Urban Hymns

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This is laid-back virtuosity although Clapton and his band are never flashy, their playing is masterful and assured. Going gold, A Northern Soul left The Verve seemingly all set for crossover success, yet with the band burnt out by the usual rock’n’roll symptoms of excess and exhaustion, Ashcroft rashly split the group just before “History” began climbing the charts. Also worth noting: that run of Ashcroft’s own releases was interrupted only by The Verve’s 2008 comeback LP, Forth, which was miles better than it ever got credit for and certainly an improvement on his individual output. Similarly, the Rolling Stone critic David Fricke deemed it "a defiantly psychedelic record – soaked in slipstream guitars and breezy strings, cruising at narcotic-shuffle velocity – about coping and crashing". As such, it was the rare Britpop album that could be embraced by those who were turned off by—or had outgrown—the genre’s unabashedly retro indulgences and two-fingers-aloft, cigarettes ‘n’ alcohol hooliganism.

There were tastefully implemented strings, something the listening public were in dire need of a reminder of - Urban Hymns was released mere weeks after Oasis’ Be Here Now. And then there’s the slick, celebratory folk-rock of “This Could Be My Moment,” which even in light of Urban Hymns’ sunnier disposition, represents a swerve into MOR too far. Ted Kessler of NME praised it as the Verve's best album to date, adding that its first five songs alone "pound all other guitar albums this year – bar Radiohead's OK Computer – into the ground with their emotional ferocity and deftness of melodic touch. During these protracted sessions, The Verve expanded to a quintet after the estranged Nick McCabe was welcomed back into the fold.The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. At the same time, as “The Drugs Don’t Work” unsubtly suggested, he was eager to put his Mad Richard reputation to bed—and for much of Urban Hymns, he sounds less like the barefoot shaman of old and more like someone easing into a pair of slippers.

Less than a month after their Haigh Hall coronation, a disgruntled McCabe left the band once again, prior to a North American summer arena tour. Capturing this unique period in both the band’s career and British rock history, The Verve: Photographs By Chris Floyd is being published in September 2017 and offers an up-close-and-personal document of the group’s transition into megastars. For a start, you have to wonder why Ashcroft reconvened with bassist Simon Jones and drummer Peter Sailsbury within weeks of the initial split, and then eventually asked McCabe back too, if Urban Hymns was supposed to be his first solo album. is considered to be the end of Britpop’s popularity, with Oasis' Be Here Now bombing and Blur changing their sound with their self-titled album. Allen Klein, who owned the copyrights to the Rolling Stones' early work, refused clearance for the sample; following a lawsuit, the Verve ceded the songwriting credits and royalties.

The band already had working versions of emotive new songs, including “Sonnet” and “The Drugs Don’t Work,” with Ashcroft having written the latter on Jones’ beaten-up black acoustic guitar early in 1995.