29th September - The Verve's Urban Hymns

Artist – Album: The Verve – Urban Hymns

Released:  29^th September 1997

Sounds Like: 15 bitter-sweet symphonies

Sorry for the briefer blog posts this weekend; I’ve had a bit of jam-packed weekend. Yesterday I was at a ball (ha, a ball, me!), whilst today I travelled back from Nottingham (where, coincidentally, I met a sprightly octogenarian who has been serving in the navy since 1943, and then I got caught up in a huge anti-Conservative Party march down Manchester’s Oxford Road). All of this extra-curricular activity has left me a bit bushed so I’m afraid that this is the best we can do:

The Verve broke up in 1996, and so naturally they released one of the greatest British albums of all time in 1997. Whether it be tub-thumping anthems (‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’, ‘Lucky Man’ and ‘Velvet Morning’), introspective ballads (‘Sonnet’ and ‘One Day’) and psychedelic raves (‘Catching the Butterfly’) Urban Hymns forged exceptional songs with stunning alacrity.

They broke up again in 1999, but since then we’ve not had another masterpiece. Which is plain inconsistent.

That’ll do pig.

Albumaday... rating: 9/10

1.       Bitter Sweet Symphony – 5:58

2.       Sonnet – 4:21

3.       The Rolling People – 7:01

4.       The Drugs Don’t Work – 5:05

5.       Catching the Butterfly – 6:26

6.       Neon Wilderness – 2:37

7.       Space and Time – 5:36

8.       Weeping Willow – 4:49

9.       Lucky Man – 4:53

10.   One Day – 5:03

11.   This Time – 3:50

12.   Velvet Morning – 4:57

13.   Come On – 15:15

Listen to ‘Sonnet’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2vGa-yLiso

Also released on 29^th September:

1977: Billy Joel – The Stranger

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1998: Outkast – Aquemini

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2003: Muse - Absolution