shop | mailing lists
musicOMH
music: track reviews
Richard Ashcroft - Music Is Power (Parlophone)
UK release date: 17 April 2006
Richard Ashcroft - Music Is Power

buy this title


buy music
The ex-Verve frontman's second single from his third solo album Keys to the World has a pleasantly mellow soulful sound that fails to get under the skin. Just as the classic Bitter Sweet Symphony contained a brief sample from a Stones song so that Jagger/Richards are (infamously) credited as the songwriters, here the late great Curtis Mayfield is given co-authorship with Ashcroft for the orchestral sample from a song he wrote over 40 years ago.

There though, the comparisons end. Whereas the insistent, lush string arrangements of Bitter Sweet Symphony soared irresistibly and carried on playing in your head long after the record had finished, the repetitive string and horn orchestration of Music Is Power becomes rather monotonous and makes little impact. However, even if the mid-tempo mediocrity lacks urgency, Ashcroft's grittily soulful voice still sounds great.

Unlike Ian Brown, who has moved on from his glory days with The Stone Roses to build a solid solo reputation, Ashcroft's career since The Verve has been patchy at best. In this single, a tribute to the life-enhancing qualities of music, he sings "If the melody's timeless, it won't let you down", but unfortunately he hasn't delivered a timeless melody here.

  share: 
Facebook | Digg | del.icio.us | more
Mercury Prize 2009 nominees
FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE SPEECH DEBELLE KASABIAN FRIENDLY FIRES
LA ROUX BAT FOR LASHES THE HORRORS GLASVEGAS
SWEET BILLY PILGRIM THE INVISIBLE LISA HANNIGAN LED BIB






TOP ARTICLES NOW
GIG: Beyoncé brings Sasha Fierce to London

MORE GIGS: Rihanna, Martha Wainwright, Rickie Lee Jones, Steve Martin, Fionn Regan, Hope Sandoval, Muse...

ALBUMS OUT THIS WEEK: tUnE-yArDs, Norah Jones, Will Young, Mariah Carey, Stereophonics

ALBUM: Gabby Young And Other Animals: We're All In This Together

INTERVIEW: Martha Wainwright on her Edith Piaf album Sans Fusils, Ni Souliers, a Paris

ALBUMS: Nirvana: Live At Reading / Bleach

INTERVIEW: Gary Numan on pleasure principles

RELATED ARTICLES
ALBUM:
Richard Ashcroft - Keys To The World

ALBUM:
Richard Ashcroft - Human Conditions

TRACK:
Richard Ashcroft - Why Not Nothing?

TRACK:
Richard Ashcroft - Music Is Power

TRACK:
Richard Ashcroft - Break The Night With Colour

TRACK:
Richard Ashcroft - Science Of Silence

TRACK:
Richard Ashcroft - Check The Meaning

EXTERNAL LINKS
Richard Ashcroft



  more track reviews...


musicOMH
about us
contact
copyright
home
elsewhere
Twitter
Facebook
Last.fm
Soundcloud
MySpace
© 1999-2009 OMH