Reviews (page 6 of 7)
No
There's moments during "This Is Music", "On Your Own", and "Drive You Home" where Richard Ashcroft just can't hit or sustain the notes he's looking for, and it's just sad... Sad he'd even attempt it. He seemingly thinks he's a big time singer/frontman with chops and swagger when really he's a warlber of bad teenage poetry (at best) to mediocroe music. Now, again, I'm of the age where I could appreciate The Verve when they broke out but now I'm merely thinking I had their albums at the time just to have them, because I increasingly don't even like them, I don't even remember if I listened to this one really outwith a couple of songs... They're all so fucking long, like does this album require 3 songs that are over 6 minutes long? Fuck. No. Length does not equal epicness and volume does not ensure quality.
That's a lot of the same song. It's OK to start, but I'm so done by the end.
Not my type
Sucks
kinda all just washes over me, I've never been a fan of that slice of UK music that sounds like Stone Roses cover bands. Accurate or not, that's what this makes me think of.
If you listen to the first song then you basically listened to the whole album as it all sounds the same. Like one big song that goes on and on and on. 3/10
Pretty generic and forgettable, but at least I got through it.
It starts of strong but falls into the same trap as the time period from Manchester and is just winning on for far too long
So depressing. The meds-aren't-working, existential crisis kind of depressed. Shot-the-heroin-and-didn't-die kind of depressed. If this is a favorite album of yours, I'm calling in a wellness check.
First reaction: there is a Verve album on this list that DOESN'T HAVE BITTERSWEET SYMPHONY. WHICH MEANS THERE ARE TWO VERVE ALBUMS ON THIS LIST. More brit rock :( // but there is something here. Interesting to see where Radiohead went and left these dudes in their wake.
Bon, j'arrête à la moitié, pas seulement parce que je viens d'enchaîner les trois pires albums des derniers mois dans le même bloc d'écoute, mais aussi parce qu'écouter un rip-off de The Cure (qui est de base un band que j'aime pas) ne m'apporte à la fois ni gratification, ni maturité musicale. Générateur, ayez pitié et offrez moi un banger demain, je sens que je vais craquer...
To my ears, this is kind of like a Radiohead meets Oasis album, but if both of them were trying to be boring. That said, I would maybe consider returning to this album if I was going for that specific 90s vibe and needed some background music.
The nerve of having The Verve is throwing off my ratings curve. 2/5
Not loving it, but I can see what would be appealing to others. A very full sound, without sounding discordant.
This album is pretty generic 90s brit-rock. It reminds me a bit of the band Spiritualized. This isn't anything special. Best Songs: On Your Own, History Worst Songs: So It Goes, No Knock On My Door
1995. Decent album, a bit of softer rock.
Very 90's sounding but the non-grunge vibe of the decade. I read the band was heavily using Ecstasy when they recorded this. I feel that. Some of it is melodic and easy to listen to but most tracks (Drive You Home, No Knock on My Door as primary examples) are moody and grating. Mixed bag, but I'm leaning toward a 2/5 due to the feeling of being dragged through mud, naked and with broken eardrums. And not in a good way.
It feels like a very cheap ripoff of Radiohead. Like obviously a total fucking copy. This is nothing.
4/10
Boring.
Känns som en eftermiddags-folkölsspelning på way out west
It's an alright, mellow rock album. Nothing really stood out but the lyrics seem nice. Probably wouldn't be bummed out if I never came across this one again.
Its too brit pop generic for me
Inte imponerad. Inte ett dugg faktiskt.
every song on this is like 24 hours long, was pretty boring
Rating: 3.5/10 So damn boring with no dynamic and variety whatsoever.
I thought this album had been going on longer than I expected, and I looked just to find that I was listening to the start of the second track. The average length of track on this is about five and a half minutes, just way too long for a bunch of songs that all sound the same, this album does not deserve to take up more than an hour of my time. The Verve are already on this list with Urban Hymns, which included Bittersweet Symphony, the only song I have ever heard from them otherwise. Are they really a band that was so good or influentual that they needed two entries? I know the editors of this list have an impossible task to please everyone, but this is one of the albums where you really wonder what the hell they were thinking.
Nothing here really stood out for me, did like the transitions though! Rating Bad (Strong ☆☆) Favorite Tracks: No Standouts.
It’s somewhere between decent and annoying. Too bad it doesn’t include their best songs.
It's not terrible or anything, but it did kind of blur into one.
I get it... They say this record is so shoe-gaze-adjacent and 90's indie... it weighs heavy on my heart I got so bored within 2 tracks I bailed. Although I tried a repeated retry it was a bittersweet gutterball.
I liked Urban Hymns better, but it's still pretty boring overall.... reminds me of one of those bands that sounds like a lot of other bands during their era but didn't quite find their own sound. Maybe harsh. Probably won't listen again
Who outside the UK even knew these guys had more than one record. Though I think I like this one slightly better than the other. Second rate Oasis in any case.
Loved the other album but this one... kinda boring
Meh
Lyden kan være virkelig cool, men sangene er meget hit-or-miss og pladen er alt for lang
I liked this better than Urban Hymns, but it's still pretty boring. I felt like the last part was the best, because it turned more noisy, shoegazey, which I liked. But I don't know if it was just me reaching for anything likable on this album.
eh, won't revisit but wasn't unlistenable
Well that was an ordeal. No they’re only known for Bitter Sweet Symphony
Found this quite boring and was glad when it ended.
It was ok. History is probably the only song that would be worth listening to again.
Way too much of this mid-90s dirge. I can see Urban Hymns being on the list, but not sure this one deserves to make the cut.
started great, ended meandering and so boring.
