Richard Ashcroft: Keys To The World : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Once the stoned-soul shaman in a Jesus Christ pose at the forefront of Brit pop's Nineties assault on America, Richard Ashcroft now merely seems the man who made the U.S. safe for Coldplay. He joined Chris Martin and Co. at Live 8 to play "Bittersweet Symphony," the big hit from his former band the Verve, but the vitality of that classic no longer illuminates his midtempo, string-swaddled songs. Aside from the rousing opening rocker, "Why Not Nothing?," where Ashcroft takes down hawkish governments claiming to have God on their side ("You can't deny it/It's abuse of the cross"), his concepts are not strong, and his lyrics -- often merely functional in the past -- have never been worse. These deficiencies reach a nadir on "Words Just Get in the Way," a bland ballad where Ashcroft brays the title ad nauseam on a long, slow fade. In trying to wrest profundity from simplicity, Keys to the World is only profoundly disappointing.