Richard Ashcroft, the former frontman for The Verve, made friends with some hiphop people with whom he collaborated on his latest album. Hence the United Nations of Sound. No doubt was all this meant as a way to get Ashcroft out of the slums in which he’s been dwelling ever since The Verve came to a grinding halt.
Unfortunately he fails miserably and doesn’t get a helluva lot further than some mumbling about life (“This Thing Called Life”, “Life Can Be So Beautiful”) and music (“She Brings Me The Music” and “America” which comes with a line that says the universal language is music). If that last part is true, then Ashcroft’s version of the universal language is a very annoying and dull-sounding dialect that is only spoken in a desolate part of an even more desolate country where locals either moved away to a far away place or stopped talking altogether years ago.
The first two songs on the album sound like intros that go on forever without ever leading up to anything. The repetition of the question “Are You Ready?” in the opening track with the same name had me shouting YES! for 6 minutes and 33 seconds without ever coming through. And things just got worse from there on. “Beatitudes” is a tired attempt at blending hiphop together with rock. “How Deep Is Your Man?” comes with an equally tired blues riff. Then there’s “Royal Highness”, which does come equipped with a great riff. It’s a tragedy Lou Reed already wrote it 40 years ago and called it “Sweet Jane”.
Seriously, this album is just a mess.
Score: 3 out of 10
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