You know what the 1001 needs? More Britpop! No, not really. I liked Urban Hymns a lot more than I expected, but this one didn't measure up (and I don't see why we needed two albums by The Verve). My main issue with this album was how lousy the guitars sounded - there's an undertone of feedback/noise in almost every song. I read that they were looking for a "raw" sound on this album but it just ends up sounding crappy. It's a shame, because the bones of the songs are good, even if a lot of the music is pretty generic 90s heavy whiny Britpop (with a lot of ballads apparently). This album just didn't do it for me and was getting more on my nerves the more I listened. Oh, well. Ok-ish tracks: This is Music, History. Liked parts of Life's an Ocean and Stormy Clouds (liked the riff on the chorus), but both tracks dragged on and the end of Stormy Clouds had more of the noises I can't stand. The final "(reprise)" track is a perfect example of what I mean in terms of noise/feedback. So done with this album. One other note - the Wikipedia entry for this album is absurdly long. I've committed to listening to every album on the 1001 at least twice. Glad I didn't commit to reading every Wiki article...
Better than Urban Hymns with a more full embrace of neo-psych, but never quite interesting enough to catch my interest.
The musical equivalent of an hour-long, British, yawn. Never understood the hype. I think this is the second of theirs on this list, but clearly that wasn't memorable either.
This album was such a neutered mixture of both 90s radiohead and grunge music. Some nice string elements that you could definitely see translate to Bittersweet Symphony. 2.3/5 -> 2/5
Don't really love any of this, it's fine, but not my favorite
OK album. They have a cool sound but I wish there was some variety. I found it pretty monotonous.
Dit album heeft wel aardige nummers en de band is zeker niet slecht. Het is echter wel een beetje 13 in een dozijn. Lijkt op heel veel Engelse bands uit die tijd. Deze mist echter de leuke melodietjes of pakkende refreintjes. **
Oído pero no escuchado, tiende a ser repetitivo en mi caso como todas bandas británicas de ésa década, Oasis, Blur, no sé, al menos Blur experimenta más entre canciones. Las melodías son buenas por mementos, la voz no destaca ni es memorable.
I did not expect such a boring album by The Verve. I knew only Bittersweet Symphony before, and stylistically this song matches A Northern Soul, but it just lacks a hook making it a boring slugfest. I honestly imagined it to be more britrock than britpop. Not on the same level as other records from the genre.
Not a bad experience, but sort of meshes together about quarter of the way through, so it's hard to differentiate where one song ends, and another one begins. Classic brit pop/shoegaze album sonically. Lyrical themes lacked a bit in my opinion. Would give it 2.5 if I could.
One verve album on this list is understandable and enough. It isn't this album though
It’s 5am, Wednesday morning at work. It’s cold as hell, our heater stopped working. I’m tired, another 9th place at UW melee last night. But the vibes are all good. So maybe the tired is getting to me, but I feel like this album couldn’t give me a break. Sonically, it was just so constantly full of noise. I want to understand this trend, I want to know what led to this being somewhat commonplace in the genre of british pop / post rock / y2k rock. Did Radiohead just blow the doors down for this sound and then everyone tried to follow suit? I could barely grasp onto any melody or lyrical hook because it felt so buried in the brigade of guitar reverb but also prolonged vocal performances but also loud percussion but also full looping bass lines. “Brainstorm Interlude” is perhaps the worst offender of this noise blitzkrieg. My highlight is probably the more mellow reprieve from all the noise, “On Your Own.” I wanted to like this more than I did, and think I would like the songs if they were composed and performed with less of a deluge of reverb and echo and noise coming at me from all angles
Probably would have pretended to like it when I was 15
Reprise was definitely the best part of this album. I don’t find this band’s lyrics or singing particularly compelling, but I enjoy the instrumental sections quite a bit.
They were a one hit wonder. That hit is not on this record. Even one album on the list is very generous, but it definitely shouldn't be this one. It's like an even more boring version of Oasis. Nothing stands out.
While I appreciate what these guys do - a second album on this list? Again - seriously?
You start listeing while doing some chore, but find yourself wondering when the next track is going to start, because the current track isn't very good to begin with. Then, suddenly, the album has finished playing. This, in a nutshell, is The Verve's A Northern Soul. 2/5
Wasn’t my cup of tea. It wasn’t bad per say just seemed very dull and boring.
Didn’t feel exciting, not bad but not good
I don't think I finished the majority of songs on this album, which is a rarity. Painfully boring, that's my main takeaway.
aside from History this album is nothing to write home about, quite dull in fact - Urban Hymns better be on this list
Pretty bland cod-psychadelia. Left no impression
Not horrible, but far to droney to listen to again.
aggressively mid in a way that makes me feel less bad that i only knew this band from the one song of there's everyone knows
A little dissonance, a little blah, some annoyance, but nothing interesting or entertaining here - nothing got my attention.
it improved but was hard to get into tbh
Meh. 2/5
Not a patch on their debut
I know the band but not this album or any of the tracks. I was excited to get into this one and was immediately let down by the first two songs which were just 90's noise. The Verve I came to know showed it's head after that but I still didn't get into it. The songs were ALL too long, the melody was missing & the songs just wandered aimlessly. No real hooks, just repetitive, dark, averagely bland 90's rock. If I had to choose the two best songs: "On Your Own" & "History". I heard nothing that would ever make me want to listen to this album again. 2 stars, tops. Not 1001 worthy.
Tussen Oasis en U2, veel van hetzelfde.
idk why lead singer man has to be giving me a stinky face on the album cover. So I'll deduct 2 points for that right off the bat. Otherwise, this one is pretty plain and forgettable. I've said this before, but it's really tough for me to get behind a band like The Verve having not one, but multiple albums on this list. Surely we can kick one out in place of another.
A record so devoid of spirit that its title becomes an accidental punch line.
Te weinig variatie qua tempo, dynamiek in de instrumentatie en zang, etc. Als het album 20 minuten korter was had dat me iets minder gestoord, maybe. Losse nummers hier en daar zijn niet verkeerd, maar als een geheel album voelt het te veel in het midden tussen de extremen van shoegaze en (alt) rock waardoor het niet echt iets eigens heeft. Nog minder zelfs als je bedenkt dat er in die periode al verschillende bands waren die een veel sterker eigen geluid hadden aan beide extremen zoals My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Oasis, Radiohead, etc, waardoor dit gewoon in hun schaduw valt voor me.
