The Verve-Forth (2008)

 

Artist: The Verve

Title: Forth

Label: On Your Own Records

Format: CD

Cat #: VER01

Year of Release: 2008

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 2008 10 track edition

Sold Price: $2.99

Listed Condition: VG+/VG+

Sell Date: 10/8/20

Discogs Last Sold: 7/19/20 VG/VG $2.65

Low: $0.99

Median: $2.68

High: $9.59 M/NM Sealed

Current low price: $0.91 G/VG+

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 23

Have/Want: 297/20

Where Sold: Bellingham, WA

Time it took to sell: 9 years

Where and When Bought: mail order, brand new on the interwebs late 2008 or early 2009 in the $12 range

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B-

Sad To See It Go?: No

A curio at the time, it probably made critics year end lists in 2008.  I liked Urban Hymns fine but this one is tough to write about.

Like many Brit-pop albums of the late 90's through the aughts, there is a post-U2 vibe mixed with an insufferable airiness. The version I listened to on the computer has a couple bonus tracks from the Japanese edition, and the first one to jump out was "Muhammad Ali."  "This one is good!" I thought to myself.  Sadly, it isn't even on the main release. 

It's albums like these where you ask yourself if you really want to put in the time.  Time you could spend on other things, like reading one of the unread books scattered across the room, bought during the peak of the first wave of the pandemic.  Do I dare throw on a pair of headphones and listen again?  Or do I embark upon chapter 5 of the Tony Iommi autobiography from the paperback lying propped where I left off weeks ago, and possibly soaked by an errant glass of water?

I guess I'm just gonna listen to Glimpses til midnight and see if I can listen to Forth awake in it's entirety during the midnight hour.

I'll let you know the results in the morning when I post this.

THE MORNING AFTER

Well it took me all of two tracks in before I fell asleep last night, then I snapped awake this morning at 7am with a mission in mind.  I was going to listen to Verve's Forth in headphones and have something intelligent to say about it!

I decided to make a folder with the 10 tracks on the CD I sold, if only to cut down the time and not get sidetracked by bonus tracks not on this edition.  I realized I started to gain familiarity with the albums first couple tracks after force feeding myself a couple listens already.  While I didn't like them that much, I did appreciate the layered guitars.  This is a dense record musically with Ashcroft's foppery riding the top.

I caught my mind drifting again, and nervous that I might doze off again during the 65 minute stretch of this playlist.   I made it, got through it before the blare of the news went off on my alarm clock.  There were a couple things reeling me in.  "Noise Epic" was indeed distorted and long (8:14) and I thought it was pretty damn good.  The Muhammad Ali reference made me wonder if it was somehow mislabeled and I was just hearing the track I liked again, but no, a lyric check showed be that this is indeed "Noise Epic" and he also namedrops Steve McQueen.  That song goes into "Valium Skies" which was among the most traditional melodic Verve, and I liked that one also.

They did a video for the next track "Columbo," which seemed like an afterthought to me, but clearly someone considers the best track.  I didn't really care for the closer "Appalachian Spring" either.

This is definitely one of those bands you have to invest the time in to determine whether you like it or not.  One or two plays isn't gonna cut it to commit it to memory.  The tracks are often long.  Some people might call this "challenging."  

It ain't Stravinsky.