POO: The Verve

I still love their first album. The others? Not so much.

thread title otm

Wait, where's 'All In The Mind'?

Northern Soul is a fine album imo.

On Your Own

Northern Soul is their peak imho

Wait, where's 'All In The Mind'?

It's not on their best of CD and was disowned long ago by the band.

A Northern Soul, for that awesome guitar sound.

Silly them then, it's a terrific tune xp

There's no way I could vote for anything but Gravity Grave.

Shame about All In The Mind because I like that song as well, way more than I like, oh, anything since the first album. But I have long ago got over my o_0 at the trajectory of this band.

But ooh, hey, let's not complain, let's just watch the video and marvel at how inhumanly beautiful their guitarist and bassist were, once upon a time, back in the Shoe Age.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1BWGV7A6eM

the gravity grave live version from 93 is even better. Im sad I can't vote for a new decade though.
As for urban hymns, it's not a patch on the first 2, but it's still great!

OMG mine EYES why did I look at pictures of what Verve look now oh no nonononononoooooo ow pain. Make it stop.

AG, you know I can't listen to anything past the first album. But OMG how good that first album was. Why oh why couldn't they have just been a one hit wonder who disappeared without a trace?

Oh, let's just look at what they once were and not think about what they became. Yes. Denial is clearly best.

http://www.musicsaves.org/verve/images/band/nick/nick1.jpg

I still say you're crazy for not liking A Northern Soul (or at least not liking some of the songs)

Crazy as Nick McCabe's unwashed hair. Yup.

yes GG Glastonbury.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibk0aubYswo

I had totally forgotten Paul King used to present 120 Minutes before Miles Hunt.

Actually, unfortunately, listening to A Storm In Heaven, I've realised I don't even particularly like about half this album any more.

That what I really liked about them was the wispy floating stoner guitar riffs strung out over deep Motown-ish grooves and I don't actually like them when they're being a rock band.

Like.. Already There - yes please. Slide Away? - erm, no thanks, not really.

And I do wish Richard Ashecroft would shut up half the time.

Wait, I take that back. Now I remember. I *always* used to skip the first couple tracks. Beautiful Mind just came on and my head melted into the sofa. Oh yes.

I only listen to the first four songs and then the last song on Storm in Heaven.

but... but... The Sun The Sea! Virtual World! Butterfly! (butterfly... butterfly... omg it's all coming back to me now through the mescaline haze, how much I love all this stuff...)

Oh god, I remember I accidentally left this album on a loop in the loo during one weekend long acid trip back in the early 90s and my poor housemate emerged quite some time later informing me that there was a man in the bathroom who had spent an hour telling her "tiiime has nooooo meeeeaaaaaaning...."

how could anyone not like slide away.

Oh I like Make it til Monday, too.
Fucking HATE Blue. Prefer the acoustic butterfly, not sure why.
Actually, there are a few really great songs from that one comp, none of them are on here.
No Come Down, or something like that?
xpost-srsly, Slide Away was my Verve gateway.

Don't harsh my buzz, man. This whole album is like one giant acid flashback right now.

Yeah, OK, Blue just came on, totally skippable bad Who rip off like I keep expecting Ginger CSI to come out any put on his sunglasses at any moment.

I've got No Come Down somewhere, gotta dig that out. Ooh, look, it's the All In The Mind single. Fules. That was a great single.

dunno how anyone could hate Blue either! No Come Down is awesome.

When the bass kicks in on Butterfly like an old truck grinding between gears, it's like... OH GOD I MISS DRUGS I MISS DRUGS SO MUCH WHY AM I CLEAN NOW?!?!??!

who needs drugs

Well, they don't work, they just make me worse.

Apparently.

at least you'll see his (dirty dronerock) face again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFjQuwt_OAc

There're some terrific 1990 demos kicking around - I really liked this one, reminds me a lot of the Roses' 'Something's Burning'

I loved Verve unequivocally when I was younger (and more prone to certain indulgences), and they really were ridiculously good live. But these days I have a hard time getting past how insufferable (& punchable!) Richard Ashcroft was as a personality & performer. Most of his lyrics don't help the situation much, either. Shame, b/c he did imo have a legitimately good voice that was suitable to the band's sound, esp. when it was so drenched in echo that you couldn't make out the words. The rest of the band was pretty much unfuckwithable, tho.

I'm holding out for Gravity Grave & yeah, that '93 Glastonbury version.. Blue was not nominated. I probably would have voted for it if it had been.

I don't actually remember what was on No Come Down and I've long ago lost the track list so this should be interesting.

Oh yes, here we go. Bongos. Flute. Spangly guitar. Some floppy dronerock boy moaning softly in the background. This I like.

But yeah, that's absolutely it, Pillbox. He was fine when he was just moaning dreamily into an echo box while the band freaked out around him but once he became legible he was insufferable.

No come down is on Spotify

Wait, isn't "Where The Geese Go" a Suede B-side?

I'm really confused now, and imagining Bret Anderson merging with teenage Verve boys and that thought might be too much for me.

Oh I like that song.

Bernard spent a couple of weeks in The Verve the first time Nick left

http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/1787/bugeyed.jpg

Remember him this way

The US mix of Blue was actually worse than the album version (at least the album version has the heavy tremolo) but wow, all these B-sides are amazing. Plus there's that lovely cherry on top of the 9 minute live version of Gravity Grave at the end of it to look forward to. Oh, I had forgotten how much I like this comp!

(I think I've just conflated Where The Pigs Don't Fly with To The Birds)

UGH. Please don't. I always fancied Nick McCabe waaaaayyyyy more. And now I must wash mine eyes out.

