The Verve's Urban Hymns: An Eclectic Mix of Rock, Folk and Psychedelia

kempes79: Joya de verdad si te gustó o te gusta este álbum no te puede faltar, sobre todo por su calidad de sonido, sobretodo por que merece mucho su material inédito que trae

Spain on Sep 26, 2023

Simon Partridge: Nothing negative to say about it.

United Kingdom on Aug 15, 2023

Gp84: Album que je voulais depuis longtemps cd ou vinyle vous aimerez cet album extraordinaire mais une qualité sonore incroyable y en a plus beaucoup de nos jours, ça vaut la peine !

Canada on Aug 02, 2023

Giovanni: Capolavoro. Ormai giunti alla fine dell’era britpop, i Verve firmano la loro opera più iconica e importante, lasciando un segno indelebile nella storia della musica.
Amazon ottimo in tutto.

Italy on Jul 09, 2023

K.: 5 stars is for the music, not the quality of the vinyl. I've been reluctantly waiting to buy this record, but hesitant due to the many reviews of defective, warped, skipping records. Received my copy today, and here are the pros/cons. One of the 2 records was slightly warped, but not enough to affect playback. None of the songs skipped, and there were no obvious defects. The outer sleeve was a little dinged and slightly bent back, even though it was shipped in a larger cardboard protector.

One odd thing was that they put a shipping label on the back of the record's shrinkwrap, so after peeling it off, I pretty much had to remove the entire shrinkwrap since it stretched it out and it looked saggy. I've never seen this on any vinyl record I've bought from Amazon, and don't understand why you would do this when there is a shipping label on the outside of the box. While there are no defects on my copy and the issues are minor enough to not exchange it, the overall mastering sounds a bit muffled. Not terrible, but it almost sounds like they took the CD mastering and burned it onto vinyl. For reference my TT set up is a Music Hall MMF5.3 w/ an Ortofon Blue cartridge. Overall, I'm...

United States on Sep 19, 2019

Sean P.Sean P.: First gotta say The Verve are my absolute favorite band, so when I saw the announcement for this deluxe edition I was super excited. The price seems right for what you get and the quality/presentation. It's all packaged very nicely. First on top is a hard cover book with interesting comments on making the album and touring at the time from all of the band members along with some nice photos of the band. Then there are a couple of postcards, and a poster(of the album cover). Finally the main deal the music. 4 CD's and 1 DVD. The remastered tracks sound great to me but I'll admit I'm nowhere near a audiophile. What really excited me the most about this set was the live material. I think The Verve sound even better live than on the albums. Up until now pretty much the only official release of live material was the Haigh Hall concert back in the late 90's on VHS. You can easily find most of it online even just on YouTube but the quality is terriable. Same goes for the large majority of the other live material/video from this time in the bands history. Hearing these live tracks on a official release is a night and day difference. It sounds SO good. The DVD is quite nice as well. You...

United States on Oct 09, 2017

Kabalabonga: Suddenly becoming one of the most universally recognizable tracks of the year of its release almost directly after it dropped (1997),"Bittersweet Symphony" gained part of its ubiquity due not only to the insanely pronounced hook driving the melody of the track, but also due to the appropriation by copyright over the track itself by the former manager of the Rolling Stones (thanks to an orchestrated section of "The Last Time" being lifted to provide saturative contrast), who then proceeded to license it to provide a catchy melody for a television advertisement. Fortunately for The Verve, those who came for " Bittersweet Symphony" stayed for the other tracks populating the running order of "Urban Hymns", the last CD the band would record during the '90's, and in a myriad of ways, its most refined, though not, perhaps, its definitive statement as a recording entity.

No longer adhering to lengthy build-ups toward explosive crescendos that marked much if their earlier material, including a sizable amount of what was recorded for their full-length debut, "A Storm In Heaven" itself a quasi- shoe gazing masterpiece, Nick McCabe and Richard Ashcroft don't mine peaks and valleys...

United States on Dec 11, 2012

Michael Schäfer: "Bitter sweet symphony" - schon der Titel des Openers zu diesem gleichermaßen hochmodernen wie traditionell-folkloristisch angehauchten Rock-Album gibt die Richtung für das Album vor.
Bittersüß, wie das Leben, wie die Liebe - unvorstellbar, wie man dem fühlenden Menschen mit Rock-Musik tiefer und treffender aus der Seele sprechen kann als es hier auf "Urban hymns" der Fall ist.
"I need to hear some sounds that recognize the pain in me" heißt es im ersten Stück, für das der geniale Richard Ashcroft ein Jagger/Richards-Motiv aufgriff, einen eigenen Text hinzufügte und mit seinen Leuten von der Arrangement-Abteilung eine atemberaubende Kombination aus Klassik und Rock herstellte;
ich brauche es, dass man meinen Schmerz versteht, ich muss mich in den bittersten Momenten ausdrücken. An anderer Stelle heißt es hingegen: "I let the melody shine, let it cleanse my mind, I feel free now" - das fasst schon zu Beginn perfekt die heilende Wirkung dieser Musik zusammen.
Man betrachte "Sonnet" und "The drugs don't work" - prägnante Riffs zelebriert von einer wahren Harfe von Rhythmusgitarre, ein stetiger, aber dezenter Rockbeat, butterweiche, immerzu passende...

Germany on Sep 28, 2004