OK
If the Brits had to choose the greatest British band from the 90s, I'm sure they would say Radiohead or maybe Oasis. But if Brits had to choose the second greatest British band of the 90s, they could do worse than to say the Verve (Chumbawamba comes to mind, for instance). Of course, A Northern Soul does little to help the band's case. It is clearly one of the Verve's early trial and error albums, composed almost entirely of a crapulous, never ending grunge guitar riff. And God help them, the lyrics are rife with the worst trends of 90s rock: over indulgent pathos, oh so misunderstood, and generally super cringe. It seems evident that 2/3 the way through the album, someone put their foot down and demanded to include some songs that didn't all sound the same. 'History' is the point in the album where this happens. It is still underdeveloped as a song, but the immediate and persistent pairing of orchestral strings with not-unending-echo-guitar-riffs-for-fucking-once suddenly produces a workable sound, insisting on a sense of reemergence and discovery that plainly motivates the band. The next few songs, which still aren't really worth listening to again, similarly demonstrate more stuttering willingness to experiment. The Best 1001 Albums seems to include the lead-up efforts for several bands' most iconic albums, as if to demonstrate the bands' story arcs from mediocrity to legends, and they do so here with the Verve. The album is still shite, and I will not rate it well, but I love hearing the Verve's dramatic machinations and side quests on their path to British 90s rock glory, which would reach a triumphant apex two years later with the album Urban Hymns. It opens (and now I know why) with 'Bittersweet Symphony' in all of it's orchestral resplendence.
I know nothing of these guys outside bittersweet symphony. Their last album I listened to was right in the middle of the road. This one is also a 2*, nice, but just ok IMO, it all blended together.
Boring and repetitive. I can't believe there are (at least) two "The Verve" albums on this list...
Another Boring Basic British album from the list that brought you all those other Boring Basic British albums we now know and don't love. They sound like they want to be U2 so bad. A handful of tracks weren't terrible
Not great. Indie/90's alt rock mixed with fucking shoegaze.... Boring and unenthusiastic. Like, look at the dicks on the album cover.... If ya don't wanna make music, just don't ffs.... Don't moan and shuffle about staring at the ground while playing lackluster trash. Looks like the cover to a shitty vampire movie. Favourite songs: This is Music, A Northern Soul Least favourite songs: On Your Own, Brainstorm Interlude, Drive You Home, Stormy Clouds, (Reprise) 2/5
I do enjoy my British pop-rock, but over an hour of it was a bit much. I enjoyed it at first, but it kind of blended together after a while. I'm not sure if it was the fatigue or if the songs genuinely got less interesting.
Boring
This is music, and it's not very good. Favorite Song: "This Is Music".
Meh
The verve only have one good song and and it’s not even on this album
**An ok album
Being bloated at 12 tracks tells you all you need to know.
I liked them when they came put ut this album is way too repetitive amd has not held up through the test of time. It sounds like the same song for the first 6 songs. They are good musicoans and band and feel the type of music had not let the band go to fullest of potential.
There isn’t much here for me. It’s 90s rock where the singer’s voice can’t keep up with his vision. Their slower songs are better in my opinion, but not by much.
Great production. Just ok songs. Strikes me as their Be Here Now. A band flush on the high of superstardom decides there's magic in first drafts and first takes and whatever happens when they hit the red record button is GOLD and deserves to go on the record. It wasn't bad. And maybe I'll listen again later and feel differently. But this was another example of an album that just does not belong on any MUST LISTEN list.
It's fairly middle of the road stuff. Dragged down by longer songs that don't really go anywhere. The title track is a bit better, with a heavier groove, and at least Brainstorm Interlude is trying to do something different with a more psychedelic sound. Overall, too long and not enough here to warrant a repeat listen. Highlights: On Your Own, History
Dull, poorly mixed wall of noise with some weak singing, definitely not for me
A couple good songs but that’s the story of the Verve.
i think i'm supposed to really like it but its quite dull. history is obviously very good mind you
Calling this dirge is generous, as is a 2* rating
Looong and whiny. I had enough of The Verve with Urban Hymns.
The instrumentation is always good and enjoyable enough, but the vocals really just plod on and feel apathetic. Hard to stay engaged and not feel like I'm waiting for it to be over.
Do not like
There's a decent sound here, but it just doesn't go anywhere.
A Northern Soul was good, the rest really rather dull. Everything sounded murmured through a tunnel. Not for me. Presume Urban Hymns is better.
Rock, 1995 -> 2
I was pretty optimistic about this one. I had known the Verve as a one hit wonder for Bittersweet Symphony which is one of the best songs I've heard and still regularly makes me cry after it came on while taking my cat to the vet for the final time. At any rate, mid-90s British alternative is basically a cheat code to being a great album for me, but this wasn't it. It doesn't even have the one song I expected. All the songs were fairly boring, slow, generic. I couldn't even focus long enough to see if it has clever or interesting lyrics. I suppose the one song I know is also a bit melancholy as well, but I'd hoped that to be an exception. I think on paper they compare pretty favorably to Oasis, but it is like the difference between WWE and TNA wrestling. Quite a disappointment that lasted longer that I wanted, but I made it through. Favorite track "History" 1.5/5
Quite boring and uneventful
Thank God Pulp and Blur exist to save Britpop from this stuff.
Kind of meh, like oasis but with boring songs. Didn’t finish
Ehhhh
Didn’t love it
Would I listen to it again: no Do I like it: no
niente di spettacolare, sono un po' tutte uguali. mi aspettavo di più, basandomi su Bittersweet Symphony, che è l'unica loro canzone che conosco. un po' deludente.
