1. Sit And Wonder 2. Love Is Noise 3. Rather Be 4. Judas 5. Numbness 6. I See Houses 7. Noise Epic 8. Valium Skies 9. Columbo 10. Appalachian Springs

Warning: the Verve&rsquo,s wittily titled fourth album--the first since their reformation in 2007--is no Urban Hymns Part II. That much is clear from the album&rsquo,s first single Love Is Noise, a punchy-yet-addictive propulsive rocker, but it&rsquo,s a fact underlined several times on the remainder of the album. Taking a determined stroll along the boulevard of experimentalism, the band mix up their slick strings and ringing guitars with dense drums and murky soundscapes for this comeback album. Opening cut &ldquo,Sit and Wonder&rdquo, sets the tone: a lurching, bluesy tune with a loose, jam-session feel that maintains its groove for almost seven minutes. The soaring (and shorter) &ldquo,Rather Be,&rdquo, the dreamy &ldquo,Judas&rdquo, and the plodding &ldquo,I See Houses&rdquo, bring us closer to the classic Verve sound, but the retreat into moody psychedelia continues anew with &ldquo,Numbness,&rdquo, the intense &ldquo,Noise Epic&rdquo, and the kaleidoscopic, Can-like &ldquo,Colom...

#The truth (2008-12-03) It is great to hear new material by the Verve. I do not agree that this sounds like a Richard Ashcroft solo record, it is far superior to that. . . . It contains outstanding songs including Sit and Wonder and Judas. Not sure why this has had negative reviews as the material is pure quality.

#Forget your expectations, chill out and prepare to be taken on a soulful musical journey.. (2008-11-05) Obviously Love is Noise is a great track, certainly the most obvious choice for a single, their stunning live performance of it at Glastonbury was certainly a testament to its energetic, crowd pleasing potential. However, if I had to take a pick of the bunch, I would go for Appalachian Springs and Sit & Wonder as being my favourites, closely followed by Valium Skies and Judas - each one equally as detailed and soulful as the next. So that s 5 tracks that instantly grabbed my attent...

#They got away with a forth? Not on my watch! (2008-10-22) I bought this album last week and forcefully misplaced it. It s not a happy do, this. I listened to it twice just to be sure i was once again medically depressed. We are now in an age where happiness is of paramount importance. This should be the soundtrack to Emmerdale or Eastenders. That would just about finish off the nation! How much more self pity and auditory gruel can we take? How have they got away with a forth? Go spank your stereo, spit it out! spit it out! dirty! Now slip in a bit of Corrosion of Conformity a...

#An album for all music fans (2008-10-09) I wasn t sure whether i would like this album as i bought it without even hearing a single song off it, the cover did it for me, i don t know why but it s just a beautiful image and i imagined that any music contained within would be just as good. The music fits that image well. Out of the whole album there is only one song i m not too keen on but it s certainly not a bad song, the rest i loved on the first listen through and that s a very rare thing for me. I really don t understand people giving this bad reviews, you will not regret buying ...

#Don t listen to the haters (2008-10-06) As a Verve fan I ve listened to the album over & over again on my work PC & in my Car and I rate it highly!Stand out songs for me are Numbness , Noise Epic & my personal favourite Columbo . Great Album. . . . . Buy it!

1. Bittersweet Symphony 2. Sonnet 3. Rolling People 4. Drugs Don t Work 5. Catching The Butterfly 6. Neon Wilderness 7. Space And Time 8. Weeping Willow 9. Lucky Man 10. One Day 11. This Time 12. Velevet Morning 13. Come On 14. Deep Freeze

Calling it a day in early 1999 was probably the best thing the Verve ever did, as it meant that they quit when they were at the pinnacle of their success, sparing their faithful followers an unsightly degeneration. Urban Hymns is a fitting final testament to Wigan s favourite sons, as Richard Ashcroft and Nick McCabe temporarily buried the hatchet and reformed one of Britain s greatest songwriting partnerships since Lennon and McCartney. From the unmistakable introductory chords of Bittersweet Symphony to the sheer pop perfection of Lucky Man via stoner rock-outs like Weeping Willow and the call to arms that is Come On, every track justifies its presence by being part of a cohesive whole. Their previous album A Northern Soul was already marked down in the annals of rock history as a classic, Urban Hymns surpasses it and then some. --Helen Marquis

#Britpop s last great album. (2008-07-16) Richard Ashcroft has never been one to undersell his own brilliance - his solo career may have been weak, and the first two Verve albums excellent, but on Urban Hymns the hype finally justified the mouth. Just as the Britpop bubble was about to burst, the Verve reformed for one last album, to sign off at their peak (although, obviously, they have since reformed again). Urban Hymns is the distillation of everything great about the Verve, but with an extra poppy edge. The band generally reign in their psychedelic jams of the previous two albums...

