REVIEW: The Verve, Urban Hymns (Virgin)
- Tracey Bleile
The music industry is currently fighting off one of its more massive slumps and many setbacks in the quest to not only find acts that have the talent to create great music, but to have it happen on a regular basis ever after. It is at least a clear turn for the good when a band that broke up finds their way back together stronger than ever, and sends out a release that is clearly a step forward while also packing an emotional wallop - it bodes well for everyone involved. The success-cut-short story of Britain's premiere beautiful noise/shoegazers The Verve, was nothing short of a tragedy when they crashed and burned in late 1995, quitting right in the middle of their tour for Northern Soul . Melodramatic? Maybe. Cliched? Probably. But even the most cynical think-they've-heard-it-all types will find it difficult to not be moved by the Verve's interpretation of what it's like to re-join life in progress.
With the release of Urban Hymns - I dare say the Verve sound almost...happy? Well, Richard Ashcroft and Nick McCabe have mended their ways and their relationship, Simon Jones and Peter Salisbury are still the thunder and lightning of the storm, and they've added a second guitarist, Simon Tong. So maybe they aren't exactly leaping up and down, but after the overweening sadness of Northern , Urban Hymns feels like their way of giving thanks for just being alive. From the opening swells of sonic strings and electronic bird trills in the lead track/first single "Bitter Sweet Symphony" , you gain an immediate sense that dealing with the experiences of real life, both good and painful, is better than the agony and lack of control that drugs only sharpen. Ashcroft's vocals have moved away from the keening warble so prevalent on previous releases, and have extended into a gentle Neil Finn/Crowded House tenor on many of the tracks. Even when he moves into the higher ranges, it doesn't seem so painful - just damn powerful. The second single, an acoustic and simple testament to getting sober, "The Drugs Don't Work" , says it all.
Urban Hymns is another lengthy effort, over 75 minutes (which includes hidden tracks), but there's a lot more going on than their trademark ethereal painting-with-sounds. Oh, never fear, it's got the known-quantity Verve - great orchestral swellings of keyboards and effects with Ashcroft rising and falling over the melody, which are consistent with what drew people to the band in the first place. What gives this release validity are the songs that move far away from this norm. Their worth is proved with the experimentation of everything from a trippy, glammy groove in "The Rolling People" which, even though a seven minute song, flows and pounds with all the insistence and energy of a high tide - to the bouncy staccato backbone of "This Time" .
The Verve then proceeds to take on the Brit-pop sound currently being defined by certain bands who shall remain nameless (due to far too much publicity as it is), and stamps their own distinctive emotion all over the second half of the disc, and leave you stunned with their ability to do so much with so little. To this end, the naked longing in a string of moody, simply arranged songs with much toned-down guitars finds that they can communicate their feelings just as well as when they deliver one of their big, sweeping pieces. From "Space and Time" (if I had a vote, I'd say make this a single) to "Lucky Man" , Ashcroft does indeed sound like a supplicant giving thanks to the higher power guiding him. In love and in music, he has found his calling.
The closing track "Come On" blends a little bit of the old and new, psychedelic and heavy and echoey and swoony - to Ashcroft's voice soaring and beckoning from above, and then barking out defiantly 'Fuck you!', railing against whatever might hold him down. Given the soundtrack feel of this disc, it is fitting that it is the end credits. Anger, love, passion, hope, and for once, a sense of purpose, even if you know life ain't so great all the time. How's that for a real life happy ending?
