Verve - A Storm In Heaven POLL

Easy for me since Butterfly is my fav song of theirs.

I went with 'Already There', but it could have easily have been 'Slide Away', 'Beautiful Mind', 'The Sun, The Sea', 'Blue' etc.

I love this album - it's undoubtedly their finest LP, IMO, and the poll would have been ever harder if it had been a poll of all their pre-A Northern Soul work. They had something truly special in their earliest days, I think, before Ashcroft's ego spiralled out of control and Ashcroft decided he wanted to compete with Oasis. Thing is, though, Noel Gallagher is on record as saying that The Verve were at their finest in 1994!

"beautiful mind"

album cover rules.

apparently "butterfly" was just totally tossed off, mccabe playing to a steely dan(!) loop.

http://www.excellentonline.com/story/nick-mccabe-interview-733

AS: Yeah, like someone said, "Okay, we need another song for the album," you go into the studio and bam - two hours later, Butterfly comes out. That's what it seems like to me. I don't know if you guys spent four weeks or -

McCabe: It wasn't done in a month...but it was bashed out. It was me and Richard in a room with a Steely Dan loop. This is the kind of thing that we were putting up with - a Steely Dan loop. Me playing mandolin? (pause) All right, yeah, I'll play it. What the fuck were we doing with a Steely Dan loop going on in the background...I'm just making bonker noises, hitting my guitar, stoned out of me mind as well...it's fuckin' three o'clock in the morning and me going, "What am I doing here? Girlfriend is pregnant...It's snowing outside and you have to walk down the fuckin' railway just to get to the shops." Now it's four o'clock and we're going, "Hey, we got another tune for the album." Ugly, I dunno...I think it's good. It was good fun playing it. I don't mind. I think it has a big sort of kick on it. There wasn't any finesse at all, but I reckon you can still call it great. Basically I like everything that sounds bonkers.

Part 2

apparently "butterfly" was just totally tossed off, mccabe playing to a steely dan(!) loop.

― brimstead, Friday, June 3, 2016 2:54 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sounds about right. song has no structure really. just sounds beautiful to me.

xpost:

Yeah, I love those Brian Cannon/Microdot sleeves, and I'm sure his work on Verve's sleeves got him the job doing the Oasis sleeves, which I always really liked. I think I remember reading once that hardly any digital editing went on with those sleeves - what you saw on the sleeve was, 9/10, the actual photograph that was taken.

side one is basically one long amazing song, too hard

Yeah, Side One in particular is incredible!

Listening to A Northern Soul now and... I'm sure I've said this before, but I really wish they'd carried on working with John Leckie rather than working with Owen Morris. His production on A Storm In Heaven is so sonically OTM, with tracks like 'Already There' and 'Beautiful Mind' having this gorgeous, spacey shimmer to them. Morris' production on A Northern Soul feels a bit... well, monochrome. Something like 'So It Goes' would have sounded really beautiful if the early Verve had done it with Leckie, I think.

Then again, the further we get from the '90s, the more Morris' productions sound like arse to me. (What's The Story) Morning Glory? and 1977 both have a similar sound to 'em... dubious mixing decisions, flat-sounding and too much fucking reverb on the badly engineered drums.

the sun the sea

i can't even hear any drums on storm in heaven. cymbals, yeah.

personally i dig the production on a northern soul. i love the blown out distorted stuff like the title track and "brainstorm interlude". it's really all about mccabe on that album though, gorgeous playing.

It's all about McCabe on any Verve album!

ha true!

incredible album, best thing they ever did by a mile

including the early singles?

back cover might be even better than the front btw

What happened to Brian Cannon/Microdot, anyway? They seemed to do this run of really superb sleeves in the '90s, but I can't bring to mind any Microdot sleeves after Be Here Now and the singles from that LP. The one he did for SFA is probs his worst sleeve.

Man, 'Slide Away' is just so perfect!

i loved Verve and adore this album. have some stories that i shall share later. going to keep this vote open for now. humm.

This is the only Verve album I enjoy. Went with Slide Away.

I own this on vinyl and just checked it at Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/1018240?ev=rb waht

Papa Sprain vinyl is a much better deal.

slide awayyyyy

'Already There' is one of those tracks where I wish it was twice as long. The guitar sound on it is so gorgeous.

'Cause I'll be hearing music till the day I die

got my vote.

and yes they will always be Verve to me, no The Verve.

