Urban Hymns

suburban hymns more like it

I've always found The Verve to be SUPER forgettable, with Bitter Sweet Symphony being the only track that is remotely memorable (I can even hum it!). I was excited to dive into this album, the first time I've purposefully listened to The Verve for an extended period, and my first whole album experience. Sorry to report, but this has not changed the needle for me AT ALL. My opinion is completely unchanged. The Verve is like U2, if they were less annoying, but also way more generic. Every single track is at the same exact tempo, and has a complete lack of energy to it. Sorry to bother you, Verve. Didn't mean to interrupt whatever you were doing and have you record this album. The exception to this is the last track, "Come On!", which features heretofore undiscovered techniques for our boys, include changes in TEMPO, changes in VOLUME, and lyrics sung with EMOTION. This last track, and the fact that they *are* less annoying than U2, gives them an entire bonus extra star from me.

Starts with their biggest hit, and that's where it may as well end. Super generic, all the tracks are way too long considering the lack of diversity on the album, honestly super shocked this album is even on this list. Probably the biggest example of the British influence on this list. Would honestly only give half a star for the hit if I could

It’s kind of amazing how every Britpop record ever made landed on the 1001 Albums list. I mean, what are the odds? This one’s ok. 76 minutes of Britpop is too long for me.

This is right up my street. The opening track is quite possibly the best tune to ever kick off an album. Bittersweet Symphony gives you shivers that so many bands would only dream of passing to their fans. It then leads on to the brilliant Sonnet and The Rolling People, which is not quite on the same level but is a good tune in its own right; though, little does that matter once The Drugs Don’t Work flows into your ears. A beautiful ballad that brings a tear to ones eye. Catching The Butterfly is another somewhat atmospheric song that I really enjoyed, almost like a palette cleanser to Neo Wilderness which goes full acid trip for a little while before travelling through Space and Time. Weeping Willow is another wonderful experience embracing The Verve’s love of the ‘wah wah’. I almost forgot that Lucky Man was coming on this album due to the slightly druggy preceding tracks but it was a welcomed ballad to lift you up before the last portion of the album. The last few songs on this album wind down the feel and you can tell it’s coming to a close, what you can’t tell (if you bought the album when it was released) was the onslaught was heading towards you as a hidden track. Come on is a powerful ending to a fantastic album and if you end right to the end there is an extra piece of psychedelia for you. It sounds like you are supposed to play it in reverse and listen out for some satanic messages; but this isn’t the white album, so let’s not. Overall I loved it, thought about being a little more conservative considering it’s competition in this 1001 albums list but screw it, it’s getting a 5.

Like listening to paint dry. 4

Zombie rock drivel from Glastolad lug nuts. Good for a pre-football match chant and a good racist head kicking (probably). Whatever era they think they're reviving doesn't exist except in the Sunday Mirror. I hate this.

Best Song: Bittersweet Symphony. Even though the song is overplayed, it felt like the only song on the album that woke up and came to play. Worst Song: Catching the Butterfly. Slow, meandering, with a kind of nasal drone. Overall: Not entirely sure what there is to like about this album. The massiveness of Bittersweet Symphony overshadows the rest of the album, which comes off as sleepy and uninteresting. It doesn't even have the decency to be short.

so slow and mawkish. crawls along like a wounded animal with a broken leg, except a wounded animal probably wouldn't whine as much. honestly don't understand why this albums gets bummed as much as it does. what is it for? are you supposed to be moved by the beat? cry about the sad subjects? whine along? does it make you feel cool? do you marvel in the musicianship? is it for slitting your wrists? what is it for? musically this should be good, with the wall of sound thing with mountains of reverb and guitar noises but barring about 5 minutes this album bored the slimy green shit out of me, its just pseudo cool depressing bollocks. the worst bit about verve is it feels like lets have a look at what you could have won - the track this is music off the previous album is superb and if they could have gone down that road they would have written a brilliant album, but instead they went down the lowest common denominator depressing emo sell records to the masses road instead. so instead of being legendary the verve sit in the same boat as starsailor and embrace, in fact i put starsailor on after this to see if that was a fair comparison and i enjoyed starsailor more than this.

