Urban Hymns (studio album) by The Verve

Bitter Sweet Symphony may quite possibly be my favorite song of all time. Sonnet, The Drugs Don't Work and Lucky Man are incredible as well. Overall though, I think this album is a bit overstuffed, especially towards the end, a lot of filler following absolute killer. If it were cut down to about 8 or 9 tracks at about 45 minutes, I'd probably talk about it as one of my all time favorites.

From zwiebel 12/31/2020 16:08

Bitter Sweet Symphony is one of the best tracks of the 90s but the rest is just meh

The brilliant stretch of songs at the beginning is unfortunately weighed down by the lackluster second half

Good record. Best songs are in the begin of the album. Lucky Man is the only great song in the second part.

You could see that the Verve were leading up to something special from their previous albums, but this knocked it out of the park. Any attempt at a follow up would be a dissapointment, so good job they didn't

Favorite Tracks:Bittersweet Symphony, Catching The Butterfly

From DeusExMackia 07/08/2019 15:02

Britpop's softer and most eloquent side. A songbook for the disenfranchised, Urban Hymns is beautiful from start to finish, capturing the disgruntled tinge of its contemporaries and presenting it in a conversational and delicate attire. It's a flawed masterpiece, too long and too soft for its own good in places, but it's hard to deny how reassuring and how comforting Richard Ashcroft's words are.

I have a lot of sentiment with this record. It came out just around the time I was born, and the CD copy I still play in the car all the time is the same as the one my parents bought shortly after its release; Lucky Man inadvertently soundtracked a lot of big moments in my life, and very aptly too I must add; the album has opened me up to a hell of a lot of other 90s alternative bands, and continues to shape my taste to this day.

It's for those reasons that I can forgive the slow pacing and dragged feel that others pick out. Urban Hymns packs the depth and approachability that I crave on occasion - a healthy dose of slightly dreamy alt rock, with enough 90s guitar riffs for all the family and a diorama of melancholic, politically tinged lyrics - and has been there for me enough to have earned a prized place among my collection. A flawed masterpiece for sure, but like all flawed masterpieces, it's what you see in it that matters most.

8.8/10

Top Tracks: "Bitter Sweet Symphony", "Sonnet", "The Drugs Don't Work"

The great songs are great, but everything seems to go on too long and the arrangements start to get confusing after a little while.

From Goliath 12/22/2018 10:58

Apart from the obvious track, Lucky Man, The Drugs Don't Work, Sonnet, The Rolling People and Come On are great tracks. The rest is listenable, but not Neon Wilderness which should have not appeared on this album.

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