It’s been seven years since Richard Ashcroft’s last album, NATURAL REBEL, and between you and me: it was an industrial accident because the uninspiring lyrics were accompanied by music that was also knee-deep in cliché. Now it’s not as if the former The Verve frontman has matured into Shakespeare in recent years. But he has certainly fumbled his way back into a pop that negates expectations, makes snags and doesn’t always look for the easiest path.
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This becomes particularly clear in the first half of the album: the opening “Lover”, with its nod towards world pop, is related to what happened in Manchester in the early 1990s. The desire for variety finds a successful continuation in the subtle Americana cross-references of “Out Of These Blues” and the muscular rock of “Heavy News”, before “I’m A Rebel” by producer Silverager Mirwais is pushed towards Seventies disco and French house – and shows an Ashcroft who uses the head voice.
The title track also seeks the dance floor with striking big beats. This conciseness is missing elsewhere. Then the songs sink back into the irrelevance that has always been a staple of Ashcroft’s solo catalog. But, and this is a big but: When the master sings in the final lament “Fly To The Sun” about the cruelties of life and how the sky cries, you like to cry with him.
This review first appeared in Musikexpress 11/2025.