Incredible how this was such a big album back in the day. Take the worst aspects of Oasis, mash with the uninteresting bits of World of Twist, lard it all with draggy tempos and voila, you have Urban Hymns. Imagine, if you will, a damp late autumn day in the UK. Outside the sky is slate grey, and greasy rivulets of rainwater slide down the windowpane. In front of you is a half-burned, half-pink sausage swimming in beans and soggy mushrooms. This is a tolerable life you have found for yourself. Urban Hymns by the Verve is playing on the stereo.

Excellent album, some classic 90's indie rock. Stand out tracks are the singles but the album tracks are strong also, good riffs and vocals throughout.

Please stop making me listen to this awful drivel

Sounds like drinking beers in the sun, smoking marlborough lights, cracking on with girls and feeling invincible... All the best bits of being in your late teens in the 90s. Rose tinted, yes, but the best memories are. It's not an unbiased rating, of course. But still.

Just have a look at those singles; Bitter Sweet Symphony, Lucky Man, The Drugs Don't Work, Sonnet.

I (like everyone else) remember bittersweet symphony, it was everywhere in the 90s. The Drugs Don't Work was also in the charts in Australia, although I'd forgotten that (and didn't even know who sang it) until it just played. I'd thought it was some alterna-wuss Aussie band like Powderfinger or The Whitlams. And those songs are *just ok*; the rest of the album really isn't very good. It just plods along while you wonder if it'll ever end. I really like Oasis, but even though this sounds kinda similar it really didn't do anything for me. It was like decaf coffee or non-alcoholic beer: it almost tastes the same but without the kick, why would you bother? I'd rather have a glass of water. But whatever - if this album was half an hour (and not SEVENTY-FIVE MINUTES) I'd have probably given it a 3. But it had no business being boring for that long, so it gets a 2/5.

This album is probably in my top 10 of all time, let alone top 1001. In 1997 I had just entered my teenage years, full of angst and dealing with a bereavement. The summer holidays were spent with a heavy emphasis on watching music TV and you couldn't go more than about 30 mins without The Box (channel 17) VH1 (23) or MTV (30) playing Bittersweet Symphony. A family friend bought me Urban Hymns on CD and wow, it was so much more than BSS. Full of feeling and resonating as much with my teenage psyche as it does now I played all 74 min of it over and over. The culmination of the album with the 'big fuck you' in Come On also features one of my favourite lyrics - I must be feeling low / I talked to god in a phonebox on my way home / I told you my answer / I left you my dreams on your answering machine

This was a fantastic album. It was strange hearing Bittersweet Symphony in context after hearing it in isolation so many times, and it is still definitely the highlight track, but there are plenty of songs on here that are overshadowed by it. I hadn't heard all of the singles before - they're all very strong. I don't think this album has aged much whatsoever since it's release.

Very interesting Album! A few hits which are nothing to be disliked (especially with its recording quality). The Melodic lines happening on the background (Example "One Day") play really well with the harmonization of the songs. Creates very cool build ups ! "The rolling people" is a really good song, my favourite! Reminds me of Pearl Jam without sounding like a copy. Overall I Think it should be 5 stars! Personally not what I will be listening a lot but worth 5 stars.

Sounds very nice

Always amazing

LOOKING AT THE HEAVENS WITH A TEAR IN MY EYE 🥲

The Verve have officially graduated into "Mild and Forgettable", a step up from their previous class of "Boring to the Point of Physical Pain."

I kind of get the verve thing. They’ve definitely got that j’ne sais quoi, just, ce n’est pas pour moi.

