This past Coachella, Richard Ashcroft impressed us with his cheekbones, while the Verve as a whole sorta impressed us by playing new material, not just relying on "Bittersweet Symphony" and "Sonnet" (and etc.) to carry the day. The new work came off as more labored and wasn't as immediately striking, but that's partially because it is new material and we haven't found our ways around it just yet. So far we've heard "Sit And Wonder" more than once and now we have a studio recording of the new single "Love Is Noise."
We remember this one from Indio -- its big background loop, the line about "soles Made In China." In this studio take, the production is pleasingly dense, as are those aforementioned lyrics (backhanded). Launch a stream of the song by clicking here.
"Love Is Noise" is out 8/4 on Parlophone. Still unclear when the full-length is out. What is clear is that nostalgia, not invention, will save the music industry in '08.
UPDATE: The new album Forth is out on the band's On Our Own 8/19 in the US via Megaforce/RED and internationally 8/18 via EMI.
[Photo from the Verve @ Coachella]
