alternative rock appreciation: "The Smiths"

Never heard of this group...what's the best album to buy for someone who wants to try them?

 

oh. i don't know alphabetical is more moody, united more upbeat. both are funky. maybe go for the live album?

 

Upbeat, then.

 

haha, since my next concert is with the lovely richard ashcroft, the next update will be about the magnificient THE VERVE

(can't believe i'm previewing updates, but i just booked the ticket and i'm very excited about going!)

 

"The Verve"?

 

You mean the verve pipe?

 

AKA the "Bittersweet Symphony" dudes for those of us in North America.

Verve Pipe were the awful "we were only freshmen" dudes.

 

I like "The Freshman". I have it on my mp3 player. Never heard of the Verve.

 

This is reminding me of all those other bands who were all over the radio with a song or two in the '90s and then disappeared (as far I know). Collective Soul, Dishwalla, the dudes who did that "Breakfast At Tiffany's" song, Spacehog, Seven Mary Three, the dudes who did that song that went "doot-doot-doot doot-doo-doo-doo, doot-doot-doot doot-doo-doo-doo," Everclear, The Cranberries, Rancid, Semisonic (the "Closing Time" dudes), New Radicals, the "Sex & Candy" dudes, The Toadies, Better Than Ezra, Soul Coughing, Cake, Elastica, etc. I heard that Nada Surf is putting out records still and is well-regarded by indie types now. The 4 Non-Blondes chick is a big hitmaking producer or something. The singer from Harvey Danger is a local icon here and they apparently have a big indie following now, too. Shocking. '90s: The Aftermath.

 

well, due to apparently richard ashcroft's huge ego the verve dissolved and now he's all by himself. what he's missing now is his kickass guitar player from the verve times, and so the music can be boring. that's what some people say, i find it uplifting and positive.

 

Urban Hymns was one of the 5 best albums of the 90s. Sadly the only thing most people ever heard from it was Bittersweet Symphony, which was horribly over-played on US radio. Songs like The Drugs Don't Work, Lucky Man and Velvet Morning are absolutely brilliant. As frared says, guitarist Nick McCabe was what really set the band apart, creating and incredible, unique sound head and shoulders above the rest of the Brit-rock of the mid to late 90s.

 

I love The Verve.

One of the few modern bands I can tolerate. They broke up while still pristine. Way ahead of time, of course, but history is what it is.

I saw Richard Ashcroft supporting Coldplay a year ago. He was performed a mixture of songs from his new album and old Verve classics. Every performance was incredible. He has an amazing voice.

 

i think he is testament to my belief that the english are more interested in the music than the appearance of a rock star but yeah, i love him. i'm very excited about going.

also, of course: nick mccabe!!!!! that was the name. thx

 

i wanted to talk about the VERVE a little, though.

i discovered them, as anybody really, through bitter sweet symphony being played ad infinitum at our local radio station. it's a very emotional song, and for anyone who waxes on about the guitar playing, of course that's a huge part of their sound but don't forget richard ashcroft's writing.

Well, I've never prayed,
But tonight I'm on my knees, yeah
I need to hear some sounds that recognize the pain in me, yeah
I let the melody shine, let it cleanse my mind , I feel free now
But the airwaves are clean and there's nobody singing to me now

he continues to write in this vein, i think, very cosmic and spiritual, and i like that a lot.

bitter sweet symphony was, as yankee points out, off urban hymns, the album that came after they split up and reformed (which is why it ain't completely unreasonable to believe they will pull the same trick again )

another album i have is a northern soul, the title of which alone should tip you off that they weren't simply working on alternative music, but instead having a vision (but then, almost every english band has that, no?). you get sprawling guitar scapes, endless loops and moody lyrics. but if you like that sort of thing, you'll find that the sort of thing to like.

ah, yes.

so you'll get a review of the richard ashcroft gig as soon as i've seen him, i suppose


edit: mustn't forget to mention the absolutely fantastic video that was shot for bitter sweet symphony, though... you'll find it here

 

Verve. That one word alone conjures up countless feelings and memories of a carefree time in my past. To use the cliche: they were the soundtrack to my life. It was a given that anyone who rode in my car would be subjected to their music, and their music only.