A quick scan of the reviews I have written so far in this project reveal that I have used the adjective "verve" to describe at least five different albums to date. Ironically, Urban Hymns by The Verve will not be one of them. I never really liked Britpop much; too Anglocentric, too concerned with its own image, a seeming contempt for its own audience, a tendency towards arrogance and aggression and sexist laddishness bordering on outright misogyny. Many commentators have described this album as the swansong for Britpop, and it comes across like that to me; the party's over and this is the hangover album. It is, admittedly, more introspective and downbeat than Oasis (say), but that's because all the cocaine is now gone and we're left to deal with the shitty repercussions. Mad Dick Ashcroft was right on the money: the drugs do not, in fact, work. Emily Tartanella astutely wrote in the Magnet (https://magnetmagazine.com/2009/08/18/the-overunder-britpop/): "The Verve has one—count it, one—great song, and that is 'Bittersweet Symphony.' Not only that, but 'Bittersweet Symphony' was immeasurably improved by a Jay-Z remix. The most impressive aspect of the Verve is how Richard Ashcroft has successfully tricked the world into thinking of him as a deep, insightful writer, despite penning lyrics as inane as “Are you invited/To the party of life?/Now you’ve decided/Do you live ’til you die?” The answer to that question is, by the way, yes. Despite having more high-profile break-ups than Jennifer Aniston, the Verve has endured both commercially and critically. While 1995 sophomore album A Northern Soul had its moments, 1997’s Urban Hymns (the band’s biggest success) is one of the most bloated, boring and overpraised albums of the ’90s." Preach, Emily, preach! As proof of how over-rated they are, here is a list of musical influences that Urban Hymns 'recalls', according to wikipedia: Oasis, Stone Roses, Suede, Ennio Morricone, old Motown singles, Richard Thompson, Britpop, indie rock, orchestral rock, psychedelia, post-Britpop (whatever _that_ is meant to be), Big Star, Van Morrison, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Amon Duul II, Spacemen 3, U2, Radiohead, boom bap, trip hop, angelic choirs, Aphrodite's Child, Funkadelic, Led Zeppelin, the Stones (again), Kurt Cobain, John Lennon (solo), the Beatles, Cocteau Twins, Happy Mondays, Jeff Buckley, Neil Young ("playing in hell"), Bob Dylan, Derek and the Dominos, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, John Squire, Lee Hazlewood, Echo and the Bunnymen, Neil Diamond, Led Zep (again), MC5, the Stooges, "churchworthy gospel", and, unsurprisingly, Blur. Well, if you mix all of that up in a bucket (and don't skimp on the reverb), you get a pretentious mess of boring midtempo codswallop just like this album. Of course, if you spend two million quid recording an album, it's going to sound pretty schmick. But every song on the record needs a couple of minutes trimmed off to reduce the bloat that plagues this album. Most albums should be less than 40-45 minutes in length, and that goes double for Urban Hymns. Most of the decent songs are front-loaded on the album, which makes the back half drag endlessly with meandering, over-long and unfocused filler tracks, all plastered over with slathers of reverb to bring some kind of cohesiveness to a patchwork of samples, wonky guitars, and different production approaches. The spaciousness and slightly depressive lyrics don't hide that Urban Hymns suffers from all the sins of Britpop; bloat, arrogance, infighting, laddishness, public drama, and bucket hats. The proof is all in the final lines of the last song: "Fuck you... we're breaking up".

A guy with a shitty Gallagher haircut and skinny legs somewhere in the midlands tries to introduce me to 'good' music then slaps my ass. His repressed emotions only come out at the pub, punches flying.

That one song was good tho

Putting Bittersweet Symphony at the very start of this album was a mistake. They blew their load way too soon, and the only other fine track is The Drugs Don’t Work which is also not far behind Symphony on side A. It truly goes on way too long for what it is. I feel like every track could be used as credits music for early 2000’s romance movies, and I wouldn’t be able to differentiate half of them from each other, much like early 2000’s romance movies. Not atrocious, but astoundingly milquetoast.

This album was a mainstay during my original iPod (technically 3rd Gen, blue screen, black text unit) in the late 2000s. Haven’t heard it all the way through since then. I read some of the other reviews before listening again and was surprised so many people were rating it pretty low. Came to the realization that Urban Hymns falls in the same category that I’ve read a bunch of different albums on this list as far as well too. Mostly songs go on way way way too long. I think it’s definitely I was grooving to it during that time because I would be listening with nothing else really going on. Maybe riding the bus home or something. Bittersweet Symphony is obviously the centrepiece and main draw on this one. The lyrics, although pretty simple, are just purely elemental at this point. I need to hear some sounds that recognize the pain in me. I remember in the late 2000s when the Verge reunited and people were in awe of how good Bittersweet Symphony sounded after it, not really being in his eye guys for the past 10 years. I’ve always thought that that is the songs legacy, when you hear it for the first time in a while you’re bowled over by how big it is. I think the only song that’s come close in the past 25 years is The Mother We Share by Chvrches. Equally of a time and already nostalgia triggering. Otherwise, Lucky Man is a song made for walking around during golden hour. And the drugs don’t work is an incredibly depressing song that still works. The Verve are definitely a band You have to listen to more passively, in the background to truly vibe with I don’t know if this is a truly great album, but I am going to give it five stars. It’s firmly in the canon of my musical upbringing.

