It's been a long time coming. Unfortunately the only thing epic about The Verve's Forth is the artwork.

I don't want to be a Debbie downer but I've been listening to the new album and frankly, you need to keep your expectations way, WAY down.

I thought 'Sit and Wonder' was passable and 'Love is Noise' was not my cup of tea but also passible. It doesn't help that it reminds me of this:

Unfortunately these 2 tracks are the album's highlights. There seems to be an overall lack of songs for my liking. No early McCabe guitar thunderstorms, no anthems, just a hodge-podge of idea fragments. 'Noise Epic' shows early signs of life but then quickly falls apart due to a lack of imagination and hooks.

One immediate highlight is 'Judas' which is great not for its true-to-form Verve-ness but simply because it's actually a fully-formed song with a melody.

Why would they have chosen to leave 'Mover' off the album I wonder...

Buy the album anyway though, in fact buy it twice. That way they'll come back and perform some of their oldies live.