The Official Needles and Grooves 1001 Album Generator Project (aka Preachin’ about the Preachers if today’s selection sucks)

Lee Newman said:
I remember liking A Northern Soul. I know Bittersweet Symphony, I don’t think I’ve ever heard this album though.
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5/5 for me. It's an album I didn't know until I bought it on vinyl, although "Sonnet" is one of my favorite songs of all time.

I don't think there's a bad song on it, and it's become one of my most-spun records.

"Bittersweet Symphony", "Sonnet", "Lucky Man" and "The Drugs Don't Work" were all singles.
 
I loved the first two Verve-albums when they came out, and I remember listening to this a lot as well back then. It's a bit of mess though. The four singles were all huge radio hits and are so polished that if you just listen to those, you could be forgiven for thinking you've accidentally put on a Robbie Williams-album (although with better lyrics and...yeah, "verve" I guess). The rest of the album seems like it comes from a different band when they indulge in the same melodic-but-noisy psychadelica as they do on their debut, only less intense. I friend of mine once called The Verve "a slightly more pretentious Oasis", which in the case of this album actually isn't that far off.

I suspect I will still think A Storm in Heaven and A Northern Soul are better albums and I intend to relisten to those as well today. But I still really like this, and I'm glad to have listened to it again today for the first time in years. Although I actually think Robbie Williams has his moments too, so what do I know?

Score; 4/5
 
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Lee Newman said:
8/28/23
View attachment 180965
The Verve - Urban Hymns



www.allmusic.com

Urban Hymns - The Verve | Album | AllMusic

Urban Hymns by The Verve released in 1997. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.
www.allmusic.com www.allmusic.com
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Few thoughts about this one:

1. "Sonnet" is as amazing on the thousandth listen as it is the first
2. The B-sides are as great as the album. I remember in high school all of my friends championed a song called "So Sister" that I still don't understand why it was left off
3. "The Rolling People" and "Come On" are fantastic sprawls and I wish there were more of them on this album. I love how the songs sound in their condensed, polished forms, I just long for their stretches
4. Go check out Northern Soul and A Storm In Heaven if you like this album, they are as great of not somewhat more so (depending on who is listening)
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
This book really should be called “The 2nd or 3rd best Records by Bands You Like”
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I prefer A Northern Soul too, History is an all time favourite song, but I kinda get why this one was picked. For a quite weird band of stoners with a propensity for implosion it was really fucking massive at the time, you couldn’t escape them in Britain for a good few years around its release.

It’s actually a bit like their mates from across Greater Manchester Oasis in that it’s album with all the big singles everyone knows from the radio that overshadows the much better album that came before.
 
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Joe Mac said:
I prefer A Northern Soul too, History is an all time favourite song, but I kinda get why this one was picked. For a quite weird band of stoners with a propensity for implosion it was really fucking massive at the time, you couldn’t escape them in Britain for a good few years around its release.

It’s actually a bit like their mates from across Greater Manchester Oasis in that it’s album with all the big singles everyone knows from the radio that overshadows the much better album that came before.
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History is probably my favourite Verve single but this is definitely my favourite of their albums.

Re: Oasis, I agree the debut is best but frankly the first two are so far ahead of the rest, I tend to see them as somewhat conjoined (alongside the b-sides)
 
Joe Mac said:
I prefer A Northern Soul too, History is an all time favourite song, but I kinda get why this one was picked. For a quite weird band of stoners with a propensity for implosion it was really fucking massive at the time, you couldn’t escape them in Britain for a good few years around its release.

It’s actually a bit like their mates from across Greater Manchester Oasis in that it’s album with all the big singles everyone knows from the radio that overshadows the much better album that came before.
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Always felt that this album they were really trying for the a home run. It is a good record but I found the Storm and Northern Soul both feel more cohesive to me. Still like it after all these years 4/5
 
Lee Newman said:
8/28/23
View attachment 180965
The Verve - Urban Hymns



www.allmusic.com

Urban Hymns - The Verve | Album | AllMusic

Urban Hymns by The Verve released in 1997. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.
www.allmusic.com www.allmusic.com
Click to expand...

Love this album. I prefer the shoegaze sound of the first 2 but there's some great catchy britpop on this one. My one Richard Ashcroft memory is when I saw him open for Coldplay I guess someone might have been heckling him in the front row and as the opening line of "Bittersweet Symphony" was playing he started shouting back at them "Do you know what it's like to write a classic??????" So humble. 5/5 just for that memory.
 
dbarila said:
Love this album. I prefer the shoegaze sound of the first 2 but there's some great catchy britpop on this one. My one Richard Ashcroft memory is when I saw him open for Coldplay I guess someone might have been heckling him in the front row and as the opening line of "Bittersweet Symphony" was playing he started shouting back at them "Do you know what it's like to write a classic??????" So humble. 5/5 just for that memory.
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Actual rating 4/5. Some strong tracks to the start. Everything after "Lucky Man" seems a little unnecessary though.
 
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