The Verve - Forth

Rating:

* * *

When the Verve - the Britpop band responsible for anthems like

Gravity Grave, The Drugs Don't Work

and

Bitter Sweet Symphony

- split up for the second time in 1999, there seemed no chance of reconciliation. Years of drugs excess and bitter artistic squabbles, especially between the band's two main creative forces, singer Richard Ashcroft and guitarist Nick McCabe, had taken their toll.

Then last year the band announced they were reuniting for "the joy of music" and they went out on tour. Now, with the release of fourth album Forth, comes the real test.

What Forth does is bring together early sonic Verve, like that found on 1992's

She's A Superstar

, with the more commercial bent the band took on break-through album, Urban

Hymns

in 1997. Just don't expect it to have the same appeal or impact of

Hymns

, one of Britpop's classics and, for many, one of the defining records of the 90s.

With

Forth

's mix of long, sprawling songs, matched with Ashcroft's penchant for beautiful meandering rock ballads, it is typically intoxicating and trippy.

It moves from seductive opener Sit And Wonder, to the camp sashaying rock groove of Love Is Noise, and on to the swooning, strings-soaked I See Houses and the lovely Valium Skies, which could both be nods to Sonnet.

Then there's eight-minute Noise Epic which explodes from a trashy plod into a grinding haze akin to Sonic Youth meets Butthole Surfers. It's here, and on the squalid and unsettling Columbo, where the likely lads from Wigan are back to their rabble-rousing best and shouldering their way down the street like the cool and cocky so-and-sos that they are.

In saying that, there is nothing on

Forth

as catchy as

Bitter Sweet Symphony

.

There are also a couple of dreary moments, like the psychedelic jam of

Numbness

(with added irritating mumbles by Ashcroft) and the fluffy and clumsy

Judas

.

For old time's sake, especially for Britpop fans,

Forth

is great but it won't stand up in 10 years like

Urban Hymns

still does.

Scott Kara