Urban Hymns

This truly is a bittersweet symphony

Who among us doesn’t at least appreciate bittersweet symphony? It’s genuinely a pretty song and nothing more needs to be said. The same could be said about the rest of the album. It’s generally pretty and inoffensive. I won’t listen to it again because I found it boring. Much like everything I encounter, I am in entirely uncharted territory here. Do I know bittersweet symphony and the weird lawsuit drama with the Rolling Stones? I was born in 1996. Could I tell you that the verve was the band behind that song? Maybe, I do love trivia. Have I ever intentionally listened to this album or anything by the verve? Absolutely not. But getting past the one song I am too familiar with, there are a dozen other songs here for better or worse. As I’m listening to it, I am mildly aware that I am listening to it. It sounds like 2000s mall music and I just can’t force my brain to be interested in whatever this is. I cannot force myself to care about this album. Ultimately, it is just very boring. I’ve had to remind myself that I’m listening to it just because it hardly registers above white noise on the ears.

I assure you no one cares about The Verve outside of the UK. Stop putting this crap on an essential list.

One of the most generic shits I have heard ever. It starts with the hit, and it should end there as well. And I never liked that song either. This band is an Oasis clone, but a very bad one.

If a cream cracker was an album.

It didn't really hold my attention

...not sure I would categorize this as an album someone needs to hear before they die but that's just me.

God this album is so dull. Aside from a couple of tracks this is just a lot of mid-tempo brit-pop that often drags on too long.

This is not my usual style of music. The whole album sounds like pretentious, overmixed, coffee-house hipster music. Bittersweet Symphony - 8/10. I mean, I liked the accompaniment better when it was The Last Time by The Rolling Stones. That said, this is a great song. Only gets an 8 because they ripped off The Stones (although there are worse bands to rip off). Sonnet - 5/10. "Don't sound like no sonnet." Neither does this. Good musicianship, lyrics are OK, if a bit repetitive without a reason. The Rolling People - 3/10. Forgettable mid-90's grungeish rock. Not terrible, but not great either. Should have been about half the length. The Drugs Don't Work - 1/10. Save me from early 20's angst from the late 90's. Catching the Butterfly - 2/10. Forgettable and overly long. Solid musicianship, just not to my taste. Neon Wilderness - 3/10. At least it isn't too overly long. Not a fan of experimental 90's music. Space and Time - 5/10. On the stronger side of this album, good musicianship. Weeping Willow - 5/10. Decent. Not good, not bad, just decent. Lucky Man - 3/10. Meh. Much like the rest of the album. One Day - 3/10. Meh. Much like the rest of the album. This Time - 3/10. Meh. Much like the rest of the album. Velvet Morning - 2/10. Pretentious, overmixed garbage. Come On/Deep Freeze - 2/10. On par with the rest of the album. Four minutes and still no "bonus track." Overall rating - 1/5

Sounds like a typical late 90’s “alternative” album. Not sure how this made the list.

Apart from the first track, not good

90s was the black hole of the music.

Ten seconds in and all I could think was “please make it stop”. That thought remained for the first half of the album. The second half I didn’t listen.

2nd album I couldn’t finish. Too long for the material on it. Some good stuff for sure but everything was like 2mins too long. Same basic harmony for 6mins is agonising

Verve has always felt like Third Eye Blind, Semisonic, Goo Goo Dolls, Friends theme song, yadda yadda. Pseudo alternative music that came after Nirvana, Pumpkins, Oasis. It's for people too chickenshit to listen to music that pisses off their parents. I'm listening to it now picturing Liam Gallagher beating the lead singer with an amp.

Nothing could possibly fit the definition of 'Not for Me' more than this album. What a chore to sit through. Especially after an alright (overplayed) opening track.

Dull, boring and soul destroying. Would have prefered to sit in silence for 75 minutes.

not even the good song is good

Bad. Dumb

More britpop??

Didn’t enjoy it

The last quarter of the album is the highlight, but nothing I’d ever want to listen to again.

worst song

Very boring tbh. An album over an hour better be super engaging and interesting and this was not. It felt like work getting through it.

