As a diehard Verve fan, I definitely understand that Urban Hymns was in some ways a fundamental betrayal of the incredible, oceanic sound of their previous work. It's essentially an Ashcroft solo album with some flourishes and a few odd contributions from the real core essence of the band. The most brilliantly representative tracks, like Echo Bass and The Longest Day, were bafflingly exiled to b-side status.runcible wrote:I can't even begin to compare it to Urban Hymns, an album I was SO excited about and whose praise I just cannot fathom. I kept playing it and bar 4 tracks it's largely awful. Yet when Pills 'n' Thrills came out my excitement was similar but it delivered everything I wanted it to.
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Bittersweet Symphony, Rolling People, Catching The Butterfly and Come On - all absolutely outstanding songs. BSS is one of the greatest singles ever released. Sonnet, Drugs Don't Work, Weeping Willow and This Time are all appalling - embarassing even. Velvet Morning sounds like some horrible attempt at copying Prince's Purple Rain (another track I loathe) and must rate as the worst thing I've heard by them (I didn't bother with Forth). I quite like Lucky Man having said all that. So there's no chance of us agreeing on that album as you say...
But that doesn't mean that it isn't an epic, masterful album in and of itself. I'm listening to One Day right now, which is probably the weakest track on the album, and by the time you get to the multitracked vocal outro Ashcroft has sold it and it's fairly compelling. No, it's not A Northern Soul, but it has an organic grace far beyond Oasis and the norm. Many of the other tracks you slate are pretty excellent too, Weeping Willow and This Time in particular. I freely admit that Velvet Morning is kind of neutered, but it's a very enjoyable zeitgeisty kinda 90s track. Sonnet is a classic, chiseled George Harrison-esque pop song that is almost perfectly executed in my opinion. And I actually find Rolling People, Come On, and especially Drugs Don't Work almost unlistenable next to the incomparably superior demos and live takes, but still I must admit they are well executed on the released album. There's a very good reason it was a mammoth bestseller, which I can admit despite having more regard for most of their other work.
Runcible, I would suggest you give Forth (and the other tracks released during the reunion) a thoughtful listen. There is some rustiness there, and in typical egotistical form Ashcroft didn't quite square the difference between Verve and his lukewarm solo career. But there are some really undeniable tracks, from Sit & Wonder and Love Is Noise to Rather Be and Noise Epic, the epic closers Columbo and Appalachian Springs to the obscure Ma Ma Soul, Muhammad Ali, All Night Long, and Blue Pacific Ocean. Not to mention the cool 14-minute Thaw Session jam that launched the reunion.
A lot of the Verve magic that I agree is largely missing from Urban Hymns does show up periodically on Forth. If you love the old stuff it's definitely worth a listen. And even though Urban Hymns is a step down from Verve's earlier work, it's still a very very good album. And the b-sides are pretty fantastic, too.