I think I have just about everything they ever released, and even some stuff they did not. It's all magical to my ears, and not just McCabe's guitar. But I think to fully appreciate what McCabe can do with a guitar one should listen to their first full length disc: A Storm in Heaven. If you put on some headphones and close your eyes then that disc has the ability to transport you somewhere else.

A Northern Soul is full of just that, soul. Ashcroft has an uncanny ability to convey emotion through his vocals and I think he does so masterfully on two songs from this disc: On Your Own and History. There are acoustic versions of On Your Own that can reduce me to tears every time. History stands apart for the incredible non-stop vocal Ashcroft does for it. There really are no musical breaks between his lyrics. It's so beautiful and tinged with sadness.

A musician I once knew made the observation that their music is filled with all of the 'sad' notes/melodies, etc. Perhaps that's why it affects me so.

Urban Hymns was like a gift. If I remember right, the band did temporarily split and, to the joy of many, came back together to do this thrid albumn. What a reunion it turned out to be! Urban Hymns is a masterpiece in my mind. They were at their pinnacle and I can only wonder what else they may have produced had they stuck together.
My favorite Verve song is on this disc, The Drugs Don't Work. I had one of Richard's very early acoustic demos of this song on a tape for a long time before Urban Hymns was announced. It was my favorite then and blew me away when I finally heard it fleshed out on the real albumn. Still, his acoustic versions of this song, of which there are several, remain more sincere and heartfelt to me. All I need is his devastating voice and his acoustic guitar.

The other song from Urban Hymns which I think deserves more recognition than it ever recieved here in the states is Lucky Man. What an uplifting and beautiful song. There's really nothing sad here and listening to it always fills me up with warmth.

I have to say that Bittersweet Symphony is probably my least faovrite song from that whole albumn.

I wasn't surprised when they broke up after Urban Hymns. It was sad but I was just so thankful that they made one last albumn together that it didn't really seem right to complain.

When Richard began releasing solo discs I was thrilled. I have to say that apart from a handful of fantastic songs from his first two, 2000's Alone With Everybody and 2002's Human Conditions, I was left feeling a little empty. There is something about the orchestration of the music on these two discs that just didn't hit me the way I was hoping it would. But his latest albumn released this year, Keys to the World, is almost like a brand new Verve record. Yes, it lacks McCabe's guitar, but the same feeling is there. It's the emotionally charged disc that I've been waiting for him to record and I love it to pieces.

Incidentally, there is a song which Richard did a demo of prior to Urban Hymns which never found its way onto a Verve record. It was revisited by him and recorded for Human Conditions. If anyone is interested in hearing a 'could have been' Verve song it is titled:
-Lord I've Been Trying (heartwrenching in its acoustic demo version and Verve sounding in its final form)

I will also quickly mention that so many of The Verve's gems are found on b-sides. There's a whole world of songs to be discovered there for anyone interested, several of them just as good or even better than songs which made it onto final albumns.

I'll stop myself now.

 

nono, do go on it was very nice reading.

it took me a while to get into the verve, i only loved them with bitter sweet symphony and didn't even know them before. so i'm a novice, really.

i have a very nice recording of mr ashcroft live in germany some years ago when his first or second solo album came out and there's a song on there with the lines 'can you hear what i'm singing, got my mind meditating on love', which always also reminded me of radiohead's street spirit coda 'immerse your soul in love' if you know that, that sort of uniquely uplifting quality to music that isn't afraid of anything. there's no need to be fashionable or fancy or anything, just a bunch of people putting this together because this is the only way they know.

lucky man of course belongs in that category as well.

and i know the acoustic drugs version, it is so extremely sad, it's unbearable.

i think NME et al were complaining that richard ashcroft was going too uplifting with his solo material and that the listener was no longer able to connect on an everyday basis but for me that wasn't an issue. maybe the music takes more time now, or it's less depressing, but seriously, you can't demand depression from an artist just to satisfy your inner need for misery.

