Reviews (page 12 of 14)
many of the bands of the early to mid 60’s made a seemingly conscious decision to sound like the beatles because they were arguably the biggest band of the era. fast forward to the mid 90’s. there seemed to be several bands that emulated the sound of oasis, one of the biggest bands of the 90’s. enter the verve. i don’t like oasis, and i damn sure don’t like an off brand knockoff version.
Wow, this was boring.
Bitter Sweet Symphony - ja Den Rest braucht niemand.
2nd rate Oasis. Oasis is 3 star to me. I gave their other album on the list 2 stars. Must have been a low 2 stars. This is a medium 2 stars, because at least it has the only relevant song they ever made, Bitter Sweet Symphony, which is really only good because they picked a good sample.
I liek the first track, the rest I was waiting for the album to end. Its fine, just not my vibe, the Britpop or whatever you call this genre isn’t my bag, so 2 stars for me
biggest L in music for sure
Bloated, safe, and stuck in the shadow of its own biggest hit. 𝘜𝘳𝘣𝘢𝘯 𝘏𝘺𝘮𝘯𝘴 rides the emotional weight of 𝘉𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘚𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘚𝘺𝘮𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘺 so hard that nearly every track feels like a lesser rewrite. Richard Ashcroft delivers each vocal line with the same strained earnestness, as if chasing the same moment again and again. The instrumentation is lush and polished, no doubt — but it lacks invention or urgency. Where others in 1997 pushed boundaries, The Verve chose to inflate familiar ideas. And the hidden track? Best left hidden. A few good melodies can’t disguise the overall sense of missed opportunity.
Mediocre
This was pretty profoundly boring. (2)
No more brtipop please. I'm over it. lol
Did you know they had to turn all royalties for bittersweet to The Rolling Stones up until like last year? Super interesting story, they sampled the strings from a cover of a Rolling Stones song and got that cleared but their manager claimed the chorus is too similar to a different Rolling Stones song (it’s not similar at all) so Keith and Mick got full writing credits and all royalties for that song for years and years. There’s a very good YouTube video on it highly recommend watching it and how old school music managers are villains. Anyways that’s the only thing interesting about this album.
Boooooooring
point9.
mehh and ehhh
In 1997 "Bittersweet Symphony" was playing everywhere. Along with "The Drugs Don't Work" and "Lucky Man", Urban Hymns spoke to millions... just not me. The songs seem to bleed into each other, but not in a good way, by the time I got to the end, I was hard pressed to say what I liked or didn't like. It was all just "meh".
I would have enjoyed this quite a bit more if it were a tighter experience. Not only is the album too long, but pretty much every song is roughly two minutes overlong. That said, this is a heavy vibes record, so if you're not feeling it the album will seem interminable. That said Bittersweet Symphony holds up, even if I never really need to hear it again. If I could give half stars, I would, but alas.
I had this album in grad school and listened to it over and over through a painful breakup. Now I just think it’s whiny and twee.
MAWR BRI'ISH! this is a band for me where, like, it played in Sears and shit like that for years, and you think you know this band, but it just blends together which a buncha other bullshit that i can be super cynical about... but its okay. is it Oasis? U2? Snow Patrol? who knows. now i got that outta my system, i can go over the songs i don't know. Sonnet is very chill. very British pop rock of the 90's. some parts have some energy like The Rolling Papers. kinda whiny, even though this is the kinda stuff i grew up with.
Not more Brit pop! I never realized exactly how overrated the genre was until I started this project. I did re-appreciate “Lucky Man,” and “Bittersweet Symphony” is canonical, but that’s about it for me.
First song is the iconic bittersweet symphony and it was an easy listen throughout. 2
Heard it before. Sadly, they peaked with their Rolling Stones rip off and did nothing too interesting otherwise 2/5
Kind of bland. A little long and slower then i was looking for.
For me, Bittersweet Symphony is interesting, the rest is just so-so.
Everything about this album is okay
This album set a high bar for itself with “bittersweet symphony” being the opening track. It never got close to reaching that point again.
It's fine, but mostly just standard 90's alt-rock fare
I've always hated this album...especially Bittersweet Symphony. Annoying AF.
I'm plowing through this long, boring album and I finally get to the last song...and it's 15 minutes long! No thanks. One or two pretty tunes, though.
Kinda boring
90s albums are always too long. Unfortunately, every song on this album sounds the exact same, and none of them are as good as Bittersweet Symphony (which is a good but not a great song).
This just bored the absolute pants off me. No wonder I've only ever heard their 2 biggest songs
I remember getting this album in high school because of the song Bittersweet Symphony and being disappointed with the rest of it. When it came up yesterday I was excited to listen again hoping that I would find some more on here that I liked. Still no. Nothing is inherently bad, but it just feels like a mess. It doesn't really go together except its late 90's emo. We have tech to alt to rock but none are great. Bittersweet symphony feels effortless and real. For the rest they are trying to hard making them so forced sounding that it looses much of the feelings in the song.
So this is the band that sings Bitter Sweet Symphony (a pretty good song). Sometimes you can find some hidden gems besides "that one hit". And sometimes the rest of the album just sucks.
It didn't pain me to listen to this one, unlike most Britpop albums, and a couple of songs I actually thought were pretty decent, such as The Rolling People. But 75 minutes of Britpop gets to you eventually. Maybe a harsh 2, probably would be higher if it was shorter
This album felt pretty empty to me, despite its length. None of the tracks really grabbed me, aside from "Weeping Willow" and (of course) "Bitter Sweet Symphony." Other than that, this seemed like a pretty generic album.
Starts good, but not a fan of most of the songs.
Did not age that well.
(36 known/80 new)
an album called urban hymns with a white guy in a bucket hat on the front cover….WHEW. bittersweet symphony really props up the rest of this thing. it feels like every single song, except for the one (1) that is under three minutes, overstays its welcome.
++: Bitter Sweet Symphony, The Rolling People, Catching the Butterfly, Neon Wilderness, Come On, Deep Freeze +: This Time, Velvet Morning +-: Weeping Willow, Lucky Man -: Sonnet, The Drugs Don't Work, Space and Time, One Day 5,4/10
Like everyone else, I only knew Bittersweet Symphony going into this. After giving it a listen, I feel like Bittersweet Symphony was the apex. It's a pity they started with that, because it was all down hill after. This sounded like background music. It didn't make me feel anything. It was a bit boring and over-serious. Lighten up, everyone. Shorten your songs and make them more interesting. Forgettable and bland.
