Urban Hymns - The Verve Reviews

Well as I'm reviewing my favorite albums I can hardly leave this one out can I. This one gets up there in many people's Top tens. Not sure if it quite makes mine. I took me along time to get into the Verve and by the time I bought this album I had heard all the hype and was expecting something amazing. It was very good, don't get me wrong. ...  Read the complete review

Perhpas my favourite album of all time. This is one monster of an album and finally the point where The Verve went from being nearly men to bona fide stars. This was in part thanks to the first single being the incredible bittersweet symphony and its now distinctive and iconic video - Singer Richard Ashcroft walking down the street, knocking ...  Read the complete review

Urban Hymns is The Verve's answer to What's The Story Morning Glory - and while the two albums have their differences what's important is that they are both very good. While Urban Hymns doesn't have the swagger and glamour of the latter, it manages to fuse together classic Brit rock with layered guitar and the odd burst of symphony to create a ...  Read the complete review

A perfect mash up of their first two albums, Urban Hymns achieves what it seems The Verve set out to accomplish in the first place. A seamless blend of psychedelic , space rock, and mainstream pop, Urban Hymns takes the best stands of its predecessors to create a near perfect album. The only possible misstep here could be One Day, which is a bit ...  Read the complete review

The Verve were a magnificent band, and A Northern Soul is a twentieth century masterpiece. But this... This album is a let down. For two weeks as an 18-year-old, this album ruled my life, but now... The events surrounding its release were more a part of that euphoria than the actual music. Urban Hymns is bereft of the passion, the anger, the utter ...  Read the complete review

It's amazing how both the press and musical press makes heroes out of individuals one minute and then drop them the next. All this, of course, happened to The Verve. It's called hype and it works in both positive and negative ways. What the music press forget however, is the fact that if a band is in any way good, then people ...  Read the complete review

This album is special. 'The Drugs don't Work' is the finest song penciled for my generation and certainly the most powerful number one. It holds a timeless quality that is refreshing to hear in the current state of modern music. Just like Sinatra, Bacharach or Gaye - it will be heard and cherished by countless generations ahead of us. ...  Read the complete review

It's amazing how both the press and musical press makes heroes out of individuals one minute and then drop them the next. All this, of course, happened to The Verve. It's called hype and it works in both positive and negative ways. What the music press forget however, is the fact that if a band is in any way good, then people ...  Read the complete review

It's amazing how both the press and musical press makes heroes out of individuals one minute and then drop them the next. All this, of course, happened to The Verve. It's called hype and it works in both positive and negative ways. What the music press forget however, is the fact that if a band is in any way good, then people ...  Read the complete review

The Verve released Urban Hymns in 1997 to great reviews from the public and the critics. Three years on I still regularly listen to what I consider to be in the top 5 albums of the nineties. This was the follow up to “Northern Soul” and was released after the band had reformed. Bitter Sweet Symphony (Single) This is ...  Read the complete review

In British music 1997 was the year of The Verve, atleast in terms of popularity (Radiohead's far better 'OK Computer' was overshadowed) that made dents in the year due to mainly two classic singles, a interest from the press who previously didn't care before, and a history that was finally coming to and end - permanently. Apart ...  Read the complete review

When The Verve reformed, no-one really took any notice.....that was until they released the first single off Urban Hymns. Bittersweet Symphony has become The Verve's anthem, and when released was rightly hailed as a masterpiece. This album put The Verve up there with the best...rightly so, its nothing short of pure genius. Richard ...  Read the complete review

Too much in debt to the nationless mythology of the Great Rock'n'Roll Band, and too intent on transcendence to qualify as anything other than citizens of the universe, The Verve are, at worst, Whole Lotta Love meets Fool's Gold through John Martyn's FX pedals. That good. At best (their enforced layoff after the A Northern Soul ...  Read the complete review

This of course was thee album for the Verve. After years of not having big success this album broke the mould for them....and its definitely warranted... This album includes the hit singles Bitter Sweet Symphony, Lucky Man and the downbeat put brilliant The Drugs Don't Work. The album is very in the britpop mould, with lots of ...  Read the complete review

I remember when this album came out, so many people were raving about it, saying that it was a classic in the making. Having heard their singles, and liked them a lot, I put the album on my Christmas list, and Santa Claus was good enough to get it for me! On first listening, the singles were obviously the tracks I liked most, but the ...  Read the complete review

The Verve have split up again, but they left behind a great album, 'Urban Hymns' was a fantastic album. It was written when they re-grouped after the September 1995 split. At first without the guitarist Nick McCabe, but he eventually joined to form of was to become a ground breaking album for them. It has two excellent hit ...  Read the complete review

Upon its release, Urban Hymns received critical acclaim and spent a long time in the top ten album chart. As well as containing one of the best songs of recent years in 'The Drugs Don't Work', this CD also boasts songs of the calibre of 'Sonnet', 'The Rolling People' and 'Lucky Man'. However, there never seems ...  Read the complete review

This double Brit-awarding album is totally classic. After the Verve broke up, they got back together in '97 to make Urban Hymns. They dissolved shortly afterwards, and Richard Ashcroft (band-leader, lead vocals, guitar, song-writer) has a solo carraer. The singles from Urban Hymns are Bitter Sweet Symphony (everyone's heard that. You know, ...  Read the complete review

‘Urban Hymns’ by the Verve is an okay old album is definitely one of the gloomy albums I have heard. With tracks such as ‘Sonnet’ and ‘Drugs Don’t Work’ it makes you feel very sad and downhearted by listening to the lyrics. With Richard Ashcrofts grown its fun to listen to on the odd occasion but ...  Read the complete review