I love 90s alternative and indie, but I have gone through life without too much knowledge on The Verve's discography, so I was excited to check this out. (Almost) everyone knows Bitter Sweet Symphony, and what a great album opener it is! It really sets the stage for the album and is a good representative of the rest of the album's similar quality offerings. The symphonic motif from Bitter Sweet Symphony cascades throughout all of the songs, calling back to it. The word "symphonic" reminds me of hymns, so I can't help but wonder if there's something at play here with their album title? There is a dreamy, psychedelic sound that is woven throughout this album, making it really easy to listen to. With the exception of one track, these songs are all at least 4 minutes long, many in the 5-7 minute range. There's an air of passion in this album where these guys seem to just be jamming and feeling the music with no regard for track length. For me, all of the above points help craft this album into a cohesive experience from start to finish, making this album's whole greater than the sum of its parts. Everything except Bitter Suite Symphony was new to me; my standouts on this album were Sonnet, Space and Time, Weeping Willow, Lucky Man, and Velvet Morning.

What a guy! What a band! What a hero! Ooooh what a day!!!

A great album that braves uneven rhythm at times. Many sing alongs to boot. I don’t know if ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ refers to party drugs or antidepressants, and I won’t find out

BITTER SWEET SYMPATHY, THAT'S LIFEEEE!

Großes Album! Klassiker! Setzte 1997 den endgültigen Schlusspunkt der Britpop-Welle, aber was für einen! Nur Hits! Neben den bekannten Singles ist übrigens „The Rolling People“ mein Favourit auf dem Album!

Excellent

Bittersweet Symphony is pretty much a masterpiece of a song. The rest of the album also had a lot more depth than I expected and I found myself thoroughly enjoying it. Just good music, good songwriting, sufficient variety and finally just a very good album!

10/10 album

Love this album

First year. Robert Gordon university. Garth see flats. On repeat.

Excellent

bittersweet symphony always. the rest - unimpressed

Spun through this once and had no interest to do a second listen. I remember thinking, "Oh, I know that song," but it didn't lead to anything that I'd want to know better. I could see this being of use as background music in a bar where nobody wants to listen.

For my father's generation the big question was: Do you listen to the Beatles, The Rolling Stones or Hendrix? There was so much meaning folded into that question, and even more in its answer. I remember when the brit-pop wave hit Europe back in the 90's. It was as if the question was repeated. This time with Blur and Oasis as the only right answers. Bands like Kula Shaker, Suede and Pulp somehow existed within the boundaries of that same question. At the time I was still listening to Nirvana and I just discovered Green Day, so I was kind of in another place, but I quickly learned to enjoy the British invasion, especially Blur. But in 1997 the impossible happened. Urban Hymns hit the shelves. And suddenly a single band united the striding sides in the Oasis-vs-Blur-battle. In 1997 everyone agreed: The coolest band in the world was The Verve. There so much melodic melancholy on this album. Top tracks: Bitter Sweet Symphony, Sonnet, The Drugs Don’t Work, Catching The Butterfly and Lucky Man.

I’m really glad this project got me to revisit this album and subsequently the bands four album catalog as well as Richard Ashcrofts solo work. I’ve heard the two well known singles “Bittersweet Symphony” and “Lucky Man” from Urban Hymns to great extent thanks to them being overplayed on radio back when radio was a thing people actively listened to, as well as on MTV. I know I’ve given this entire album a listen before I just don’t remember any of the songs or even if I liked it. So coming at it with a fresh musical perspective, I gotta say, it really hit me. I love Richard Ashcroft’s voice and songwriting, I hear hints of Scott Walker mixed with Bono and Liam Gallagher in his voice on a few songs. The entire band also sounds incredible on this album, their sound is somewhere between The Stone Roses, Spiritualized and Oasis. Really the only song I’d skip on future listens is “Bittersweet Symphony” and that’s just due to fatigue from it being overplayed. Over the weekend I’ve enjoyed listening to The Verve’s other three albums almost as much as Urban Hymns, I only wish I gave this band more of a chance before now.

A bit disappointed from the negative reviews of this album. For me it was smooth listening. Remember listening to "The drugs don't work" thinking about my aunt. R.I.P. 🙏🏻 4/5

Greatly enjoyed. I'd heard singles, but never the whole album. Never realized quite how energetically dreary the band is.

Auðvitað bara geggjuð ...