How the fuck did Ashcroft go from this album to where he is now? It's actually really sad. The Sun The Sea is awesome. He's such a massive wanker now.

I blame Oasis.

That's probably a very, very good shout.

Is 'Cast No Shadow' about Ashcroft?

Yeah.

First listen to this in a LOOOOOooooooonnnngggg time right now (Butterfly just starting) and it's SO good. I've felt like it's been tarnished by Dickhead for years now, and simply haven't revisited it. But it transcends his cockfarmerishness successfully.

It was a lot easier to ignore Ashcroft's solo antics here in Texas.

you cant 'blame' oasis for a northern soul . but a northern soul is a wonderful album. I think its even better than a storm in heaven. It gets the mix right between the jams and songs like history. A New Decade still sends the shivers down my spine when I hear it. As does History.

Urban Hymns is more ballad heavy YET they are brilliant songs. Those ballads I would LOVE to hear sung by Mark Lanegan.
You all know that i generally hate ballads but he hit a hot streak on that album that he's never got near since and basically should stop trying to.

I really do believe the 1st 3 Albums were perfect. Forth is a lot better than I expected from them but clearly not the standard they hit previously.

As shit as the britpop era was we forget that there was still some cracking guitar music made and I saw the verve live in the northern soul era and the urban hymns era and they were awesome each time.

They really were a brilliant band and no way am i gonna turn against them (or the stone roses) cuz some wankers got into them.

It's very simple with Verve... 1994 and before is awesome, 1995 and after is terrible.

Hmm. I think what happened with Ashcroft is the success of Urban Hymns went to his head. The first two Verve albums were fully collaborative efforts, whereas Urban Hymns (let's not forget) started life an Ashcroft solo record before eventually becoming a Verve album once McCabe came back. It's a weird one, Urban Hymns, in that a lot of it is Ashcroft solo stuff with Verve as supporting musicians serving Ashcroft's acoustic ditties, and there's also the "band" stuff: 'The Rolling People', 'Catching The Butterfly', 'Come On' etc. When Urban Hymns took off, I guess it's possible Ashcroft may have thought it was because of his songwriting.

So, I've decided to put Urban Hymns on now - it's been a while. Currently 5 tracks in and 'The Rolling People' and 'Catching The Butterfly' are still as wonderful, IMO. On the other hand, 'The Drugs Don't Work' had barely got to its second verse before it began to annoy the shit out of me.

Okay, 'Weeping Willow' sounds better than I remember it being... and that's where Noel Gallagher nicked the intro for 'Where Did It All Go Wrong?' from... I'd genuinely never noticed that before.

I never understood all the love for the drugs dont work as i always felt it was he weakest song on the album. It's no 'History'.

I don't want this to turn into yet another conversation about Britpop, but ultimately I agree with you - there were some great guitar bands around at the time.

I could see Jimmy Webb covering Drugs Don't Work

I bet Mark Lanegan or Scott Walker could make it work

Turrican if you did facebook you could talk about all the britpop era with kitchen person and I all you wanted ;)

Yes, I would be interested to see who you would pick out of The Verve and Kenickie and do you also rate the first Gay Dad album?

The Verve and no!

I guess the problem I have with 'The Drugs Don't Work' is that it's a bit drab and meandering, and there's not really a "moment" in the song which lifts it out of that. Like, say, Radiohead's 'How To Disappear Completely' could be accused of being drab and meandering, but it has some stunning musical moments in there, such as the orchestra and the ascending/descending synths, and some ear-catching choices of notes in the arrangement. 'The Drugs Don't Work' just comes across as a really drab take on a country song that, while well produced (as Urban Hymns on the whole) doesn't really, at any point, develop into something truly special.

*is

The Verve and no!

― the hair - it's lost its energy (Turrican)

At least we'll always have Suede, Supergrass and Associates (not a Britpop band but worth a mention).

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

my favorite British bands were The Boo Radleys, Verve, Super Furry Animals, Ride, Slowdive, MBV, Suede, Pulp and the Jesus and Mary Chain. hell i even really liked stuff like Elbow, the Charlatans, Ash and Supergrass. i was young and naive but wouldn't change it for anything.

I listened to Urban Hymns recently and think it holds up just fine -- even The Drugs Don't Work. But, yeah, the band stuff is really where it's at -- especially Come On and Chasing The Butterfly.

