Verve: S/D ?

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What inspired the revive, Ned?

― Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 19:47 (twenty-two years ago)

But yeah, the first two albums (especially A Northern Soul which may have weak moments but by god is a hell of an experience once it's over), the early singles and b-sides, "Bitter Sweet Symphony", "Back On My Feet Again", "Let The Damage Begin". I seem to remember "Echo Bass" and "Three Steps" rocking too.

― Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 19:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Man, I love A Nortehrn Soul.

― Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 19:51 (twenty-two years ago)

On the title track McCabe's guitar is one of the most awesome things I've ever heard.

Leckie made them beautiful and hazy, Morrison made them ugly and nasty and painful and AWESOME. Not sure which I prefer, but the latter certainly does weirder things to me.

― Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 19:53 (twenty-two years ago)

What inspired the revive, Ned?

Just grabbed Storm for a relisten today, is all.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 19:55 (twenty-two years ago)

i used to hate on urban hymns but i like it now. 'catching the butterflies.' he writes country melodies. almost gospel. obv indie kids going to find that cheesy. anyhow i saw them several times in NYC early-ish 90's and they were great until northern soul too, or so i then thought. but as i said i've come around lately. not many other bands with as much ambition since.

― duke relieve, Tuesday, 20 April 2004 20:01 (twenty-two years ago)

SEARCH: "Gravity Grave" ep, Storm in Heaven, but be careful not to listening to the words too close lest you realize Ashcroft is a worse lyricist than Ian Astbury.
DESTROY: the above a few years later

I did get to see the Verve at CBGBs once back in 93-4. Totally psyched the way out, nothing like they were on record. Ashcroft squaking around sticking his head into the bass bins.

― sexyDancer, Tuesday, 20 April 2004 20:04 (twenty-two years ago)

OMG DESTROY ~~Silent Lucidity~~ Bittersweet Symphony!!

― Aaron A., Tuesday, 20 April 2004 20:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Hahaha.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 20:23 (twenty-two years ago)

his lyrics are bananas. esp. solo

― duke millet, Tuesday, 20 April 2004 20:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Solo Ashcroft is a sad, curious world I wish to pretend doesn't exist.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 20:51 (twenty-two years ago)

i remember there were verve people and a lot more suede people, i never liked suede, i loved verve but then he had to go singer-songwriter, ack. 'the sun, the sea' is amazing when your driving through the sierra nevadas while being chased down by semis on your bumper at 100 miles per hour in the left lane.

― keith m (keithmcl), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 01:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Any band that gets a foot in the door by ripping off a rip-off of a rip-off of the Stones can cram it. 'Bittersweet' my arse.

― Autumn Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 01:55 (twenty-two years ago)

A foot in the door with a third album?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 01:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Commercially. Well, megahypercommercially.

― Autumn Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 01:59 (twenty-two years ago)

A Northern Soul is the one, listen to Nick McCabe's use of feedback on Stormy Clouds, or his guitar work on So It Goes. Urban Hymns didn't do much for me except Catching The Butterfly which may be the best thing they've ever done.

― mentalist (mentalist), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 06:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Excruciating in every respect

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 09:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I love you, Dr C.

― Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 09:21 (twenty-two years ago)

The ofer to write for Stylus still totally stands, btw.

― Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 09:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Thanks. I do intend to do something - the last 12 months have been a bit unexpected and difficult and I haven't had any time for *anything* much.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 09:36 (twenty-two years ago)

No problem, Dr C. Let me know as and when. I heard rumour of a Verve greatest hits comp if you wanna dop that...

― Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 09:39 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/New-1.gif

― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 12 May 2005 02:29 (twenty-one years ago)

heh, i've been tracking down their early singles lately. i'm liking them so much it makes me want to give a northern soul another chance. at the time after storm in heaven it just pissed me off, sounded like a U2 ripoff. i have urban hymns, but only because i found it for $2.

mainly i'm listening to she's a superstar over and over.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Thursday, 12 May 2005 03:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Storm in Heaven-era Verve is, bluntly put, unfuckwithable. A perfect balance, a perfect fusion. Then...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 12 May 2005 03:50 (twenty-one years ago)

ned that "Hey Joey, put it all behind you" line just made me crack up something fierce

― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 12 May 2005 03:51 (twenty-one years ago)

*bows* I just saw that again myself. Yay geek me!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 12 May 2005 03:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I love this band and nothing will ever change that. It really is all about their live shows because they were like religious experiences. I even saw their first or second show they ever did live in America it was on July 7, 1993 at the Whisky A Go Go. The most memorable show happened the next year at the Roxy Theatre on Jun 28, 1994 where the show was so loud that they blew the power out. I have seen hundreds of shows and no other band has ever done that. Richard was just saying things like if you want to see the best rock and roll band in the world right now you have to wait a bit. The power came back on finally and they blew the roof off the place, I remember even the employee’s were impressed.

