Urban Hymns - classic or dud?

"Less a Verve album than a Richard Ashcroft one"

doesn't make me want to rip my ears off = it is more a Verve album than a Richard Ashcroft solo album.

http://www.an-irrational-domain.net/images/youth/new1.JPG

Truthfully, I'd say Urban Hymns is a bit overrated, but....it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Helps that you've been hearing it a lot recently, of course. ;-)

Why can't you see
That nature has its way of warning (I always thought it was wanting ?)me
Eyes open wide
Looking at the heavens with a tear in my eye

Trying to make ends meet , you're a slave to the money then you die

When morning breaks
We hide our eyes and our love's aching
Nothing's strange

And the world don't stop
There is no time for cracking up
Believe me friend
'Cause when freedom comes
I'll be long gone
You know it has to end

I dunno about you, but these work for me, they seem to hit the nail on the head, as it were (more proof if it were needed that rock journalism is best left to others)

Of course its not the same or maybe not as good as A northern soul or A storm in heaven, apples and oranges.
And of course there are weaknesses, but hey, you dont get a ziggy stardust every day.

I really like the latest Ashcroft album, too, quite baffled at the slatingit got in the press.

when i was 17 we saw verve in a service station off the M62, theyd played a gig in sheffield. we were 50-50 on that or going to something else. we went to the other thing

so, dilated pupil schoolkid cru wandering up the verve at 4am going "wow, verve man, we were going to go and see you tonight but we decided to go and get fucked and see Joey Beltram instead"

ahem

argh!

eh?

well the thing about 'The Drugs Dont Work' is, it was knocked off the number 1 spot by the true worst record of the 90s

Bitter Sweet Symphony was an incredibly weak song buoyed along by a great string line.

(I did think DDW was good on a drunken first late-night hearing, though I've heard it drunk many times since and have been horrified. The whole incident frightens me a little, like a minor encounter with the supernatural.)

I haven't heard any other tracks from the new Richard Ashcroft album, but "Check The Meaning" was unspeakable.

*scratches head*...why this song, I wonder? *ponders*

He's also got his artwork sussed - brilliant covers for all the latest stuff.

oh you say that like it's a BAD thing! eh, ashcroft's solo stuff sucks the shit out of a horses ass, mind.

"Weighing in at a burdensome 55 minutes over just ten tracks, one knows Human Conditions is going to be a slog as soon as it enters the CD player. Opening track ‘Check The Meaning’ only serves to confirm this. Self-consciously epic and meaningful, strings and horns are applied to its tepid, stagnant tempo like polish to a turd while Ashcroft ponders how much more wise and weary he is than everybody else, his increasingly Americanised drawl utterly bereft of feeling. “Can you hear what I’m sayin’?” he asks, “got my mind meditatin’ on love,” and we can only conclude that meditatin’ on love must be a very dull and ponderous thing to do. Towards the end there is a spoken word piece about “holes in the sky” and “Jesus Christ” and “buying time.” Had he not wasted 8 minutes on this ego-massaging dirge he might have saved himself money and his listeners annoyance."

Ashcroft has lived out his usefullness - he should be put down now.

I listened to it on New Year's Eve after avoiding it for ages. It was listenable, it was fine. The weaknesses are clear - eg. bad lyrics that think they're good, and are thus made even worse - but I find them surmountable. I think the 4 45s off it are all good; best of all is probably 'Lucky Man'. It has a lot of tunes that turn out somehow to be catchy or effective. And somehow it seems to connect to the England of its time, though I'm not sure I can explain that idea.

Never thought much of The Verve's earlier stuff either. The last track on A Storm in Heaven was alright if memory serves me correctly, and History and On Your Own are the only good points of a Northern Soul.

Revisiting this tonight - the highlights still sound utterly wonderful to me: 'The Rolling People', 'Catching the Butterfly', 'Come On', 'This Time' etc. but perhaps it could have had about 20 minutes shaved off it, or a couple of the Ashcroft-written acoustic ballads.

I listened to it once. Other than the four singles it sounded very "landfill indie".

I listened to it once. Other than the four singles it sounded very "landfill indie".

harsh.
even the worse parts of this album are leagues above the landfil era shit.

If this is the album with Bittersweet Symphony then DUD. Should be hanged the that one. It's like the "Silent Lucidity" of brindie

for

What Mark E said - don't confuse this album with stuff like The Man Who or what "landfill indie" actually is, which is the flurry of subpar bands that got signed post-2006 by desperate record companies looking for the next Arctic Monkeys. This album has nothing to do with any of that.

Anyhow, 'The Rolling People' and 'Catching the Butterfly' weren't singles, are the best things on this record by miles and sound nothing like what you're implying.

And yes, this is the one with 'Bittersweet Symphony' on it - no, it's not their best record, and no I don't consider it to be their defining period - that would be A Storm in Heaven plus stuff like 'All in the Mind', 'Gravity Grave' and 'She's a Superstar' - but it's still a very good record in its own right, just one which is a touch too long.

great great album, their best album. favorite is "weeping willow".

What Mark E said - don't confuse this album with stuff like The Man Who or what "landfill indie" actually is, which is the flurry of subpar bands that got signed post-2006 by desperate record companies looking for the next Arctic Monkeys. This album has nothing to do with any of that.

people used the term landfill indy pre-2006.

i don't have any time for this album. the psychedelic early verve stuff is worthy of attention but this just washes over me.