In 1997 this was one of my favourite albums so had it down as a 5 star album. I listened to it twice and still like the music, but also got a little annoyed by the lyrics and the way of singing. I would now go for an older Verve album. 1997: 9/10 2024: 8/10

High quality songs delivered with a lot of (sometimes a bit too much) passion.

It seems to me that non-Brits always have an odd concept of what Britpop sounded like. American’s especially seem to associate it almost exclusively with acoustic ballads a la Wonderwall. And while I do get how that image has come about, it’s pretty far from the truth of what was happening with Britpop. It was a diverse genre, stretching through the early 70’s-ish hard rock of Oasis, the late 60’s-ish power pop of Blur, the spiky glam of Suede, the class politics fuelled New Wave of Pulp, and numerous others. Any sound you liked from the previous three decades of pop music, you could find a good Britpop approximation. Where the Verve come in is providing the Psychedelic part of the Britpop movement. Coming from a shoegaze background and eventually adding more keyboards, strings and acoustic elements as their sound evolved, by 97, when Urban Hymns was released they had already broken up and reformed a couple of times. I’ve always thought this tension really came through in the music. It’s big and orchestral, and more than often light and airy, but there’s always a brooding melodrama just behind the surface. It’s one of my favourite Britpop albums, and a lot of the songs are a close contender for some of my favourite songs of all time, but I do bow to some of the more critical voices this time. It is 75 minutes, no album needs to be that long. But, for a lot of those 75 minutes, Urban Hymns is perfection

I'm surprised at how much I ended up enjoying this. I think it just scrapes a 4 from me, as I love the sound they have. Some of the jams in the earlier part of the album, on some relatively long songs, were really fun. It does commit the cardinal sin of being far too long though, there's no reason for an album like this to be over 70 minutes long. If it was a tight 9 songs, ~50 minutes, we'd have a real gem on our hands, but when you've got your sound nailed down like this, it gets tiring by the last few songs. Well worth a listen regardless though.

An exceptional surprise in every way I went into this very unaware of this group The first track "Bittersweet Symphony" is a song that I instantly knew, but I never knew it was by this group. It is an incredible track and it continues to be a big hit today. That was the only song I knew off of this album. Every other track was the first time I heard it. Rolling People, Space and Time, and Lucky Man were my 3 favorites off this one. Overall, an incredible album that I will definitely be revisiting.

Massivly accomplished album that arise during the Britpop era. Super smoothe production and ace songs with Ashcrofts resonating voice. It perhaps became a bit ubiquitous at the time but its a good album of pop rock.

I've seen a side to The Verve i've never heard before. My favourite discovery here is "The Rolling People". There is a nice mix of different sounds here, though I found the pacing of this album a bit off, constantly switching between slightly upbeat and then down again, which is why this isn't a 5/5 (a Coop 2/5). Not a good review due to only listening while cooking lol

Another band from Manchester!? There were some other interesting bands in the same era that offer more variety... Dave Matthews Band, The Cranberries, Garbage. Nothing really wrong with the Verve exactly, and I like them more than Oasis, but I'm griping about yet another band that sounds like other bands that we've listened to on this list.

Velvet Morning was good but I am so incredibly sick of British alt rock. Gun to my head I could not tell the difference between this and Oasis.