A Northern Soul is the album for me, but I haven't listened to ASIN in a long time, so I'll get to that now...

this is either 'blue' or 'butterfly'

ok, voting 'blue', it's so good and should have been the template for their pop direction

After a couple of listens yesterday I was just going to vote for The Sun The Sea because, well, spike dance for ten days long, we're just heading for the sun, and then saxophone craziness, but apparently I've already voted and I can't remember what for.

Blue is great though.

I voted for Star Sail, I remember.

I prefer this album to Loveless.

I went for Slide Away and now feel that was the conservative choice even though I love it. Should have been The Sun The Sea.

The track I always go back to is One Way to Go off the b-sides collection. That and the live version of Gravity Grave. (1 minute - 1 minute! I think Ashcroft' messianic fervour works at times like this - he inhabits it and seems to be completely lacking in self-consciousness. Now he just parrots a load of limp platitudes and his lack of self-consciousness becomes his hamartia.)

Ashcroft as a figure from Greek tragedy, there.
<takes head out of arse.>

I listened to Urban Hymns recently and think it holds up just fine -- even The Drugs Don't Work. But, yeah, the band stuff is really where it's at -- especially Come On and Chasing The Butterfly.

A Northern Soul is the album for me, but I haven't listened to ASIN in a long time, so I'll get to that now...

― Blood On The Knobs,

Come On is amazing. Esp live.

and co-sign that no come down version of Gravity Grave as its astonishing.

I much preferred mad richard era to happy richard

The drums are mixed so very quietly on this record. That's 1993 for you.

This is the only Verve album I love unreservedly. The weakest song is "Butterfly", and I hadn't heard the story about it ostensibly being a last minute improv piece to pad out the album. It makes perfect sense.

what that song is awesome

I can't fault the mix/overall sound of this record, really - it's a huge part of the appeal for me.

Oh god, the No Come Down version of 'Gravity Grave' ... if anyone really wants to know what all the fuss is about, just listen to that!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Yeah, that totally wasn't a surprise, since 'Slide Away' is the most conventional song on the album, but still fucking wonderful.

I'm more surprised at the 0 votes for 'Virtual World'!

My decision came down to Beautiful Mind vs Already There

Non-album singles and b-sides 1992-1994 would be a fun poll, I mean Gravity Grave would win but still.

I'm more surprised at the 0 votes for 'Virtual World'!

I voted Slide Away but Virtual World would be my second choice.

I didn't hear this album until long after the fact but it's one of my favourite shoegaze/space rock/psychedelic records for sure.

The lyrics are very frequently trite pie in the sky nonsense but I can forgive it because of the sound around them, and the sound of them. He altered so much as a singer between this album and ANS, it's crazy.

Non-album singles and b-sides 1992-1994 would be a fun poll

If one has the Verve E.P., No Come Down, and This is Music singles comp, what other non-album tracks from that era are worth tracking down?

There's only about a dozen non-Storm in Heaven early tracks, and if you have the Verve EP and No Come Down, I think that covers all of them?

All in the Mind
A Man Called Sun
One Way to Go
No Come Down
Twilight
Where the Geese Go
6 O'Clock
She's a Superstar
Feel
Gravity Grave
Endless Life

The rest is live/acoustic/unedited versions of same.

A Man Called Sun is ashcrofts fave song and mine too

and Mansun's, too

I don't think anyone has ever listened to this album for its lyrics, to be honest.

I dunno, I always liked "-hello, high are you? -yes. -well that explains it" as an expository refrain.

Oh, I agree, and I think "it's me throwing stones from the stars on your mixed up world" isn't a bad lyric at all - just I think that with this album, on the whole, the lyrics take a back seat to the music.

true. it sounds like he copied a lot of the choruses from what people had signed in his high school yearbook.

I love the way this album begins with that massive, reverb-drenched opening chord to 'Star Sail'

pretty amazing looking re-package

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CmOV2KxWAAAr7me.jpg

cool!

looks nice! also decent price, around $40.