This is what it would sound like of Colin Robinson were to start a band influenced by Oasis and REM. Except for the chorus in Sonnet, there wasn’t much to enjoy. The songs dragged on for way too long
Haven't heard this one before but I doo t care. Bitter-sweet symphony is a perfect song. It rules and there is nothing you can say about it. OK the rest of the tracks are fine but I don't want to listen to them again. I wasn't angry or upset I just wandered away. I couldn't stop thinking about a book im reading and not listening to the music. It's just boring. It's fine but im bored to tears
I keep getting albums where there’s like one phenomenal song and that’s it, dunno how that’s a whole album that you must listen to before you die.
This thing bored my pants ON!! I am wearing pants to this day!
It's a bittersweet symphony this life......
not only did this suck... but it was also long as fuck
Way WAY better then their debut. Some good songs and a couple snoozers. It's ok 6/10
Starting off a little hot: secret tracks are stupid and I don't think they add much value to the CD other than lying about the length time. You shouldn't have a 15 minute song on your album where roughly 8 minutes is silence because maybe I forgot to start the CD over. And frankly, if I'm being honest, I don't even think I'd want to start this CD over. Bittersweet Symphony slaps for the first two minutes and then the rest of it drags on. I shouldn't be confronted with multiple songs that have over 6 minute run times. It doesn't mean they can't exist. But I suppose I want something a little more tucked. I want the wheat and not the chaff. I want something polished and dense and not necessarily 60 minutes of music that sounds roughly the same. I might change my mind as the day goes on but I wasn't really looking forward to this listen. Starting play through two now so fingers crossed I am able to uncover my true feelings about this album. Listened to it a second time and thought it was still mid. Everything kinda blended together, but nothing really captured my attention. It’s not that the music was bad. It’s just more that I didn’t find it original, or appealing, or very engaging. Maybe I’ve heard these songs a bunch in the milieu of living and the appeal has worn thin over the years. Or maybe it’s because it’s just not what I’m into. I don’t doubt the talent of the musicians, but the final product wasn’t for me.
Not a huge fan, but I can see the appeal
I will admit right off the bat that Bitter Sweet Symphony is one of my least favorite songs ever. (I also find the music video just as annoying.) So, when I saw that Urban Hymns by The Verve was my album for the day, I didn’t expect this to be a pleasant experience. Based on my disdain for Bitter Sweet Symphony, I never took the time to listen to this album before today. About halfway through Urban Hymns and this is not as bad as I expected. Some decent songs on here. I’m not crazy about Ashcroft’s voice but it’s not a deal breaker. I knew of a Ben Harper version of The Drugs Don’t Work. I didn’t know this was a Verve song originally. Whether this is a fair assessment or not, my initial reaction to Urban Hymns is that it reminds me of a mix between Oasis and The Stone Roses. Overall, there are songs on here I don’t mind but I’m not sure this a full album I want to listen to again. I’m going with a 2 rating. 2/5.
Een Britpop-album die in eerste instantie aanvoelt als de standaard blauwdruk van het genre rond die tijd, maar na een aandachtige luisterbeurt zie je wel in hoe The Verve met deze plaat echt een eigen niche bekleden. Het is veel orkestraler en psychedelischer dan hun tijds- en genregenoten. Dat gezegd hebbende is het ook een album dat lijdt onder een grote kloof tussen goede en slechte nummers. Ik merk dat ik er nooit echt lekker in kom door die inconsistentie. Daarnaast zeuren de meeste nummers ook net iets te lang door. Muzikaal gezien is het soms wonderschoon, maar als totaalstuk doet het me niet veel. 6/10 Highlights: Bitter Sweet Symphony Sonnet
Way too long and boring. Yes, Bittersweet sticks in your head. But the rest is forgettable.
Lori- 5 Mike- 5 Michael- 5 Miles- 6 Cole- 6
I listened to this album a lot during a very down period — it did not make my life better. Obviously, because I listened to it frequently, I won’t say it’s not a good album — in fact, it performs best because it is an album. But if i wanted to listen to the Lament of the Heroin Addict, I’d listen to Pink Floyd instead. This is a two.
Bittersweet symphony is good but everything else is mid to terrible
This ones a bit of a mixed bag. It felt like Psychedelic brit pop meets 90s dance music with some top 40 alternative rock thrown on top. The songs that leaned more towards dance music were definitely the better tracks. Overall the record wasn't weird/psychedelic enough to be interesting (except maybe the hidden track with the baby crying vocal)... or poppy enough to stick with me. I feel like the debut record from the Stone roses is such a better combination of these ideas. It's weirder and it's catchier. I hope it's on this list. Highlights: The drugs don't work - good pop song, good lyrics This time - good mix of dance music, good beat Velvet morning was solid And ofcourse.... Bitter Sweet Symphony is a classic... love a pop song with really bleak/existential lyrics In general the hits of strings in the background across the record were nice (i wanted to give it a 2.5 but you can only give whole numbers)
Honestly, I just don’t see the appeal. It’s just a copy of everybody else. There is nothing original or compelling with this band. Posers.
So bland. Sounds like a cheap imitation.
stinker
Boring
You can definitely date this thing. Not for me but there are a few good tunes.
I've always hated Bittersweet Symphony. The rest of the album isn't as irritating, I liked some of the psychadelic/shoegaze elements, Neon Wilderness is a good little song. It just drags on though.
fine. one good song. not interesting.
This isn’t my genre… album is bloated and kind of repetitive (both song to song and within songs), but there’s some decent stuff in here
2/5. Okay so I blanked out about halfway through listening to this and that does not bode well for the score. I mean, to be fair, there were some songs that stood out but overall, the wall of sound was just too much. I was getting lost and not at all figuring out why I wouldn't just listen to Oasis. I recognize some songs but I wouldn't say they were game changing. This was alright, maybe I'll take another listen at a different time. It was just so long. Best Song: Bitter Sweet Symphony, The Drugs Don't Work, The Rolling People
I've heard of this band! I had a bit of a britpop phase a while back and heard about The Verve a couple times. Bitter Sweet Symphony also got popular on tiktok for a while.