Album cover = "Hey everyone! Look to your right! **takes picture** No, dude your OTHER right! Sheesh. . . . whatever. Print!" I only know the opener, which is great. Can it get better from here?? If "Sonnet" is any indication, then yes. This brings me back to that late 70's "Laughter in the Rain" soft rock, a genre wholly missing in music today (for the future aliens reading our reviews, that's 2024 BCE). "It's country or it's metal!!" Bad edit at 2:05 is jarring, throws off the mood. Otherwise this song would perfectly reach what it's going for. . . . Rock n' Roll can be all about attitude and delivery over good writing; style over substance. Luckily, "The Rolling People" is well written and avoids the standard trappings of the genre where the guitars are tastefully distorted and not trying to overcompensate and show how tough they can be, dude. The post-Jane's Addiction extended jam at the end doesn't seem overindulgent as much as just letting the moment ride. This song seems like it was well-tested live as the closer before being committed to tape. Bop-Bop Bana, Bop-Bop Banana-nana. These guys can really write a slow song; we find another perfection in the slow melody of "The Drugs Don't Work" where the production does a great job of re-interpreting what is essentially a country song. And what a great line: "like a cat in bag waiting to drown, I'm coming down." This is the first time I've heard this album. I'm not going to review this track-by-track, but by now I see where this is heading. Atmospheric, catchy, lush, and spacious, Urban Hymns is a great vibe, equally content as background ambiance as it is turned up and blasting, center-stage. The orchestration throughout the album adds majesty without overshadowing the fact that this is still guitar rock. Always on the verge of going into psychedelia, they remain grounded in their pop-rock formula, save for "Neon Wilderness" which goes a bit further out but stays too safe for optimal peaking. Yes, I'm a little late to The Verve party, but I contend that they're a little late to the 90's party. This album arrived when grunge and post-grunge were all but dead, and rap was reeling in a much-overdue golden age of creativity, and rightfully dominating the airwaves. Had this been released around 1994-1995 to help pick up the pieces when grunge started dissolving, The Verve may have been a heavyweight alongside Radiohead to push new boundaries of rock into the next decade. Each band member and the producer are doing exactly what they should to best serve these songs. Having heard nothing else by The Verve, I'm curious if they ever expanded their form from this triumphant jumpstart or if they stayed content constrained within their own walls. This album suggests that they have the skills to do something truly original and great, but as it is Urban Hymns remains a touch too safe and predictable.

Daydreaming under cold, grey skies. This album owes a lot to later Beatles and other acts of that milieu. Lush production, good use of sampling on the absolutely inescapable single, “Bittersweet Symphony.” Acoustic guitar strumming at the center, embellished with textures of soul, psychedelia, trip hop, and even old-school country & western at moments. Heavily layered yet somehow subdued. All sharp edges have been smoothed. Very consistent feel throughout the album, but by the end, I was craving a change of pace. Surprised this is in the top 20 top-selling albums of all time in UK – illustrates some of the deep differences in taste between the UK and the US. Perhaps this entry also helps to reveal the alleged bias this list has toward British acts and Britpop. I didn't find this album bad, but for whatever reason, I personally found it hard to truly connect to.

Of their time, for sure, but there are some excellent songs here, albeit with their influences front and centre. And I also think the band had a tendency to veer off into the self-indulgent. A star for each of the stand-out tracks.

I had a copy of this album when it first came out. Like so many others, I discovered The Verve due to 'Bittersweet Symphony'. It is undeniably a great song. The rest of the album was always just background music for me. Pleasant enough to listen to but nothing memorable. Revisiting this album many years later, it's much the same as I remembered it. The music is good enough but nothing really stands out. It's still great background music with one stand out single. But generally I just don't understand the excitement around this band.

Drone-y but not actively annoying. Nothing memorable except Bittersweet Symphony.

Bitterwet Symphony overshadows the rest of the album

A mixture of epic bangers and boring dross. Over rated, underwhelming 3.3

Liked Bittersweet Symphony, Drugs Don't Work and Lucky Man, but overall the album is a little bland for my tastes.

I actually expected this album to be better. But the most well-known songs are awesome.

2 okay songs do not make up for this 1-hit wonder.

I can't do it. I can't do another late 90s britpop album. How are there so many on this list?

I remember a stopover in Scotland on our way to (I think) Denmark years ago. We walked around for a few hours in Edinburgh to be exact. The weather was a constant overcast with clouds and light rain falling every few minutes. The sun was struggling to come out. The sky looked so bland. That is what this album sounds like to me. Bland....bleh. I don't think I had ever actively listened to Bitter Sweet Symphony the whole way through despite ridiculous amounts of playtime in the U.S. because the song just did not really pull me in. I feel the same way about the whole album. None of it really pulls me in despite was seems like an attempt to have a bit of a late Beatles sound. I tried to think back to some of what I was listening to back in 1997, that was out at the same time. What was in rotation for me was Deftones..Around the Fur, Incubus S.C.I.E.N.C.E and Tool had just released Aenima the year before in 1996 I think. That year I also went to see U2 on the Popmart tour. Maybe that's why seemingly mopey Brit Rock just didn't do it for me. This band has a lot of similarity to me to Oasis which was another band that didn't really draw me in. It's not that they are bad at playing, I just didn't hear enough dynamics and creativity in the music. From back then what I remember about the Verve was that they had a similar name to the band the Verve Pipe, and Keith Richards was trying to sue them. Again, not a terrible sound, just not my thing. Blur is an example to me of an interesting Brit Rock band. I am not sure why this album would be on a need to listen list and it's mind blowing that this is a UK top seller.