I never owned this but this is the platonic ideal of the kind of CD I'd get from Best Buy in highschool on the strength of a single, play through once, play the single track(s) 5 more times, and then never touch again until selling it off in college to make room for cooler stuff. Bittersweet Symphony is an incredible needle drop in Cruel Intentions but the rest of the album is pretty forgettable. So many of these tracks feel like a shameless but unsuccessful attempt to duplicate OK Computer. And ok, I know from firsthand experience that Radiohead did not originate the secret hidden track after a long silence at the end of a CD but repeating the exact gesture that ended OK Computer comes off like they're cargoculting Radiohead in hopes that their album somehow becomes good.

Impeccably unremarkable

More crap british music.

Not for me…

Holy shit bitter sweet symphony is 6 fucking minutes long??? Jesus this album felt so long that I forgot that they did bitter sweet. This album sucks almost all of the way through. The lyrics were so shallow and cringy that I almost had to stop playing it. I was comparing this album to the Linkin Park album, and I can safely say that this one is way worse and deserving of a 1.

I’m not a fan of bittersweet symphony, but that’s the best song on this. It’s all downhill from there. This is a mediocre rock, adult contemporary, shitty lyric heap of trash. You wanna listen to over an hour of oasis rips? Do you crave prepubescent lyrics? Well the Verve want to let you know that they’re here for you. Pick up a copy at your local target. The production on this seems to only serve the purpose of trying to mask corny lyrics and boring song arrangements. Why is every song so long? Why does his voice have literally no character? Credit is due to whomever convinced Dimery to include this milk toast, proto-ai slog of an album. 1/5 I will never listen to this again and neither should you.

The album’s fine, but man, Britpop really is disproportionately represented on this list when you consider how much music there is in the whole wide world one should listen to before they die. I understand the authors have their perspectives, just frustrated to get another hour of it today. Anyway, the Verve. Besides the opener track, the rest also has the markings of a band that can write catchy hooks, even if they didn't hook me so well. The instrumentation and their respective parts I found pretty boring, but together they are actually better than the sum of their parts and create a cohesive identity (dreamy 90s britpop), even if it's one I personally have a hard time enjoying.

na twee nummers lag ik in een even diepe coma als de 'zanger'

Hate this. Bittersweet Symphony's a good tune, but its been so co-opted by car and credit card commercials that its lost its shine for me. The whole album otherwise is just aggressively generic. They sound like Driveshaft, the fictional band from Lost, but worse. Lyrically ranges from bad to medicore, musically bland. Singer oscillates between weak Bono and Thom Yorke impressions. These guys aren't unique enough to be taking themselves so seriously. I give 1 stars sparingly, and if it were interesting or had real spirit behind it but still bad, I'd give it two. But the combo of soulless and bad is just too much. Outrageous that this is on the list when groups like Modest Mouse (for a great 1997 release see: The Lonesome Crowded West), and even all time legends like Louis Armstrong and Chuck Berry are omitted.

The Rolling People - Finally a rock song, this one definitely didn't feel like 7 minutes, and actually flew by, keeping my attention the whole time. The Drugs Don't Work - Sadboi ballad, I really like it, definitely feels like some 90s British Sadboi vibes with some occasional strings, 2/12, nothing else really sticks out.

I dislike bittersweet symphony and the rest of the album is very forgettable

Maybe it’s the Monday morning blues, but I couldn’t wait for this album to be over.

prohibitively boring

Why is this on any list? Such a nothingburger. It just kind of exists and is music.

Peaks right away with Bittersweet Symphony and devolves /immediately/ into one of the most unfocused and forgettable albums I’ve ever listened to.

Why is this on this list ? Albums. Not one half decent song

Bittersweet symphony can't make up for the fact that this album is 75mins of soulless, pandering softrock muzak. A proper waste of time. 1/5

It all started sounding the same after a while

Not for me

This was painful. How did it make the list? The most vapid, bland pop rock imaginable.

One song can't make an album. 1/5

i dont like the type of genre and the lyics the second one i dont like because its sad the third one i just dont like.

sigh.

