The Verve rose revitalized from their own ashes to produce their most successful album with this sprawling celestial paean to new possibilities. Just as their album 'A Northern Soul' was beginning to take off, lead singer Richard Ashcroft broke up the band only to reform it weeks later without guitarist Nick McCabe. They worked briefly with Suede guitarist Bernard Butler before bringing in former schoolmate Simon Tong. They recorded a few songs with Martin "Youth" Glover producing; but the sound wasn't working for Ashcroft and he decided that they needed to get McCabe back into the fold. Simon Jones recalls: "After a few months it became very apparent that there wasn't much point recording the music without Nick, because people would be asking `So what are you going to be called?'." Ashcroft adds: "Instinctively the time came to ring Nick up and say let's do it. I knew I was right...because in a week we were in a room, laughing about it all."
McCabe looks back on the separation and Ashcroft's insecurity: "Everybody in Wigan had heard all this stuff and I hadn't heard anything. People were sort of protecting me from it. But everybody had all the tapes from all the sessions so far. Basically what I was hearing from people was that it was like very song based, almost like a country rock thing...He needs somebody to be either more stressed out then him or to argue with him. So I'm thinkin, 'He's got this record here and he thinks it's a big stadium record and it's got to be weirder, get the weird bloke back in. You know, he made all those funny noises and people will think we're crazy and experimental.' So he gets me back and it's some sort of convoluted attempt to inject a bit of creditability in it. Then it's a really weird drugs record...then the record came out and he got all these accolades and slaps on the back and he's like, 'Well, what was I worrying about?'"
Ashcroft admits: "Oh yeah, I mean we had our problems, no one's denying that. When the group split up I knew that we needed some breathing space, I just didn't know quite how things were going to work out. We weren't communicating at all: things just weren't going to plan...the point is, we had to split. I couldn't lie any more. I don't like living a lie and we had to do it. When we were recording Northern Soul we went into the scary zone, to places where it takes a long time to come to terms with what went on there...and that time away, that 18 months or whatever it is has given us the strength to last another 10 years. It's helped beyond recognition. I tell ya, it's been the longest fuckin' road I've ever been down. The thing is, I love Nick McCabe, and I never want to be in a band if he's not playing the guitar. I hope he thinks the same way about me. We just needed that time to realise it... The point is, now we're back in this situation and the only thing to do is infiltrate it and take what's ours...There's a darker side to this country, and I'm its flag-bearer."
They switched producers to Chris Potter and spent seven months at Olympic Studios in London re-recording most of the tracks with Ashcroft on vocals and guitar, McCabe on lead guitar, Jones on bass guitar, Peter Salisbury on drums, and Simon Tong on guitar and keyboards. McCabe considers: "The best stuff we did really was spur-of-the-moment stuff. Because I've got a thing about rooms, I think a lot of stuff that we wrote was influenced by the very room that we were in. I got sucked into them. Two months later I thought, 'That's why the record doesn't sound right, because we can't get the room anymore.' We've got like fifty grand worth of reverbs and Mexican shit...I spent like seven months on the record. Basically the key tracks were recorded from scratch, but some of them were already there...Chris Potter was just a classic gentleman, a nice bloke. Sometimes he gets a bit touchy, though."
Jones explains: "It's simple: when we play live, we'll be jamming -- we can play together. We're not musos but we have got an instinctive way of playing music together. The chemistry is massive. We know having broken up and gone through all that... the 18 months in the wilderness gave us some perspective on how important music was to all of us, y'know, we all had to come to terms with The Verve split-up. None of us could come to terms with it. That's why we got back together, because we knew how important it was."
'Urban Hymns' went to number twenty-three in the US; sixteen in the Netherlands; fifteen in Canada; thirteen in Switzerland; eleven in Belgium and Germany; nine in Australia, Austria, and France; four in Finland and Norway; and number one in New Zealand, Sweden, and the UK.
http://www.theverveonline.com/
"Bitter Sweet Symphony" was a worldwide smash, going to number thirty-seven in Germany; twenty-one in Belgium; sixteen in France; fifteen in Austria, Switzerland, and New Zealand; fourteen in the Netherlands; twelve in the US; eleven in Australia; ten in Sweden; nine in Norway; six in Finland; five in Canada; four on the US alternative chart; three in Ireland; two in Italy and the UK; and number one on the Canadian alternative chart.
Ashcroft says it's about: "The whole idea of how much can we break outside the code which we have been given by our ancestors, family, where we're born, our environment, how far can you get out of that. Is it inevitable that all my father's traits are going to start coming out of me in any given situation. It's just about that feeling of sometimes being completely and utterly trapped and having your life written for you."
The song sampled an orchestral arrangement of 'Last Time' by the Rolling Stones and their former manager Allen Klein sued for all royalties. Jones says: "We were told it was going to be a 50/50 split, and then they saw how well the record was doing. They rung up and said we want 100 per cent or take it out of the shops, you don't have much choice." Ashcroft adds: "Obviously at first my reaction...I wanted to smash a few doors down. But then you think at the end of the day that song, whoever owns it, we know it's us...We've got to go beyond that and realize that song has opened up many doors around the world for us, where people don't know our story about breaking up, they just connected with it."
'Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life
Try to make ends meet
You're a slave to money then you die
I'll take you down the only road I've ever been down
You know the one that takes you to the places where all the veins meet yeah,
No change, I can't change
I can't change, I can't change
But I'm here in my mold
I am here in my mold
But I'm a million different people from one day to the next
I can't change my mold
No, no, no, no, no
Well I never pray
But tonight I'm on my knees yeah
I need to hear some sounds that recognize the pain in me, yeah
I let the melody shine, let it cleanse my mind, I feel free now
But the airways are clean and there's nobody singing to me now
No change, I can't change
I can't change, I can't change
But I'm here in my mold
I am here in my mold
And I'm a million different people from one day to the next
I can't change my mold
No, no, no, no, no
I can't change
I can't change
'Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life
Try to make ends meet
Try to find some money then you die
I'll take you down the only road I've ever been down
You know the one that takes you to the places where all the things meet yeah
You know I can't change, I can't change
I can't change, I can't change
But I'm here in my mold
I am here in my mold
And I'm a million different people from one day to the next
I can't change my mold
No, no, no, no, no
I can't change my mold
no, no, no, no, no,
I can't change
Can't change my body, no, no, no
I'll take you down the only road I've ever been down
I'll take you down the only road I've ever been down
Have you ever been down?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lyu1KKwC74
"The Drugs Don't Work" went to eighty-seven in Germany, seventy-two in France, sixty-one in the Netherlands, twenty-two in Australia, eighteen in Sweden, thirteen in Norway, ten in New Zealand, nine in Finland, three in Ireland, and number one in the UK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToQ0n3itoII
"Lucky Man" hit eighty-nine in Germany; eighty-eight in France; sixty in Australia; thirty-eight in New Zealand; twenty-five in Canada; sixteen in Ireland, Finland, and the US alternative chart; and seven on the Canadian alternative chart and in the UK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QsFNqL8eSc
"Sonnet" charted at eighty-three in Australia, seventy-four, and forty-three in New Zealand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2vGa-yLiso
'Urban Hymns'
full album:
All songs written by Richard Ashcroft, except where noted. Produced by The Verve and Youth, except where noted.
1. "Bitter Sweet Symphony" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ashcroft) 5:58
2. "Sonnet" 4:21
3. "The Rolling People" (The Verve) produced by The Verve and Chris Potter 7:01
4. "The Drugs Don't Work" 5:05
5. "Catching the Butterfly" (The Verve) produced by The Verve and Chris Potter 6:26
6. "Neon Wilderness" (Nick McCabe, The Verve) produced by The Verve and Chris Potter 2:37
7. "Space and Time" produced by The Verve and Chris Potter 5:36
8. "Weeping Willow" produced by The Verve and Chris Potter 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" (The Verve) produced by The Verve and Chris Potter 15:15
"Come On"
[silence]
"Deep Freeze"
"Bitter Sweet Symphony" (Ashcroft) – 0:00
"Sonnet" (Ashcroft) – 5:58
"The Rolling People" – 10:19
"The Drugs Don't Work" (Ashcroft) - 17:22
"Catching the butterfly" – 22:27
"Neon Wilderness" (McCabe/Verve) - 28:53
"Space and Time" (Ashcroft) – 31:31
"Weeping Willow" (Ashcroft) – 37:08
"Lucky Man" (Ashcroft) – 41:58
"One Day" (Ashcroft) – 46:51
"This Time" (Ashcroft) – 51:55
"Velvet Morning" (Ashcroft) – 55:46
"Come On" – 1:00:43
"Deep freeze", (hidden track) 1:07:17
B SIDES
"Life's An Ocean" (live) 1:09:31
"Lord I Guess I'll Never Know" (Ashcroft) 1:15:04
"Country Song" 1:19:58
"So Sister" (Ashcroft) 1:27:52
"Echo Bass" 1:32:04
"Three Steps" (Ashcroft) 1:38:44
"The Crab" (Ashcroft) 1:43:50
"Stamped" 1:49:29
"Never Wanna See You Cry" (Ashcroft) 1:55:03
"MSG" 1:59:36
"The Longest Day" 2:06:58
"drugs don't work" (demo) 2:14:19
00:00 "Bitter Sweet Symphony"
05:59 "Sonnet"
10:21 "The Rolling People"
17:23 "The Drugs Don't Work"
22:28 "Catching the Butterfly"
28:55 "Neon Wilderness"
31:32 "Space and Time"
37:08 "Weeping Willow"
42:00 "Lucky Man"
46:52 "One Day"
51:56 "This Time"
55:47 "Velvet Morning"
1:00:45 "Come On"
1:07:20 (silence)
1:13:45 "Deep Freeze"
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