Beautiful Music

The Verve just know how to play music. If you want a trippy experience that will enlighten you on what a storm in heaven might sound like, then get this album. Best if listened to in a mellow setting without other noise interference. The psychedelics will leave your mental senses on the brink of orgasm.

I was there!

I am writing this ten years too late but for all those getting into this music now there is something lost on some of you (especially the disappointed 'music fan' person).



I bought this album in 1994 and listened to a friends copy (as I lost mine) just last week the first time in two maybe three years - it's lost no magic. What the 'music fan' is not getting is the fact that at the time this experimental 'Astral Rock' (as we called it) was a progression from the punk/brit/indie scene with a cool 'shot' of digression! A storm's whole sound had moved sideways if you like, an off-shoot where everything was slowed down but stayed loud! I get it cos i was there (in body anyway), Mr Oborny gets it because he knows his music (although we as a group of 8 or 9 guys listened to this in the early hours 'winding down' from the night out my friend - it can be enjoyed in groups!) , and the other forty odd reviewers get it- they have vision!



The 'music fan' rates 'urban hymns'- which says it all really. I don't empathise I sympathise! Lets face it 'A Storm' and 'A Northern Soul' are shedloads better - and I still love Urban Hymns!



As bands go they are superb well worth buying - Richard Ashcroft is class, I saw them at Irvine Beach in 1995 (Scotland) supporting Oasis and before the performance began Ashcroft took his shoes off and stood on a big furry sheep skin rug bare footed the whole show - thats rock and roll!



Others to look out for right now, get in early 'music fan', Kasabian, Zutons, Killers, The Rakes, Razorlight and of course Scotlands own Franz Ferdinand!

Magical

This review is directed to people like me - 40-somethings who believe that music for the most part entered a vast wasteland at some hard-to-pin-down date, but it was sometime in the late 1970s. Sure, you'll occasionally find a little something that keeps your interest, but nothing compares to the music of your youth. Well, I'm here to tell you that your search is over. "A Storm in Heaven" matches anything you've ever known and loved.



I had only a vague awareness of The Verve's music until recently, and knew nothing at all about "A Storm in Heaven" until about a month ago. Since that time, I haven't been able to bring myself to extract it from whatever CD player I happen to be near (home computer, office computer, living room stereo, car). Yes, it's become an obsession, but the CD is a treasured thing to me, a work of finely crafted beauty. Every track, and they range from dreamy, sensual ballads to trippy psychedelia to bluesy hard-driving rock and roll, is a gem. Ashcroft's vocals veer from tortured to anguished to hopeful, but they're always beautiful. McCabe's guitar work has to be heard to be believed, but ALL the music is incredible.



As other reviewers have said, this album is reminiscent of Pink Floyd's best without necessarily sounding anything like Pink Floyd. But it's impossible to make such comparisons, really. The Verve, and especially this, their best work, has a unique sound. I weep when I think about how most of the world (well, at least the USA) was listening to grunge and crap-pop in 1993, rather than this CD.



And while I'm talking about Pink Floyd, I remember the exact place and moment when I first heard "Wish You Were Here" back in about 1975, and I've never felt I would ever find an album that could replace it as my choice as THE album I would choose to have with me were I ever stranded on a remote island. "A Storm in Heaven" may have done it.



Buy it. It's not for everyone, for sure. But there's an excellent possibility that you'll react like I did the very first time I heard it - my heart soared and my mind expanded.