This Is Music: The Singles 92-98

by

The Verve

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Many stateside listeners know The Verve only from the song "Bittersweet Symphony," or perhaps the album Urban Hymns. For these listeners, there is a wealth of great music to be found on this greatest hits album. Songs such as "This is Music" and "History" are easily on par with the better known tracks from Urban Hymns, such as the gems "The Drugs Don't Work" and "Lucky Man." Fans will surely have favorite songs that didn't meet the "singles" requirement for inclusion on this album. For me, "So Sister" would have completed this 5 Star effort. However, it's pretty safe to say that this is the best of The Verve, and therefore some of the best music around. If you already own all of these tracks then you might be dissapointed with this package--there are two new tracks, but no live or rare material (thus, the label "Singles"). Still worth the price of admission for Verve fans.

This collection is a good way to be introduced to The Verve but the tracks taken from the album "A Storm In Heaven," "Slide Away" and "Blue" are not so much remastered as remixed, bringing Richard Ashcroft's vocals to the forefront instead of letting them swirl through Nick McCabe's amazing guitar work as on the original album. I was incredibly disappointed by this decision as "A Storm In Heaven" is a powerful album as it was originally mixed and was I was looking forward to hearing the two tracks remastered on this collection. I sincerely hope this isn't a sign of what's to come if all three Verve albums are remastered. "A Storm In Heaven" is an amazing album and if it is to be remastered, the sound should be expanded, not re-done. Whether this is Richard Ashcroft's ego interfering and trying to re-write history (no pun intended) or just a poor choice by the album producer I'm not sure. For excellent examples of remastering work, see the remasters of the entire Slowdive catalog and The Jesus and Mary Chain. For an example of a poor remastering job where tracks were re-done, see Tori Amos' collection "Tales Of A Librarian."