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May 19, 2016These People is the solo record most aligned to Ashcroft’s Verve peak, right down to employing the same string arranger and bunging on one gigantic romance anthem, ‘This is How It Feels’.
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May 23, 2016These People functions as a pleasing adult alternative record.
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May 19, 2016There are outliers such as the horrible Britpop-by-way-of-Pet-Shop-Boys punchy greyness of Hold On, and the grating synth stabs on opener Out of My Body, but generally Ashcroft manages to relive his heyday nicely.
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Q MagazineMay 16, 2016It won't change the world, but These People will give those other troubadours something to think about. [Jun 2016, p.106]
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MojoMay 16, 2016Another sprawling, somewhat overwrought Ashcroft solo record. [Jun 2016, p.88]
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May 23, 2016Ashcroft always fares best when he sounds like he’s addressing another person in an intimate exchange rather than megaphoning the entire human race, and there are moments on These People where he reconnects with the steely-eyed conviction and restlessness that fueled his best songs.
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May 31, 2016These People is a mixture of epic ballads harking back to the sound of the Verve and attempts to move forward with rather half-hearted electronic pop. Despite some beautiful moments, Ashcroft seems to have fallen into the gap between the two.
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UncutMay 16, 2016It's hard to tell whether These People is an intentional, semi-Springsteenian work of self-reference, or whether Ashcroft just hasn't had any other ideas. [Jun 2016, p.69]
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May 23, 2016With the exception of the poignant and understated Black Lines, Ashcroft’s material is uninspired, drowned beneath bloated production and hardly enlivened by his customary broadbrush lyrics about standing alone against ill-defined adversaries, with the added bonus of a blizzard of clunking weather metaphors.
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May 20, 2016Richard Ashcroft’s fifth solo effort ultimately feels like an unruly mess--there are lots of ideas here, but none that feel truly developed.
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May 16, 2016The unerringly loyal will find enough here to sate a hunger for anthemic bobbins drenched in atmospheric production, but there’s little to match the handful of magical songs for which he is known.
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MagnetAug 9, 2016The vocals are on point in Ashcroft's non-plussed yet quintessentially pop-edged delivery, but these arrangements lean more toward boredom and self-servitude. [No. 133, p.53]
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May 19, 2016Perhaps the worst crime is that Ashcroft never even gives that wonderfully expressive voice of his a proper workout; he hasn’t written anything here that demands he really go for it. Instead, These People is an album that’s so safe, it’s almost dangerous.
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Jun 13, 2016Unfortunately, there’s little of anything redeeming about the music on this album.
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May 18, 2016Richard Ashcroft’s first album in six years is a dismal affair.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 17 out of 25
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Mixed: 6 out of 25
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Negative: 2 out of 25
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May 20, 2016
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May 23, 2016
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May 22, 2016