Next album in the club was also released in 1997, the same year as Pavement’s ‘Brighten the Corners’. For me The Verve’s ‘Urban Hymns’ is a brilliant, sweeping album that works so beautifully- outside of “Bittersweet Symphony,” the song that essentially made this album and the band reach levels of fame they had never previously seen or unfortunately would afterwards either. The song was involved in a sampling lawsuit made by The Rolling Stones that up until 2019 caused The Verve to never receive a single cent of royalties from their iconic song. The band was already known for having infighting, particularly between frontman Richard Ashcroft and guitarist Nick McCabe. The infighting led to the band briefly breaking up in 1995-96 timespan only to reform and conceive ‘Urban Hymns’, but the legal implications, the lawsuit and other issues were what ultimately led to their disbandment (though they would reform briefly from 2007-09 before finally calling it). These things aside, ‘Urban Hymns’ is a brilliantly constructed album that works on so many different levels; Richard Ashcroft’s stories of love, loss, survival, experiencing life on your terms is complimented by Nick McCabe’s atmospheric guitar textures that are completely unique and like nothing heard elsewhere. A breathtaking song cycle, I hope you enjoy ‘Urban Hymns’ as much as I do. Thanks for your time! - UrbanHymns