I heard literally nobody use the term until either 2008 or 2009. First mention of it on ILX is 2008.

It was Andrew Harrison who coined it not sure when however

Ah yeah, I first saw it in Word Magazine in either 2008 or 2009 and I'm sure it was an Andrew Harrison article. It was used to refer to the likes of The Wombats, The Pigeon Detectives, Scouting For Girls etc.

i went to uni with AH.
i taught him all he knows.
fact.
(kind of)

Top five album of all time easy I'd say

knew you'd be right on this one

I know and am aware what landfill indie is, I was just saying that it sounded like it. Like some sort of predecessor. I'm willing to say this album isn't really my type of thing anyway, though.

Well, you're wrong - but it's not your thing, that's fair enough.

In terms of overall songwriting quality, I don’t think it’s disingenous to describe this as a precursor to indie landfill. Ashcroft is the definition of a lumpen songwriter; predictable, overly serious, lacking in melodic variety. But the playing behind it is, for much of UH, leagues and leagues away from what anyone who I’d immediately think of as indie landfill could manage. Scouting For Girls aren’t from the same universe as Catching The Butterfly, even if they are descended from Sonnet.

Oh of course I wasn't talking about bands like Scouting For Girls, more bands like Glasvegas and Razorlight!

To be honest, on my one listen there was nothing that stood out either in a good or bad way so I can't really give anymore of an opinion than "this is rubbish". It felt like listening to dead air.

XP that's true re playing

But i also like his singing and songs

What a result for me

"oh Myyyy Myyyy"

gun-to-head.jpg

It's actually honnnhhhhh mnynnnnhhh mnynnnnhhh fyi

yeah thanks for that.

Oh of course I wasn't talking about bands like Scouting For Girls, more bands like Glasvegas and Razorlight!

You'd still be wrong!

Scouting For Girls aren’t from the same universe as Catching The Butterfly, even if they are descended from Sonnet.

― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Saturday, November 25, 2017 8:14 AM (eight hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hmmyeah, I don't think is right, unless you mean they're so far down the family tree that they're as far away from what they've descended from as possible.

The songwriting is excellent on this album wtf
yeah it's not a bunch of psychedelic bullshit, or clever wordplay it's just a dude telling it like it is.

someone called 'Iai' on rateyourmusic used the term 'landfill indie' on 25 June 2005 (re: the second Libertines album)

And that's genuinely tragic, because it was clear as crystal from day one that magazine editors all over the country were licking their lips at the prospect of a martyr, an English Cobain, somebody to mythologize so they could somehow elevate this wave of landfill indie into something more than a fleeting, deeply annoying trend.

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/the_libertines/the_libertines/

to be serious, i completely understand the hate for this album. i think the songwriting is a hell of a lot better than most of the other brooding british shit of its ilk.

minuses:
less jamming, less mccabe noodling
more ashcroft*
not as break-beat-y
production is more "regular" sounding

pluses:
much improved songwriting
beautiful production
still do the space rock jam outs

*i don't mind ashcroft (american here)

When you edit reviews on RYM, I think it retains the date of the original review, so it's a bit difficult to use dates of RYM reviews in that way.

(x-post)

Brimstead OTM. This is a beautifully produced record. It makes Owen Morris' work on A Northern Soul sound incredibly amateurish.

This is a beautifully produced record.

this is a massive reason the album works for me.
its gorgeous sounding.
i can take a lot of the excess purely down to the fact it sounds sooo good.

as they took his soul they stole his pride, iirc

“velvet morning” is the most beautiful song in the world

i mean i only ever think that when i’m listening to this record, but i’ve always loved it

The Drugs Dont Work is a perfect song how could anyone hate it?

i will admit that i was a huge Verve fan and i think i saw the first show they ever played in America in Hollywood. still love all three pre-break up albums. i actually saw Richard Ashcroft this year at the Wiltern in Hollywood and he was great, blew me away as i was expected to be bored. Richard really, really loves his craft and believes in what he does that it just radiates, it's really hard not to root for the guy.

if scott walker sang the drugs don't work in 1970 it would be on a bunch of ilm lists

“velvet morning” is the most beautiful song in the world

― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Wednesday, November 29, 2017 5:32 PM (fifty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

lol xp otm

*scratches chin* It was so long since I'd heard the album I had to go back and relisten to "Velvet Morning" to remember how it goes. Then it all came back to me once his vocals kicked in.

I pretty much still stand by my take way up top. From a distance of course everything collapses together, UH just seems like something of a piece from 1997, a very earnest sounding year.

I love Velvet Morning unreservedly. I think, secretly, and as much as I think he's a twat with a messiah complex a mile wide, I want Ashcroft to be full of messianic fervour and belief. Velvet Morning is the last time I even remotely believed him.

“velvet morning” is the most beautiful song in the world

― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Wednesday, November 29, 2017 5:32 PM (fifty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

My fave as well, wish they'd done more in that space country vibe

“this time” is like a jazz/r&b cover of a breakbeat track that doesn’t exist and it is purely driven bliss

This thread should have been called "Classic or Drugs Don't Work".

this album is silly but i like it a lot

I'm at ~ 18,500 posts, it would be very hard for me to start that over, respect.

I bought Verve's first single when it came out and grew more and more of a fan as it was happening. I adore this album but sort of get the hate. I also probably saw them around eight times.

*bump*

The bumps don’t work