Holy shit I was literally just writing about how 1 popular song can apparently land you on this list

Bittersweet Symphony, the pinnacle of nightmare commercial music. 1.2 billion listens on spotify, more than 6 times their next song on their spotify top 5. The Wikipedia article for this album rivals that of Jesus Christ and Napoleon. And for what? The cultural impact that this album has had on the world is creating the anthem for consumerism. The first song on this album is the same fucking riff over and over again with this annoying vocalist droning on and ON. Rhyming "it" and "sonnet" is so fucking lazy man. 75 minutes of music and you have already run out of gas lyrically? Good to see that they weren't saving themselves and taking it easy with the first song, they're just shit. This is their third album, I shudder to think what the first two were like. The real influence that Oasis had on the music scene is illustrating to other artists that it actually doesn't matter what the lyrics are in your music, nobody actually gives a shit. You can just slur into the microphone and brain-damaged Gen X/Y English people (who the fuck else is listening to this shit) will nod along and go 'yeah this is it bruv'. Just as you can track a massive drop in crime in the USA to 18 years after the signing of Roe v Wade, the effects of neoliberalism and Thatcher are on display here. You really would have to be the victim of a grand plan of the erosion of public health, education and administration to be stupid and tasteless enough to love this album. "Urban Hymns received widespread critical praise upon its release" according to wikipedia. But there are always voices of reason and those who will speak out against genocide and atrocities. Following in the footsteps of people like John Brown, Emily Tartanella of Magnet wrote that the release was "one of the most bloated, boring and overpraised albums of the '90s." Highlights: when you find out the light at the end of the tunnel is a train

Not for me

Hated this.

I have to admit that I only know "Bitter Sweet Symphony" Do I really like it? I can stand it, but not too often. The whole sound is too "laid back" for me. Is that perhaps the meaning of "Urban"? The album is dog shit. But that also fits with "Urban" because most of the dog shit is lying around there. I'd better be careful not to step in that shit again.

I remember loving Bittersweet Symphony as a kid, so I'm sure its just been overplayed... but god damn it did I hate this. I spent a few minutes trying to find a review that explained what is good about this but could not find anything analytical just that they were taking the Brit Pop scene to a new level (via a hijacked sample). I don't like Oasis and from what i gather this is a less interesting Oasis? I do feel bad for them, sounds like they got screwed with the royalties on BSS, but theres no feelings in 1001 world, only harsh truths. And in this case the truth is The Verve suck.

Oasis minus the hooks, edge and charm. It's interesting that their one good song (Bittersweet symphony), built on one awesome hook, is the most unlike the rest of their sound, which is basically hookless, meandering mush.

When I was like 10 years old I was the victim of the one of those Columbia penny CD club schemes, where I mailed in for a dozen CDs I wanted for a penny, but was required to purchase 12 more at full sticker price throughout the year. I’m not sure I even had to put down my parents credit card. Twelve months later I had purchased zero of the required CDs and we got a warning letter that we needed to buy all twelve before the end of the year, so I got to go on another - much more expensive and parentally supervised - shopping spree. I recall The Verve (and probably The Verve PIPE) album being in one of those stacks, obviously based on the ubiquity of BSS. I don’t remember any of the rest of this album, and I imagine my ten year old self was as bored and unimpressed as I am today. A penny is still too much to pay for this album - I was annoyed and ready for it to be over by the second song, and cannot believe they thought they needed over an hour of AI generated Oasis.

torture

2 decent songs? The rest is drivelly britpop that sounds wildly inspired.

This album's rating, and pretty much anything from the '90s and '00s, is going to being dramatically influenced by preconceived feelings people have based on personal experience with the record. I'm finding that the most interesting listening experiences in this survey have been with records I've never heard of, or at least never listened to. How can you be objective when a record pops up on your list and you immediately think "those guys suck"? All I know about the Verve is the hit single. I must have heard samples of some of the other songs and been put off at the relentless mid-tempo safeness of it. Plus, this album came out the same year as "OK Computer", which made everything else in the alt/indie-rock world that came out that year and for a couple years afterward sound limp and uninspired. In listening to the majority of this record today, it just sounds to me like what well-off suburban kids would listen to as they experiment with downers and ruin the immense privilege they've been given. "Come On" sounds like the strongest song, but unfortunately it happens after an hour of ennui, and also sounds like a medium-good Oasis song. And the hit lead single has that whole "we borrowed the entire groove, key, mood, and much of the string parts from The Rolling Stones" thing going for it (if you've haven't heard it, check out The Last Time by the Andrew Oldham Orchestra). This is my first 1-star review on this list. Ack!