This one didn’t really work for me. It didn’t resonate with me at all. I had to listen to it twice just to be sure. On the second spin I rather enjoyed The Drugs Don’t Work and One Day, however the album feels disconnected and lacking cohesiveness overall. It seems to me they were trying too hard to make an eclectic album - one for the ages, but couldn’t pull it off due to lack of synthesis. Many of the songs sound like they have overly complex instrumentation and feel over engineered, resulting in kind of a muddiness. I enjoyed the two aforementioned songs because of their simplicity. My take is that The Verve was trying to be the next Oasis with more dynamism but created kind of a scrambled mess. I enjoyed the journey, but was dissatisfied with the destination.
Booooring
The Drugs Don't Work is a good tear jerker. The rest ranges from irrelevant to ill-advised (Bitter Sweet Symphony).
Bittersweet Symphony is of course a bop and the other singles stand out, especially The Drugs Don't Work but the longer songs overstay their welcome - The Rolling People is great for a 3 minutes but lasts 7, Catching the Butterfly feels indulgently long. Not bad shoegaze but the deeper cuts are not interesting enough to warrant their run time. Fun listen but not memorable enough as a whole to be a 4 out of 5.
mwah
Only one song of note.
So boring
3/10…Brit Pop
This was more boring than anything else, to be honest. Bittersweet symphony is a pretty good song though.
So far, Bittersweet Symphony seems like a real one-off on this album. I'm getting notes of Bush, Third Eye Blind, and U2 with the songs that follow. Space and Time and Weeping Willow both have intriguing starts, but then when the vocals kick in, I lose interest. Overall, a vibes album without much songwriting substance.
If it was under 45 minutes, it might have gotten a 3 but over an hour is too long for this. Not as bad of 90s British pop rock as Oasis, but some of the tracks were encroaching on it.
I like the density of melody but I'm not crazy about the lyricism and vocal style. The mix is very nice and pleasingly rich.
i got to the track "lucky man" and my instinct mental response was "not if im listening to this album" a couple to a few interesting songs and a lot of numbness
2.0
the verve, boring
Bittersweet symphony is really the only good song on this album.
Incredibly, you get through Bitter Sweet Sympathy — a marvel of a song, in conversation with Don't Look Back in Anger or Common People or I Wanna Be Adored — and realize there is somehow a full 70 minutes of album left. There is little of interest in the balance of the record.
I was unsure going into this one. Britpop is one of those genres that I'm confident I'll never be able to "get", though I'll always be the first to defend it as a genre of music. Washed out instrumentals, strained vocal performances and heavy guitar distortion are a pretty unorthodox creative choice for a genre of music that is meant to be patriotic. I also quite like the air of distance that britpop has. It adds a pensive quality to the music when looked at in retrospect. The England of today is completely different to what I imagine it was like 20 years ago. "Bittersweet Symphony" is the highlight. Those string sections are very good, though I admittedly think that they pad out the song to being much longer than it needed to be. "Lucky Man" manages to be quite good as well in spite of the animosity I have towards the second half of this album. String instruments are among the most "feels-inducing" you can have in a song, and I can't complain about feeling every once in a while. The remainder of the album was quite different to what my experience with Britpop has been (all of two Oasis albums). The cleaner-sounding acoustic approach managed to produce some songs that I didn't mind listening to. Same goes for some of the more subdued tracks, which I think work well on an album released near the end of the millenium. It really does feel like the end of an era and the dawn of a brave new frontier in some respects. Despite having some merit, this album has a huge length problem, which is one of the most damning faults you can have in my eyes. I had to do a double take when I saw the hour fifteen runtime on this baby - I thought I had stumbled on to the deluxe version by mistake. I had already gotten my fill of the album by the time I made it to "Weeping Willow". so toughing out the remaining tracks (especially the fifteen-minute fuuuuuuucking closer) really hurt the experience of listening to this album.
Unfortunately after the opening track of Bittersweet Symphony the rest of the album sort of fades away.
Meh, whatever
Could they be any more generic?
bitter sweet symphony hets scho immer immer geh? aso irgendwie mega 90er aber au meeega ziitlos. ah waaas sie sind vorband gsi vo oasis ghört mer jo nuuuull. sonnet easy langwilig the rolling people tönt halt würkli noch oasis. bi etz bi catching the butterfly und gnüsses nur so halbe? s isch cool, de song etz besser als die paar vorher aber het etz nüt wo mich meeega packt. space and time cooli chords coolimslide giti cooli drums gfallt mer. lucky man au seehr cool, so fest oasis haha. one day meeega schön oke ich bi warm worde. one day maybe i will love again. aua? sorry en hidden track haa isch tacky und pretentious bini degege
Why are they all looking different ways on the cover? I liked "Bitter Sweet Symphony" The string music in the beging it sounded nice. I don't usually like the slow music aspect but in this song I do. I also liked "The Drugs Don't Work" the backround guitar sounded nice and I liked how the song sounded in general. "One Day" was good too. I liked this album. I thought it sounded nice. I would rate it 4 starts. I would reccomend this album to anyone who likes a kind of slow sounding nice music.
I always assumed “The Drugs Don’t Work”was a Ben Harper original. Whatever. His version is better. This album sucks.
Dreary. I sometimes think the singles are alright, but they all sound the same. Best thing to come out of this was the Bittersweet video, even better was the Paul Kaye piss-take for Vindaloo.
Maybe I'm biased by my social group in high school, when this came out. Objectively it's wonderful music, but it somehow feels uncool. And I don't know why.
There are some loong ass songs on this album and they feel long.. Th Verve is like 90s british Coldplay but hotter and a little bit more interesting. Bitter sweet Symphony definitely carried the whole album- it's an amazing track.
Fuera de los 2 o 3 temas "conocidos" el resto parecía una garompa copiada de los singles. Podemos cortar con el rock depre? Nota: 2.3
I’m sure I’ve heard worse.
Probably the most deserving to be on the list but ass cheeks album 3/10
Maybe I’ve just got TikTok brainrot, but every song on this album could be 40-60% shorter, and it would make no difference. They’re all long and slow and repetitive and drenched in delay. Great rhythm section, but they must be bored af playing live in this band.