-this is britpop at its most britpop i think… -Personally not a fan of a lot of this, I think some songs go on too long and my god his voice in some of the songs…. -I like the darker, angsty aspects of it best -Favorites are On Your Own, History, and Life’s An Ocean
This was ok. Nothing about it really grabbed my attention and I found myself struggling to focus on it much. There was nothing that made me hate it either though. I wouldn't ask someone to turn it off/change it if they wanted to listen to it, it makes fine background music. But I doubt I'll be doing more than my second listen (which I am doing for everything) for this.
I am so disappointed with this album, I genuinely thought I liked The Verve but that was so dull.
Due to the Verve's initial take on Britpop being a more psychedelic fever dream with noisy guitars and wailing vocals, it at least is understandable why they were big enough to score airplay by the time of Urban Hymns. It stands out among the crowd, and really shares more similarities with acts like the Flaming Lips or Mercury Rev than Pulp or Blur. In doing so, I find myself liking this album more than their later projects, as it feels a bit less forced, like they weren't just trying to cash in on a trend to make money. However, it still is incredibly boring, with at least half the album being repetitive, nearly ambient guitar playing backed by otherwise boring instrumentation, and lyrically the album is as simple as possible. Part of the fun of 60s British psychedelia was its quirk, its self-awareness. Acts like the Beatles and the Kinks knew it was weird and overwhelmingly British, but many groups from the 90s seem scared to embrace that, save for acts like Pulp or the Divine Comedy if you count it. I'm all for serious, mystifying music, but you have to try a bit harder than this record is. No one song stands out, and over the course of this hour-long record you'll encounter what feels like the same six-minute flat circle song about ten times, with slight variations that allows some tracks to be definitively BETTER, but still not good. It's fine, if you like it, I understand it, but it still has to be one of the weakest showings from this era. Perhaps still better than anything Oasis ever put out, though.
Again the wrong album selected. Urban Hymns was the one to choose
Okay
This was dreadfully boring! I knew one song, extra star
After also getting Pavement and Smashing Pumpkins this week, I'm afraid I can no longer care about this
very british
Oh well. After back-to-back easy 5's, I guess I was overdue for another 80s/90s English alternative band. Bummer.. All I know of The Verve is “Bitter Sweet Symphony”. That takes a good little hook (13 notes), repeats it for 6 minutes, beating any joy out of it and driving me to distraction. This is the previous album to that, but it pretty much repeats the formula without the hook. At best, boring. At worst, a little irritating. 2/5
Боже, какой же ужас. Не переношу скрежетание металла в ушах. This is music еще более-менее, но остальное больше не хочется включать никогда в жизни.
Mom!!! The lads are at the door again trying to sell us Britpop!! They’ve been here for almost an hour and it doesn’t seem like they’re leaving any time soon. Yes, I’ve already told them we’re not interested. Yes, they did bring up the fact that we liked Blur. No, they are not as good as Blur. Yes, they sound like a Econ major’s dorm room in 1995. I mean, what they showed me wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good, either. Just a lot of noodling chaos. Yeah, I think they’re very high. Okay, they left!! But I think they’ll be back next week with more of the same. Yes, I’ll just close the blinds and turn off the lights next time so they don’t know we’re home.
This album is exactly the type of music it's trying to be, which is good. It just doesn't particularly grab my attention
Not nearly as bad as some of the 1 star reviews will have you believe.
1995 fue año de discos excelentes: The bends, Whtat´s the story, Different class, To bring you my love, Grand Prix, Electr-O-Pura, Mellon Collie, Tindersticks II, Washing machine, Forever blue, Post, Brown sugar, Maxinquaye, Pygmalion... Debuts de Wilco, Garbage, Foo fighters, Supergrass, Elastica, The Chemical Bros, Pacers, Mojave 3... ¿Qué aportó este disco de los entonces poco conocidos The Verve? Pues bastante poco, pasaron de la psicodelia de su anterior album, A storm in heaven, a combinar guitarras más propias del BritPop que por entonces arrasaba en el planeta. Lo hicieron sin renunciar a su estilo, ni al consumo de estupefacientes y sustancias lúdicas, lo que les permitió salir airosos de este envite sin perder su identidad (So it goes o la titular A northern soul, suenan fenomenal aún hoy en día). Las mejores canciones son las delicadas On your own y History (antecedente claro de Sonnet). Es un fabuloso disco muy disfrutable, pero lejos de estar entre las 1000 mejores obras musicales del rock. Habría que esperar a su siguiente paso...
Nog meer Britpop, maar veel wijzer word je er niet van. Schreeuwende gitaren met veel vervorming, met andere woorden, herrie. Bij Oasis werd dit nog gecompenseerd door interessante composities, teksten en zang, maar dit grommelt voorbij zonder veel zeggingskracht. Saai, volgende.
The creator's love for britpop continues. I feel sorry for the confused yanks going through this list, the same way I feel sorry for myself when the 200th terrible country album appears. Pretty bland stuff from the verve. I've honestly never met anyone in 35 years of living in the UK that has ever mentioned the verve, nevermind it being a positive opinion. I feel drained of energy after this. It's as if Pearl Jam did a 90s album without a single catchy riff or lyric. 2.5*
'Richard Ashcroft. He's so talented' Everyone in 1995
It sort of just happened. There was no real power in the songs.
Bad 90’s trend: overlong, repetitive, generic-sounding albums full of overlong, repetitive, generic-sounding songs. The ability to fit more music on a CD was a huge negative factor on the quality of some albums.
It was okay
Britpop que não me incomoda, mas um disco com mais de 60 minutos ficou cansativo.
Yeeaahhhh... non-specific, melodramatic lyrics with really noisy and hazy guitars is not a recipe for enjoyment in my book. 3/10
Very meh. This band sounded like they were actively doing drugs while recording the album.
