Urban Hymns

Enjoyed this though wasn’t completely blown away. Probably unfairly, I’d never really listened to the Verve and lumped it dismissively with the britpop label. More depth than I was expecting,
Can see me potential revising this score upwards after repeated listens but for now a very solid 3.

Omg I did not know that Bitter Sweet Symphony is that song - the tic tok one - very good, tho i do have to say overrated since i have heard it everywhere. Sonnet is very good too. Lucky man is really comforting, a song for a cloudy weather. Space and Time is great - it has different tempo and vibe than the rest i think.

After having a look in the reviews of other people, I am suprised how divided the listeners are - either one/two stars (an extra one for Bitter Sweet Symphony) or five stars and retelling half of their childhood stories that they vaugly conected to this album. I don't think my neighbour likes this album, he has been knocking on my wall. Personally I happen to think that this is a very good album, I have no problem with melodical repetitions in songs since it gives me rather comforting vibes for a UK-like weather with lots of rain and clouds. I don't believe that in order for an album to be good it has to have individual song that always come grabing at your attention. This album is something that you play in an autumn afternoon after a long day of work, curled up in your favourite armchair while drinking tea and looking at the rain.

Listened to: Bitter Sweet Symphony, Sonnet, The Rolling People (a bit whiny), The Drugs Don't Work, Lucky Man, Catching The Butterfly (as the rolling people - overall very nice tho has its whiny moments, nothing tho that would put John Lennon to shame), and the rest of the album

Alright, so I kinda dismissed this album before I actually listened to it. We know this list has a British bias, so I expected this to be here solely on the strength of “Bittersweet Symphony”, but that's not totally true. In the Brit Rock hierarchy, I’d put this under Oasis but probably on par with the Blur record on this list. Maybe slightly higher.

The Verve or sort of unfairly regarded in the U.S. They're more than a one hit wonder. I've never listened to this all the way through before, but Richard Ashcroft is a good songwriter and this is a good record. "The Drugs Don't Work" is a phenomenal track. Let's call this a 3.49.

One of my top 10 albums ever. The lyrics are so personal to me.

Better than Coldplay

I think I only know "Bitter Sweet Symphony" by this artist and I'm not a fan of it. I've never listened to this album though.

I enjoyed the more groovy tracks more than I expected I would. They should stick to that stuff and drop the ballads. Also, why _did_ "Bitter Sweet Symphony" become such a hit? It's just boring and not a good example of the rest of the album. In the end, I'm happy this list made me listen to this album because it changed my opinion on the group.

Inoffensive, but bloated and baggy - a few solid songs, and the rest sort of just washed over...

This album is one generational song followed by truly meaningless crap.

Déjà écouté avant.

En se tentant de se conformer aux codes de la britpop autour de laquelle ils gravitaient jusque là sans jamais totalement s'y fondre, par esprit d'expérimentation plus que de contradiction, Richard Ashcroft et les siens en signent paradoxalement le chant du cygne, le dernier album notable avant extinction. L'album est certes trop long pour ce qu'il est, et le groupe se fait souvent plaisir à faire durer un peu stérilement certains titres qui n'en méritaient pas tant. Mais le talent brut d'Ashcroft est incontestable, et cette mélancolie midtempo assumée tout le long, mariée à quelques touches orchestrales mélodramatiques, est plutôt séduisante.

Top : Sonnet
Flop : This Time

Bittersweet Symphony is amazing. Lucky Man is pretty good. The rest is alright. Minus a star for the hidden track.

Really liked this. Beautiful sounds and voice.

It's been almost two years since I listened to A Northern Soul as part of my album journey, and I struggle to remember it. I do recall highlighting The Verve's follow-up, Urban Hymns, for more noteworthy hits. Obviously, "Bitter Sweet Symphony" still gets radio airplay today, but I also consider "The Drugs Don't Work" a wonderfully melancholic ballad with its reverbed pedal steel. With those two singles in mind, I went into Urban Hymns a bit more optimistic and was rewarded for listening to an extent.

I think the core identity of this record is in the shift in sound and songwriting, as a brief absence of guitarist Nick McCabe from the band forced frontman Richard Ashcroft to learn to write music. Thus, I got a sense of Richard's earnestness from these pleasant hook-driven ballads that boast such dynamics and rich arrangements, akin to "History" off of A Northern Soul, a song I recall enjoying. Songs like "Sonnet", "Catching the Butterfly", and "Weeping Willow" work wonders in capturing Richard's strife amidst drug-riddled despair, as eclectic guitar riffs, a tight rhythm section, and sweeping strings play alongside his impassioned vocal delivery and the lush, reverbed production. I especially dug the extended jam of "The Rolling People", complete with electrifying funkified guitar licks traded back and forth over a nice shuffle beat.

