The Verve split in 1995 after two albums and a particularly disastrous, hedonistic American tour. When Brit-pop icons
Oasis championed their cause and wrote a song, "Cast No Shadow," about the group's charismatic singer, "Mad" Richard Ashcroft, the Verve regrouped and surprised all by delivering one of the great British rock albums of the late 1990s. A northern English five-piece that borrows from '60s rock and psychedelia while recalling '80s bands like
Echo and the Bunnymen and Aztec Camera, the Verve wore their influences prominently on
Urban Hymns' opening hit single, "Bittersweet Symphony," which used a sample from a Rolling Stones orchestral album as its foundation and catapulted the album to prominence and platinum sales. This classic rock stomp epitomized the re-formed band's newly found confidence with its emotional power, which featured Ashcroft singing with unequivocal passion of life's painfully simple struggles underneath those soaring strings. Nothing else on
Urban Hymns quite matches the majesty of "Bittersweet Symphony" but plenty of songs challenge, especially the ballad "The Drugs Don't Work," the yearning mid-tempo love songs "Sonnet" and "Lucky Man," and the raucous finale "Come On."
