Urban Hymns

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Urban Hymns was a Britpop album released on September 29, 1997 by British rock band The Verve. After the release of the band's previous album, A Northern Soul, The Verve broke up due to growing tensions between Richard Ashcroft and Nick McCabe. They reunited in 1996 (see 1996 in music) and recorded Urban Hymns, which earned nearly unanimous critical praise upon its release and went on to become one of the biggest selling albums of the year largely on the strength of the international chart-topper "Bitter Sweet Symphony".

The Verve was known for their music's complex, immersive sonic textures, best exemplified in the aforementioned "Symphony", which used a reversed and repeated sample from an orchestra performing the Rolling Stones' song, "The Last Time", to form the musical basis for the song. "Bitter Sweet Symphony" was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, and remains the band's most well known song, although it curiously never made it to the top of the charts in the band's native UK. "The Drugs Don't Work", the band's only UK #1, has become a concert staple for jam bands and other groups, including Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals. The rest of the album alternates between wistful ballads like "Sonnet" and "Space And Time", spacey grooves like "Catching The Butterfly" and "The Rolling People", and all-out rockers like the Zeppelin-esque, pounding "Come On", which closes the set.

In 1998 Q magazine readers voted Urban Hymns the 18th greatest album of all time. In the same year it was also shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize.

Track listing

1. "Bitter Sweet Symphony" (Ashcroft, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) – 5:58
   • Features the Andrew Oldham Orchestra.
2. "Sonnet" (Ashcroft) – 4:21
3. "The Rolling People" (Verve) – 7:01
4. "The Drugs Don't Work" (Ashcroft) – 5:05
5. "Catching the Butterfly" (Verve) – 6:26
6. "Neon Wilderness" (McCabe, Verve) – 2:37
7. "Space and Time" (Ashcroft) – 5:36
8. "Weeping Willow" (Ashcroft) – 4:49
9. "Lucky Man" (Ashcroft) – 4:53
10. "One Day" (Ashcroft) – 5:03
11. "This Time" (Ashcroft) – 3:50
12. "Velvet Morning" (Ashcroft) – 4:57
13. "Come On" (Verve) – 15:15
    • Hidden track "Deep Freeze" starts at 13:01

Personnel

• Youth - Producer
• The Verve - Producer
• Simon Jones - Bass guitar
• Peter Salisbury - Drums
• Richard Ashcroft - Guitar, Vocals
• Nick McCabe - Guitar
• Simon Tong - Guitar, Keyboards
• Mel Wesson - Programming
• Paul Anthony Taylor - Programming
• Will Malone - Conductor, String Arrangements
• Christopher Marc Potter - Producer, Engineer, Mixing, Recording
• Gareth Ashton - Assistant Engineer
• Lorraine Francis - Assistant Engineer
• Jan Kybert - Assistant Engineer
• Brian Cannon - Director, Design, Sleeve Art
• Martin Catherall - Design Assistant
• Matthew Sankey - Design Assistant
• Michael Spencer Jones - Photography
• John Horsley - Photography http://www.johnhorsley.co.uk
• Chris Floyd - Photography

Chart positions

Billboard (North America) - albums

1998   The Billboard 200                       No. 23
1998   Top Canadian Albums                     No. 18

Billboard (North America) - singles

1998   Lucky Man               Modern Rock Tracks                      No. 16
1998   Bitter Sweet Symphony   Top 40 Adult Recurrents                 No. 9
1998   Bitter Sweet Symphony   Adult Top 40                            No. 8
1998   Bitter Sweet Symphony   Modern Rock Tracks                      No. 4
1998   Bitter Sweet Symphony   Mainstream Rock Tracks                  No. 22
1998   Bitter Sweet Symphony   Top 40 Mainstream                       No. 23
1998   Bitter Sweet Symphony   The Billboard Hot 100                   No. 12de:The Verve/Urban Hymns

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