The Verve. This Is Music: The Singles.
The BritPop pioneers split up twice in their bittersweet career before conking out for good in 2009, but what gems The Verve left behind.
The Drugs Don’t Work, Lucky Man, Bitter Sweet Symphony… all of their greatest hits are on this compilation, released as a 14-track vinyl double album for the first time next Friday.
Those three classics come from the Wigan band’s 1997 multi-platinum break-through album Urban Hymn which sold more than three million copies in the UK alone.
The collection opens with This Is Music, the stirring lead single from their second album, 1995’s A Northern Soul, with Nick McCabe’s blistering guitar punctuating Ashcroft’s spacey vocals.
The Verve were early purveyors of neo-psychedelia. Their second single, 1992’s She’s A Superstar, is included here in its original eight-minute-plus glory.
Gravity Grave, a trippy gem from the same era, builds on a pulsing bass line as Richard Ashcroft sings his lyrics over echo-heavy, fuzzed-out guitars.
Oasis supported The Verve in 1993, Ashcroft inspired their 1995 song Cast No Shadow, and he’s remained friends with both Gallagher brothers ever since. The singer is confirmed as Oasis’s special guest on their comeback shows this year – another reason for this 2004 comp to be re-released.
There are changes from the original CD though. Monte Carlo and This Could Be My Moment have been replaced by two singles from The Verve’s 2008 reunion album, Forth – the cracking Top 5 hit Love Is Noise, which toyed with William Blake’s Jerusalem, and the less successful, more lacklustre Rather Be.
Blake also inspired the strings-enhanced single History, with Liam Gallagher on handclaps. And of course there’s space for sweeping ballad Sonnet.
It’s an impressive legacy. But it makes you think: if Ashcroft and McCabe hadn’t turned into alt-rock’s answer to Itchy and Scratchy, how much greater would that legacy have been?
David Gray. Dear Life.
Once a jobbing folk singer, Cheshire-born Gray turned his career around in the late 90s with soulful songs like Please Forgive Me and Babylon. 25years on from his chart-topping classic album White Ladder, tracks like Future Bride and Sunlight On Water prove he can still pen blissful catchy folk-pop tunes awash with feeling and emotional intelligence.
Franz Ferdinand. The Human Fear.
The Glasgow art-rockers’ sixth album is a love letter to themselves. It’s dance pop with a side order of middle-aged angst and instant hooks. There’s a strong Bowie feel to songs like Audacious (and the chorus owes a debt to All The Young Dudes), while propulsive groovers like Night Or Day trigger the toes immediately.
Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity. Live At Montreux, 1968.
They went Top 5 with This Wheel’s On Fire (also known as the Ab Fab theme tune) in 1968, and played the celebrated Swiss jazz fest soon after. These 12 groovy R&B and jazz numbers mix Julie’s soul-infused vocals with Brian’s rich and at times freaky Hammond organ. Their cover of Donovan’s Season Of The Witch drags a bit, but the set has its moments, not least Inside Of Him with its chilled nightclub vibe.