The Verve • Urban Hymns
Hut Recordings HUTLP 45
Two 33-RPM LPs
Urban Hymns is The Verve’s third album, and is the album from which their most successful single, Bitter Sweet Symphony, was taken. In addition to being the album’s musical highlight, Bitter Sweet Symphony was surrounded by controversy regarding ownership of the song. That notwithstanding, the rest of the album is made up of indie-rock songs.
The sound quality is only average, and some tracks seem to suffer from a bit too much compression. Fortunately, this isn’t over done, so the album isn’t rendered unlistenable. What is nice is that the album’s 13 tracks are spread over four sides: the songs weren’t squashed dynamically or mastered whisper-quiet to fit onto a single disc, so kudos to Hut/Virgin for that!