They were the first show I saw in San Francisco when I moved there in July of 1995 and end up seeing them six times total. They were the highlight for Lollapalooza 1994 along with the Boo Radleys. Even if Urban Hymns isn’t as great as their past work, it still is a really good album especially on road trips.

― BeeOK (boo radley), Thursday, 12 May 2005 04:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I even saw their first or second show they ever did live in America it was on July 7, 1993 at the Whisky A Go Go. The most memorable show happened the next year at the Roxy Theatre on Jun 28, 1994 where the show was so loud that they blew the power out.

*INSANELY JEALOUS*

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 12 May 2005 04:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Catching The Butterfly.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 12 May 2005 06:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Catching The Butterfly - one of the best things of the last 20 years or so, no?

― mentalist (mentalist), Thursday, 12 May 2005 08:33 (twenty-one years ago)

They seem to have been pretty much forgotten these days, it seems. I still like "Gravity Grave" and "This is Music", but I don't really think about them very often.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 12 May 2005 08:44 (twenty-one years ago)

One of the all-time great jazz labels, issuing Bill Evans' Conversations With Myself, Jimmy Smith's The Cat and The Individualism Of Gil Evans among many other masterpieces.

Oh...wait a minute...you're talking about THE Verve, purveyors of 1974-style soft rock?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 12 May 2005 08:51 (twenty-one years ago)

four months pass...

I am re-imagining Urban Hymns for Stylus. Needless to say, "The Drugs Don't Work" and "Sonnet" can fuck off.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Friday, 7 October 2005 07:21 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

a northern soul is my personal favourite, with 'history' a pick for their greatest track. the songs from this era are generally poigant and well-constructed, and ashcroft's still rife with ideas.

i do like urban hymns a lot and think it holds up as a highly consistent record that hits the spot when the mood strikes.

the debut, i never could fully embrace, though it's equipped with some pretty colourful sounds.

ashcroft solo is, of course, simply washed-up and bland, overblown and lyrically void.

― Charlie Howard, Thursday, 12 April 2007 16:11 (nineteen years ago)

I love all 3. I'm not gonna lie. But A Northern Soul does just combine the best of both albums. History is wonderful. A Storm In Heaven though is still the album i play most. I especially love playing the live bootlegs of that era.
Urban Hymns, while great, does suffer from being overplayed. Mind you I've never tired of Bittersweet Symphony like I have with The Drugs Don't Work or Sonnet. Some of those songs were written/played when they did gigs after A Northern Soul came out

T In The Park 1995 performance was MAGICAL.
The 3 times I saw them at the Barras when Urban Hymns was out were great too.

I've heard one good ashcroft solo song and that's it.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 12 April 2007 16:18 (nineteen years ago)

i'm revisiting the band just now :)

long overdue really

― Charlie Howard, Thursday, 12 April 2007 16:21 (nineteen years ago)

Search: an MTV Europe session with just an acoustic Ashcroft and *extremely* loud feedbacking McCabe. It was great. I only saw it once. I can't even remember what tunes they played, though I'm guessing it would've been Urban Hymns-era. YouTube is no help. Anyone?

Destroy: http://www.nme.com/news/richard-ashcroft/23405

― Ismael Klata, Thursday, 12 April 2007 20:09 (nineteen years ago)

the debut, i never could fully embrace

y u maek baby jesus cry.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 12 April 2007 20:13 (nineteen years ago)

there's a nice bootleg of some solo sessions Mr. Ashcroft put together after A Northern Soul, but before Urban Hymns that gives you a good insight as to what his first solo album SHOULD have sounded like. Mellow ,countrified, psych-soul-searching stuff. Not as paralysingly bland as his solo records have been. The 16 track album has early version of "Drugs Don't Work" "A Song for the Lovers", not yet drenched in post-post-post production polish. I also made the six hour drive down to catch acetone/verve at the Whiskey in 1993. Hot damn that was nice.

