The Verve
Urban Hymns
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The Verve
Urban Hymns
Virgin, 1997
RiYL: Oasis, The Beatles, Spiritualized, Suede, Super Furry Animals |
Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Little Richard and Otis Redding all mastered this decades ago. Jason Pierce of Spiritualized did it on Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space and here, so has "Mad " Richard Ashcroft and The Verve on Urban Hymns.
Urban Hymns triumphs as the culmination of all the elements that have garnered The Verve worldwide acclaim. The improvisations are more polished and thicker than ever, the rhythm section, which now includes Simon Tong on guitar and keyboard, is at its tightest and Ashcroft's lyricisms and melodies are streamlined and carefully penned to connect with all human emotions. Moreover, Nick McCabe's guitar has become a medium through which the gods speak.
Late '90s rock doesn't get more anthemic than "Bittersweet Symphony," unequivocally one of the finest summations of life's trials and hardships. The fact that Rolling Stones manager Allen Klein forced all the record's profits and writing credits to go to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (as a result of the sample of the orchestral version of the Stones' "The Last Time") sadly accentuates the truth behind the song: "Try to make ends meet / try to find some money / then you die."
One listen to Ashcroft's improvisational scat-singing at the end of "Rolling People" makes it clear that there is something terribly urgent about The Verve's music. He was known to yell at his band members to increase the intensity in the middle of live sets, and here he yells at his listeners (see the dramatic climax of closer "Come On") until he has their complete and utter attention.
Then there are the gut-wrenching soul ballads. "The Drugs Don't Work" will melt the hearts of the most intoxicated Prozac patients and "Space And Time" will take them higher than they've ever been: "If we really cared / and we really loved / think of all the joy we'd feel." Without sacrificing the fullness of the band's sound, songs like "Lucky Man" and "This Time" find McCabe scraping his strings and unveiling country-tinged riffs and Ashcroft constructing quick-paced staccato vocal phrasings.
The countrified feel adds levity, particularly on "Velvet Morning," with its tasteful slide guitar and down-home lyrics: "And now I'm trying to tell ya about my life / and my tongue is twisted round, more dead than alive."
Closing the LP is the majestic rock of "Come On," where McCabe's guitar speaks truths, Simon Jones is entranced in one massive bass groove, and "Mad" Richard is leaving us an answer. He talked to God in a phone box on his way home. He has left us his dreams on our answering machine, and The Verve have given us Urban Hymns, one of the best records of the decade and an ambitious monument to rock and roll.
PAUL FOREMAN |