The Verve "Urban Hymns" (1997)
The Verve reformed a year or two after breaking up (where's the
commitment to the quitting?) and started working on new music.
Initially they were joined by Simon Tong in place of guitarist Nick
McCabe but McCabe was convinced to rejoin.
While there is still some of the swirly, psychedelic rock of "A Northern Soul" in tracks like "The Rolling People"
and album closer "Come On" (featuring Liam Gallagher on backing
vocals), the album's strong points are more in its subtler melodic
moments like morose ballad "the Drugs Don't Work"
or Orchestra-sampling, lawsuit-courting album opener "Bittersweet
Symphony" that borrowed a little too obviously from an old Rolling
Stones song.
I remember when this came out in the late 90s I didn't really care for
it at all. I kind of liked the track "Lucky Man" but I found the other
singles to be quite grating. I'm not sure if I was just being
contrary, if my tastes have changed or these songs just needed time to
percolate because coming into this listen I was really looking forward
to hearing "drugs don't work" and other tracks, and just enjoyed
listening to it all.
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