Classic Album Review: Richard Ashcroft | Alone With Everybody
On the CD cover, he could almost pass for Mick Jagger circa Performance. Rolling Stones longtime touring keyboardist Chuck Leavell plays on several tracks. Even his old band’s biggest hit, Bitter Sweet Symphony, was built on an orchestral recording of a Stones track.
Clearly, Richard Ashcroft has a bit of a Rolling Stones fixation. Oddly, though, the former Verve vocalist’s solo debut Alone With Everybody is anything but a Stones clone. Instead of playing rock star, on this slate of mellow, richly produced numbers, the magnetic, shamanic singer recalls a roster of earnest troubadours: Van Morrison (on the pastoral pop of I Get My Beat), Bob Dylan (on the folky ballad Brave New World) and — believe it or not — Neil Diamond (on the dark jangle of C’mon People). Mostly, though, Along With Everybody makes it clear Ashcroft still has a thing for strings and symphonics. You know how bands often have a big, lush guitar ballad as the last song on their album? This is pretty much a whole album of those songs. Which makes it seem pretty ambitious at times — and pretty endless at others.