Product Description

We have 200 signed copies of this album which will be randomly allocated to customer orders.

Track Listing

1. Why Not Nothing?
2. Music Is Power
3. Break the Night with Colour
4. Words Just Get in the Way
5. Keys to the World
6. Sweet Brother Malcolm
7. Cry Til the Morning
8. Why Do Lovers?
9. Sample Song
10. World Keeps Turning

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #264847 in Music
• Released on: 2006-01-17
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Enhanced, Explicit Lyrics, Import

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Verve fought their way to the top of the Britpop pile with a series of triumphant, world-beating anthems, but since their dissolution, frontman Richard Ashcroft’s muse has led him further into introspective, acoustic territory. Quite heartening, then, that his third album kicks off with a mighty burst of brass, an ecstatic Motown rhythm and in "Why Not Nothing?", one of his most bullish, headstrong lyrics in recent memory.

Ashcroft’s new emphasis on classic-tinged soulfulness--a nice change from his occasional, unfortunate tendency towards lumpen Britpop blokeiness--permeates Keys To The World, a factor that sets it on a par with the likes of Weller’s 2000 album Heliocentric in the return-to-form stakes. There are two real highlights though: the swooning "Words Just Get In The Way" should see some manly tears shed, an older, wiser uncle of Coldplay’s "Fix You" that offers a shoulder to cry on over a noble flourish of violins, while "World Keeps Turning" ends the album on a proud note, Ashcroft declaring "Everythin’ right in my life again" as the album gallops to a close.--Louis Pattison

Customer Reviews

This is the return to form you've been hearing about
I am one of these Ashcroft fans that takes issue with those who say his post Verve material is not very good. I agree that Alone With Everybody was a little polished and probably suffered for the fact that Ashcroft seemed a bit too happy when he wrote it, but I thought that Human Conditions was a fantastic example of great songwriting.
What "Keys to the World" has over the first two, however, is a bit of what was missing. On "Urban Hymns" the ballads were interspersed with rousing numbers "Rolling People" and "Come On". Well those kind of tracks make their return here, with opener "Why not Nothing" as rock n roll as Ashcroft has ever sounded, and the superb title track Keys to The World, which samples a soul singer strangely enough!?! But these songs make all the difference, put in amongst more fine ballads, especially "Sweet Brother Malcolm", that make this Ashcrofts strongest effort since the Verve, and should be the Album we've all hoped he would make to put him back on top of the tree

His best Solo album
I would say that this a real step up in quality for Richard Ashcroft as a solo artist. The album has a great feel, although not the most uplifting in the world. The track 'Break The Night With Colour' is a classic.

Yawnarama
Break The Night With Colour is a fantastic piece of work which leaves everything else on this CD trailing in its wake. Ashcroft's affected vocal style is a further nuisance. Can just about face listening to Cry Til The Morning and World Keeps Turning again, but the rest would be better moulded into an ashtray. Recommendation: buy the single.