Нууууууу.... 70минут бритпопа..... Не самого пиздатого.... Еще и первый трэк - обманный...

Even more boring than I remember it being

Other than the two famous tracks there really wasn't much to say about this album. And to be fair, the rest of the tracks seemed to spoil the drugs don't work so even that wasn't worth listening to. Probably be unpopular for this but it really wasn't good.

this was so nothingburger that i accidentally paused the album twice trying to hit play on my music

Not my cup of tea at all. Very blah.

This death rattle of britpop really milks every moment until it's beyond dry. Every song doesn't need to end in a repetitive slow fade, ffs. Whinging wankers wax wailingly without windup. Where's Wonderwall?

This is so bad! I don’t know how they made it past being a one hit wonder, they sound like a much worse U2

feels boring to me

Alternative band from the late 90’s. Some good music.

An utterly forgettable album except for that one track, and that one track is only memorable because the entire groove that is great about the song was sampled from a different band's previous hit. I was a fool that bought this album in 1997. Totally regretted it. Their previous album was bollocks, so I should have known. Ironically the songs don't have much, if any, verve at all. The album is way too long. Ashcroft's lyrics leave a lot to desire. The drums are boring, the guitars are boring. One of the most boring albums I ever owned. Way, way overrated. Maybe if someone had separated the wheat from the chaff to get under 45 minutes and did some passes on the remaining songs, supplying them with varying tempos and dynamics so that they actually feel like they go somewhere once in a while this album might have been saved. I feel dirty giving them additional streaming income by listening to this lump one more time.

Oy. I'm so bored.

So far, nothing special. Didn’t really like that symphony song when it originally was released and still don’t. Not much here for me lyrics wise either. Yeah, only occasionally did I notice a change the song, they all seemed pretty similar and boring.

Very blah album, except for Bitter Sweet Symphony. Truly a one-hit-wonder of a band. Do the English ever make music that isn't as bland as their food?

Popper lige ind for at være en hater 👋 synes alle sangene var for lange og monotone, sangerens stemme lød som discount Oasis. Jeg hadede den ikke men det er en stor 1’er, kan ikke se mig selv sætte den på igen

gang theyre all too old and bad

Highlights: Bittersweet Symphony, Sonnet. In a nutshell: rein it in, boys. Showing restraint as a musician isn’t always a bad thing. Restraint is what the album needed. Save the extended jams with little payoff for the live shows. You made the same mistake with the last album. This album does have some good lyrics, but it’s not enough to bump the rating higher. Overall: 2/10

Bittersweet Symphony is my least favorite song of all time. This whole album reeks of adjacency to it.

Listening to this album really feels like getting lost in the music - but not in a good way.

First four songs I'm thinking this is alright, better than I remember, probably 3 stars. But then it just keeps going and going, all one pace, one song blending into another with the same vocal ticks on display again and again until you are lost in the mush. When I worked in a pub in the late 90s we would put this on Sunday afternoons as it seemed something we could handle while working through our murderous hangovers. It rarely lasted its full length before someone pressed eject and reached for Moon Safari by Air instead.

Overrated at the tine and still

Dreary, pompous, "I'M AN ARTIST FEEL MY PAIN" Dadrock

Boring

I think the Brit Pop craze could be summed up pretty well with the following statement..."Remember how everyone liked The Beatles? Let's just do that again...but like...put some grunge in it." This album sucks. It's lazy, it's uninventive and entirely forgettable. And I hate to break it to you...but The Stones did Bittersweet Symphony first. The other singles on the record are typical at best and remind me of shit I wrote back in 9th grade for the girl I liked. The Drugs Don't Work sounds like something from a Cameron Crowe movie that people would've called "the biggest song of the summer" back in 1975.

who the fuck put this rubbish on the list it's like all the worst aspects of shit Britpop lumped into 1 couldn't even sit through their most famous hit

Look - I didn’t finish this. I got halfway through this 75 minute long record and couldn’t listen to the boring Britpop these guys were selling anymore. Everything is derivative, vaguely religious garbage. I feel like the only reason this is on the list is because of bittersweet symphony - which is not a great song.