Bittersweet Symphony brings me right back to elementary school but I have not heard a single other song of theirs. "Sonnet" is actually awesome. "Drugs Don't Work" is nice. Neon onwards its all duds. I think that without having a real emotional or nostalgic connection to this album, it's just ends up sounding like pretty generic alt/pop-rock.

One hit wonders to me.

what do you think the odds are that Robert Dimery was a teenager/young adult during the new wave and britpop eras?

I had to start on track 2, because I couldn't listen to track 1 another time in my life. I think I heard it every 5 minutes on the radio back in the day. These guys are good enough musicians to make the type of music on this album, which is to say uninspiring, basic shit. The fellas play their instruments well, but the singer's voice makes me want to stop listening. This has been done before by better bands. It's like a watered down U2, or Oasis, who were a watered down Beatles. The production is okay, but I'm annoyed sitting through this one. These guys got paid, so mission accomplished, I guess. I was hoping that Velvet Morning would be a cover of Some Velvet Morning by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood, but I was let down one more time. It was just another song. If I were forced to pick a favorite, I would give a nod to Neon Wilderness, probably because it doesn't sound like the rest of the songs.

This is what they'd play at the euthanasia clinic if they used music to terminate you

This thing is so insanely boring. Its like U2 if they never tried to do anything exciting. The opener is decent enough, and the closer FINALLY brings some energy, but the rest feels like I’m being dragged underwater by someone moaning tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime every couple of seconds. There’s nothing interesting about this, and the only time I think I’ll ever think about this album is when Bittersweet Symphony plays for the one billionth time and I go “Oh! I know that one, it’s from that album I hated, who was it by again? Oh never mind, who cares.” I can’t overstate how great it felt to get to the end of this and have another song not by these guys come up.

I think it's really telling that the most popular song from this album, 'Bittersweet Symphony' is based off a repeated 4 bar loop from a 1965 Rolling Stones song. I don't understand the appeal of this kind of alternative brit-pop. The album makes no statements, takes no risk, and is unmistakably bland and boring. I actually had to do some research to find out what makes this album so respected, and I still didn't get a solid answer. I don't understand who the target audience is, who searches for music where you can't tell one four-chord progression pop song from another in the same album? I felt like I could fall asleep halfway through, wake up, and not even realize I'm five more songs into the album.

Sensational album full of anthems. Weirdly, ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ turned me off of this band at the time as it was just too morose. But, I was blown away by ‘Lucky Man’ and ‘Sonnet’. The album has songs of real beauty and melody, and has the rousing anthems too. ‘Space and Time’, ‘Weeping Willow’ and ‘Velvet Morning’ are the stand outs from a consistently incredible album. Full of reverb, and groove, and inspiration. I was lucky to see them at their hometown gig in Wigan - what a night 🧡

This is the culmination of a wave of psych rock from the early 90's, where unknown bands suddenly became popular. Spiritualized were on TOTP, and this lot had a number 1 single! Madness! If LAGWAFIS was the heartbreak album, then this, the 3rd best NME album of 1997 was the happy 'I've got the girl' album. Lucky man indeed. Even though it is heavily watered down psychedelia for the masses, it is a gem of an album. Anything that brings public attention to these underground bands is a good thing, as they need to earn cash to keep going. Ashcroft must have known he was on to a winner, but also he should have checked to see if that violin sample was out of copyright ©️. Pretty much perfect from start to finish.

Fantasy album

Favourite tracks: bittersweet symphony; sonnet; lucky man; drugs don't work; space and time; one day

Smashing album that I forgot was so good. Great reverb guitar reminiscent of the 60s/70s psychedelic rock.

