Salaverri, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (PDF) (1sted.). Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. p.948. ISBN 8480486392. MacQueen, Ali (2006). "The Verve: Urban Hymns". In Dimery, Robert (ed.). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Universe Publishing. p. 818. ISBN 978-0-7893-1371-3. Japanese album certifications – The Verve – Urban Hymns" (in Japanese). Recording Industry Association of Japan. Select 1999年1月 on the drop-down menu Tops de l'Année – Top Albums 1998" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique . Retrieved 27 June 2021. American certifications – Verve, The – Urban Hymns". Recording Industry Association of America . Retrieved 9 February 2010.

Sealing the deal, though, were the big-hitting singles; they, ultimately, are the reason why Urban Hymns is the eighteenth best-selling record of all time in the UK. “Bitter Sweet Symphony” neatly encapsulates the album’s sonic ingenuity, sampling as it did an orchestral cover version, unrecognisable from the original, of The Rolling Stones’ “The Last Time” and creating one of the most genuinely iconic string parts in modern music history. The Top 200 Artist Albums of 2006" (PDF). Chartwatch: 2006 Chart Booklet. Zobbel.de. p.42 . Retrieved 29 June 2021. Discos de oro y platino" (in Spanish). Cámara Argentina de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011 . Retrieved 19 December 2012. Jones, Alan (8 September 2017). "Official Charts Analysis: The Script debut at No.1 on albums chart". Music Week . Retrieved 9 September 2017.Wilkinson, Matt (16 February 2010). "Liam Gallagher snubs Noel as Oasis win Brit Album of 30 Years award". NME . Retrieved 26 October 2019. With their star firmly in the ascendant, The Verve scheduled their first UK gigs for two years in September ’97, just as the album’s second single, the glorious orchestral swell of “The Drugs Don’t Work,” furnished them with their first UK No.1. Urban Hymns’ majestic trailer singles were inevitably singled out for praise when the album emerged, yet the record seamlessly ebbed and flowed between the band’s customary psychedelic wig-outs (‘The Rolling People’, “Catching The Butterfly,” the valedictory “Come On”) and expansive, existential laments such as “Space And Time’,” “Weeping Willow” and the elegant “Sonnet.” Barely a second seemed superfluous.

Twenty years since Urban Hymns took The Verve from beloved cult band to globe-straddling heroes, the album receives a six-disc super deluxe box set reissue. a b Kessler, Ted (27 September 1997). "The Verve – Urban Hymns". NME. Archived from the original on 17 August 2000 . Retrieved 1 March 2016. I had 100 percent confidence it was going to be massive,” drummer Pete Salisbury recalls of this intense time. “ Urban Hymns was a complete mix of where we were as a band. We were peaking.” Boasting the remastered album alongside period B-sides and a flood of previously unreleased live recordings – including the group’s landmark hometown performance at Haigh Hall, Wigan, on 24 May 1998 – the 5CD+DVD box set is due for release on 1 September. 2CD and 3LP versions of the reissue are also being made available, while the uDiscover store is selling a limited edition 12” single (‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ [alternate version]/‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ [live from 9.30 Club, Washington, DC]) that brings some serious Verve rarities on to wax. European Top 100 Albums of 1998" (PDF). Music & Media. 19 December 1998. p.8. OCLC 29800226 . Retrieved 27 June 2021.

Assisted further by what Richard Ashcroft enthusiastically refers to as the “loose discipline” of Youth’s production methods, The Verve emerged triumphantly from the painstaking Olympic sessions knowing they had created music that would have a lasting impact. Urban Hymns spent 12 weeks at the top of the UK Albums Chart, with a total of 124 weeks on the chart. [35] It also became the Verve's first charting album in the United States, where it debuted at number 63 on the Billboard 200, [36] giving the band their first commercial success in the country. [37] Urban Hymns ultimately peaked at number 23 on the chart and was certified Platinum by the RIAA on 4 April 1998; [38] it remains the group's best-selling album in the United States, with more than 1.3 million copies sold as of 2009 [update]. [39] Legacy [ edit ] I knew the history of that room [Olympic Studio] and we were now a part of it,” Ashcroft recalls, speaking of the studio that had previously hosted the likes of The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix. “We’d hit a timeless seam. When Wil got those scores down, it was this incredible feeling that we could just hit Rewind and hear them again and again. It was like walking into a bank with millions and millions of pounds’ worth of music.” The Top 200 Artist Albums of 2001" (PDF). Chartwatch: 2001 Chart Booklet. Zobbel.de. p.36 . Retrieved 29 June 2021. Though contrasting with the hedonism inherent in Britpop, the introspective A Northern Soul had still generated two British Top 30 hits, “On Your Own” and the keening, string-kissed ballad “History.” both of which suggested that Richard Ashcroft was rapidly emerging as a songwriter of major significance.

Disc five, meanwhile, provides as good a primer as any on the group’s earlier work across the course of three shows in Manchester, Brixton and Washington D.C. - there’s a particularly incendiary version of “A New Decade” that tells you a lot of what you need to know about McCabe’s penchant for oceans of reverb pre- Urban Hymns. Discs two and three comprise BBC session material as well as all of the album’s B-sides, which are interesting for their tonal similarity to the rest of the record - there’s no regression to the bombast of A Storm in Heaven or A Northern Soul.

It was this beautiful, natural hybrid that can only be done by people who haven’t been taught music and someone who’s writing songs from the heart and soul,” frontman Richard Ashcroft recalls today. “You take that and then add the real complexity and detail to these songs that are actually, in some respects, basic. That’s how you get that quality and songs that work so well in the mainstream, but also have this depth and timelessness.” Melody Maker named Urban Hymns as the number one album of 1997 in its year-end list, [40] and the album ranked at number three on NME 's year-end critics' poll. [41] Q also included it in their own list of the best albums of 1997, [42] and it ranked at number 18 on The Village Voice 's year-end Pazz & Jop critics' poll. [43] At the 1998 Brit Awards, Urban Hymns won the award for Best British Album and the Verve were awarded Best British Group. [31] The same year, Richard Aschroft won an Ivor Novello Award for Songwriter of the Year. [31] The album was also shortlisted for the Mercury Prize, which was ultimately awarded to Gomez' Bring It On. [44] By April 1999, however, renewed tensions within the band, particularly between Ashcroft and McCabe, would lead the Verve to split up for a second time, at the height of their success. [31] Guld- och Platinacertifikat − År 1987−1998" (PDF) (in Swedish). IFPI Sweden. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 May 2011. The best-selling albums of all time on the Official UK Chart". Official Charts Company . Retrieved 26 March 2020.