Richard Ashcroft – Alone With Everybody (2000)

Of all the Britpop bands that I listened to in the 90's, The Verve was probably my least favourite. I really liked the hit songs on Urban Hymns and the first half of that album is great, but I could never really take a hold of the rest of their music. It sounded all too un-melodic for my taste and I felt like nothing much happened in the songs. When Richard Ashcroft released his first solo album I wasn't expecting much. But when I heard the opening song A Song for the Lovers, I was sold. It's a great melodic song with excellent sounds and great layers of vocals. Back in the day I listened to this album quite a lot even though the opening song was by far my favourite. Now, many years later the album sounds a lot better as a whole. Maybe it just means that I've broaden my horizons a bit and I can also appreciate songs that have more subtle melodies.



The Verve really identified with their frontman, Richard Ashcroft. I don't think I could name any other members of the band. Ashcroft was one of the coolest people in the Britpop scene with his long hair and cool sun glasses. His laconic style of singing is also very cool. He doesn't need to impress anyone with his voice, he's just singing through the songs and as a result he sounds like he has just ended into the record studio by accident and just sings the songs through with amazing confidence.

This album has sort of similar problems to The Verve albums. It starts off really strong but becomes a bit boring towards the end. I already mentioned A Song for the Lovers, but also I Get My Beat, Brave New World and You On My Mind In My Sleep have great melodies and atmosphere and I remember listening to those songs quite a lot. Many of these songs even have some similarities to Beck's folkier songs like the ones on Mutations. After these songs, I don't really remember the songs in the same way. I must've always been bored after these songs and I have changed the album at that point. But now that I listen to this album after a while I feel like I have judged this album a bit too harshly. I find that many of the songs on the latter half are just as good as the ones on the first half. I guess they just sound a bit more cheery and I always used to require bit of melancholy from the songs I listened to back in the day.

I remember the music video for A Song for the Lovers really well. Ashcroft spends most of the video shirtless in a huge hotel room singing along every once in a while. I remember that one of my friends had a proper fan crush to Richard Ashcroft back in the day. I'm sure she was excited about the video.

Some of these songs were originally written to be released on The Verve's Urban Hymns, but they didn't end up on that album. I'm sure that album would've been even better than it is if they would've replaced some of the songs on the second half of that album with some of these songs.

I very rarely listen to this album anymore, but I think it's a good album and I kind of consider it to be even a bit cooler now than it was back in the day. If, for some reason, you have missed this album, I truly recommend to listen through it.

Listen to the album on Spotify.