This was so-so, veering on somewhat forgettable. Bittersweet Symphony is a classic and an amazing song, but nothing else really stood out. Feels like a wannabe Oasis.
track 1: undeniable classic all other tracks: boring knockoff oasis dreck
This album hasn’t aged well at all. I remember buying it when released largely because of the well known big hit on the album. No one can doubt that BS is an amazing song. But as for the rest it felt tired then not helped by the album length. If it had been stripped down to 40 minutes it would have been a lot better. Hardly played it and actually sold the CD a few years ago but must admit I recently saw it cheap (very) in charity shop so bought it again just so I had BS in my collection. Didn’t bother listening to it in full and dutifully listening today for this project was a slog and fast forward button deployed once or twice. 2/5 15/2/25
Sounds a lot like Oasis, and not in a good way. Bunch of whiny white boys.
Wow, more bland britpop who would’be guessed? 2.38
Not bad, listenable but not something I'd return willingly
Only good song is Bittersweet Symphony and it’s not even close. The rest of the album is middling and boring.
Onko kuultu tasaisempaa (tasapaksumpaa) biittiä? Tämä LP tosin erottuu edellisestä pop-otteellaan: avausraita on pelkkä riffi, mutta se on porattu kaikkien elävien olentojen kalloon täällä päin maailmaa. Pari muutakin toisteltavaa osuutta kiinnittävät huomion. Mutta missähän tilanteessa keksisin laittaa koko levyn puksuttamaan taustalle..?
great first song but the rest felt like a nothing burger of an album
The fact that like every song on this album was like 10 minutes really pmo lol
One-hit wonder album.
and legend has it that he is still walking down that road...
Just here to recommend these guys first album 'A Storm in Heaven'. An absolute belter of a shoegaze record. Working with Oasis' people was a mistake. Shame the Stones' people fucked them also. This album is fine. Definitely listen to that debut also/instead.
Well this was shite. Super disappointing!! Bitter Sweet Symphony - classic tune +1 star. Sonnet - another good song, most recently known as that song from an overplayed advert And that's the only positives I have for this sadly. It was so boring and bland. Sounded like a less successful Oasis 2 ⭐️
This wasn't terrible, but it was incredibly boring.
• The Verve is U2 if U2 were somehow more boring and mind numbingly dull. • This sounds like it's an album the Columbia Record Club would send you if you didn't pick something else and your preferred genre was "Alternative." Nobody wants it, but for some reason everyone has it. • For the love of all things holy, why is this album 76 minutes long!? I'm really sort of torn as to whether to give this 1 star or two. It's bad enough to justify a lone star, but I'll give it 2 stars because "Bittersweet Symphony" is actually pretty good and this is on a lot of "all-time top" lists. Maybe I'm just missing something.
If only the whole album sounded like Lucky Man and Bittersweet Symphony this would be a stellar album. Unfortunately the rest is okay, not good, not bad but just okay. Fine for background listening.
First song aside, this album is pretty meh. Just feels kinda boring/generic.
Guys I'm starting to think that, on the whole, Britpop kinda sucked
It's alright. Bitter Sweet Symphony is of course a big hit, but none of the rest of the album made me want to give it another listen. Nothing bad, it just didn't grab my attention.
One of the rare albums we have encountered that I would say I enjoyed less the second time through 😆 These guys are in no way shape or form even close to Oasis and yet all signs point to them being neck and neck with them in critical acclaim This album isnt bad. Its got a giant hit and maybe one other cut (I liked Space and Time enough to listen both times), but its not revolutionary or even close to being a standard brit rock album for me. My gut says if Bitter Sweet doesnt make it on the album, that we totally forget this and the band entirely…. But god damn, whenever those violins start playing, I understand why people like them
Gear: Meze 109 PRO Artwork: 🌳🐶❓ Production (2016 Remaster): 👂🔪🩸 Music: 🌿💭🧼 Rating: 🐶(🐶)/5
Music to turn any occasion into a dull affair.
There’s Bittersweet Symphony and then there’s the rest. A few moments here and there but mostly boring slush that runs together for almost an hour and a half.
Boy, did I really not want to listen to this. And I was right. I didn’t enjoy it.
Dreary 90s electric guitar soundscapes with very little variation. One of those albums that feels like it will never end. It was fucked up what the Stones did to them though.
5.5/10 I remember this at the time, and the singles were everywhere. The Verve didn’t do much for me then, they don’t now The 4 singles are all excellent, really good. The rest of the album is genuinely quite poor: sludgy britoop wall of sound (a la Oasis) with a lot of psychedelic soundalikes Best: Lucky Man
Listenable but quite boring. Like if Oasis wrote songs without hooks.
Sooooooooooo boooooooooring
almost gave this a 1 but bittersweet symphony is that good. Super duper disappointed – had high hopes this would be enjoyable (similar to oasis). Instead was very boring. Lucky man is the only other song with at least an above average catchy hook.
More of that generic brit pop that the creator of this project loves so much. Very forgettable.
I remembered some of these tracks fondly, so I was a bit disappointed at how limp and middle-of-the-road this album was. Definitely a sound of the times but I'm not going to come back to it out of choice.
I think I liked this when it was first released- but now find it rather dull.
Having lived through the popularity of "Bittersweet Symphony" I think I've heard it more than enough for one lifetime. The rest was fine enough, it's just not for me.
Trippier than I expected but meh
Basically Bittersweet Symphony and nothing else.
Booooooorrriiiiiinnng...
Not my thing. More stuff in the britpop category. 2.49/5
I’ve gotten kinda lazy about listening to the whole album but also this is pretty slow and not very interesting
Starts with their biggest hit and it’s a slow tumble into mediocrity after.
Long had I thought I should check this band out. Now, I don't regret putting it off 30 years. This is background 90s music that grows tiring.
great tracks. very nostalgic. about 40 minutes too long and you can Feel it
Kinda mind-numbing. The only song I knew was the first and I don't really care for it either (but it is the best). Certainly not terrible.
