Customer Reviews
An enjoyable listen but not a classic - By: A. Grimes, 05 Dec 2006 
Keys to the world is a good, solid album but is certainly not on the same scale as The Verve's 'Urban hymns'
I think the album has 5 very good songs (why not nothing, break the night, keys to the world, cry til the morning & why do lovers) & I feel that if all the songs were at this quality then this album would be great, but the other 5 are a bit boring, though not poor songs, they just don't do much for me
so a solid effort by Richard Ashcroft but he still seems to be lacking something since his Verve days
A well produced album. - By: Dave Stewart, 28 Nov 2006 I'm standing up for Ritchie Ashcroft on this one, this is a good album. If you were expecting the Verve then of course you'll be disappointed, but this is a fresh direction & you can hear itin the music. There's more than a few really good songs on this album & the filler isn't bad either.
I predict that Richard Ashcroft's solo work will be rediscoveredin years to come.
Yawnarama - By: A. Smith, 26 Jun 2006 
Break The Night With Colour is a fantastic piece of work which leaves everything else on this CD trailingin its wake. Ashcroft's affected vocal style is a further nuisance. Can just about face listening to Cry Til The Morning & World Keeps Turning again, but the rest would be better moulded into an ashtray. Recommendation: buy the single.
Very pleasant surprise - By: Julian S. Smith, 16 May 2006 
I bought about 30 CD's from Heathrow a couple of months ago as I live outside the UK & always pick up a pile of the latest crops of talked about stuff. I picked up this Ashcroft title on the back of his Verve connection & the hype printed on the CD cover. Of the the 30 or so CD's, this is this the best. Very tuneful & catchy on the one hand. Very soulful & moody on the other. Great Rock music, Brit style. Enjoy, & don't take it all so seriously. J
Peggy does Dylan - By: Kezzworld, 29 Apr 2006 
I saw Vervein 1995. I can think of no finer band to emerge from these shoresin the history of time; plenty that matched - but none that surpassed. They were so goodin the 35 minutes or so they were allowed to playin a small tent at the Phoenix festival, that I almost cacked myself with joy. Saw them againin 1999ish - just after Mr McCabe left - & the reason for the split was laid bare for all to see - Richard Ashcroft. A man who, post Northern Songs, has often been frustrating, sometimes deep, incredibly pretentious, occasionally moving, delusionally egotistic & frequently very very bare. Richard had starsin his eyes that night - & was so up himself that I had to leave too. I wasn't happy about this but so it goes. The last time I saw Richard.
Since then, Peggy's solo career has been patchy - a promising first album - though un-cohesive, was followed by a widely panned underachieverin Human Conditions - an album thatin reality is truly excellent - trust me - buy it - before it suffers the ignominy of being given away free with the Mail on Sunday. It's only sold about a 143 copies or something.
Now though, Chris Martin has spoken, so all must be good; butin reality, touting our Peggy as the finest vocalistin the UK at the moment is actually quite demeaning to even Chris Martin - who sings mainly crap these days, but at least sings it very well indeed. So the celeb-mad British public has the ultimate insider tip & thus receives the pretentiously named Keys to World with reverence & the bleatings of baby sheep.
Unfortunately, having listened to this for a couple of weeks, I can't help feeling that either the keys got lost or the world has gone astray, for this is a lost soul of an album, brimming with unoriginality, banal American drawl, weedy strings and, for some inexplicable reason, a constant desire to sing like the Dylanesque sexagenarian, Bob Dylan. If you like Dicky's exquisitely manufactured new vocal style, then any of Dylan's last three albums will blow you to smithereens. And there I was, forcing myself to listen more intently, trying to fathom out if I was missing something when suddenly I thought that Cry Til The Morning sounded just a little too much like All along the Watchtower, I realised that I was. Wasn't that vocal a little on the Tom Petty side? Wouldn't the track Keys To The World have been fantastic if Roy Orbison had sung it? (it bloody well would have too). Didn't that slide guitar sound like George Harrison? Am I listening to the Travelling Wilburys & more to the point, wouldn't I be far more satisfied if I was? Certainly the answer to most of these questions is, was & should have been 'yes'.
Dear Peggy, please understand something: you are a top-goal-scorer for it from Wigan, not a craggy jowled rock icon from Troubadourville, Illinois. Your voice isn't actually yours at the moment & these songs are pap. Most could be performed better by Ronan Keating or Chris Rea. They present the listener with the keys to Peggy's dad's garden shed. Ladies & gentleman, tonight Richard Ashcroft will be a pale imitation of the man who gave us Sun the Sea, Slide Away & So it Goes. And so it goes. This is a tragedy.
Richard, It's been about six long years & it's time to take stock by spending a few moments with yourself. Crank up your best stereoin a big bare room & listen to those three tracks just mentioned. You are the best vocalistin the UK. You are a genius. Cack your pants with joy. Then, get your feet back on the ground but leave your headin the clouds. You can do it son, c'mon.
Inevitably & somewhat sadly, this album will fall into the clutch-at-anything, Coldplay-ing hands of Radio Schmooze listeners & they will of course feel that they're living on the edge as this drivel warbles out through their Megane Scenic woofers. So it Goes.
Po Po Priddy Peggy-O.