That said, I do feel this album runs a tad long at 75 minutes, as some moments could have been cut. Personally, I would have gotten rid of the formless ambiance of "Neon Wilderness" and the hidden track "Deep Freeze", as I feel they don't add much to the overall package.

Still, I had a good time with Urban Hymns, way more than I did with A Northern Soul. It goes to show the leaps and bounds that Richard Ashcroft made as a songwriter in that time.

Conclusive proof that The Verve have released at least 12 songs other than Bittersweet Symphony, which is, admittedly a pretty great song. And I knew this was late '90s Brit-Pop, but even so, I could not have guessed just how similar a lot of these songs sound to The Bends by Radiohead. And I will say that this is neither a good or a bad thing, it's kind of just a thing. But The Verve do create a sense of identity here, songs like Weeping Willow, The Drugs Don't Work, and Neon Wilderness are great of their own volition, with a sound that pulls from psych, orchestral influences, and pop immediacy. I honestly think the weakest thing about Urban Hymns is the length. It's generally a solid collection of songs, but at an hour and 15, it runs a little long. And I know some of it is due to silence on the hidden track, but even if I don't count that, there's still like 70 minutes of music here, and it isn't quite good enough to keep the momentum up. But it is definitely a solid Brit-Pop album, with some really good songs.

3/5. The opener (and the bands biggest hit) Bittersweet Symphony is one of the best hits of the 90’s, absolutely love that string part, love the vocal melodies, really just love everything about it. It absolutely clears the Rolling Stones live song that The Verve would proceed to get sued over copying.
The rest of the album is nowhere near as good as Bittersweet Symphony, but it’s still some solid enough Brit-Pop, better than what a lot of other bands in the scene were offering at least. I enjoyed “This Time” and the closer “Come On” quite a bit.

not good

After listening to this, it’s no surprise at all that Oasis beat The Verve for best UK album of the last 30 years.

The generator previously gave me this band's previous album, "A Northern Soul", only a few months ago, so my perspective on them is pretty fresh. The music style is meloncholic rock, a style that I particularly like. Of course, as I said in my other review, I already was familiar with and enjoyed "Bitter Sweet Symphony". That song is still the best song on this album and employs a good use of strings (instrumentation that is used in a few other songs too). I did like the music, but the songs are quite long and they kind of blended together after a while (something that I found also happened in the previous album). Another song I liked, and that was more different, was "The Drugs Don't Work".

Ooooookay. OOOOOkay then. It’s a bittersweet fucking symphony and that’s just fucking life I fucking guess. That's no way to start a review but whatever. Let's get into it. So like 10, 11 years ago, I heard “Bitter Sweet Symphony” for the first time, and I thought it was tight. I still do. Great little song. I distinctly remember my dad telling me about the story behind it too, how the verve won an award for it and everything, and then legally got told it wasn’t their song, and then had to turn down an award or speech or something… and it was like a cautionary tale. Crushing stuff. Again, the song’s tight though, and that’s what matters. “Sonnet” is better than I remember it being too. Just a good old fashioned dope rock jam. Though “The Rolling People” is kinda a dud, it’s redeemed by the greatness of “The Drugs Don’t Work,” which is kinda of the best kind of sad sentimental britpop ballad. Kinda like preceding Coldplay’s best material by just a little bit, and that’s really how I interpret this whole album. It’s like if Oasis and Coldplay had a middleman. Or actually, it’s more that this is the middleman between Oasis and Coldplay. Much much more psychedelic than anything Coldplay ever made, which definitely lines up more with Oasis, but its best moments are its sensitive moments, which are much more reminiscent of Coldplay, and much more common than anything on an Oasis record. That being said, we all know the more outright psychedelic stuff here isn’t great, right? Like that’s not just me? This album is at its best when the psychedelia is a more marginal, background part of the song, because the sensitive sides of these songs really find some good stuff, as I previously mentioned. And can I just say, the length isn't as much of a problem as I thought it was going to be. As I began to go through the last leg of the album, I really began to realize that, uhh, none of these songs really needed to be taken out. It's a really interesting moment to realize that, hey, this is actually really great music all the way through! And that's really how this album feels. Even at over an hour it's great, and has a lot of really good songs to hear all throughout. Great album.
8.9/10

1997, c'est l’année où la Britpop a fini par s’auto-dévorer dans un nuage de coke et d’arrogance mal placée. Mais c’est surtout le moment où The Verve décide de revenir d’entre les morts.

Et quand je dis les morts, je n’exagère pas : le groupe s’était séparé, Ashcroft faisait ses crises de divinité, et McCabe — le seul mec capable de faire sonner une guitare comme un trou noir — était parti voir ailleurs si j’y étais.