Bitter Sweet Symphony Sonnet Weeping Willow Lucky Man Velvet Morning Feels like I’m stuck in a loop going nowhere with this album. Can we add a little spice please I feel like I’ve been on the same song forever. I’d say it’d be better if it was shorter but it got old quick

This is better than whatever that other Verve album was on this list. That out of the way, this album makes me understand Brexit. I'm not even going to give it the credit for Bittersweet Symphony. I feel like my life is made ever so slightly worse for having sat through this bullshit album.

Sin exagerar, creo que este es el peor disco que escuchado de esta lista. No solo porque es sumamente poco original, con casi todas las canciones sonando como la peor balada del peor periodo de Oasis, sino porque The Verve suena exactamente igual que U2, y el acto liderado por Bono ya me desagrada. La única razón de la por qué The Verve es conocido es por "The Bittersweet Symphony", canción que sacaron directamente de un disco instrumental de los Rolling Stones. Pensé, honestamente, que habría más talento en el disco o alguna justificación sonora para incluir este LP en la lista. Realmente, encuentro ofensivo que piezas como esta y no "The Lonesome Crowded West" de Modest Mouse se encuentren en esta lista. Si lee mi comentario antes de escuchar este disco, por favor, sálteselo.

I listened to the first song and then forgot. Liked the first half and then when the singing came in didn't like it.

An album that I remember being so bad and dull that I honestly refuse to listen to it again. Songs dragged on with little interesting instrumentation to accompany it, and the singer's wispy, psychedelic singing often came off as more posh and up its own ass than actually done well. Yes, there is a singular good riff here, that being Bittersweet Symphony's string backing to keep that song moving along at a pace just fit enough for it to become a hit both in the UK and US, but when you learn that small snippet of strings is all you get, you'll be rolling your eyes by the end of the track, and realizing it is a sample pulled from a Rolling Stones' orchestral live album makes it all the worse. Sure, sampling is cool, but not that lazily, it just makes you look bad. Otherwise, you get that same level of self-important nothingness that plagues the likes of their contemporaries, such as The Charlatans or Oasis. Pulp and other Britpop acts work for me due to their self-aware lyrics and cheeky but solid instrumentals. This just feels like they came up with "sad" lyrics then noodled on their instruments for five minutes, cut it, and shipped it out. How this is considered some of the best the UK had to offer at the time is beyond me, but I just find it ridiculously drab, and I really don't want to go through that hour of meandering songwriting again, even a year or so later.

Boring, generic.

boring, not listening to the whole thing 1/5

Sounds ok but not a fan of the vocals

After bittersweet symphony, the album falls into a cringey mess with bad writing, lyrics and melodies. No thanks

Aggressively corny. It's stoner-rock that's not even cool. Objectively the worst aesthetic from the 90s. Neither relatable nor aspirational. Not provocative, not vulnerable, not catchy, not problematic, not poignant or poetic, not musically interesting, not even good at being bro-y. Just extremely dated nonsense from the worst kind of white boy. The drummer is like "I'm so cool because I don't care!" I don't care either because the music puts me to sleep. At best, there is the suggestion of angst in the same way that garlic powder is the suggestion of flavor (without the danger of the real thing). I'm bored and annoyed listening to this. Also, terrible album name.

I just wanted this to end as quickly as possible.

so boring blends together

a lot of effort was put into this album

Sorry no

whiny

britpop drivel

1.5 Besides bittersweet symphony this album was a snooze fest. Every song was the same tempo with the same lackadaisical feel to them. Every song was entirely way too long with little to no variety. And don’t even get me started on the singer’s awful sheep voice

a boring version of oasis. too long. Like caleb said, a sound of the late 90s that stayed there for a reason. at least it has "bittersweet symphony"? "come on" actually had some energy, they should have brought that to the rest of the album

Bittersweet Symphony is the highlight, putting it as the first song meant the last hour of my time wasted

This is not good. Looks like they got lucky with Bittersweet Symphony.

