Album: Urban Hymns
The album was recorded at London's Olympic Studios, a venue that greats like Hendrix had used in the 60s, and the wah wah effects and swirling guitars of Nick McCabe (who had to be persuaded back into the fold) and Simon Tong pay homage to the heyday of psychedelic rock. The haunting melodies, Ashcroft's ghostly voice and the rocksteady rhythm section made Urban Hymns one of the best rock albums of the 90s. There are some weaker moments (The Rolling People and Come On are over-long, while The Drugs Don't Work is a bit too grandiose and lifeless), but these are far outweighed by the many highlights, from the opening track to Catching The Butterfly, Lucky Man and This Time. I also really like the starry-eyed ballads, Space & Time and One Day ("You've gotta tie yourself to the mast my friend / and the storm will end"), which are full of a battle-scarred positivity that balances well with the album's darker moments. Urban Hymns may not be a bona fide classic, but it captures the expansive mood of the times perfectly, when rock was retro and contemporary all at the same time.
Artist: The Verve
Born: Wigan, Greater Manchester
Released: September 1997
Genre: Britpop
Genre: Britpop
Looking back now, 1997 looks like the year that Britpop died, with Urban Hymns the requiem for this fleeting musical fad. Bloated, but not as bloated as Oasis' coke-fuelled mess Be Here Now, and melancholy, but not as miserable as the work of wet-the-bed imitators like Travis and Coldplay, Urban Hymns is very much of its time. In 1997, Blur had discovered Pavement and shot off in a new, non-Britpop direction with Song 2, while Radiohead were starting to experiment with the avant-garde on OK Computer, leaving The Verve to pick up the pieces and release Britpop's last hurrah. The band had already found success with their 1995 LP, A Northern Soul, which includes one of Richard Ashcroft's finest songs, History, but it was on Urban Hymns that The Verve really spread their wings. The LP opens with The Verve's abiding anthem, Bitter Sweet Symphony, which musically owes a debt to an orchestral recording of the Rolling Stones' The Last Time (unsurprisingly, the $tone$ have cashed in on the royalties) and has a video inspired by Massive Attack's Unfinished Sympathy. It has an uplifting, empowering quality and an all-encompassing worldview ("Cause it's a bitter sweet symphony, this life"), and was a hit single on both sides of the Atlantic.
The album was recorded at London's Olympic Studios, a venue that greats like Hendrix had used in the 60s, and the wah wah effects and swirling guitars of Nick McCabe (who had to be persuaded back into the fold) and Simon Tong pay homage to the heyday of psychedelic rock. The haunting melodies, Ashcroft's ghostly voice and the rocksteady rhythm section made Urban Hymns one of the best rock albums of the 90s. There are some weaker moments (The Rolling People and Come On are over-long, while The Drugs Don't Work is a bit too grandiose and lifeless), but these are far outweighed by the many highlights, from the opening track to Catching The Butterfly, Lucky Man and This Time. I also really like the starry-eyed ballads, Space & Time and One Day ("You've gotta tie yourself to the mast my friend / and the storm will end"), which are full of a battle-scarred positivity that balances well with the album's darker moments. Urban Hymns may not be a bona fide classic, but it captures the expansive mood of the times perfectly, when rock was retro and contemporary all at the same time.
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