By 1997 The Verve seemed set for crossover success, with 'A Northern Soul' putting them in the spotlight, but the band were burnt out by the usual rock'n'roll symptoms of excess and exhaustion, and mainman Richard Ashcroft rashly split the group just before 'History' began climbing the charts. As events proved, however, the band’s split was only temporary, and within weeks The Verve were back in business, albeit minus guitarist Nick McCabe, but with the addition of new guitarist/keyboardist Simon Tong, an old school friend who’d originally taught Ashcroft and bassist Simon Jones to play guitar. The band already had working versions of some emotive new songs, including 'Sonnet' and 'The Drugs Don’t Work', and instead of the exploratory jams that produced The Verve’s earlier material, these vividly and finely-honed songs were the logical extension of 'A Northern Soul's plaintive ballads 'History' and 'On Your Own', and they reflected the direction the band were pursuing as they started work on what would become 'Urban Hymns'. Sessions were protracted, cutting demos at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studios in Bath, and then with 'A Northern Soul' producer Owen Morris, before the album sessions proper commenced with producers Youth and Chris Potter at London’s Olympic Studios in Barnes. At Ashcroft’s instigation, string arranger Wil Malone was brought in and his swirling scores added a further dimension to a number of the album’s key tracks, including 'The Drugs Don’t Work' and 'Lucky Man'. During the sessions, The Verve expanded to a quintet after the estranged Nick McCabe was welcomed back into the fold, adding his inimitable magic to the guitars already precisely layered by Simon Tong. Assisted further by what Ashcroft enthusiastically refers to as the 'loose discipline' of Youth’s production methods, the band emerged from the painstaking Olympic sessions knowing they had created something that would have a lasting impact, recording much more music than could be fitted onto the album that they were aiming to make. Many of these left-over tracks later appeared as b-sides to the singles lifted from the album, and there are in fact so many of them that they can make up an album in their own right. 'Urban Hymns' has since gone on to be regarded as one of the best albums ever made, and because this music was recorded at the same time, then 'Suburban Hymns' serves as a impressive complementary album to its parent record.
Track listing
01 Country Song (b-side of 'Bittersweet Symphony' 1997)
02 Echo Bass (b-side of 'Sonnet' 1997)
03 Lord I Guess I'll Never Know (b-side of 'Bittersweet Symphony' 1997)
04 Never Wanna See You Cry (b-side of 'Lucky Man' 1997)
05 So Sister (b-side of 'Sonnet' 1997)
06 MSG (b-side of 'Lucky Man' 1997)
07 The Crab (b-side of 'The Drugs Don't Work' 12" single 1997)
08 Stamped (b-side of 'Sonnet' 1997)
09 The Longest Day (b-side of 'Lucky Man' 1997)
10 Three Steps (b-side of 'The Drugs Don't Work' 1997)
11 Monte Carlo (previously unreleased 1997)
12 This Could Be My Moment (previously unreleased 1997)
I was lucky enough the see the verve prior to the first and second albums, superb band. I lost interest with urban hymns, too middle of the road and bland, though its easy to see where nick mccabe had more of an input as they are the high points on the album. Check out the urban hymns sessions on you tube, proof that nick mccabe made the verve what they were.
ReplyDeleteWill you be doing a northern soul non album compilation ?
ReplyDeleteWatch this space.
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