- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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BlenderGood living has tilted his writing from surefooted and universal to numbing and platitudinous, while his stormy passions are becalmed by an overwhelming production job. [#14, p.130]
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Human Conditions is the sound of Ashcroft searching for personal and spiritual connections and seeking higher truths in soaring pop choruses. All this existential meditation leaves us, like him, ultimately unfulfilled.
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Easily 30 minutes too long and four symphony orchestras too many, Human Conditions feels like a soundtrack to Barnum and Bailey, with Ashcroft’s earnest vocals drowned out by a cast of thousands.
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It's a decent second album and longtime Verve enthusiasts should leave it at that.
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Further indulges his penchant for meticulously-crafted songs, exquisite production, and (sometimes painstaking) personal and spiritual introspection.
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Human Conditions is as bloated and directionless as its awkward title suggests, weighted with meandering songs without melodies, lyrics straight out of freshman-year philosophy class and a sickly slick sheen.
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Human Conditions suggests that Ashcroft has forgotten how to rock, choosing to indulge what appears to be a messiah complex.
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It is the best of what Ashcroft does best: thoughtful incantations teeming with emotion, clarity, and vision.
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UncutAt times he tries too hard, but there's much here to commend. [Nov 2002, p.114]
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MojoAn overreaching cathedral, designed by Spiritualized, Kris Kristoferson and John Barry, Human Conditions still somehow charms with its hungry troubadour's idealism. [Nov 2002, p.102]
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Q MagazineHuman Conditions is not a musical disaster on the scale of Heathen Chemistry. It's just that, from Richard Ashcroft, more is expected. [Nov 2002, p.98]
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Ashcroft's mastery of balladry makes "Buy It in Bottles" his best since the Verve's "Lucky Man."
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Entertainment WeeklyThough elaborately orchestrated, the songs retain their intimacy, communicated in Ashcroft's vocals, which, over the years, keep getting warmer. [7 Mar 2003, p.72]
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SpinStunning pop for pale after-party people. [March 2003, p.119]
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MagnetHe sandbags every song with gigantic, syrupy string arrangements that make John Williams sound like John Cage. [#58, p.82]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 17 out of 21
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Mixed: 2 out of 21
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Negative: 2 out of 21
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Aug 31, 2019My favorite singer by far, his voice is everything, his music is the soundtrack of my life.
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Apr 24, 2012
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IñakiZMay 12, 2006Pop Master! Brian Wilson sings on it!