Verve - A Storm In Heaven POLL

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...

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.