by Malcolm Toogood

Created on: December 22, 2008

Eleven years after breaking up in acrimony, the Verve's come-back to close-out Glastonbury in 2008 was one of the live highlights of the year. Although there was no doubt about them appearing during the weekend, for weeks beforehand there had been references all over the music press indicating that some, if not all, of the Festival organisers were unsure as to whether the band warranted such a high billing.

In the end, those that held their nerve and put them on the Pyramid Stage on Sunday night were vindicated with a stunning performance, both musically and visually. There can be no doubt that Richard Ashcroft is one of those rare performers who can hold an audience in the palm of his hand, and take them on whatever musical journey he decides to. The rest of the band gelled on the night as if they had just had a few days' break, rather than a decade of separation, and the crowd just lapped-up the atmosphere, which was so electric, it even spilled over into the millions of front-rooms tuned into the event finale live on TV.

Unsurprisingly, more than half of the set list was drawn from their last album, 'Urban Hymns' released in 1997. The rest were three tracks from the previous album, 'A Northern Soul', and two new tracks, 'Sit and Wonder' and 'Love is Noise' from a new album to be released in the autumn of 2008. The first was a typically wistful Ashcroft muse, the second a driving rocker. Consequently, the anticipated album became eagerly-awaited by fans, both old and new.

When it arrived, a month later, it should have taken the comeback momentum to a new level, but it didn't. The two tracks that were previewed at Glastonbury are, co-incidentally, the first two tracks on the album, of which 'Love is Noise' was also the first single release. The third track, 'Rather Be', became the second single release. This is an age-old industry trick to breed familiarity for potential buyers using the listening-post in their local store, or clicking on the snippets in their favourite on-line retailer. Research shows that few browsers go much beyond the third track when doing this, which is just as well, because the rest of the album just seems to go on, and on, and on, and

The ten tracks last for 66 minutes in fact, not counting any hidden track, if there is one, which frankly once track ten has faded away into the ether, I find myself past caring to find out. Not that there's a bad track on the album, there isn't, but neither is there a truly-memorable one, another Bitter Sweet Symphony' or Lucky Man'. Maybe this time the drugs did work, because, like the sepia-coloured clouds all over the sleeve-art, it is just a lot of wide-open space that ambles by without offending the senses.

Even the titles confirm the course of the experience: Track one is Sit and Wonder'; by track five it's Numbness', and at track eight it has become Valium Skies'. What it needs to protect the listener from the inevitable results of this soporific onslaught is a good old 20th century, alcohol-fuelled, anthemic adrenalin-hit to finish it off. Unfortunately, all it gets is some 21st century mineral water from Appalachian Springs'.

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