A fairly long album in the which the sounds of the songs and the arrangements don't seem to differentiate themselves all that much. It became boring pretty quickly. Every time the band starts to do anything interesting sonically, Ashcroft's voice comes in and ruins it. It seems like Ashcroft was writing and performing one album in his head, and the band were writing and performing something else entirely. The self disconnection as symbolized by the disconnection of the voice and lyrics from the music could have been an interesting idea but here it doesn't really work. Features stupid lyrics that sound like they came from a 12 year old, with nonsense like "Oh, the bed ain't made but it's filled with hope, I've got a skin full of dope". We get it, your THE VERVE. You've beaten the irony so much by this point, that it should have formed into steel resolve. Get on with it. I don't find this interesting when Thom Yorke does it, and I don't don't find it interesting when Richard Ashcroft does it. I enjoyed "Reprise" (Because Ashcroft finally shuts the heck up and lets the music speak for itself). It is a shame that more of the album were not instrumental. I might have enjoyed it more. The sonic chemistry between Nick McCabe (guitar), Simon Jones (bass), and Peter Salisbury (drums) is undeniable on this track. Shame those guys didn't kick out Ashcroft out of the band and stay together. It might have been interesting to see what that could have become. I'm giving it a 3 primarily for the work of the engineers and producer who did the best they could with what they were given and to be fair do create a bit of lush sonics at times.
I loved 'Urban Hymns' in my teenage years. So, naturally, I went out and bought The Verve's other two albums... and barely listened to them. I can't say that hearing this now leads me to regret not giving 'A Northern Soul' more of a chance. It's similar in style to it's successor, but lacks the hooks to engage you and make you want to dig deeper. Maybe this record has depth and would benefit from persistence, but if I've not bothered in 25 years I can't really see it happening now. It's just a little bit boring. Rating: 2.5/5 Playlist track: History Date listened: 14/03/24
Ooh look! All the parts of Radiohead that I didn't like with none if the parts I did!
This just didn’t really grab my attention in any way. It sounded very 90s and kind of like they were trying to sound like Radiohead.
I'd tell 'em to get on antidepressants but they'd tell me 'the drugs don't work' or something like that.
While I was listening to this, I thought, "Wow this really sounds like a combination of U2 and Oasis." That thought seemed familiar and it turns out, that's what I had written for my review of Urban Hymns. That said, I like U2 and I love Oasis so their lovechild should appeal to me, right? I just find this so boring, though. U2 and Oasis occasionally pick up the pace whereas The Verve just drones along at the same ambling pace.
Мид, даже чуть скучноватый альбик, но к концовке стало интереснее, 2+
The music isn't bad, but it felt dragged out, every song being 5 or 6 minutes long. I like when the use stringed instruments in the mix. Good voice. But nothing too memorable. Wasn't as good as Urban Hymns (other album of theirs I already got). Favorite track: Life's An Ocean
First half sounds similar to 90's U2 and I don't care much for it Best song even though it was long and drawn out was "Drive You Home"
En kyllä saanut tästä mitään irti. Tylsä. Missä brittipopenergia? Tai oli sitä laulussa kivasti, mutta biiseissä ei ollut imua. Sitä oli kyllä yritetty. Reprise-kolistelu lopussa lähinnä masensi yleiskuvaa. Äänimaailma kyllä miellyttää.
En este, su segundo álbum, The Verve avanzan por el camino psicodélico hacia el rock épico que llegará en sus trabajos posteriores. Tiene temas notables, como "Life's An Ocean", "On Your Own" o "So It Goes", temas que retoman el clásico tema del desencanto y la pérdida. Pero sobre todo destacaría la evocadora "History".
I've developed a theory that there are few albums longer than 45 minutes (35 actually) that are good, great or even a must listen to before I die. The Verve's 'A Northern Soul' does nothing to change my mind. this is an okay album and even if having a gun held to my head this wouldn't be an album representative of those 1,001 albums. 1990s BritPop/Alt must've had an Oasis filter that they pressed the button to get the same sound. 2/5.
It’s ok but a bit boring. :D
I was hopeful and ended up bored
What’s the purpose of including an album that’s just Urban Hymns without ”Bittersweet Symphony”?
This'd probably blow my mind if I'd never heard Radiohead or Oasis or Blur or Pulp or Spiritualized or My Bloody Valentine in my entire life.
2.5 Feel like I have heard this album done a million times before, nothing new about it
Just drowned on
Boring 2/5
I dont even remember listening to this album, thats how forgettable it was Significant 36/111 Liked 17/111 Added 4/111 NNN
The band reminded me of a high school band. Just wasn’t into the music or album.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING Made sure that was long & drawn out, just like this album.
A lot of the songs felt like they would kinda just like drag on. Some cool sounds but overall I wasn't really feeling it.
Not really a fan of this one unfortunately.
The perfect album. Perfect representation of what bored me in the 90s. Not bad, but just background music. It drones on. I though this would be a 3, but the droning got to me.
Brought back to the essence there are some good songs in here, but the delivery is way too pompous and tedious to reveal that.
Meh
Yawn
Didn't do much for me
I thought for some reason I'd enjoy this. Boy, was I wrong.
Another unremarkable album.
Largely dull 2nd album from Britpop indie Verve. History is ok. Most songs have the same rhythm and are too long.
I did not care for this too much. Some of it was okay but it got old.
It sure ain't no Urban Hymns. Found it a little too raw and a bit boring. 2.5
I remember distinctly as a kid growing up in the 90's that I assumed computers made all the music that I heard on CDs. It was always way too perfect and didn't sound like any kind of music I had heard in person. I was 7 or 8 when I realized that wasn't true, but it's still why I was always more attracted to Jazz, Classical, and older rock music. Singer songwriters also became much bigger for me later in life. This album from the Verve is a horrible example of that kind of music. It's just walls of sound generated by distorted instruments with lazy vocals laid over top. There is no harmonic movement, no interplay between the band, and no breath to it all. It's a palatable sound, but not an interesting one.
2.5
I couldn't get into this album. All of the songs sounded the same and I had a hard time getting through it.
typical brit pop/rock stuff, some decent tones I guess, but otherwise it's just bland and boring to me, focus on lyrics I think, which is not my thing, Life's an Ocean has a cool groove and interesting sounding drums
Meandering and shapeless.