Avausraita on suorastaan meemi tässä kohtaa. Muuten musta hieman huonosti vanhentunut alt-rock-levy. 2/5
Ehhh... BitterSweet Symphony to chyba jedna z ważniejszych piosenek w moim życiu - miała na mnie duży wpływ w nastolectwie, do dziś uważam, że jest bardzo dobra i super catchy - ma dobry tekst, jest ciekawie skomponowana, no i ofc doskonale używa klasycznego motywu jako przewodniego. (kurwa, brzmie jak krytyk z Filmweba, nie chciałem xD ). Urban Hymns to dla mnie spore rozczarowanie - mam wrażenie, że poszli w ilość i zupełnie nie dali rady z jakością. Nie potrafię za bardzo odróżnić od siebie większości piosenek po przesłuchaniu. Nie kupuję większości tekstów, do tego osobiście irytuje mnie fakt, że większość z nich (mam przynajmniej takie wrażenie po przesłuchaniu) opiera się na powtarzaniu w kołko dwóch wersów, jakby były one przejawem geniuszu (a imho zupełnie nie są). Trąci bufoniadą. Z kawałków, które mi zapadły jeszcze w pamięć, mogę wyróżnić "Drugs don't work" i chyba "Lucky man", przynajmniej złapałem się na tym, że sobie je śpiewam (szczególnie drugs siadło). Nie wiem. może po wielokrotnym przesłuchaniu płyta zyskuje, ale po jednym jestem underwhelmed.
Booring...
There are still their spacey, psychedelic jams of past albums, but this time it's coated with britpop slickness, surely to get their share of the craze that was going on at the time. There's nothing inherently bad here, but it's way too long for its own good and a lot of songs just aren't that interesting.
I guess you had to be there.
Outch... This album would have be really decent if the best of it was kept for a 30 to 40 minutes record, but the fillers are killing it. It's too long.
..
Aside from the first song, there really weren't any memorable songs. It was alright.
Not sure how this sold 10M+ copies. Nothing wrong with it, just meh.
Overlong, overblown and for the most part underwhelming
The Verve... now that's a name I haven't heard in years.... Is starting an album off with Bitter Sweet Symphony even fair? This might be one of the greatest 90s songs of all time, tbh. 5/5 for this song. (Also TIL it's Bitter Sweet two words, not Bittersweet) Do I have to listen to the rest of the album?? Yeah as expected the rest of the album was fine but totally forgettable. I'm torn here. This is a clear 2/5 for me but damn that opening single!!!!
The Verve is just not that interesting of a band to me. This era of music, late 90s, has some pretty dull mainstream music and the only thing saving this from a lower score is Bittersweet Symphony. Sonnet is a good song as well, but this album did not need to be an hour long.
Bitter Sweet Symphony That's it
Too mellow
A couple good tracks the rest did nothing for me.
Otvaranje albuma s klasikom. Klasični hit jel. Bacio sam oko na popis pjesama, ima dva tri super hita, ali me baš zanima kako će ostatak benda zvučati Njih do sad nisam volio niti mrzio, ali nisam ljubitelj tog 90s engleskog rocka Na pola sam albuma, nemam volje uopće komentirati ista. Dosadno, sladunjavo, englesko drimerski, jadni Englezi su tužni i beznadni. Booooooooring Već vidim da će ovo biti album s 2-3 dobre pjesme. I to nisam siguran jesu li dobre zbog nostalgije i toga što sam ih čuo 2003. kada nisam imao pojma koliko je proročanska pjesma drugs don't work ili su stvarno dobre. Ok wow, ako na YouTube staviš da je brzina duplo brza, zvuče kao solidan bluegrass band s dosta opakim finger picking lickovima Malo ljutih engleza za kraj i skrivena psihodelija Bezi bre 2
3.5/10 Osobno, jako zbunjujuc album. Ima dovoljno elemenata da bude ok te da se nadje neki hidden gem u njemu ali to se jednostavno nije dogodilo. Neke gitarske dionice imaju potencijala ali klimavi vokal bez ikakvog range-a i pretjerano koristenje ovih prokletih violina u svakoj drugoj pjesmi su mi bas turn off. Ucinilo mi se vise puta dok sam slusao da je ovaj album apsolutni maksimum sto bend moze napraviti, a bas dosta se šlepa na druge bendove, poput U2-a i Rolling Stonesa (kojima su maznuli Bittersweet Symphony, pa je zavrsilo vise bitter nego sweet za njih posto su izgubili prava na sav royalty od pjesme, jedinog hita kojeg imaju na albumu, uz, za mrvicu meni bolju Lucky Man). Ne vidim cemu ovo treba trajati sat i 15 minuta. Bilo bi bolje da su izdali neki EP od 4 pjesme, zaboravili da postoje gore spomenuti bendovi, platili vokalu satove pjevanja, ili jos bolje, zamjenili ga s nekim vecim talentom, izbacili violinu iz svih pjesama, usudili se hrabrije vecinu stvari snimiti i jos puno toga sto bi stavio na popis. Nije mi ovo bas dobro.
Average
I expected everything to sound like Bitter Sweet Symphony, they definitely have more range than that. Do I love it? not so much. It’s fine for what it is and I wouldn’t leave the room is someone put in on, but I probably wouldn’t choose it on my own.
I'd rather hear the first couple of Oasis albums and the Stone Roses. Pretty non-descript Brit Pop from my listening. Won't be going back to this one.
Well this is annoying. I got A Northern Soul the day before yesterday. Spread it out lads! Still, I guess I can contrast. Midway through Rolling People I'm already fearing I was right in my previous review. The strength of Northern Soul was it was a whole vibe, this is less so and the album tracks are more boring. Although I never did like the rolling people. Drugs don't work and catch a butterfly are still good to be fair, and there's a couple others that were half decent for nostalgic purposes. Definitely a more middling album than it's predecessor though, and actually quite tedious as a whole given its length.
If it wasn't for the opening track of the record, it would have been forgotten amongst the ground swell of britpop albums that all seemed to appear almost overnight in the 90s. The members are good enough at their instruments to make music better than this, and I wish they had.
This album immediately jumps back to the 90’s Brit pop era. Besides Bitter Sweet Symphony and the orchestral arrangements, it stalls into a sea of sameness.
Nothing objectionably bad, but pretty basic 90s British rock to these ears.
Not enough stands out for the lengths... still some decent stuff though.
Super duper forgettable, except that one song, where they infringed on some copyright..
Har alltid lurt på ka dei seie i refrenget til Bittersweet Symphony. Va visst ikkje "I'm here immamo", men "I'm here in my mould"
Ikkje så bra
Dit is echt U2 2.0 eerste nummer heel vet natuurlijk maar verder echt wel saai
this is completely interchangeable with oasis . i think bands in manchester need to take a break from the derivate 60s rock. and also catching the butterfly sounds exactly like a radiohead song. WEEPING WILLOW SOUNDS EXACTLY LIKE CHAMPAGNE SUPERNOVA?!?!?!