#Love This Album (2008-07-04) One of my favourite if not favourite album of all time. Enough said. If you don t own this album then you re missing out, on one of those truly special albums.

#REALLY RATHER REFRESHING (2008-05-12) im 15 and this is the first time i heard this albumi picked it up from reviews and having heard bitter sweet symphony, and lucky man, but it turns out i love itim a huge fan of the spiritualized, stone roses, oasis etc. but now having heard this i love the vervecheck it now

#Most boring album I have ever heard (2007-10-20) I have had this album for about a year and I m pretty sure I have never got all of the way through it. Every song is slow, dreary and boring. There is not a single descent song on the album. Don t waste your money.

#Such a good album but why is it always found in the bargain basement bins? (2007-07-07) This album is always in the cheapy sale bin, so go on buy a copy and try to figure out why such a good album is going so cheap? Did the Verve sell out? Not likely. . . questionable ethics from the record companies more like. It is a classic, but not really a masterpiece as such

1. Sit And Wonder 2. Love Is Noise 3. Rather Be 4. Judas 5. Numbness 6. I See Houses 7. Noise Epic 8. Valium Skies 9. Columbo 10. Appalachian Springs

#They are better than this (2008-10-03) This is a difficult album to say the least. After watching them play live last year I thought this album would be the kick in the backside the music world needs right now. Big music played with huge intent. Instead all we get is a diluted, uninspired, sloppy bunch of half-arsed ideas that seem to go completely against what these guys are about and what they can do live. Sit & Wonder started out as a belting monster of a live track when they were first performing it. What on earth did they do to it in the studio?? They seem to have compr...

#FIRST OF FORTH (2008-09-03) The current singleLove is noiseis pure and Classic The Verve so Consequently it is The First of Forth! and what an album it is!!in years to come this could be thought of as highly as Northern Souls and Urban Hyms the fact that the only good two bands from Manchester have got back toghether with new albums,(the others being James)The album features the classic traits of the Verve. epic productions and sonic explorations,this is a great album. The accompanying dvd is also rather good as well. Just think with james and The Verve back together whats the bettin...

#I bought the delux vinyl for £40! (2008-08-29) No matter what im sure I would have still splashed the cash for it but blimey this record is boring. The thing that gets me is if you heard the thaw session (the 14 minute jam the released for free when they 1st got back) you cant deny that these guys can still make amazing music. . . so why is this so bland? I am so very very surprised. . . when I heard Sit & Wonder live last year I thought they are totally playing for themselves and just bringing the jams to life. . . I really dont know what happened between then and now. I hope...

#To say the least I m very disappointed.... (2008-08-27) Ok, most people know there are 3 types of Verve and generally with that comes 3 types of Verve fan. Before the first breakup era, the Urban Hymns era and as a live band. Each one different and each one creates debate amongst fans so reviewing a Verve album isn t like reviewing an Oasis album. I m a massive fan and have been since hearing This Is Music at 3am on MTV when Northern Soul was first breaking and I generally get everything people say. Yes, the stuff before the first breakup is pure awesomeness but not so easy for ...

#Pitiful, meritless, soulless money-driven comeback sellout extravaganza (2008-08-26) They did it for the money. What other possible conclusion can you draw? From all accounts, they can t stand to be in the same room together, so they re not in in for the lulz. And with tracks this uniformly dire, they obviously didn t have an amazing set of songs which they simply just had to get back together and record, either. The performances are half-baked, the songs are instantly forgettable (think Richard Ashcroft s solo stuff with any residual hooks or panache surgically removed), Nick s ...

1. This Is Music 2. Slide Away 3. Lucky Man 4. History 5. She’s A Superstar 6. On Your Own 7. Blue 8. Sonnet 9. All In The Mind 10. The Drugs Don’t Work 11. Gravity Grave 12. Bittersweet Symphony 13. This Could Be My Moment (Previously Unreleased) 14. Monte Carlo (Previously Unreleased)

This Is Music: The Singles: 92 - 98 represents a landmark collection of releases from one of the most celebrated British bands of the last decade, The Verve. Richard Ashcroft and his reformed band of northern souls stood astride the mid-nineties like a colossus, after finally producing the masterpiece that everyone knew they were capable of (1997 s Urban Hymns). A collection of their most successful work is long overdue, particularly with Ashcroft s solo career stalled after two below average efforts. This rolls out the singles from their three albums, early EPs and the obligatory new tracks too, both unreleased from the Urban Hymns sessions. Interesting though these collector s items are, the real treasure lies in simply rediscovering, like Suede, what a great singles band they were. Witness the grandeur and scope of History - with it s epic (if overdone) strings and classic Ashcroft delivery or the genuine melancholy of The Drugs Don t Work. They became, as Oasis and the Stone Ro...

