The Verve - 1997 - Urban Hymns

 

Mercy, this album slays me. 1997 was a great year for music. After Cobain killed himself and the majors absorbed all the cool independent labels, and spit Third Eye Blind and Sublime (yes, they suck, my opinion) back in our face, shit picked back up on the Britpop scene. Radiohead, Oasis, Blur... so many more.. and this album, which made a huge impact with the single "Bittersweet Symphony". The entire album is an elegy to life as expressed through a then-26 year old who captured a sense of beauty balanced with that vivid middle of the night melancholia that we all sometimes wake to... and that is why I love this album. The shared sorrow. I don't find it indulgent, like, say, Smashing Pumpkins. There is a serenity to this album that now, 26 years later, impacts me every bit as much as it did back then. I do not recommend it on LSD.

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