― iamthecosmos, Thursday, 12 April 2007 21:54 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I've heard some of those demos. Allegedly Bernard Butler's on a few of the tracks.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 12 April 2007 22:04 (nineteen years ago)

I saw Acetone and Verve, and Oasis for that matter in Glasgow in '93. Was pretty good, well at least, it was the best I saw them. I think Ailsa might've been there too.

Went to see them at Barrowlands in '92 as well, but they didn't turn up and got replaced by the bloke from Long Fin Killie's previous band, Fenn.

I don't think they were ever as good as I wanted them to be, live... But then the Cathouse in Glasgow is a shithole, so is the Venue in Edinburgh, Glastonbury '95 was just too hot etc. Never mind, eh.

― Keith, Thursday, 12 April 2007 22:06 (nineteen years ago)

Was that the old cathouse? I was only there once. Saw The Young Gods.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 12 April 2007 22:08 (nineteen years ago)

Oswald St... It's on Renfield St now is it, I think?

― Keith, Thursday, 12 April 2007 22:09 (nineteen years ago)

Haha, didn't realise I'd written about this two years ago:

I did see them a lot round that time and it was always disappointing to be honest, in part because you were hoping for something like Ned describes above; the reality of standing in a puddle of beer in a goth club in Glasgow does little to help.

― Keith, Thursday, 12 April 2007 22:11 (nineteen years ago)

Urban Hymns isn't so much overplayed as overlong and overcooked. It was a bit of a revelation to hear "I Got A Thing, You Got A Thing, Everybody's Got A Thing" by Funkadelic for the first time a couple of years ago and realise just HOW derivitive The Verve could be though - "Rolling People" might as well be a cover! Adds a huge amount of truth to that quote (who said it?) "the good bits aren't original and the original bits aren't good".

The later ballads bore me; they're too grandiose and flat. If I listen to them it's for the guitar, and the guitar is best when it's searing, distorted, strange, engulfing, and it's very rarely those things on the last album ("Catching The bUtterfly" notable exception). "Let The Damage Begin" might be my favourite song by them; nasty, horny, violent, noisy. My mate Oli, fond of lots of German industrial, was gobsmacked when I played it him, as his exposure to them ahd been only the hits, and he had no idea of their actually really quite good and occasionally extreme past.

― Scik Mouthy, Friday, 13 April 2007 08:31 (nineteen years ago)

confusing band, the verve. I 97% despise them, but the remaining percentage is intense love.

saw the-less verve in around 1992, maybe? supporting the black crowes in sheffield. at the time, they seemed like the worst band ever.

many years later, 'urban hymns' came out and seriously reinforced that notion.

yet I've since obtained a live version of 'gravity grave' that's just absolutely stunning. there my verve love begins and ends.

ashcroft's first solo single (I forget what it was called) was not exactly great, but was astonishing in its audacious ripoffness of 'alone again or'. the rest were just dour, sombre, over-serious nonsense.

― m the g, Friday, 13 April 2007 09:12 (nineteen years ago)

I thought this thread was going to be about the Verve label. How disappointing.

― The Brainwasher, Friday, 13 April 2007 09:32 (nineteen years ago)

I thought this revive was going to be about the band :(

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Friday, 13 April 2007 09:54 (nineteen years ago)

Oh wait, people were actually talking about them

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Friday, 13 April 2007 09:58 (nineteen years ago)

two months pass...

guess what? they're back.

http://www.theverve.tv/

― StanM, Tuesday, 26 June 2007 11:19 (eighteen years ago)

Skipping 216 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

would (the) verve have actually been better with a capable lyricist?

feel like urban hymns might have been improved(?) but the earlier stuff is better off with random pablum largely buried in the mix

also gaunt motherfucker walking down the street bumping into people is a pretty iconic video

― mookieproof, Thursday, 21 December 2023 03:04 (two years ago)

nah lyrics on Storm in Heaven are classic

― the absence of bikes (f. hazel), Thursday, 21 December 2023 04:41 (two years ago)

IM GONNA DIE ALONE IN BEEED

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Thursday, 21 December 2023 05:57 (two years ago)

You can do anythin' you want to
All you've gotta do is try
I thought the best days had left me
My best years had left me behind

same : /

― mookieproof, Thursday, 21 December 2023 06:10 (two years ago)

Album is boring af

So otm

― Sam Weller, Thursday, 21 December 2023 08:33 (two years ago)

IM GONNA DIE ALONE IN BEEED

this is great because the song is supposedly a salute to Noel Gallagher. wtf, Richard?

“one and one is two and three is company
when you're thinking about the things you do
and you're thinking about the things you do” is just about he most worthless lyric I have ever heard .