#One of the Greatest British Bands Ever! (2005-10-02) This is The Verve s Greatest Hits Albumn. They have a fantastic array of music to highlight the era, rather than Britpop, they were of the Indie and Alternative Genre. Such hits as Bittersweet Symphony, Lucky Man, Sonnet, The Drug s Dont work, History,etc. Make this one of the greatest Albumns you will ever own, completely original and well done.

#... (2005-02-07) Excellent! Good mix of songs. Good album to get if you have no other albums by The Verve and you want to get into them.

#Only for new Verve fans! Where are the b-sides - live songs? (2004-11-17) This album is probably only appealing to those new fans or to those casual fans who enjoyed Urban Hymns. This could have been so much better for those of us who already own their albums. I mean they could have released a limited edition version with a bonus cd with b-sides (such as the Cure) or a cd with live tracks (such as Blur). This album is suppose to include some b-sides and to my surprise Never wanna see you cry is not included, which in my opinion is probably the best B-side the Verve ever made. This...

#This IS Music! (2004-11-10) What a great album, well worth the money!. . . and the wait. Opener the raw this is music is such a confident song bursting with energy will be an eye-opener to fans who got into the verve around the Urban Hymns time. Slide Away and Lucky Man follow, reminding us of the loss to the british music scene. Then perhaps the greatest single of the nineties History, what more is their to say, just such a fine quality and haunting song. Older songs fit really well with the later material (I m sure they ve mixed Richards vocals louder in the old ones too!). Then the...

#Pure Brilliance (2004-11-02) This album is most certainly worth purchasing - especially if you re curious to learn more about a band that could have gone on to achieve so much more. If you liked Urban Hymns, this best of collection will introduce you to some of The Verve s more undiscovered (and unappreciated) earlier work of the 90 s. This Is Music, On Your Own and History are all excellent singles from their 1995 album A Northern Soul, while Slide Away and Blue offer a more raw taste of music from their debut album A Storm In Heaven. All In The Mind, Gravity Grave and She s A Supe...

1. New Decade 2. This Is Music 3. On Your Own 4. So It Goes 5. Northern Soul 6. Brainstorm Interlude 7. Drive You Home 8. History 9. No Knock On My Door 10. Life s An Ocean 11. Stormy Clouds 12. Reprise

The Verve s first album, A Storm In Heaven was a little too much like a wet weekend to really live up to its title, dallying in intangible psychedelia. Bolstered by Oasis producer Owen Morris, A Northern Soul delivered a lot more. The opening A New Decade was imbued with all the glorious bombast that its title suggested, and This Is Music sounded like some furious gospel, with shamanic lead singer Richard Ashcroft bellowing the title like he was administering to his flock. Inconsistencies marred A Northern Soul, however, with Brainstorm Interlude hardly even worthy of inclusion, and Life s An Ocean simply unrolling as an overlong jam. The album s clincher, surely, is the almighty History. The Verve s greatest achievement, History is an epic, tearful elegy, and to date one of rock music s greatest moments. It alone proves that A Northern Soul is a failed masterpiece. By the next album, Urban Hymns, The Verve had learnt to dispense with the filler. --Louis Pattison

#Absolutely awesome (2008-08-01) Believe the vast majority of reviews here: A Northern soul is not as commercial or immediately accessible as Urban Hymns, but infinitely more powerful and balanced and contains some of The Verve s best work.

#The Verve At Their Best (2007-10-07) The Amazon review above is right in many ways. A Nothern Soul is rambling and full of bombast. It does have filler in it and isn t nearly as slick as its successor. This is a fans record if ever I ve heard one. What current band would say I m going to die alone in bed or Too busy staying alive ? Few if any, for that matter, few bands in history would have the bottle to say that. This isn t a record that the radio would have on continuous rotation like Urban Hymns but by heck theres few records that have the lead singer laying his life ...

#maybe the most important album you could own ? (2007-07-14) this album is essential to those who find salvation in music and also those who just love good music , i personally found this a life changing album which shifted my perspective of myself to a bit of a dick to actually someone with a bit more depth than your average cd:uk presenter , the album will change you , especially history and life s an ocean but hey just listen to it with headphones yourself and see .

#Maybe the best album I own (2007-03-20) Sheer genius. Anyone who thinks Urban Hymns is better than this is a fool, who deserves only to be pitied. I can see why some people would rate Storm in Heaven better than this, but for me that album is patchy and lacks coherence. In contrast, Northern Soul is a singular (albeit bleak) vision, perfectly realised.

#Music that speaks (2005-03-30) I have just listened to this album again after a long break from it. It reminded me of what great music sounds like (not like the pretentious dross that s knocking around at the moment). This album really speaks to you. It doesn t just speak, it shouts with all its might. Like the synopsis of the album says, it is flawed (Brainstorm Interlude and Lifes an Ocean). But the magnificence of the rest of the album more than makes up for it. I remember it took me a while to tune into the sound, once you do the ride is both powerfull and long lasting. I th...