I was just listening to Urban Hymns and it's making me really depressed that they're gone. I keep hoping Richard and Simon will just beat each other up and get all the anger out once and for all so they can regroup and pick up where UH left off. Their best album by far, such a terrible shame we didn't get to see where they went next. If they had broken up after A Nothern Soul I would have said the same thing, but they managed to hold it together long enough to make Hymns...I guess we should be lucky they didn't break up permanently after Soul.
Richard's first album was OK, a little sappy but had some really excellent mellow ballad type songs. I haven't heard anything he did since then. Is anyone else a fan? Is Richard's other solo stuff any good?
Ive been saying the exact same thing for years now, wow you must have ESP or something. I saw the Verve in Hamilton a few years ago at Copps in 99 I think, and its still one of my favorite concerts of all time, my friends that were there still bring it up all the time, it was an amazing show. RA's solo album was alright, but it didnt have the same feel as a Verve cd, it was a bunch of slow ballads, some were really good but it was a little too depressing. I stopped following him after that, and I dont know if he did a second album, I think he did, but Ill have to look that up. They were a great band and Urban Hymns was a killer cd, if anyone else here had the honor of seeing them play live, we should consider ourselves lucky, it wasnt long after that tour they broke up and I was shattered at the time, I wanted to see them play live again and hear some new stuff, but it wasnt meant to be. Im not as big into the brit-rock/pop, scene as I used to be, but its still one of my favorites.
Alone With Everybody (2000) was his first solo CD and as mentioned by you guys, it wasn't too bad. He followed it up with Human Conditions in 2002 and it was crap. You guys didn't miss anything by not picking it up. Urban Hymns is one of my top ten non-Hip CDs - and one of the rare CDs that both my wife and I love.
you and your wife dont like much of the same music cferneyh? My wife loves the Hip and most of my favorites, but she also has "her" music which I cant stand but are forced to listen to on occasion, ie: stuff like Kenny G(shudder), Celine Dion, Dido, Sarah McLachlan(not bad), Shania Twain, Seal and so on and so on....Im just glad she hates boy bands and Britney type stuff, I dont think we'd be together if she did, lol. Thanks for the Ashcroft tip, I was pretty sure he had done a second album and that it sucked really bad. :thumb:
Urban Hymns is easily among the top 20 albums of the 90s, maybe top 10.
I absolutely love Human Conditions. If you are that big a fan of the band then you should definitely check it out for yourself and not automatically dismiss it based on a few opinions. At the very least, go to Amazon and sample each track to see what type of vibe you get from it, and read the reviews there which are almost all extremely positive. Most Ashcroft fans really dig this album...I'm really surprised that it's getting bashed here. Oh well, to each his own.
Hope you like it too! :thumb:
LizardKing51 Wrote:you and your wife dont like much of the same music cferneyh? My wife loves the Hip and most of my favorites, but she also has "her" music which I cant stand but are forced to listen to on occasion, ie: stuff like Kenny G(shudder), Celine Dion, Dido, Sarah McLachlan(not bad), Shania Twain, Seal and so on and so on....Im just glad she hates boy bands and Britney type stuff, I dont think we'd be together if she did, lol. Thanks for the Ashcroft tip, I was pretty sure he had done a second album and that it sucked really bad. :thumb:
Its not that our taste in music is that different, but the degree to which we like certain artists is very different. I play about 75% Hip and 25% other stuff, but she'd prefer it to be 75% Coldplay and 25% other stuff. So I'll get tired of her faves quite quickly and vice versa. But Urban Hymns was one of those CDs that we could both listen to over and over again.
I've got a buddy with a wife who LOVES Elton John (shudder). And not older and OK Elton John, but newer and downright awful Elton John. I'd be in tears everyday if my wife had that taste in music. I do believe that in most provinces that is grounds for divorce.
cferneyh Wrote:LizardKing51 Wrote:you and your wife dont like much of the same music cferneyh? My wife loves the Hip and most of my favorites, but she also has "her" music which I cant stand but are forced to listen to on occasion, ie: stuff like Kenny G(shudder), Celine Dion, Dido, Sarah McLachlan(not bad), Shania Twain, Seal and so on and so on....Im just glad she hates boy bands and Britney type stuff, I dont think we'd be together if she did, lol. Thanks for the Ashcroft tip, I was pretty sure he had done a second album and that it sucked really bad. :thumb:
Its not that our taste in music is that different, but the degree to which we like certain artists is very different. I play about 75% Hip and 25% other stuff, but she'd prefer it to be 75% Coldplay and 25% other stuff. So I'll get tired of her faves quite quickly and vice versa. But Urban Hymns was one of those CDs that we could both listen to over and over again.
I've got a buddy with a wife who LOVES Elton John (shudder). And not older and OK Elton John, but newer and downright awful Elton John. I'd be in tears everyday if my wife had that taste in music. I do believe that in most provinces that is grounds for divorce.
I like coldplay, but not every day. I feel pain for your buddy, that new Elton John is god-awful stuff, hey it could be worse, what if she loved Hanson, oh my.. (running to puke in toilet). :lol:
My ex in Oregon loved Eva Cassidy-type soft and melancholy female singer-songwriter crap. Now, some of it's OK taken by itself, but she listened to this weepy, wimpy stuff for HOURS a day. Painful as it gets.
Urban Hymns is one of my favourite albums. I could never get into any other Verve stuff...I heard Northern Soul and another one, but it just wasn't the same. I don't mean I wanted it to be the SAME, but the feel just wasn't there. They were more into experimentation with the first albums, and I feel like on Hymns they let the pretentions go out the window and let the emotions speak for themselves. Truly a masterpiece.
The Verve Urban Hymns is definitly a great album. Weeping Willow and the Drugs don't work are such amazing songs.
Brings back a lot of Kamloops memories.