This album is like a long drawn out dream where you are stumbling along slowly, bored, but with some vague sense of dread, and you just can't quite wake yourself up. Not a way I want to spend an hour. Ha! I was pretty sure there was another Verve album on here (why am I listening to a second!?!?) and my review for that one was "After that it's like a dream where you are stuck in molasses trying to get out but moving so slooow. Torture." In 600+ reviews these are the only two where I say the album is like a bad (or any kind of) dream. Guess I find The Verve to be a bit of a nightmare.
I actually like the Verve, but this isn’t particularly good work, sure you have some decent songs, but the majority of them just kind of blend together and feel a bit dull
Boring yet pretentious. History is the only semi-standout for me.
Long, dreary, drawn out notes, blah vocals. I liked Bittersweet Symphony but this was a disappointment. Also the cover kinda creeps me out cuz they look like vampires. And not the cool kind of vampires, the skinny white guys living in a castle for 500 years kind of vampires. Best song: A Northern Soul
4/10. These guys seriously have two albums on the list?
Meh.
If I'm ever craving extremely average music, the Verve always have me covered. Reliable bunch of chaps - would give them a kiss on the cheek.
I've never liked Oasis or this sort of music particularly - it was alright at points, but of a dirge in others.
I listened to this album yesterday… And I can’t recall a single tune. It was decent britpop but featured nothing truly memorable. And the length? Oh shit… They could have easily cut 15 minutes had every song not been 1-3 minutes too long.
Big yawn. It’s OK indie but it does it need to be an hour long and do we really need two albums from these lads on this list?
Mediocre.
I'm not a fan of the droning guitar work, which seems uninspired and uninteresting. The album isn't terrible, but it's entirely forgettable like so much generic rock of the 90s.
First listen Saved 3/12 Top track: A New Decade
There seems to be a strong following for this album. The fans love it and it's included on many different lists of the best albums of all time. I'm sorry to say that I genuinely didn't see the appeal. It just sounded like a generic indie rock band shopping around for a record deal. The vocals were off, the music a bit dull. I'm clearly missing something here but I really don't know why it's so revered.
Boring. Its not "bad", but its boring and bland. 2/5
Un poco rollo.
Iha ok
why is it so long????
Competent Manc indulgence. Eat some baked beans with Worcestershire sauce for the culinary equivalent.
Best thing about this is that it allows me to drift into a nap
Listened to this two times now but it fails to leave any impression. I have no clue what the album sounds like
Urban Hymns was really good. This was not, it's just a bit boring and almost deliberately provocative to try to show how they're not defined by one record.
Everything's a bit slow, without the tunefulness and (ironically given the title) soulfulness of Urban Hymns. All the tracks are probably a minute too long (although tbh Urban Hymns was the same), and there's nothing on this album that's as arresting as the top 3 or 4 tracks from their earlier work. 2/5, washed over me pretty much completely.
Not really a sound I enjoy.
So very dull... tiresome beyond measure. Just drones on and on, no lively moments to lighten the mood, we're here to take Richard Ashcroft's breakup oh so seriously. Behaving like a proper artist when he's just a bore.
Ging mir nicht runter. 2-3 tolle Lieder "retten" das Album, das wars dann aber auch.
The information about this album here on the site is wrong. It should indicate that this is just an Oasis album with another name and not as successful as the others.
So much noise on this one. Really try to find a good tracks here but songs that I liked in the first listen didn't catch on second try. Therfore whole album is kinda rubbish to me, nothing stands as a solid point here. On Your Own best, Brainstorm Interlude worst track on the album.
As others have said, hard to tell one song from the next. Lyrics feel overly edgy and the best bits are when he stops singing.
Has a bit of a country music vibe to it. Especially On Your Own. Not really my thing, but good to explore The Verve a bit more outside of their most popular hits. It's easy listening I guess, but I don't see myself coming back to these songs. The song "A Northern Soul" is grating. I wanted to skip it but it became more tolerable after the intro. I was going to give this a 3 but I literally did not notice when the album ended, so it gets a 2.
Two decent tracks, the rest was music for Emmerdale characters to take heroin to
Meh
lol at times these vocals remind me of The Bonsai Predicament. Other times just straight snooooozefest
Pretty ignorable
This was a bit boring. And I don’t know why they put a The Verve album on the list that isn’t Urban Hymns. They don’t really seem relevant enough for that.
I found this a bit dreary
Not a fan. Real 90s vibes
Maybe when I was 25. Maybe.
Nah… they’re a one-hit wonder band and you can’t convince me otherwise.
I was pretty bored with this. It isn’t a wonder these guys are considered one hit wonders here in the United States. I was just mostly uninterested with it all here.
Boring and just a bit whatever
A Northern Soul is inoffensive and for the most part sounds nice, but it doesn't really offer anything of substance for me. A lot of the lyrics had me going "What does any of this even mean?" The vocals are pleasing to listen to for the most part, but I felt they lacked emotion. When matched to the melancholic nature of the lyrics, everything just sort of feels meaningless. There's sadness there, I can see it in the lyrics, but I can't feel it in the music. I did really enjoy the track "History," which was one of the only songs that actually stood out to me. The breathing at the end of A New Decade reminded me of the George Washington rap by Brad Neely: https://youtu.be/qv6OOuPI5c0 Most of the tracks, in my opinion, drag on and on with a lot of repetition. If you like it, that is probably a good thing! For me, however, it just felt like every song was overstaying its welcome. Overall, A Northern Soul is just okay. Maybe I just don't "get it," but I don't get it and I don't plan to re-visit. It's a two from me, dawg.