I DO completely adore this album sonically, though, and I do sort of get the “vibe” Ashcroft is going for. I mean, true confessions, I was feeling a lot of these lyrics as a depressed teenager.

McCabe, tho. Simon and Peter’s groove.

― brimstead, Thursday, 21 December 2023 16:17 (two years ago)

“stormy clouds” is otherworldly, kinda the most “storm in heaven” sounding one so it sounds extra WHOA in the context of the rest

― brimstead, Thursday, 21 December 2023 16:19 (two years ago)

its a brilliant album

OTM

I was a huge fan in the 90s and even love Urban Hymns but will admit it's their worst release. Not counting Forth as I never gave it a fair shake.

― Bee OK, Friday, 22 December 2023 01:14 (two years ago)

urban hymns is better, but different. incredible second half. never really listened to forth either.. I do remember Ashcroft singing “ a latte, a double shot for Judas”

― brimstead, Friday, 22 December 2023 01:24 (two years ago)

“weeping willlow” ffs

― brimstead, Friday, 22 December 2023 01:25 (two years ago)

Fourth is an album where you can easily tell when Rich and Nick are and aren't getting on. But when they are its sometimes top drawer Verve for me, esp. "Sit and Wonder".

Actually the writing credits for the first three songs in order are The Verve, The Verve/Ashcroft and Ashcroft. And it is easy to tell.

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Friday, 22 December 2023 02:10 (two years ago)

ANS was my first Verve and I love it. The guitar textures are scrumptious. I like it as much as ASIH.

― Cow_Art, Friday, 22 December 2023 03:07 (two years ago)

forth is great, worth checking out the numerous outtakes too, as is verve tradition

― ivy., Friday, 22 December 2023 05:37 (two years ago)

Forth really is great. Also Nick said it was the most enjoyable experience they had making an album.

― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Friday, 22 December 2023 21:01 (two years ago)

cool, I will definitely dig into it

― brimstead, Friday, 22 December 2023 21:08 (two years ago)

six months pass...

god i am really obsessed with forth

― ivy., Thursday, 11 July 2024 14:56 (one year ago)

there's that brief run of single material at the start ("love is noise" -> "rather be") which is probably the least interesting part of the record, even though they are perfectly fine songs, but the rest of it sits in this space of psychedelic jamming that i just can't get enough of. i want to call it my favorite verve album, even though i grew up on urban hymns, even though storm in heaven has also kind of taken over my life recently bc of its delayed phosphorescent guitar stuff, but forth legit feels like the best of both worlds to me, space + songcraft + incredible pocket grooves. "judas," "i see houses," "noise epic," "columbo," "appalachian springs".... all really astonishing imo

― ivy., Thursday, 11 July 2024 15:02 (one year ago)

loved forth since day one, even if at the time i mostly just listened to the front of the record. i've never really understood why so few people care about it, even when their pre-urban hymns albums percolate yet. cus as far as shoegaze reunion albums go...

"sit and wonder" is still my favourite though - all facets of the band get along well on that one. enjoying "rather be", as i do, despite it sounding pretty much like a richard solo track ("check the meaning" especially) probably exposes how i can never fully join the chorus of hate against richard solo, as much as i sometimes want to.

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Thursday, 11 July 2024 21:52 (one year ago)

great pop memory: watching the verve headline glastonbury with my tv with my dad - who owned urban hymns for the singles. after the umpteenth minute of lanky figures silhouetted against lights and fog to droning noise he dismissively said something to the extent of "they're on drugs. this music is drug rubbish. terrible"

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Thursday, 11 July 2024 22:00 (one year ago)

four months pass...

I wish Black Submarine had found its footing. I like the album reservedly... it's like they had all the elements but couldn't get momentum somehow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TRpuL4gu_s

― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 25 November 2024 10:18 (one year ago)

nine months pass...

god i am really obsessed with forth

― ivy., Thursday, July 11, 2024 10:56 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

it continues!!! one of my fave albums of all time at this point

― ivy., Wednesday, 10 September 2025 12:50 (eight months ago)

Yeah it's probably their best I'm thinking

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Wednesday, 10 September 2025 12:53 (eight months ago)

Ashcroft really, really sounds like Bono on this album

― fluffy tufts university (f. hazel), Wednesday, 10 September 2025 14:16 (eight months ago)

"numbness".... wtf is this song tbh....

― ivy., Wednesday, 10 September 2025 14:17 (eight months ago)

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