Richard Ashcroft
Alone With Everybody (Virgin)
by Tim Den
I’m heartbroken. It pains me to say it – and it leaves me in disbelief – but Richard Ashcroft‘s solo debut has totally disappointed me. Granted, I was never a huge fan of The Verve, but I dug their psychedelia and energy, and I totally fuckin’ fell for “A Song for the Lovers,” the first track and single from Alone with Everybody. I thought I was in for the ride of my life when track two, “I Get My Beat,” traveled in similar paths as the single – down deep backwaters of melody, caked with ages of BritPop nostalgia, hardly succumbing to the engulfing waves of instrumentation and layering – but as the record progressed, I realized this fantasy was too good to be true. Where certain tracks almost matched the quality of the first two (such as the grinning “C’mon People (We’re Making it Now)”), the majority of Alone with Everybody runs itself into the ground by repeating gratuitously and aimlessly each song’s refrain and often childish hook, until you swear Matchbox 20 (ahem, I mean “Twenty”) was the shameless author behind these lobotomies.
www.richardashcroft.co.uk