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Amazon.co.uk review:
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
Allmusic.com review:
Though shorn of the more overtly shoegazer-styled
elements of their debut A Storm in Heaven, the Verve's
sophomore effort A Northern Soul is no less epic in scope, forging a
heavier, more traditionally psychedelic sound infused with a chaotic energy
which mirrors the emotional upheaval at the heart of Richard Ashcroft's
songs. Reportedly produced under the influence of excessive drug use, the
album is harrowingly intense, its darkly hypnotic momentum steered by
Nick McCabe's spiraling guitar leads and Ashcroft's incantatory
vocals; tracks like the remarkable "On Your Own," "So It Goes,"
and the majestically morose "History" are searing evocations of
isolation and desperation, soaring yet heartbreaking anthems of
disillusionment and loss. ~ Jason Ankeny
MTV.com review:
Although a fine album in
its own right, the popularuty of A Northern Soul probably owes much to the
huge success of Urban Hymns in 1997/8. A collection of swirling, grand epics
and expansive landscapes, it is more sprawling, and, many fans would argue,
more inspired than its tighter, commercial successor. Richard Ashcroft's
lyrics are undoubtedly less oblique than on the group's debut, A Storm In
Heaven. The album's highlight is 'History', with its fluid guitar and
crafted strings. A worthy, if rambling, record, it is significant both
musically and as an indication of the group's imminent dissolution, prior to
their triumphant return two years later.
Yahoo Music review:
The follow-up to A Storm
In Heaven, it's understandable that fans of that earlier, noisier, more
freeform album might have been disappointed with A Northern Soul's
smoother, more streamlined, more structured sound. But dreamy ballads like "On
Your Own" foreshadowed the greatness to come on the Verve's fully developed
next opus, Urban Hymns. - Lyndsey Parker.
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