing the two.
663296
Redemption's one of those bands where I have to listen to the album, process it and then listen to it several more times before I get a sense of what the band's trying to do and this album is no exception. Like their previous efforts, the lyrics are intelligent and topical and the song-writing is pretty strong, though a bit more uneven on this effort than their last album. The thing I struggled with the most personally on this album more than their previous albums were the vocals in about half of the songs. I've never found Ray to be an outstanding prog-metal singer, though in past releases he's been mostly serviceable and in some cases has actually done quite nicely. This album made me wonder if perhaps on some of the material they have brought in a different vocalist to sing lead on several of the songs where I thought Ray's voice just didn't cut it alone.

Musically, I felt the album was a bit more uneven than their last couple of albums as well. Some of the songs like "Stronger than Death" were very strong and others just didn't much for me despite the obvious talent of the musicians involved. They did incorporate a few new wrinkles to their sound in this album but by and large it's very similar to  "The Fullness of Time" and "Snowfall on Judgement Day".

With that in mind, if you're a big Redemption fan, then obviously you'll want to pick this up even though I don't consider this to be their strongest effort. If you're a casual fan of them or the prog-metal genre than I'd either start with "Snowfall on Judgement Day" or given the 30 second preview clips several spins each to see if there's enough in there that appeals to you.

Note: I purchased the edition with the cover songs from Toto, Elton John and others and while they do a reasonably competent job covering the material, there's nothing about the covers that I feel warrant spending the extra money if you already have the originals.