The Verve Serve Up A Flashback Lunch

Recently revived Brit band The Verve released its first new piece of post-reunion music, “Love Is Noise,” on its MySpace page yesterday; Richard Ashcroft’s voice sounds a bit craggier and more world-weary, which plays well off the backup singers who eerily resemble a troop of megaphone-carrying hobbits. Here’s the weird thing, though: You’d expect a reunited band’s new material to have a sense of nostalgia about it, and “Love Is Noise” does, in fact, have a ’90s alt-radio feel. But the music sounds more like dozens of other bands from that era who weren’t the Verve (think Sister Hazel et al), and it’s simultaneously driving me crazy by making me try to recall a lot of songs of that ilk and making me wonder just what, exactly, the combination of time off and apparent new influences on their forthcoming album (out in August!) will result in. [MySpace]