The songs are slight, with the three major singles standing out. All wrapped up in swirling production. Catchy 90s melancholy ballads that still have some power to evoke a clumsy come down swagger. But this swagger is stolen, like the sample, from bands who have greater talent and longevity. The Verve is ultimately a pale imitation, this album is not a classic in the sense of others.
One great song does not an album make.
It makes sense these guys are one hit wonders. They aren't terrible and I think they're trying to do their own style but it feels like it never really goes anywhere that adds a lot. Don't regret the listen but won't come back.
I'm not sure I can do this. Bitter Sweet Symphony almost turns my stomach because it has gone in my ear holes so many times. There is a lack of soul to these songs and the production has no body. So I guess that leaves them with nothing. It's like they are casting spells of boredom. It's a cohesive album that comes so close to sounding like things I like but just doesn't.
Bitter Sweet Symphony and Lucky Man were standout tracks for me, but i didn't really end up loving the album, felt like watered down shoegaze and psychedelic rock. Didn't think it was boring though, Deep Freeze left me pretty interested, very chaotic and clashy at the end which I think would've paired well with the rest of the album earlier on. But yeah, in the end I saw a lot of small (like very small) details I like about shoegaze, psychedelic rock, and grunge, but nothing really amazing jumped out for me. None of the songs made it on my playlists, Bitter Sweet was the closest but didn't really do it enough for me, cool orchestrals though
Boring. Sorry to all the verve fans reading this (literally no one will ever read this)
If you’re going to make an album with this many songs it better be worth it to the listener, which this wasn’t. I don’t like the tone of the singer’s voice. He’s whiny and annoying. A lot of the songs sound the same. Despite its popularity I don’t particularly like Bittersweet Symphony. Catching a Butterfly was my fave but the rest is forgettable.
I liked it more than i anticipated for a one hint wonder band. A bit moody. Feel bad for this band.
This album is far too long for what it offers. Bittersweet Symphony is a great song to start the album. The rest of the album features the lead singer alternating between doing his best Thom Yorke and best Bono impressions over forgettable instrumentals. I get why someone might enjoy this, but I don’t see myself revisiting this over other Britpop albums.
I remember back when these guys were on the radio and not liking those songs. Well I'm older now and was interested to see if they sounded better with the wisdom of age, and also what the rest of the album contained. The best word to describe this album is bland.
Uninteresting, long, and samey
One obvious banger but the rest was meh.
There's a decided lack of hooks in their music. For music that isn't that complex I find that good hooks can make all the difference.
Meh. I really don’t understand how this album is on this list. The “best” track and definitely the reason it’s on anyone’s radar (or this list, tbh) is because of a song that is popular because it bit the instrumental from the orchestra version of “the Last Time.” There are plenty of Britpop and neo-psych out there that’s much more enjoyable. From just a contemporaries standpoint: - blur, oasis, manic street preachers, stone roses, shit - even supergrass is a better option - same shit with neo-psych. There’s too many better options of that era to even mention here. I’m being kind of harsh, but it’s only because of the presumed accolades of being on this list. It’s not a horrible album, but it’s not essential. The Verve will go down in the books as a one hit wonder and a case study on plagiarism
Dumb and annoying
I’ve always thought “Bittersweet Symphony” was too long, boringly repetitive with no distinction between verse/chorus/bridge. It just plods along at one pace, and still ends up nowhere. The rest of the album is equally unremarkable.
pretty underwhelming
The 90s decade rating is really suffering at the hands of these middling brit pop acts. Why does it have to be so long?
Important in that there's a unique time period-based sound of drug fueled british bar bands, but nothing that set me afire.
One wong repeated during all the album, boring.
Idk!!!
Listen to the first song on the album and then turn this off and save yourself an hour of a lackluster Coldplay meets Oasis.
It was ok. Bittersweet symphony is a great song, and it wasn't bad music. Just sounded like Oasis without the hooks, energy, attitude, or Liam. Kinda meh outside of the first song - which also is kinda only good because the sample is amazing.
two stars cuz it has bittersweet symphony which is an ok song. the rest was a brutal test
Brings me back to an American Eagle dressing room in the 2000s
Oh, thank goodness this generic British album is here! I don’t know what I would do if it wasn’t!
........it's monotonous, to say the least. Also what is UP with that secret track??
I’m a million different people from one day to the next, and they all lack verve for this album.
Fav: The Drugs Don’t Work Least Fav: Neon Wilderness
Two great songs. Others are good enough to enjoy listening while working on something else.
Bittersweet to bitter with sprinkles of sweetness to bland. So long, you forget what it was like in the beginning.
Didn't really like.
Bitter sweet symphony är ju jättebra såklart, men resten mäh
Was fine. Wont listen again.
meh
Pop that ain’t catchy Rock that rolls over near dead Music feels empty
Well Bittersweet Symphony is weel known and often played. The rest ? I think I can survive without listening to this Album.
Not bad but not a fan
Too slow, too much production, too much not enough. Lacks any intensity. Pretty soulless. Damn, the whole thing is like the worst Lynyrd Skynyrd, but more robotic. The singer is good enough (I guess, can't really hear that well). Outside of Bittersweet Symphony, this just drags. It's so long. I tried, but the slide guitar/slow tempo/acoustic campfire strumming just feels contrived out here. Come On is okay. Rounding down one star for bad behavior and breaking up 3 times. I would love to hear something by these guys without all the echo and tambourine
Pretty good
Vahvan aloituksen jälkeen taantuu tasapaksuksi ja ylipitkäksi brittipop-äänimatoksi.
Bittersweet Symphony is great, but the rest is pretty samey. I got bored.
Despite the overall rating, Bitter Sweet Symphony is a great song.
Bittersweet Symphony was the only good song that I wouldn't mind hearing again. The rest were pretty forgettable and boring. I kept thinking they sounded like some other 90's/00's bands, but couldn't place it; just generic sounding. 2/5
Outside of lucky man pretty boring album. Doesn’t do much.
