Richard Ashcroft – Lovin’ You: Album Review

By JohnMartinson on 1st October 2025 • ( Leave a comment )

Lovin’ You is the eighth album from the legendary Richard Ashcroft. The former The Verve man proves once again he is an unstoppable force of nature.

Release Date: 10th October 2025

Label: Virgin

Format: CD / Vinyl / Cassette / Digital

RICHARD ASHCROFT

Richard Ashcroft is well known for ballads on the theme of grandiose love. It is a style that occasionally divides opinion. Aptly named Lovin’ You is Ashcroft’s eighth studio album and continues the familiar sound he has carried and refined since The Verve’s debut, A Storm in Heaven.

Ashcroft’s sound is now more rounded and has broader appeal, marked by straightforward acoustic rhythms, occasional orchestration, and his distinctive Northern-twanged vocals. All of these elements are present and well-executed on this release. Even after a seven-year hiatus, briefly punctuated by his recent support slot for Oasis, the sound and soul of his music remain distinctive. Fans will not be disappointed.

LOVIN’ YOU

The album opens with Lover – a standout cover of Joan Armatrading’s ‘Love and Affection.’ Ashcroft peels off the melody and magnificent cello riff to bring the track to life. Armatrading recently shared her appreciation: “I love how he’s used my song and I love his song.” The endorsement is fully valid. Ashcroft’s rendition is British ballad rock at its simple best. Here, his voice soars with the same evangelical fervor that made Bitter Sweet Symphony a generational anthem—that unmistakable Wigan drawl now tempered with years of lived experience, each phrase delivered with the conviction of someone who still believes music can heal the world.

It’s a track that elevates the mood, serving as a great antidote to the negativity of today’s fast-paced media. Its presence at the start of the album sets a tone for the entire work, and Ashcroft’s recent acknowledgement that his sound is reminiscent of The Beach Boys feels accurate. Throughout the record, there’s some simple yet effective guitar playing that complements his distinctive vocal approach. The overall sound feels unhurried. It has been carefully crafted and rewritten pointing to a return to more sophisticated song writing.

SPACE TO GROW

On tracks like Out Of These Blues and Fly To The Sun, he gives the sound and lyrics ample space to grow and settle. This is a noticeable progression from previous work. Here, Ashcroft’s voice operates in its most comfortable register— that mid-range sweet spot where his natural vibrato can breathe freely, each sustained note carrying the weight of hard-won wisdom. It’s also worth noting an increased use of pedal-affected lead guitar, which brings a more rounded style to the album’s production. This style of writing is reminiscent of Paul Weller yet is still clearly and definitively Ashcroft.

The track Oh L’Amour offers another vocal surprise. At times, he reaches lower down his range, producing a warm, deep baritone that reveals new depths to an instrument we thought we knew completely. This richer, more resonant bass demonstrates remarkable vocal maturity—where once he might have strained for the stratospheric notes, he now finds power in restraint. It is a less verbose track but still delivers a clear war cry for love and affection with the poignant line: “Everyone needs someone to hold…” His delivery here is intimate yet commanding, proving his voice has lost none of its magnetic pull. Similar themes run through Find Another Reason, which features some gorgeous Pink Floyd-style riffs woven into a stronger vocal performance, though here his tendency toward repetitive phrasing occasionally feels like artistic comfort food rather than genuine exploration.

I’M A REBEL

One of the album’s most unexpected moments comes on I’m a Rebel; Ashcroft experiments with an electro-dance riff. Pulling from the Daft Punk playbook, the accompanying voice configuration has never been heard in Ashcroft’s canon. While it takes a few listens to truly appreciate this departure and how it lands, it never falls flat or feels out of place—though it does raise questions about whether such diversions serve the album’s overall coherence. His voice, processed through filters and effects, becomes another instrument in the mix, yet still retains that essential Ashcroft DNA. The track ends with his typical, signature vocal sound cutting through the continuous backing track, like breaking through storm clouds into clear sky.

The title track Lovin’ You again drifts from the solo Ashcroft sound and back towards the style of The Verve’s later work. The repeated lead refrain as an outro is a welcome return and a simple, effective way to draw out the essence of a song in which he once again calls for love and hope. Here, his voice operates at full power—that soaring, almost spiritual quality that made him the voice of a generation, each note ascending with the confidence of someone who has never doubted his own mythology.

Crimson Fire offers more of the same, with more despair in the lyrics: “It’s a strange time to be alive,” he tells us—a sentiment few would question. It features bigger, bolder sounds, more akin to ‘Love is Noise’ from The Verve’s 2008 album, Forth, though it sometimes feels like an artist re-treading familiar emotional territory rather than genuinely exploring new psychological depths.

AN ARCHITECT OF MODERN BRITISH ROCK MUSIC

Heavy News is perhaps the boldest and heaviest track on the album, with production that pulls Ashcroft’s vocal through multiple layers of sound that continuously drop in and out. His voice here becomes both anchor and sail—grounding the dense arrangement while simultaneously lifting it toward transcendence. Yet for all its ambition, the track occasionally suffers from overproduction, with Ashcroft’s natural charisma sometimes buried beneath unnecessary sonic layers. The placement of these tracks, along with the electro-led ones, give the album a strong overall feel the builds on the customary hopeful acoustic tracks for which his sound is so well-defined.

After 2018’s Natural Rebel received mixed reviews, it might have seemed that Richard Ashcroft’s star was beginning to wane. However, his 2021 release, Acoustic Hymns Vol.1, re-lit some of that much-loved Ashcroft flame. This album shows that Richard Ashcroft neither wants nor needs to drift too far from the style he was so instrumental in designing.

As an architect of modern British rock music, he has little left to prove; he can write simple, often-beautiful songs with straightforward production and still sound relevant. While Lovin’ You has its moments of Ashcroft stretching his craft, which lifts the intrigue of his latest output, the big songs that will resonate on his upcoming tour in Manchester this November and across the UK in the new year will be the ones that have propelled him this far for so long. Tracks like Lover, Oh L’Amour, and Out of These Blues will ring out proud and true.

AN UNSTOPPABLE FORCE

Lovin’ You stands as both vindication and revelation—proof that Richard Ashcroft’s voice remains an unstoppable force of nature, capable of transforming even familiar territory into something that feels essential. This isn’t just recommended listening; it’s a masterclass in how genuine artistry transcends time, trends, and expectation. In an era of manufactured emotion, Ashcroft delivers the real thing—raw, unfiltered, and absolutely vital.

Below is the title track, Lovin’ You. Richard Ashcroft has a string of live shows later in 2025. You can find all the information, here.