Urban Hymns

First gotta say The Verve are my absolute favorite band, so when I saw the announcement for this deluxe edition I was super excited. The price seems right for what you get and the quality/presentation. It's all packaged very nicely. First on top is a hard cover book with interesting comments on making the album and touring at the time from all of the band members along with some nice photos of the band. Then there are a couple of postcards, and a poster(of the album cover). Finally the main deal the music. 4 CD's and 1 DVD. The remastered tracks sound great to me but I'll admit I'm nowhere near a audiophile. What really excited me the most about this set was the live material. I think The Verve sound even better live than on the albums. Up until now pretty much the only official release of live material was the Haigh Hall concert back in the late 90's on VHS. You can easily find most of it online even just on YouTube but the quality is terriable. Same goes for the large majority of the other live material/video from this time in the bands history. Hearing these live tracks on a official release is a night and day difference. It sounds SO good. The DVD is quite nice as well. You get the full Haigh Hall concert in quite good quality in my opinion. Its still SD and 4:3 but its MUCH better than any copy of it that has existed before. There are a few other nice performances on the DVD as well such as a few songs from the "Later... with Jools Holland" show.Overall I'm more than satisfied with my purchase. It's something I will hold on to and take great care of. Already ripped all the music to FLAC format on my PC and made a ISO of the DVD and put everything back in the box in a sealed bag. Partly because sadly new Verve material/merchandise, at least official is super rare and probably will stay that way :( Anyways would def recommend to any Verve fan even just for the high quality versions of the live performances.

5 stars is for the music, not the quality of the vinyl. I've been reluctantly waiting to buy this record, but hesitant due to the many reviews of defective, warped, skipping records. Received my copy today, and here are the pros/cons. One of the 2 records was slightly warped, but not enough to affect playback. None of the songs skipped, and there were no obvious defects. The outer sleeve was a little dinged and slightly bent back, even though it was shipped in a larger cardboard protector.One odd thing was that they put a shipping label on the back of the record's shrinkwrap, so after peeling it off, I pretty much had to remove the entire shrinkwrap since it stretched it out and it looked saggy. I've never seen this on any vinyl record I've bought from Amazon, and don't understand why you would do this when there is a shipping label on the outside of the box. While there are no defects on my copy and the issues are minor enough to not exchange it, the overall mastering sounds a bit muffled. Not terrible, but it almost sounds like they took the CD mastering and burned it onto vinyl. For reference my TT set up is a Music Hall MMF5.3 w/ an Ortofon Blue cartridge. Overall, I'm glad there are no major defects on the records and I'm happy to have it on vinyl, but I wish it sounded a bit more pristine.

The presentation of this box set is spectacular and you can finally get the band's legendary presentation at Haigh Hall mastered.

IMO this is perhaps one of the Greatest Albums ever created, If not THE GREATEST (at the moment, "Revolver" is the only album that I would consider being equal/better than "Urban Hymns").Ashcroft knows exactly how to relate to the average person in the sense of his lyrics; I feel as if he has entered my brain and gather my thoughts on "Bitter Sweet Symphony" (One of the strongest tracks of the album) because everything he says is exactly how I feel. I tend to shed a few tears when i hear this track, my emotions become unbearable to control toward the end of the song when Ashcroft is singing "Have you ever been down?" with a complementary "Lalalalalalaaaaaaaa..." to conclude the song.....soooooooooo immaculate !!There are no fillers or skip over tracks on this Masterpiece, and each song holds a special place in my heart that will NEVER lose its position. I could listen to this album all day long w/o getting tired of it, in complete awe after every listen because I still can't figure out how is it possible for human beings to create such an astonishing piece of art !!My favorite tracks are "The Rolling People", "Catching The Butterfly", "Space and Time", and of course "Bitter Sweet Symphony". This album helped/helps me get through tough times as a college student struggling to balance out my personal problems (Financial, family, stress, etc.) while trying to obtain a college degree at the same time. "Urban Hymns" is more than just an album; its also a part of Me. I am entirely greatful to be an owner of "Urban Hymns" and I believe that if you are a real "music junkie" you should already own this album; if not get it ASAP !!

Good album