Richard Ashcroft returns with new band

Unfortunately The Verve’s 2008 reunion was short lived.  But in its ashes, singer Richard Ashcroft put together a new band called United Nations of Sound.  Ashcroft liked the work producer, No I.D., did on Jay-Z’s song “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)” and hired him on as executive producer.  The new album entitled Redemption is due March 29th, 2010 and has the singer teaming with a host of new musical collaborators.  At this point I cannot confirm if former Verve drummer, Peter Salisbury, is once again backing Richard Ashcroft as he did on Ashcroft’s three previous solo releases.

Redemption is Ashcroft’s fourth solo album and hopefully a welcome follow up to his respectable yet somewhat spotty 2006 release Keys to the World.  NME exclusively unveiled the first material from Ashcroft’s new project.  The song “Are You Ready?” doesn’t run far from his past work, still thematically thick in spirituality, but the lengthy guitar solo taking out the song is a nice addition and something I don’t recall in his previous works.

Check out the new video here and form your own opinion.