2.5 I only knew Bittersweet Symphony by these guys going into this, a song that has such a unique sound to it (unless you ask The Rolling Stones), that I wasn’t sure what to expect from their other work. Fortunately, this album starts off STRONG with an absolutely explosive blast of alternative rock in A New Decade, and while I got strong Oasis vibes (not a bad thing), it felt heavier than anything else that I’ve heard from that era of Britpop. So, I really thought I had a fun, enjoyable listen ahead of me, but man, that runtime quickly hits you in the face like some asshole violating the rules of a mosh pit. There are only three songs under five minutes… and they’re the first three. Not that anything after that is bad by any means, but I also didn’t find any tracks particularly interesting enough to warrant them going over that 5-minute mark, and subsequently, I found myself checking in semi-regularly towards the end to see if I was almost finished. Really feel like this had the potential to be something great with a better sense of pacing. The more I listen to, the more I’m convinced Oasis is to Britpop what Nirvana is to grunge or My Bloody Valentine is to shoegaze… the band every other band of the genre is compared to, and for me, as good as the genre gets. Speaking of, supposedly Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft dedicated the title track A Northern Soul to Noel Gallagher, which is a pretty cool nod to a great musician and contemporary, but I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the line: “So come on, come in inside of me/Let's spread it all around” I’m assuming that’s some kind of metaphor, but either way - Happy Pride everyone! Ok, one more note - I stared at this album cover for longer than I’d like to admit. This has to be an homage to Queen right? Not that the arrangement of four heads in a diamond shape is necessarily a definitive Queen thing, but I can’t think of another band that’s done so off the top of my head. Also, is it just me, or do the guys on both the left and the right look lowkey like the illegitimate offspring of Jack White?
Unfortunately, not the kind of music I want to listen to for an hour, or for songs to be 5+ minutes
I expected way more from the band who made bittersweet symphony.This album was such a dirge man.It’s an hour long and it just keeps going on with boring songs with too much reverb.It sounds like what I think people who don’t like Radiohead think Radiohead sound like.
I couldn’t possibly be more bored listening to this uninspired drivel.
Really didn't care much for this one. I'm still open to hearing it again, but for now, it's just a 2.5 / 5
I'm at least glad that Britpop is its own genre so I can easily tell when an album is going to suck. Not only are most of these songs boring but they are all too long.
I really didnt like this album. I had to skip through 1/2 way through some songs. Just whiny and drawn out.
Not doing a whole lot for me. Can see the influence on Alf rock though.
Ciężko było do końca dotrwać, bo wszystko jakieś takie nijakie i się zlało w jedną masę.
There's a good reason the only Verve song that matters is Bittersweet Symphony
Ooh look, an hour long album that's all slow rocky ballads! And what's more, most of the songs are over 5 minutes long!
Nautinnollista musiikkia.. Jää jälkeen aikansa suurille nimille...
I’m sorry this album was never good
Drags on a lot, most songs are a couple of minutes too long
Tää ei oo ihan paha. Ei osu muhun suoranaisesti mutta ymmärrän minkälaista levyä tässä tavoitellaan. Jos tähän sais vähän ruutia lisää ja jonkun kivan muiston niin sit oltais jo lähellä. Annan tälle 2 mutta tää olis lähellä kolmosta.
Huoh onpa jännä valinta bändiltä. Debyytistä tykkään ja kolmas levy varmaan listalla myös.
Tuskasta vaikuttaa kumpuavan, mut nyt en ihan saanut kiinni. Tavallaan ihan kiinnostavaa, progehkoa menoa, mutta vähän tylsäksi jäi. 2/5
I like the vibe of the music but there were just too many times the vocals were weak and discordant/shrill
A fitting title would be "An hour of sound". At least that'd give you the expectation that it is just sounds and not really music..
I know more about The Verve and the crazy love triangle between Richard Ashcroft, Jason Pierce and Kate Radley than I do about any of their music. This album does not have the hits on it that I am familiar with. In general this is fine, it's big and loud which was very distinctive of Britpop in the 90s. But it's not for me at all.
This album was longer than it should have been- his voice was a little sleazy and just something i’d have to listen to. Nothing was really WRONG with the album but it was boring!
Another mediocre Brit alt rock album. At least this one was really long.
There was nothing on this album that stood out. It isn’t bad, it’s just not memorable. I’m going to listen to Bittersweet Symphony now. That gets 5 stars!
I really enjoyed much of the music. Some great, effects-drenched Neo-psychedelia. But that singer. Completely lacking in any sense of melody or even hooks. He sounded like a two-bit Bono with a dash of Jim Morrison, but without any of the talent or charisma of either singer. And he just wouldn't shut up. For that reason, I really dug that instrumental last song, "Reprise." Reminded me a bit of "Drown" by Smashing Pumpkins. 4 for the music. 1 for the singer. 2 for the songwriting.
Never been a huge Verve fan, and this album didn't do much to change that. If anything, seeing Cody Smit McPhee's dopplegangar at the bottom of this album cover makes things even more scary. I'm not sure what they were going for in this album, felt very similar to a lot of other middle of the road rock albums we've heard on this list.
Ever so slightly better than the Boo Radleys album we got the day before, but still not moving the needle. Three albums in a row that I would axe from this list. We already had the other Verve album with Bittersweet Symphony (which I think I liked more, but looking back, it was also a 2.5 for me), why do these guys deserve a second placement over great artists who aren't even on here once? To pick a random but dramatically more monumental album, swap Kaytranada's 99.9% in for this one. Yawn. Favorite tracks: No Knock on My Door, (Reprise). Album art: They're doing the Queen thing. I don't even know if Queen originated that but that's all I see. 2.5/5
Boring. All songs blend.
Maybe it was just a bad day but I found this really grated on me - I didn't like the music or the vocals.
Only know of the band because of Bitter Sweet Symphony. This album was pretty dull and the songs blended together in an uninteresting huddle.
As long as this album was, nothing stuck. A second album from a one hit wonder. Why?
The same as Urban Hymns but without any good tracks.
I mean, they were not lying, it *is* music
This was about what I expected based on my limited exposure to the Verve, boring, so very boring. Further proof the curators of this list overdid it with their precious British acts. Oh well, on to the next. Hope it’s something interesting! 2 stars
It was fine, I guess. Nothing stood out or was memorable.