This is my team here: 'In a more mixed assessment, Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune felt that Urban Hymns lacked more songs as memorable as "Bitter Sweet Symphony" and "The Drugs Don't Work" to justify the album's long length. Robert Christgau of The Village Voice cited "The Drugs Don't Work" track as a "choice cut", calling it "a good song on an album that isn't worth your time or money". Emily Tartanella of Magnet felt that Urban Hymns was undeserving of its accolades, calling it "one of the most bloated, boring and overpraised albums of the '90s." ' "Bittersweet Symphony" is still a stellar opener. You could listen to that emotional, lively-yet-indeed-bittersweet swirl of strings sampled from Andrew Loog Odham's orchestral version of a Rolling Stones song for far more than the five minutes dedicated to it at the start of this record. But that's part of the problem here: the only *instantly* memorable melody in this album was not written by the Verve. Because, generally speaking, they're bad music writers. And sometimes even awful ones. Okay, Richard Ashcroft's smartly double-tracked vocal lines for that opener is still imaginative enough, I guess. And so is the one on *The Drugs Don't Work*. But for the vast majority of the other songs, oh Lord, his input amounts to meandering doodles over bland, beige, by-the-numbers britpop FM version of supposedly trippy, yet really 100% self-indulgent "rock" jams. My Lord, how can this album go on for so long without any sense of proper dynamics? Guess The Verve couldn't decide which tracks were the true highlights during their recording sessions, so they elected to put all of them into the album, probably deluding themselves to consider they were all great. Oh Lord, the hubris. And the maudlin lyrics, matching the melodically uninteresting vocal lines surely don't help, my Lord. I mean, Lord, it's easy to see how Ashcroft constantly uses certain words for emphasis (yes my Lord!), because he has nothing even remotely interesting to write about nostalgia, getting old, and the vicissitudes that go with that sort of thing (the supposed lyrical content of those songs). Lord, how boring. Lord, how self-indulgent. Lord, how repetitive and dull. My Lord, has Robert Dimery turned deaf? This one escapes a 1/5 grade because of its legendary opener. But even when you put this record into the context of its release, it becomes abundantly clear that it's been overrated for years. 1997 is the year Radiohead's *OK Computer* came out, for chrissake! And you can't seriously compare dull *Urban Hymns* with the brilliant stylistical forays and dozen of breathtaking left-turns contained in that other album. The Oxford gang was already years ahead into the future. In comparison, The Verve was only rehashing a ground that had been tread countless times before. Suburban hymns indeed. Number of albums left to review: 236 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 330 Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 195 Albums from the list I won't include in mine: 246 (including this one - I'd give it a 1.5/5 grade if I had to follow the purposes of this list of essential albums, here rounded up to 2. More "objective" grade? 6.5/10? (5 + 1.5) Guess it's decently played and professionally recorded at least).
Aside from "Bittersweet Symphony", there's nothing that really stands out.
Good stuff! Beatle-esque, which I appreciate. If I had been a teen when they were popular I'd have been all over them. Lots of romantic feeling with all the reverb and clever harmonies. However, a few songs in I got bored. Oh well.
I enjoy Bittersweet Symphony and Lucky Man - the rest is pedestrian and fairly forgettable.
Starts off with the best song on the album and then just gets monotonous. This could have been better if it was about half as long. Space and Time is one of the better tracks, and it's kinda okay.
Bittersweet one hit wonder
Wie heeft toegestaan dat dit album 75 minuten duurt
I enjoyed this more than I expected to. I think I must have been prejudiced against Richard Ashcroft and a bit sniffy about the faux-orchestration of Bittersweet Symphony. The songs are all well written and performed. A bit earnest perhaps, but 100% better than Oasis. Favourite song Drugs Don't Work.
Didn’t love it
I've never heard another Verve song except for Bittersweet Symphony. I wasn't missing much. I won't be picking this one up again. BTW - the funny hidden track thing is a definite relic of the 90s when CDs were the main format. I bet that confuses the heck out of the kids today. lol
The first cut is very good and got radio play. There are a couple of other songs that are ok. This is the kind of album you can liatwn to and do something else at the same time.
2/5
to me this one feels like an early/undercooked radiohead album - not to say i didnt enjoy it, just that it wasn't really my jam. There are some standouts but also a lot of songs that just kind of float in one ear and out the other for me.
You all need to chill with these boring fucking albums. Give me something I’ll care about next, please.
medium sad man, I mean de eerste is groots bekend maar ik word er gewoon niet blij van
I don't understand the appeal of the Verve. This album consists of 1 overplayed 90's hit and a bunch of songs that sound like Oasis or Better than Ezra.
The final song (Come On) is a 5 in my book. The first song (Bitter Sweet Symphony) endures as a time and place thing and gets a 4 from me. Everything else sounds the same, which is to say BORING AS FUCK.
When this band first arrived on the seen — I was expecting much more. Instead it turned into a 1 hit wonder…
Probably 2.5 stars. Some good tracks, but a bunch of songs I don’t need in my life.
it was okkk idk i thought it was basic 2.5/5
Pas accroché.
If you ordered U2 from Wish, The Verve is what you would receive. Bittersweet Symphony is really good, and you would think that being the first track portends that great things are in the offing for the remainder of this 76 minute (eek!) album. The last track (Come On) is also quite good and is the undiscovered gem from this band that I didn’t know about, but everything in between is so genetic, so forgettable, and that are all but indistinguishable from one another. 1 star, plus one additional star for the two tracks worth listening to. And 2 stars for this is quite generous.
Got bored halfway through Bittersweet Symphony and never recovered
Objectively fine but I think I have enough moody British men in my Spotify that I don’t see this being something I repeat, but I wouldn’t skip if it came on an artist radio.
Background music. Fine
One hit and then fizzled out for the most part. Sounds like late 90's though
So. Repetitive.
not really my taste but it sounds very good
Lucky Man One Day Secret Track again! Feels very of its time and brit-poppy. I liked the second half better than the first. Okay, though.
One hit wonder.
Not as good as I remembered
Bittersweet Symphony ofc the obvious standout, and though the vocalist has his own unique style, not too many other tracks made a lasting impression on me. Nice sound to wind down to after a long day.
Not as bad as I thought
It was quite boring
i both enjoyed this and couldnt stand it. some bangers but also some tracks that just gave me a headache
has that one track.
Good
The famous hits are good, but the album as a whole isn't particularly sharp or defined. Very much blends into its era. Those first two songs really are excellent, though. One thing, and this always bothered me: Why does he sing in such a broad American accent?? He's from the north of England!
One hit wonders?
bitter sweet sympathy- this is this song? goofy ahh. sonnet- the rolling people- the drugs dont work-
I didn't expect to enjoy this and indeed I didn't. But I figured it would be grating and it really wasn't, just quite dull. If I wanted to put on some background music that wouldn't offend or draw notice to itself, then this would be ideal.
