These People
The former Verve frontman returns after a hiatus with another Richard Ashcroft solo album, with all the ostentatious orchestration, bumper-sticker mantras, and cursory electro-dabbling those entail.
Ashcroft returns with an album lacking any sense of focus – there are a number of new ideas on These People, but none of them feel properly fleshed out.
Six years after forming the United Nations of Sound -- a pseudo-group that lasted no more than a single record -- Richard Ashcroft pushes himself back into the spotlight on These People, a 2016 album that finds the former Verve singer reuniting with Wil Malone, an orchestrator who worked on Urban Hymns and Northern Soul. Malone's presence suggests These People may achieve a certain symphonic heft, yet Ashcroft sidesteps the churning psychedelia and progressive majesty of the Verve's prime. In its place, the singer/songwriter taps into a certain insouciant sophistication, favoring insistent arena anthems and finely tailored Eurodisco. Often, Ashcroft's intentions are apparent -- it's evident whenever he's following the blueprints of "Bittersweet Symphony" and "The Drugs Don't Work," just as it's clear that the dance beats and electronics are a bid for hip credibility -- but he winds up with sounds that aren't the ideal vehicle for whatever vague sociological protest Ashcroft attempts to mine here. If the music is separated from the message -- which is fairly easy to do, due to its slippery shimmer -- These People functions as a pleasing adult alternative record.
It's hard to imagine anyone having a higher opinion of this album than Richard Ashcroft himself. In recent interviews, he has delivered his usual line
Ex-Verve frontman throws everything but the kitchen sink into his fourth solo album. Review by Guy Oddy