The Verve – Urban Hymns [5 CD Super Deluxe Edition, 2017]


Recorded after the band’s first breakup and reformation (with the subsequent addition of guitarist/keyboardist Simon Tong), Urban Hymns was an ambitious piece of Britpop and balladry, recorded with producers Youth and Chris Potter. Three of its singles were Top 10 hits in the U.K., including “Bitter Sweet Symphony,” the chart-topping “The Drugs Don’t Work” and “Lucky Man.”
Ultimately, it was indeed bittersweet for frontman Richard Ashcroft and company – the “Symphony” sample of an Andrew Loog Oldham-led orchestral cover of The Rolling Stones’ “The Last Time” led to a lucrative lawsuit with ABKCO Music that cost the band its entire royalties to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and within two years the band would break up once more.

(Ashcroft, who pursued a solo career thereafter, reunited the original lineup of the group, minus Tong, for Forth in 2008; a year later, they had split up again.) But Urban Hymns remains one of the era’s most enduring albums, having topped Melody Maker‘s year-end poll, going 11 times platinum in England and earning the group a spate of awards and nominations (including a BRIT Award for Best British Group and a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Song).

The sprawling, deluxe Urban Hymns collects a variety of bonus material on five CDs. The bands complete Urban Hymns B-sides are featured, along with scores of live material (a BBC session, a full live show at Haigh Hall in Manchester and highlights from the band’s 1997-1998 world tour.

CD1: Remastered original album (released as Hut Recordings/Virgin CD HUT 45 (U.K.)/72438 44913 2 1 (U.S.), 1997)

  1. Bitter Sweet Symphony
  2. Sonnet
  3. The Rolling People
  4. The Drugs Don’t Work
  5. Catching the Butterfly
  6. Neon Wilderness
  7. Space and Time
  8. Weeping Willow
  9. Lucky Man
  10. One Day
  11. This Time
  12. Velvet Morning
  13. Come On

CD2: B-sides

  1. Oh Lord I Guess I’ll Never Know
  2. Country Song
  3. Bitter Sweet Symphony (James Lavelle Remix)
  4. So Sister
  5. Echo Bass
  6. Three Steps
  7. The Drugs Don’t Work (original demo)
  8. The Crab
  9. Stamped
  10. Never Wanna See You Cry
  11. Bitter Sweet Symphony (MSG Version)
  12. The Longest Day
  13. Lucky Man (Happiness More or Less)

CD3: B-sides continued and BBC session

  1. Bitter Sweet Symphony (Extended Version)
  2. This Could Be My Moment
  3. Monte Carlo
  4. Life’s An Ocean (BBC Evening Session – 8/27/1997) *
  5. A Man Called Sun (BBC Evening Session – 8/27/1997) *
  6. The Drugs Don’t Work (BBC Evening Session – 8/27/1997) *
  7. On Your Own (BBC Evening Session – 8/27/1997) *
  8. So Sister (BBC Evening Session – 8/27/1997) *

Disc 2, Tracks 1-2 and 4-5 and Disc 3, Track 1 from “Bitter Sweet Symphony” CD singles – Hut Recordings HUTDG/DX 82, 1997
Disc 2, Track 3 from 12″ promo – Hut Recordings HUTTR 82, 1997
Disc 2, Tracks 6-9 from “The Drugs Don’t Work” CD singles – Hut Recordings DG/DX 88, 1997
Disc 2, Tracks 10-13 from “Lucky Man” CD singles – Hut Recordings HUTDG/DX 92, 1997
Disc 3, Tracks 2-3 from This is Music: The Singles 92-98 (Virgin/EMI CDV 2991, 2004)

CD4: Live @ Haigh Hall – 5/24/1998 (Tracks 1-5 and 7-12 also included on CD2 of deluxe edition) *

  1. This is Music
  2. Space and Time
  3. Catching the Butterfly
  4. Sonnet
  5. The Rolling People
  6. Neon Wilderness
  7. Weeping Willow
  8. The Drugs Don’t Work
  9. Lucky Man
  10. Life’s An Ocean
  11. Velvet Morning
  12. Bitter Sweet Symphony

CD5: More live material (Tracks 1-3 included on LPs 5-6; Tracks 4, 7 and 9 also included on CD2 of deluxe edition) *

  1. One Day (Live @ Haigh Hall – 5/24/1998)
  2. History (Live @ Haigh Hall – 5/24/1998)
  3. Come On (Live @ Haigh Hall – 5/24/1998)
  4. A New Decade (Live @ The 9.30 Club, Washington, DC – 11/3/1997)
  5. The Rolling People (Live @ Brixton Academy, London – 1/16/1998)
  6. On Your Own (Live @ Brixton Academy, London – 1/16/1998)
  7. History (Live @ Brixton Academy, London – 1/16/1998)
  8. The Drugs Don’t Work (Live @ The 9.30 Club, Washington, DC – 11/3/1997)
  9. Slide Away (Live @ Manchester Academy – 8/11/1997)
  10. A Man Called Sun (Live @ The 9.30 Club, Washington, DC – 11/3/1997)
  11. A Northern Soul (Live @ The 9.30 Club, Washington, DC – 11/3/1997)
  12. Space and Time (Live @ Brixton Academy, London – 1/16/1998)
  13. This is Music (Live @ Manchester Academy – 8/11/1997)
  14. Weeping Willow (Live @ The 9.30 Club, Washington, DC – 11/3/1997)
  15. Stormy Clouds/Reprise (Live @ Manchester Academy – 8/11/1997)


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