Verve, The - Forth

For me ‘I See Houses’ is like a journey, a journey that goes nowhere because it always leads you back to the place, you’ve started from “I get this feeling that I’ve been here before” and you’re asking yourself “How many lives will I waste, how many tears must I taste to find my freedom”. This journey is musically embellished with lightly melancholic strings and a wonderful piano play with just subtle guitar stake, very restrained as if everything centre’s upon providing the perfect soil for Ashcroft’s bitter-sweet (no, not symphony) lyrics. The next track is called ‘Noise Epic’ and the title says it all. It’s the longest track on ‘Forth’ and surely it’s the most unpredictable. It’s like a live recorded jam that develops in unforeseen ways. First it’s clean Indie Rock, the drums, the guitar work, the chant, everything fits in for a while and then it kind of erupts into something else, into a racing monstrosity, other tan it’s follow-up ‘Valium Skies’ that, if you really wanted to find a term to describe the mood, would be labelled as sort of “romantic”, everything is painted in brighter colours in that down-tempo song. It’s just like a gleam of sunlight, breaking through a thick blanket of clouds. ‘Columbo’ on the other hand, is a bit like a psychedelic trip, somehow everything floats and don’t call me nuts, but I always have to think of Billy Idol, when I hear the vocals. Simon’s bass play is quite dominant here and I think that’s a pretty cool thing. Quite suddenly, the tempo shifts and a sonic carpet of interwoven guitars unfold in the background. With ‘Appalachian Springs’ we’ve sadly reached the end of our little journey through ‘Forth’ yet it’s a beautiful, emotional ending that slow solemn song provides, which is harbouring a deep subliminal power after all.