keepers 5
keeper avg .417
Despite Richard Ashcroft's confident and powerful singing it's McCabe's versatile performances that elevate this album above the profusion of rock bands in pop music at the time. "A New Decade"***** is powered by a Nick McCabe riff with the harmonic tension of Jane's Addiction. Though "This Is Music", which follows, sounds like an inferior carbon copy, it gets so much better. In "So It Goes"***** McCabe's snake-y ascending arpeggios smoothly fit over the band's laid-back groove, while the trippy title song***** whooshes with McCabe's wah-driven noise. Though there are distinctly British sounds on the album, such as the Manchester dance-rock instrumental "Brainstorm Interlude", the soulful ending of "On Your Own", and the orchestral "History" (which heavily "borrows" from John Lennon's "Mind Games"), the Verve's brand of alternative is closer to the American alternative than the Brit-pop of Blur and Oasis, especially "No Knock On My Door"**** with the melodic crunch of Pearl Jam. "Stormy Clouds"**** gives the album a spacious and multi-faceted ending to this consistent and sonic-ally rich album (if one ignores the 6-minutes-plus of generic riffing on "Reprise").
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