I've never been terribly impressed with "Bittersweet Symphony." I'm not terribly impressed with this either. Highlights: I'll just listen to Oasis, thanks

how much more BritPop is on this list?

This is not for me. It's really repeative and uninspiring. This sounds like the music from that era which is my least favorite era of music (late90s-early00s). I won't listen to this album again. 1/5

fuck your buddy kys

Simply way too slow for me. Even for when I'm in a slow mood it's not for me.

God, I hate this album. The enormously overplayed opening track, Bittersweet Symphony alone makes me gag. It's saccharine sweet, over-the-top dramatic, and otherwise self-indulgent. Just shite.

Generic and boring britpop

1.5: +Bittersweet Symphony +The Drugs don’t work

Boring.

Whiney shit.

hmmm soninho. Só é salvo por bittersweet symphony

Bittersweet Symphony remains an absolute banger. Rest of the album is trash

Meh

No. Sounds like the 90s

90’s to the max! But idk. Didn’t click. Kinda water off a ducks ass

The Verve vind ik oprecht een van de slechtste bands ooit.

Following the great Bittersweet Symphony, there's an hour plus of the most insipid Britpop ever recorded. I'm far from the biggest fan of Oasis but at least they know how to write some interesting songs unlike these guys.

No go bro

Not a top 1001 album, i don't care what anyone says :-)

DNF

dont send me no shit like this again

Bittersweet Symph is ok... other than that it doesn't do anything for me

Not my vibe.

There is definitely a formula they follow. Would not recommend.

Christ, this was turgid. Bailed after three tracks. Played some Sam and Dave instead.

complete toilet

Significant snooze, and the bonus track of a baby crying was largely unwelcome.

"The Hit" is a 6 minute long song with the same 8 bars repeated throughout. No tempo, time signature, or chorus/verse changes. It's been crap since I heard it in the 90's and it's crap now. The rest of this is filler. And at a whopping 1 hour 15 minutes... Jesus what were they thinking?

There are elements of interesting music here… but together it is incredibly lame for some reason. If it wasn’t for a few super catchy violin notes on Bittersweet Symphony, I don’t think there would be anything memorable on this album at all.

snooze. always wondered why bittersweet symphony was so popular. emotionless vocals over drums and strings. wow.

Self-indulgent trash-ballads

This gives U2/nirvana crossover vibes not ok

This was an absolute chore to get through, every single song was longer than it needed to be and listening to them all back to back was monotonous and grating

No. No. Thrice no.. This album is interminably wanky and Richard Ashcroft is a massive wanker.

swerve the verve

Not my style.

This album was absolutely awful to get through. Everything was boring. When a song did have potential, it was ruined because the song went on for five minutes without changing. I know people like Bitter Sweet Symphony, but I find it grating. Not a fun use of 75 minutes of my life. I'm glad people can enjoy this, but I don't understand. My favourite song was Sonnet.

Good god, nope.

Was excited when I recognized the first song, but my introduction to The Vurve is underwhelming to say the least. Most the tracks have the same tempo, the lyrics are dull and lack emotion, and the production is mediocre at best. Add on the fact each song is 3x longer than it should be and I can’t say there’s any reason to revisit this thing. Stick to Bitter Sweet Symphony and throw the rest out.

Niet zo pakkend.

Terribly boring.

Head bangingly dull.

Yo yo chanclas in building and like a cat in a bag I’m ready to drown because we have to listen to the verve. They’re like the semi-palatable indie version of nickelback. I like some of the guitar work and that’s about it. I’m going to leave this album with the rest of the 90’s in my memory, mostly forgotten. True feeling: it’s foo foo lame Stand out tune: I guess “sonnet” Shoot myself tune: bittersweet symphony/the drugs don’t work

Its... very 90's for sure. The string elements are pretty and the lyrics are well written and seem to have a lot of meaning. The instrumentation is a little drab but it honestly works

i don't need to listen to these white men.

A palatable version of nickel back

#2nd

First song is excellent. Bitter sweet symphony

Stone cold classic