Tracklist looks fantastic

A STORM IN HEAVEN

CD1: The Remastered Album
Star Sail
Slide Away
Already There
Beautiful Mind
The Sun, The Sea
Virtual World
Make It ‘Til Monday
Blue
Butterfly
See You In The Next One (Have A Good Time)

CD2: B-sides, E.P. Tracks
All In The Mind (9/3/1992)
All In The Mind
One Way To Go
A Man Called Sun

She’s A Superstar (22/6/1992)
She’s A Superstar
Feel

Gravity Grave (5/10/1992)
Gravity Grave (Extended Version)
Endless Life
A Man Called Sun (live)
Gravity Grave (live encore)

Blue (10/5/1993)
Twilight
Where The Geese Go
No Come Down
Blue (USA Mix)

Slide Away (29/9/1992)
6 O’Clock

CD3: B-Side, Radio Sessions, Unreleased Studio Tracks
Slide Away cont. (20/9/1993)
Make It Til Monday (acoustic)
Virtual World (acoustic)

Originally issued on the compilation ‘No Come Down’ (B-sides and out-takes)
Gravity Grave (live Glastonbury 1993)
Butterfly (acoustic)

BBC SESSIONS
Radio 1 Session – 7/02/1992 (previously unreleased)
Slide Away
She’s A Superstar
Already There
Brake Lights

RADIO 1 (Mark Radcliffe) Session – 7/12/1993 (previously unreleased)
Star Sail
A Man Called Sun
Six O’Clock
Gravity Grave

Unreleased Sawmills Studio Sessions (previously unreleased)
Shoeshine Girl
South Pacific

DVD

Promo videos
All In The Mind
She’s A Superstar
Gravity Grave
Blue
Slide Away

Live at Camden Town Hall – 23/10/92
Slide Away
All In The Mind
She’s A Superstar
Staring Stranger
A Man Called Sun
South Pacific
Already There
The Sun, The Sea
Gravity Grave

Bonus content:
A Man Called Sun (N.Y.C. Flatbed Truck – 1992
South Pacific (Sawmills footage filmed by John Leckie)
Blue (USA Mix (promo video)

Where is this information coming from?

http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/the-verve-a-storm-in-heaven-and-a-northern-soul-super-deluxe-box-sets/

These are very expensive and full-on. I'd quite like just a double-CD of each album with the associated b-sides and EP tracks remastered, I think. I can't justify £30 each on something I already own and which only really speaks to a me that doesn't exist anymore.

Back when this was originally released I remember reading articles comparing it to 'New Gold Dream' and I was like, wtf...

tasty

http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/verve1_spread.jpg

I've been immersed in the remaster most of the afternoon. The run from 'All in the Mind' to 'A Man Called Sun' is spectacular.

how does the remastering job sound? the original CD release is pretty good to begin with.

Obligatory Steve Hoffman thread on the reissues: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-verve-how-come-no-deluxe-reissues.374759/page-13

Picked up both sets even though I have a good portion of the material scattered around.

how does the remastering job sound? the original CD release is pretty good to begin with.

I don't know if my old ears are up to the job, you know. It always sounded fibrous and muddy to me, and the remaster has the same density without seeming to add a whole bunch.

Listening to this again - still incredible!

No lie.

That descending guitar phrase that McCabe plays in 'Beautiful Mind' gets me every time. So simple, yet so superb and OTM. Likewise his little guitar solo during 'Star Sail' ... some genuinely fantastic guitar sounds on this record.

my friend is a huge Richard Ashcroft fan and asked if i wanted to see them when they came to Hollywood. i told him i was a huge, gigantic Verve fan but could care less about his solo stuff.

i'm seeing Richard Ashcroft at the Wiltern on April 3, 2017.

And then you will really care less.

The last record Ashcroft was involved in that was worth listening to was, funnily enough, The Verve's Forth ...

not sure how to post photos from Wikipedia, but this is where A Storm In Heaven was recorded in Cornwall:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/Sawmills_Studios,_Golant,_Cornwall.jpg/1024px-Sawmills_Studios,_Golant,_Cornwall.jpg

do we have any accounts of what the whether was like at the time? potentially very atmospheric

WEATHER

atmospheric in the metaphorical sense

sorry for 3x posts

very famous studio.
seem to recall only approachable via boat.

ah ha ..

https://www.classicpopmag.com/2020/01/sawmills-studio-interview-they-came-they-saw-they-conquered/

ooh thanks for sharing that

yet another site that the Edge/Immersive Reader option is the best way to read it.

'Cause I'll be hearing music till the day I die

got my vote.

― Bee OK, Tuesday, June 7, 2016

I voted "Already There" and I'm okay with that and see it finished third. Such an amazing album that doesn't get the love that it deserves.