Human Conditions Tracks
1. Check the Meaning
2. Buy it in Bottles
3. Bright Lights
4. Paradise
5. God in the Numbers
6. Science of Silence
7. Man on a Mission
8. Running Away
9. Lord I've Been Trying
10. Nature is the Law
11. The Miracle (US Bonus Track)
Human Conditions Review
Distancing himself still further from the howling guitars and shoegazer drones of his old band, the Verve, on his second solo effort, Richard Ashcroft maintains the stripped-down, introspective aesthetic of 2000's Alone with Everybody. Human Conditions focuses on the same spiritual battle of religion and love versus desperation and disillusionment—it's a conflict Ashcroft has been waging with himself and the world since the Verve's intensely sad 1995 release, A Northern Soul. Whether he's winning or losing these psychic skirmishes is still in question, but songs like "Paradise" ("How long can I stay here? How long can I pray here?") and "Lord I've Been Trying" indicate a deepening spiritual inspiration. Listening to Ashcroft work out his demons used to be a lot more fun; many former Verve fans undoubtedly miss the band's fire and theatricality, as well as the thematic counterpoint once provided by guitarist Nick McCabe. Undeniably though, the deeper he digs, the more interesting and mature he sounds, even without a bolt of electrified angst to drive the point home. --Matthew Cooke
Ashcroft, former lead singer of "bittersweet symphony" Mancunian quartet, The Verve strikes out on his sophomomre solo effort, well, strikingly.
"I'm an agnostic in God - but, man, she takes a female form," Ashcroft croons in a typical lyric that looks longingly to the female for some redemption from what he earlier describes as "when I'm low, and I'm weak, I don't know who I can trust - paranoia- the destroyer-comes knocking on my door ..."
This album meant alot to me in a particularly troubled period of my own life mostly because Ashcroft manages melody and angst so well. There is a quest for God in personal relationships in these lyrics that stands well apart from any song writer I know of except for, perhaps, Nick Cave.
At his best as in "Science of Silence" Ashcroft manages to express a kind of cosmic loneliness through concrete images that is nothing short of breathtaking:
"We are on a rock spinning silently/won't you get close to me."