Mais voilà, le fric, l’ambition, ou peut-être juste l’impossibilité de faire autre chose, les a réunis.

Urban Hymns c’est un putain de bloc de 75 minutes qui veut trop en faire et qui veut être tout à la fois : l’album de rock psyché ultime, la collection de tubes radio universels et le testament spirituel d’un mec qui se prend pour le Messie des quartiers pavillonnaires.

Je commence par quoi ? Par l’éléphant dans la pièce ?

Allez "Bittersweet Symphony". Ce morceau, c’est le génie et la lose absolue résumés en six minutes. C’est le titre que j'ai entendu jusqu’à la nausée, mais que je ne peux pas m’empêcher de trouver brillant à chaque fois que ces cordes démarrent. Mais quel pied de nez monumental de s’être fait piquer tous les droits par ce vieux requin d'Allen Klein et les Stones. Ashcroft écrit le texte de sa vie, McCabe brode par-dessus, et au final, ils ne touchent pas un kopeck pendant vingt ans. Si c’est pas l’essence même du rock’n’roll de se faire entuber en beauté en créant un chef-d’œuvre, je ne sais pas ce que c’est.

Mais le truc, c’est qu'Ashcroft, avec sa gueule de mannequin mal nourri et ses pommettes saillantes, il y croit. Il croit dur comme fer qu’il est en train de sauver le monde avec ses chansons. Et parfois, j'ai presque envie de le croire aussi.

Quand j'écoute "The Drugs Don't Work", je me sens comme une merde, mais une merde qui plane. C’est beau, c’est triste, c’est d’un pathos assourdissant, et pourtant ça fonctionne. Parce qu'au milieu de toute cette boursouflure, il y a une vraie vulnérabilité. C’est le son d’un mec qui réalise que la fête est finie et que la descente va être longue.

Mais alors, pourquoi ce n'est pas le disque parfait ? Pourquoi je ne lui mets pas la note maximale en hurlant au génie pur ?

Parce que The Verve ne sait pas quand s'arrêter.

C’est le mal du siècle pour les groupes de cette époque : ils pensaient que remplir un CD jusqu'à la garde était un gage de qualité.

Et vers le milieu du disque, ça commence à ramer sévère.

Il y a des morceaux qui durent des plombes, des jams qui n'en finissent plus, des pignolades sonores où McCabe s'écoute un peu trop triturer ses pédales d'effets

Attention, j'adore le psychédélisme, j'adore quand ça plane, mais là, ça sent parfois le remplissage pour faire "album conceptuel sérieux".

Des titres comme "The Rolling People" ou "Come On", c’est sympa cinq minutes, mais ça casse la dynamique émotionnelle des hymnes qui font le sel de cet album.

Et c’est frustrant putain car si tu vires les trois ou quatre morceaux qui servent de rembourrage, tu as le meilleur album de la décennie, point barre. Tu as un truc qui enterre les Gallagher et leur rock de stade bas du front, et qui offre une alternative plus humaine aux délires robotiques de Radiohead.

Ici, c'est organique, c'est sale sous les ongles, même quand il y a des violons partout.

Je déteste le côté "Messie" d'Ashcroft, cette façon qu'il a de marcher dans la rue en bousculant les gens comme si le trottoir lui appartenait. C’est insupportable d’arrogance. Mais force est de constater que le mec a un charisme de dingue et une voix qui transperce les murs.

Et puis, il y a McCabe. Et je le répète : sans McCabe, ce groupe serait juste une version un peu plus chiante d'Oasis car c'est lui qui apporte la brume, l'ombre, les éclairs. C'est lui qui transforme une simple ballade acoustique en un voyage astral.

C’est cette tension entre le chanteur qui veut être une star de la pop et le guitariste qui veut disparaître dans un feedback infini qui fait que Urban Hymns tient encore debout aujourd’hui.

Mais merde, ces longueurs... On dirait qu'ils ont eu peur de couper quoi que ce soit. Et s’ils avaient eu les couilles de sortir un disque de 45 minutes, on crierait au miracle divin. Là, on est juste devant un excellent album qui nous fatigue un peu les oreilles sur la fin.

C'est pour ça que je reste sur mon 4/5 parce que je ne peux pas ignorer la puissance de "Sonnet" ou la majesté de "Lucky Man". Ce sont des chansons qui te collent à la peau, qui te rappellent tes propres errances, tes propres gueules de bois spirituelles.

Mais je ne peux pas non plus ignorer le fait qu'à chaque fois que je lance le disque, je finis par zapper les dernières pistes parce que j'ai l'impression d'avoir déjà entendu la même boucle trois fois.

En résumé, Urban Hymns c’est le chant du cygne d’une époque. C’est grandiloquent, c’est boursouflé, c’est souvent génial, et c’est parfois franchement chiant.