Richard Ashcroft to him. Ashcroft began work on his second album "Human Conditions" in 2002. The lead single, "Check the Meaning", was released in early October, and peaked at No. 11 on the UK Singles Chart. The album was released later that month and reached No. 3 in the UK Album Chart. Reception to the album was generally positive. Review aggregating website Metacritic reports a normalised score of 61% based on 15 reviews. In response to negative reaction to the album, Coldplay's Chris Martin – a fan of both Ashcroft and The Verve – defended the album's merits which "made an impression"
Richard Ashcroft recorded the "Live from London EP", the ninth in a series of EPs released exclusively as digital downloads from Apple's iTunes Store. The EP was released just 6 days later on 24 April. With the release of "Keys to the World", the general consensus was that Ashcroft was "back at the top of his musical game", as he announced his largest UK tour for years for May 2006, culminating in three nights at London's Brixton Academy. Following the tour, Ashcroft had hoped to perform two "Homecoming" shows at Wigan Athletic's 25,000 seater JJB Stadium in June 2006, but was unable