 

If anyone can dish sad and depressing it's Ashcroft. But the circumstances in his personal life have changed since he was in The Verve. From all I've seen and read, he's happily married to Kate. She is also a musician and was in the band called Spiritualized. Over the past five or six years they've had two baby boys and I don't know that there's a lot of depressing stuff for Ashcroft to currently fixate on when writing.

There is a lyric in World Keeps Turning from his latest disc that says:

Time to land on my friends, everything's right in my life again.
Oh pain, don't you take it away and give me days that were black and grey.


If he's singing about himself then I think that about covers it in terms of his current mood.

Frared, it's really great to talk with someone here who appreciates The Verve's music. I've always found it to be uplifting too, even when it's sad. I know I have a lot of personal connections/memories attached to their songs, but I also think the emotional rawness Ashcroft is able to convey through his vocals is accessible to anyone who listens with an open heart.

One of my favorite things about his singing is the way he layers his vocals at the end of so many songs. It's like a chorus of Richards singing to you, sometimes singing the same thing and other times singing multiple different lyrics at the same time. I've read complaints from other people about this, but to me it's my favorite part of their songs.

My favorite Verve image:
http://www.musicsaves.org/verve/images/band/simon/simon1.jpg

 

haha, yeah, that's a great image. i think it corresponds with a part of the lyrics as well, from a northern soul.

i think i got that from him as well, that his life simply isn't depressing. or else he has found access to being positive, or whatever people want to call it. i remember the first interview i read for the first solo album and he was asked about what his greatest high ever was, and he just said, nature. that's when you know he isn't cliche rock'n'roll anymore.

which is why if i was him, i would complain about people willing me to be depressed just so they can satisfy a need with my music, that just ain't it. but then i find that a lot in bands who othe people think are depressing, for me they just seem to be more honest. the verve are artful, but they are honest with what they convey, there's no sense of posing or anything.

i love how he is singing of course i do (i'll be focusing on that when i see him ) and for the live stuff i can say how much i enjoy that, it's almost like he sings himself into a kind of state, just repeating words that hold a power all by themselves. it's very soothing and not dull at all. i think the last song on urban hymns has those parts... or else i'm just imagining that. i always found that one to be raw and angry and very emotional and awe-inspiring at the same time.

which is pretty goo going, don't you think?

 

If you mean 'good going', then yes.

 

I feel sad whenever I hear "Bittersweet Symphony", because I know that The Verve didn't get a cent from it.

"The Drugs Don't Work" is a great song as well.

 

argh!

 

The brutal thing is that they never earned a dime from its incredible success (I lost alot of respect for Keith Richards after that), yet its ridiculous over-playing assured that none of the other songs on the album (many of which I think were better, btw -- Drugs Don't Work, Lucky Man, Sonnet) got any air time. They got all the negatives from its popularity and noe of the positives, essentially.

 

and as the local newspaper noted, richard ashcroft still has to play it. nothing to do with the songs being so ridiculously good, of course, all to do with his solo stuff not being as good

 

i was at the gig last night!

so, the good news is that he really enjoys playing his music. i think that is great for everyone. he was dancing and jumping about and having fun with it. the new songs didn't really take off in my mind, keys to the world was a good opener, but i'll have to get used to them more than the older solo material so i'm interested in listening to them on the album.

the band played a great many songs, including older verve stuff, bitter sweet symphony and sonnet as well. bitter sweet symphony ended the first part with the audience shouting the lyrics along and basically we were clapping for us which was great and when he came back he played three songs as a small acoustic set, history, the drugs don't work and also one which i had just remembered, lonely soul (which was released with UNKLE). and the band joined him for lucky man, which i wanted to hear very badly, and then break the night with colour, which was very very awesome.

so very good gig.

bad news: part of the manc concert going experience is having people throw beer into the audience. apparently it's even worse at oasis concerts. one thing to keep in mind when dressing for the occasion

 

Blarahrharhar! That happened to me at an Oasis show here in the states because there was a racous group of Brits surrounding me. It was actually sorta fun.

I'm glad you enjoyed the concert.