Richard Ashcroft, the lanky former frontman for The Verve, has a new band called United Nations of Sound. Although he peaked early commercially with the brilliant “Bittersweet Symphony,” the moody Brit proved on subsequent solo efforts like Alone with Everybody that his innate talent would extend his career far beyond the success of Urban Hymns.
That’s what makes new single “Are You Ready?” so unfortunate. Although the track is pleasant enough, ultimately it offers nothing new or surprising. And the video, which you can view here (embedding disabled), comes off as a generic football advert without a trace of the soul or grit that made the Ashcroft so appealing in the first place. Hopefully there’s more to this new project than what we see here.