MUCH BETTER

http://www.musicsaves.org/verve/images/band/nick/nick4.jpg

^^^^^^^^^^actually talented one

For a brief period, close tie on both counts, mind you:

http://www.musicsaves.org/verve/images/band/simon/simon3.jpg

Just one more and I will stop spamming up this thread with pictures, honest.

But seriously.

Tiger suit.

WHY?!?!?!??!

http://www.musicsaves.org/verve/images/rotate/group1.jpg

Tiger suit's pretty cool to be fair. No love for Pete there, woman?

He's a brilliant drummer! And I don't HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE him like I hate Richard or anything. But I couldn't find a decent (and by that I mean luscious pouting) pic of him.

But I mean. You know. Nick and Simon were the ones I cut out of the tape cover and tacked up on the Wall Of Lust.

You know, this is something that sucks about being a grownup. Not staying up for 3 days straight on mescaline, I can live without that. But not having a Wall Of Lust of photos of pop stars clipped from magazines, that really sucks about being a grownup and I think this should be amended. Except all of my Select Magazines are long gone or tucked away in storage somewhere, more's the pity.

Off the songs in this poll

1. Gravity Grave
2. She's A Superstar
3. Lucky Man
4. Sonnet

The feathery descending guitar lines on Beautiful Mind just .... damn, why wasn't that on the poll? But still. No, it's Gravity Grave.

blue is on the poll

"Sonnet", just ahead of "The Drugs Don't Work". Those two were the greatest moments ever by Verve. Wonderful anthemic Britpop ballads at their best!

Sonnet is the worst thing they ever did. Dirge.

Oh man, much as I REALLY wanna vote for She's A Superstar, the presence of Columbo dictates I *must* vote for it. One of the most staggering songs ANY improbably-reformed band has created and at least three times as good as the rest of Forth put together. It's just fucking incredible, as good as anything they ever did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut_gV5Zw2-Q

please listen to this and not gawp, I defy you

Consider yourself defied.

(Unless you wanna count a vague yawn as a gawp maybe?)

Unformed stadium jamwank bollocks.

And why is Richard's voice so HIGH in the mix? It is the least appealing part of the band.

Just highlights the difference between their earlier material and their later, for me. Like, even though their earliest stuff *was* just jamming (apparently) they had this sense of purpose and momentum, even at the music's most meandering. Plus they had better delay pedals back then. This sounds so dry it's like day old toast.

'the sun, the sea', when they hit the bit with 'here it comes, here it comes' and it just explodes and it is awesome especially while driving. john leckie-the last man to almost shut richard ashcroft up and shine the spotlight on nick mccabe.

Yeah, now *look* what you made me done, listening to The Sun The Sea over and over...

::slaps self::

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1123/5133889364_758c90dd93.jpg
The Sun The Sea by Masonic Boom

Nice!

woulda gone for all in the mind. apparently i don't much like anything else these guys have done

whoa

Hey, can some friendly and helpful psych-head please let me know which Pink Floyd bassline it is that Gravity Grave is "paying homage to" or "borrowing" or "referencing" or whatever?

(Paging Mr. Elvis Telecom?)

I thought it was Run Like Hell, but it's the guitar that has the heavy delay, the bass is just doing that plodding 80s bass thing.

Something off Wish You Were Here?

(Should I just stop listening to so much early Verve EP's coz it's doing my head in and making me incapable of listening to anything else, at the moment?)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

how i loved & how i failed

loling is for other man

In my head Terry Bickers ws in Verve. That would've worked tbh.

funny that even though it hasn't been mentioned by anyone in this thread 'bittersweet symphony' will win.

Don't forget "New Generation" winning the Suede poll.

thread title otm

― naked human hands and a foam rubber head (contenderizer), Friday, October 29, 2010 6:24 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark

yeah but Verve are pretty good

Why were these tracks chosen? It's not quite the singles, and the other cuts aren't necessarily their best stuff imo.

it's a really, really good selection imo

like, it's one Butterfly away from containing all of my favourites

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

My three favorite Verve songs tie for first. I highly approve of this result!

'sonnet' with two votes? Really? And yet zero for 'make it til monday'

Let's not delve too deep into the insanity.

I also approve of whatever function it was that made "The Sun, The Sea" the number one of the top three.

Hey, can some friendly and helpful psych-head please let me know which Pink Floyd bassline it is that Gravity Grave is "paying homage to" or "borrowing" or "referencing" or whatever?

(Paging Mr. Elvis Telecom?)

It's not so much a particular PF song as it is an approach - as if Simon Jones just picked up Waters' bass echo rig from "One Of These Days" and just did his own thing. Though admittedly, the bass in "Gravity Grave" does remind me a lot of the middle section of "Echoes."

Well, fairly happy with that result. I was going to go on a rant if Bittersweet Symphony won, but a tie between The Sun The Sea and Gravity Grave = RESULT.

(Yes, yes, I know my hatred for that song is out of all proportion to its badness, but I heard the track it was sampled off before I heard it, and that coloured my perception of it for the rest of time.)

Anyway, thanks for the PF advice, ET. Dammit, I wish PF would get their earlier back catalogue on Spotify already. Or is that EMI's fault?

I doubt it's EMI's fault, it's the same with the Beatles.

1) Refuse to allow downloading
2) watch as the market is flooded with cheap copies of the boxsets from China.

Spotify is streaming, not downloading. It's like not letting your songs be played on the radio!

Oh wait, PF were against singles, too, weren't they?

Ah well, Gravity Grave is on Spotify so I'll listen to that again instead of the real thing.

Downloading in the broader sense, I meant.

Buttersweet trance