NEW RELEASE: This Is Music The Verve vinyl issue

Rewind to the early 1990’s Wigans The Verve featuring floppy haired futurist vocalist Richard Ashcroft, feedback creature guitarist Nick McCabe, seamless bassist Simon Jones and Charlie Watts-esque drummer Peter Salisbury were a shoeless, but far from soulless, indie wigout quartet supporting bands like Ride, Spiritualized, The Black Crowes, and Oasis, along with having Oasis support them before the Manc 5 piece released anything.

Fast forward to the end of the 90’s The Verve had drafted in support guitarist / keyboard player Simon Tong becoming a monster hit making machine, headline slots including a mammoth farewell show on the grounds of Haigh Hall & Country Park, Aspull along with releasing the timeless chart topping Urban Hymns album. This culmination of talent seemed to spring forth a compilation of some of the bands most loved tracks via This Is Music: The Singles 92-98 which is now getting the vinyl treatment for the first time.

All the tracks have been remastered bringing extra clarity and dimensions to the tracks somewhat lost on the original release. Opening tracks Slide Away and This Is Music have firm echoes of The Stone Roses, an influence Aschcroft has readily admitted got him firmly routed on his journey in music, there are also tinges of Echo and the Bunnymen, Joy Division along with The Byrds guitars.

She’s A Superstar, the bands second single, has echoes of The Walker Brothers, spiraling, luscious and uplifting, the song finds no faults in its structure much like its lofty younger brothers Lucky Man, Sonnet, The Drugs Don’t Work and Bittersweet Symphony. This quartet of first team regular starters are golden boot contenders with little chance for substitutes able to take their mantle from the period, with the added gorgeous remastering, these matchless songs are testament to Ashcroft be heralded alongside Ian Brown and the Gallagher brothers.

There are other delights from the youthful beginnings of the band History and Gravity Grave might only be family to staunch defenders along with their first single All In The Mind along with the manic vocal chorus of Love Is Noise, but on these reworked versions there are extra dimensions not heard before on previous versions, you make up your mind but I sense a rebirth of love for these innocent powerful guitar anthems.

The Is Music is as stunning a collection of compositions as it gets from one of the prime movers of the 1990’s, along with blur, Oasis and Pulp, The Verve firmly have their names etched in the Mount Rushmore of stellar bands of Britpop.

This Is Music vinyl edition is available via the following link