Omg, it was the same thing over and over and never ended
This was just bad
In my head, I always mix up The Verve and Pulp. Both are of that very North West England sound of the 90s to early 00s that I was surrounded by as a child, being from the exact area of the world. I’m not sure I recognise any song titles from this album though, so let’s listen. Songs I already knew: none Favourites: History, A New Decade I was hoping for much better from this album, knowing that Bittersweet Symphony and The Drugs Don’t Work are such good songs (neither of them are Pulp, right?), but unfortunately I just didn’t find this here. The vocals were sometimes good, sometimes awful. The guitar licks were sometimes catchy, sometimes grating. No songs were fantastic, yet none were awful. Overall, a very average and forgettable album that will likely just mesh into everything else in my mind. Doubt I’ll be seeking this album out again.
I have to say it, its a drag. Ashcroft has his moments but never a full album woth remembering.
Underwhelming
Not garbo but not great either. First Listen?: Y Fav. Tracks: --- Rating: 2/5
I've come to hate britpop but this had a bit more punch than I expected. Probably better than Urban Hymns but both could do with cutting 1/3rd of the tracks and making a listenable album experience.
A couple of days ago I got another Verve album and I could not, for the life of me, distinguish them. Same complaints I have: long and boring britpop from the 90s. Seriously after listening to these two albums this band has like 1 song they've rewritten over and over again. I dunno why both of these albums needed to be here when clearly they are the same fucking album. 1.5/5
Just okay. Whenever I go to the artist, the album that this website picks is never their top album or even their second top album. Interesting choices.
All music from the entire history of mankind to choose from, and here I am listening to yet more excessively British shit. 2/5.
Not my cup of tea. I really like Urban Hymns, but this one.. I am not convinced
strong disagree with 1001 author PS's final line. bittersweet is verve at their best. is it an overplay? yes. is it better than any track on this album? yes! that's how it got overplayed!
Some of these album selections really peg the book’s author as a British fella who came of age in the early 90s.
Huonolla tavalla raskas levy että pisteet taitaa parantua kun oli lyhyt palaveri välissä kesken kuuntelun. Huumeet ei selkeesti toiminu tämän levyn aikana...
like the sound but nothing stood out on first listen
A deathly dirge and the lovely History. Having done this and Urban Hymns I think I've realised that The Verve's string arranger is the only member with any real talent.
The album was just meh. It did not have The Verve's most well known song. The songs were uninspiring and unmemorable. There is no need to listen.
Una altra banda més que sobrevalorada. Cal reconèixer la potent imatge i el carisma de Richard Ashcroft, però la lisèrgia i psicodèlia revisitada pels '90 d'aquest disc és molt lluny de resultar encissadora. L'ambient està ben trobat, però no hi ha cançons. El posterior 'Urban Hymns' almenys tenia 3/4 temes demolidors. Aquest simplement no en té cap
2.4 - A muddled and bloated mess. Listening to this album is like watching my 4 year old fingerpaint. He’s eager to experiment with all the colors so he slathers them all on with abandon, smooshes them together such that his canvas ends up looking like a giant smear of diarrhea.
Best doctor prescribed cure for insomnia on this list yet. They should put "BETTER THAN AMBIEN" on the cover of this dull ass white people album
I in general LOVE 90's music...and have always considered myself a bit of an Anglophile. But this is boring. 1.5/5
never have gotten why people loved this album. Urban Hymns is the masterpiece, this would have never made me listen to the Verve again.
Meh.
No thanks
Meh, 90s manchester sound. Pretty generic. They didnt deserve the stupid lawsuit and Im glad the rollimg stones came to their senses and gave credit and money back to Ashcroft.
Some of the songs I liked, such as Stormy Clouds, but the generic alternative rock songs I didn't care for.
A volte il cantante ricorda Bono. Non trovo nulla che mi colpisca particolarmente.
Meh. Bleh
Started off promising but went downhill. Brainstorm interlude not good .
More drones than the Obama administration
Much preferred Urban Hymns... I gave that a 3 (harsh) so I guess I have to give this a 2 lol
Not quite sure why everyone thinks this has Radiohead vibes. If it does, it's but a poor imitation.
Si, estuvo bien.
First listen. Nothing stands out to me on this album. Every song is very forgettable. Maybe it will get better next time I hear it. 2/5 for now.
Un poco rollo.
I only knew The Verve for Bitter Sweet Symphony, and after listening this album I can see why. This was quite boring.
I can't say they don't know how to play their instruments but I can say I will never listen to this again. I'm not a fan of dreamy music like this.
So, a few seconds after I listened to the Cardigans, I played this album. The differences were quite apparent: The (Verve) production is muddier; the vocals are hard to make out; the songs are less distinctive. To quote a reviewer, “The songs are long and have little structure, the production is murky and raw and harrowing, the tempo is unchanging to the point of testing endurance. There is no joy or even solace to be found in this record, only unforgiving turmoil.” I would add that “History” sounds like a prequel to "Bitter Sweet Symphony” and the lawsuits that followed. My mark might be a bit more harsh than normal, but I couldn’t score it within a point of The Cardigans.
I’m so done with 90s Brit-pop. They all sound like cheap Oasis knock offs and this was the least inspiring one yet.
2/5 Not really interesting, pretty boring
The Verve will always be low rent Oasis.
Meh
I love love english alt rock, but I don't think I'm a huge fan of this album :/ I'm pretty emo but this is too emo
Interesting at times but ultimately not really for me
It was alright. Nothing special for me.
Quite nondescript. Nothing outstanding here at all. Would rather re-listen to Count Basie tbh!
Richard Ashcroft can't hold a tune
2.5
A classic British alternative rock album from the 90's. It suits the themes of alt rock from the 90's perfectly, which ironically also makes the music so forgettable to me. Might as well just listen to any alt rock album from this time period to find the same sounds.