Didn't listen to it all, it just drones on and on. The songs are way too long for what they are, in my opinion.
It’s not terrible.
Ok, ale bez szału, 2,5
There is a reason the first track is the only one that has stuck around. People probably assume the rest of the album is some sort of Oasis / Travis collaboration.
Kinda Beatles meets Tom Petty in the 90s but with a 70s detective show soundtrack in the background. Meh.
Duurt gewoon te lang. Bittersweet symphony is wel oké maar daarna is het zo saaaai
21/100 Based on this scale: 1 star - 0 to 19 2 stars - 20 to 39 3 stars - 40 to 59 4 stars - 60 to 79 5 stars - 80 to 100 Bittersweet Symphony starts out like it might turn out to be interesting, but quickly becomes boring. The rest of the album is worse. The thing is, this is more boring than outright bad, so I had to give it 2 stars.
Never heard of The Verve before so not much to say as I went into this album till I started the intro track and immediately recognised it, like any other person from the UK, as a song off an advert. I can’t remember which one now but it made me interested to see how critically acclaimed the rest of this album was. I’ll just say right off the bat I did not enjoy this album, this sort of spacey singing over a soft instrumental is not enough to cover a full albums worth of songs and that’s what made this album feel incredibly long to me. For the most part it sounded like the singer wishes he could sing like Radiohead’s front man Thom Yorke but struggles to reach those impressive high notes. I’d also like to point out the song writing on this album is so bland, it’s painfully obvious how much this album feels like a child has contributed to it as if they were writing their first book, “I stop to say hello”, “I should have done”, “I am growing”, “I watch you look at me”, “and I hear a boom” like SHUT UP! Is this first person perspective writing really the best they could come up with? Also, what’s with the singer constantly repeating lyrics almost like an echo, it’s like he’s run out of things to say and keeps singing the same lyrics with a droning sort of singing voice, “This Time” is a particular culprit of this and it takes everything out of the song, I’m not sure if they feel like this gives more emphasis or emotion but it really doesn’t, it just sounds like lazy song writing. Also not forgetting the atrocity of an album cover, I know this was the late 90’s but come on, it’s not even that it’s lazy it just looks awful too. For the good parts of this album, the songs do have nice instrumentals, for the most part, and of course the opener is very well known and a nicely put together song but that’s about it. This album isn’t horrendous but it’s so boring to listen to, I think if I listened to it again I’d actually want to punch the singer cause his tone is so annoying and without the instrumentals, and a select few songs, I’d give this album a 1 so for now I’ll leave it at that and hope I don’t have to sit through this again.
Two good songs, the rest was quite boring.
1. bitter zuueet - 2 2. zonnet - 1 3. rolling people - 0 4. the drugz dont uuork - 2 5. catching the butterfly - 0 6. neon uuildernezz - 0 7. zpace and time - 1 8. uueeping uuillouu - 1 9. lucky man - 0 10. one day - 1 11. thiz time - 1 12. velvet morning - 1 13. come on - 0
Bittersweet symphony is a good song, but suffers like the rest of the album from just going on and on and on and on. All of these songs should be 3/3.5 minutes tops. Dudes love to drone…
Was excited for this album, but kind of a letdown
Dreamy, spacey, sleepy. This album is all together unremarkable.
was not interesting to me
This album isnt bad but I will never go back to listen to it again. Bittersweet symphony is iconic but I didn't find any other songs interesting.
Not my jam
Just kinda long and boring.
Not really my thing
I remember the singles, the rest just kind of felt like Oasis songs I've never heard. Not a bad thing, it was just boring.
Starts off with their biggest hit, the rest is pretty forgettable
Um disco legal, mas só isso, legal. A crítica em geral tinha muita boa vontade com o indie na época, porque considerar isso um disco importante ou relevante não faz sentido.
Full disclosure, I became really burnt on this band in the 90's when Bittersweet Symphony was on the radio every 5 seconds. That said, i think they got a bum deal with the whole copyright issue. Speaking to the music, it's all very one-note rock and feels very samey throughout. There's one song that stands out in particular: "The Drugs Don't Work" which is a heart-breaking song and a very much overlooked song that saves this album for me. There's nothing inherently wrong with the rest of the album it's just there's very little variety for me which is kind of a bummer. Standout Tracks: Bittersweet Symphony, The Drugs Don't Work
Една песен ми харесваше преди да чуя албума. Една ми харесва и след
Okay, only one or two songs I really liked.
Nah
2 good songs and rest of them are not even close to hits. Sound like 2 different bands.
Quite boring. And I was sick of that 1st song within a week of its release
A few good songs, good production, but some real head scratchers. 6 minutes of silence on the last song??? Not creative, not cool. Simply a waste of my time which ruined an otherwise decent track.
There is Bittersweet Symphony followed by a whole bunch of songs that are pretty forgettable. The only thing of note after the first track is the hidden track at the end. Which is a strange mix of chimes and crying baby that just leaves me with more questions. Mainly why?
Bittersweet symphony kennen we natuurlijk allemaal. Rest van t album was niet geweldig. Laatste nummer met 10 minuten stilte en dan niet eens een echte banger. Jammer
klinkt wel lekker, muziek vraagt niet veel aandacht en is wat eentonig, merk dat ik vaak vergeet dat ik iets specifieks aan het luisteren ben. Wel een goeie toevoeging voor studie/werk lijst Bij Come on voelt het alsof ze zich wat meer laten gaan + erg goed verstopt baby huil nummer genaamd Hidden track!!!
A couple great songs but mostly just long and boring. There is no real point to listening to most of this record.
Meh. All the way through. So meh
Not a bad album. Bitter Sweet the real gem.
Bad radio style pop rock
Lame and forgettable. In fact, I don't remember any songs between the first (which I know from the radio) and the last (which was 6 minutes long and actually different from the rest).
Two good tracks and a bunch of forgettable
Some classics, but not as deep as I was hoping for.
basically the same guy wailing similar angsty things over and over, but I liked it I think - some of the songs I really liked the melody and wished he would be quiet
Nicht mein Ding
1 classic, 1 good, rest pretty boring. 4/10
Stuk saaier en vooral zeurderiger dan ik verwacht had.
Not really into Britpop