Took me 4 listens to fall in love with albumn

At first I thought this albumn was disappointing when compared to "A Storm in Heaven" and "Urban Hymns." I had to play it a couple times to really get into it, but now I can't take it out of my CD player. It definitely does not take a back seat to any other albumn I've ever listened to. I regret my initial judgment, but I often need to listen to an albumn a few times before I get its vibe. If you are thinking about buying this because you like "Urban Hymns", stop thinking and buy it - you won't regret it.

A big noize!

The Verve are a great band with great potential, but this album is just drowned in noise, its terrible.



When you listen to it you you realise that the music is so badly produced, that your ears are focussing on the sheer volume of the music instead of the actual music.



Great band, but a badly produced album.

The Quintessential Rainy-Day Album

The Verve (a British band from the '90s who started out in a small town called Wigan) are one of the most underrated and incredible rock bands to come along since the '60s/'70s, hands down. Vocalist Richard Ashcroft, nicknamed "Mad Richard" comes from the great tradition of singers as shamans, going all the way back to Jim Morrison. Simon Jones and Peter Salisbury are an ultra-cool, yet detached rhythm duo...and then there's Nick McCabe. Definitely the shining guitarist in modern rock, he is a musical virtuoso, a prodigy of his instrument. They only made three major albums, but all three are masterful and display shards of the band's broken glass life in glowing proportions. Urban Hymns is their swan song and their most "poppy" recording, yet it retains a grace and majesty that is well apparent when it is listened to. Storm in Heaven is my personal favorite and is a band at their beginnings and their roots, having no fear to tread deeply into the unknown. Its sounds are atmospheric and swirling.



Then, in the middle, lies A Northern Soul. Ashcroft barrels through his pains, his joys, and his darkest secrets, while Jones, Salisbury, and McCabe (especially) take this scattered journey with him. A Northern Soul is the epitome of an individual's drug experience and a band's musical experience. It contains wistful, love-lorn ballads, such as On Your Own, History, and Drive You Home; it has grinding rockers like A New Decade and This Is Music; experimental, nearly avant-garde instrumentals-Brainstorm Interlude and Reprise; melancholy meditations on life itself-So It Goes and Life's An Ocean; a bluesy song-No Knock on My Door, a drifting coda-Stormy Clouds, and its centerpiece--the psychedelic vortex of the title track.



This is an album (like Storm in Heaven) that is best listened to as a single entity. Storm in Heaven is an album of ethereal beauty, A Northern Soul one of ethereal despair. Immerse yourself in its sounds on a rainy day and discover your own pains and glories in the process.