Great

favourite song - bitter sweet symphony favourite lyric - happiness, more or less / it's just a change in me, something in my liberty / happiness, coming and going / i watch you look at me, watch my fever growing / i know cover - 7/10 album overall - 5/5 love

Drug inspired Britpop. On one hand this album has some filler, and might be a track or 2 too long. On the other hand, the best songs on this album (Bittersweet Symphony, The Rolling People, The Drugs Don’t Work) are incredible. I’ll give it a 5 since it’s my favorite britpop album

I was afraid to look at reviews for this, and I was right, so I have to leave one on this one. I'll give this 5 stars but this is nowhere close to the best Verve album or what they sounded like on previous albums. This is like half a Richard Ashcroft solo album. I always liked this album, but it's a chore to listen to due to the length of it. And yeah, there biggest hit is on here so it was a top selling album. Always loved Catching the Butterfly on this album, and Lucky Man is a great secondary hit on this album. Sonnet and Drugs Don't Work (while good songs), ruin the album flow for me. Would highly recommended A Northern Soul and A Storm in Heaven if you want some good psychedelic 90s rock, that doesn't sound like generic "Britpop" that you reviewers describe. A Storm in Heaven is in my top 10 albums of all time and highly recommend smoking some weed before starting that album.

One of my favourite albums, a perfect blend of Britpop / Indie / Psychedelic music

BSS is one of greatest songs ever written in my honest opinion

Everyone knows song #1 but the rest of this album is awesome too

Was für ein Album! Hatte es etwas vergessen aber hat mich sofort wieder gepackt!

Loved this album when it was released and it’s even better now.

An undisputed heavyweight classic of an album! There is not a bad song on this record. Absolute masterpiece.

Holy shit, what a year for music 1997 was! I’ve loved this album since I heard it in maybe… 2004. So - happy 20 years, Urban Hymns. An easy 5 stars.

Good starting to the album, well its actually good for chilling with blunt on hand idk

Although the tend to drag with some of their songs, the bulk of this is still an unmatched level of infectious.

No private session need for Spotify, I enjoy this album, and that over played song in conveniently the first track so it's easy to put in CD player, hit play and then the skip button.

It is my personal belief that sad british dudes in the 90s understood 60s music better than anyone in the 60s did (and probably anyone ever has since), and I think their version of 60s music is usually better than most actual 60s music. It's the whisper subtle integration of punk, prog, electronica, all influences too quiet to really even notice, but they color the inbetweens that fill out this sound so much. The implied Trip Hop of Bittersweet Symphony clears so far beyond anything Jagger-Richards could ever put to pen (even if legally they Did put it to pen [fuck copyright law part 205776]). The youthful hazed out ruminations on oblivion and hopelessness are made all the more emotionally destructive by the fact that Richard Ashcroft kinda, tries to rap sometimes? And he really doesn't know how to rap, so he just ends up spewing all his thoughts out breathlessly, and it's honestly gutwrenching at times. The Verve have a much better grasp of psychedelia than Oasis do also, that's for sure. There's a much needed looseness and spaciness to their playing, appropriately cosmic. I suppose you could argue they're a tad too indebted to their influences as a throwback group to really be considered visionaries (I counted references to at least three 60s rock bands, Stones, Aphrodite's Child, Velvet Underground), but like, they mostly out do and one up their influences anyway, so who cares.

Flera bangers som jag lyssnat på mycket tidigare. Har även lyssnat på skivan innan. Då var den väl helt okej men nu var den riktigt bra. Schyssta låtar bara. Det blir kanske lite halvtråkig mot slutet men t.ex The Drugs Dont Work gör denna till en skitbra platta. Det är en egen del av britpopen och väldigt ikoniskt. Kommer säkert lyssna igen. Omslaget är ganska snyggt också.

Iconic

While the title track is overplayed on so many platforms and is seemingly inescapable in my algorithms, this album is packed with gems from start to finish. Great listening to the whole thing for the first time in ages.

Was für ein Album. Allein "Bitter Sweet Symphony" ist schon den Kauf wert. Wer aber glaubt, das sei schon alles, der die das irrt. Es ist ein unglaublich melodisches Indie-Rock-Album mit sehr gelungenen Arrangements. Es ist nie langweilig, es sind Hymnen für die Ewigkeit. Nur als Randnotiz: es ist besser als "Morning glory" von Oasis

I think this is a brilliant album, and every time I listen to it, I'm amazed at the number of amazing songs on it. The album is obviously known for bittersweet symphony, but there are so many other amazing tracks like the back-to-back "Sonnet" into "The Rolling People" into "The Drugs Don't Work." I'd probably give it more of a 4.5 than a straight 5, but a 5 will work for this scale.

Less drugged out and shoegazey than the earlier records but still has the combination of delay and reverb. Love Nick McCabe's guitar tone and Richard Ashcroft has the best slacker singer voice in rock.