Band chemistry is a strange thing; that fusion which originally fired a group can often bubble violently and explode, and that’s exactly what happened to The Verve (several times). The Verve’s was career characterised by major breakups, lawsuits and serious drug abuse…but what a trail of vinyl they left behind! They helped define an era with their fresh take on psychedelia and shoegaze, and if you want to know just how strong their discography is you need look no further than This Is MUSIC: The Singles 1992-2008. Originally released in 2004, the track list is now slightly amended to include tracks from their Forth album, making This Is MUSIC’s first ever appearance on vinyl the definitive Verve collection.

Formed in Wigan in 1990, The Verve came of age in an era before rapid communication, a time when musical scenes would grow in relative isolation and without a barrage of outside influences and The Verve’s take on psychedelia was very much influenced by their surroundings. It was a quintessentially English take on music, eclectic and slightly off kilter, which makes this compilation an engaging listen from start to finish; no two tracks inhabit the same sonic space and, subsequently, it never becomes staid. This album doesn’t run chronologically, rather it is sequenced like a new album, and while you won’t find the songs acting differently, it does place them in an original context and despite the years which separate these tracks, they hang together exceptionally well. It’s ‘This Is Music’ that kicks things off and almost three decades since it was first as a single, it still sounds freshly squeezed. It’s indicative of the band’s modus operandi; swirling psychedelia is fused to a gritty realism and betwixt stands vocalist Richard Ashcroft, singing like a modern day shaman, the very reincarnation of Jim Morrison.

The Verve’s third album, Urban Hymns, was such a big hit that there are not many over a certain age who aren’t familiar with it and the associated singles, so it tends to be the lesser known tracks that prove the most illuminating. Take ‘Gravity Grave’, for example, a single from their A Storm In Heaven long player. It’s a tempestuous number that’s presented in all its eight-and-a-half minute glory and swirls as if a tornado, it places the listener in the eye of the storm whilst the instruments ping around our cranium like friendly spectres. Likewise, the elongated musical workout on ‘She’s A Superstar’ is a prime example of the band’s brand of rock; it’s a combination of the green and grey, the countryside and the city that so often abut in the UK, is presented by The Verve in a kind of musical collage and the result captures the disconnect between man and nature in a way that mere words never could.

The 2016 remaster and the deep, warm sound of vinyl bring all the nuances to the surface and conspire to make this a collection for the long-term and casual fan alike. Without all the internal bickering and the external pressures, The Verve would probably be recording and touring to this very day. Then again, without the squabbling and pressure we wouldn’t have This Is MUSIC: The Singles.

• This Is MUSIC: The Singles 1992-2008 is released via UMC on 24th January 2025.

Track List:

Side A:

1. This Is Music
2. Slide Away
3. Lucky Man
4. History

Side B:

5. She’s A Superstar
6. On Your Own
7. Blue
8. Sonnet

Side C:

9. All In The Mind
10. The Drugs Don’t Work
11. Gravity Grave

Side D:

12. Bitter Sweet Symphony
13. Love Is Noise
14. Rather Be