The Verve

With the release of their most recent album, Urban Hymns (Virgin), The Verve is coming closer to cementing England as the new creative powerhouse in contemporary music. I am aware that it is only the beginning of November, but Urban Hymns and Radiohead's O.K. Computer, stand to be the two most important albums of the year. Ironically, these are two bands that have been consistently overshadowed by Oasis. I have nothing against Oasis, but I feel that they haven't matured since the release of their first album. They play their music very well but have done nothing to change the course of music.

Urban Hymns is a collection of songs that range from guitar driven rock songs to the orchestrally backed "Bittersweet Symphony." An interesting fact about that song is that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are collecting the royalties because the orchestra is playing a subtle version of an early Stones' song. The songs vary in tempo and mood and the album has a very personal overall feel to it.

The Verve has been around for over ten years and they have definitely earned their right to be recognized as one of the premier songwriting talents around. In 1993, before the band's somewhat tumultuous breakup, Richard Ashcroft, the lead singer said, "History has a place for us. It may take us three albums, but we will be there." The lyrics are personal and they are delivered in a way that makes one feel that Richard Ashcroft really feels what he sings about. On "The Drugs Don't Work," he sings of a lost love through a painful breakup : "Now the drugs don't work, they just make you worse, but I know I'll see your face again." All the songs have a sense of real self-analyzation conveyed through lyrics that aren't too contrived, yet remain poetic.

If Oasis were an original band who were concerned more about music as an art than themselves as the Beatles, they would probably sound like the Verve. It is a shame that few people recognize them as the band that they are. This is probably due to the fact that they don't do everything in their power to make the cover of every music publication by touting themselves as the ultimate rock star. Granted, Oasis probably can trash a hotel room like Led Zeppelin, but can they take some time to see whether their three, almost identical albums will hold any relevance in the time to come? Urban Hymns manages to hold true to rock and roll, be catchy and still not seem like an album geared to make the band into cultural icons.