Urban Hymns - The Verve (1997)

I thought I would start off my blogging experience by reviewing a British classic, Urban Hymns – a quintessential album for any indie music fan or indeed anybody from [Greater] Manchester. The Verve formed in Wigan in 1990 as a four-piece but turned to a fifth member following their first break-up in 1995, making Urban Hymns the first album by the band to have five members. Lead singer Richard Ashcroft’s school friend, Simon Tong, started 1996 as the lead guitarist in The Verve but after Ashcroft realised that ‘nothing but The Verve’ would ever be good enough, he invited original guitarist Nick McCabe back to complete their third album. Urban Hymns was released on 29th September 1997 and garnered positive media attention as well as huge commercial success with the album eventually going 11x platinum in the UK alone.

Urban Hymns continued with the shift away from the psychedelic/alternative rock that The Verve had started out with in 1993 on A Storm in Heaven, and into a more conventional alternative/indie sound, usually with Ashcroft fronting the band with an acoustic guitar, which could be heard more often on Northern Soul (1995). The psychedelia the band became popular for can still be heard on ‘Catching the Butterfly’ and ‘This Time’ but also more acoustic orientated songs like ‘Sonnet’ and ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’. These two songs in particular are very sombre and reflect the internal conflict that Ashcroft felt inside and outside of the band with the break-up in 1995, personal drug and alcohol problems as well as the problems that lead to the McCabe leaving in 1998 once again. ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ (The Verve’s most well-known track) came with huge commercial success, despite ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ being their only number one single in the UK, but coupled with controversy after the song used an orchestral sample from ‘The Last Time’ by The Rolling Stones however the band were successfully sued as they used more than was agreed and as such the writing credits read Ashcroft/Jagger/Richards (until 2019).

The album has cemented itself in Britpop history alongside albums like (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? and Parklife and through the obvious influence of The Stone Roses as well as the three of the opening four tracks being classics, one can see why. The stand out tracks for me would be ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ and ‘Lucky Man’, obviously as two of the four promotional singles they have received commercial recognition as well as being two songs that Richard Ashcroft still plays live to this day. However I would like to point these two out as they are both catchy and encompass The Verve’s sound that is so beloved by many; the acoustic guitar rhythm, raspy vocals and a textured ensemble of distorted lead guitars, bass and drums. In summary, if you like the world of 90s indie music or Britpop and have not heard this album, you should be ashamed of yourself and listen to it ASAP.