A Northern Soul
Encyclopedia
A Northern Soul is the second studio album
by English alternative rock
band The Verve
. The album was released in the United States on 20 June 1995 on the Hut label and in the United Kingdom on 3 July 1995 on Vernon Yard Records
. The title is a reference to Northern Soul
, a popular soul movement in Britain during the 1960s.
in 1994, The Verve returned to their Wigan
-based practice room to begin writing and recording songs for their second studio album. Commenting on the effect that working in the "dank rehearsal room" had on the band's songwriting process, frontman Richard Ashcroft
stated:
Initially, the band tried to record the LP inside the rehearsal room itself, so that "they could record as they had been rehearsing", but, when this approach proved to be impossible, they relocated the recording sessions to rural Wales with producer Owen Morris
. Tom Hiney, writing for The Guardian
in September 1997, claimed that the band's experience of recording during this period was "intense and morose, but it produced an album that will still be listened to in 30 years' time."
, the band decided to take a more focused approach to the recording of A Northern Soul, with bassist Simon Jones
stating, "I was like, 'I'm not going through that again. We are writing these songs before we even step through the doors.'" Guitarist Nick McCabe
took a positive view of the early stages of the recording sessions for the album, stating: "when we went in we had no preconceived notion of what it was going to sound like. We just went in and played...and that's when you know you're playing really well, when you don't have to think about it. There were three weeks during the making of that record which I'd have to say were the best I've ever had in my life." However, the sessions soon became infamous for several incidents, with vocalist Richard Ashcroft describing the experience as "insane in ways that only good music, bad drugs and mixed emotions can make." These incidents varied in nature, from Ashcroft disappearing for days to producer Owen Morris smashing a window after the recording of "History
". Morris later recalled: "They did my head in, completely and utterly. There you go. That's life. It's a fantastic album at the end of the day, but it's not a process that I'd ever want to go through again".
. Guitar Magazine writer Dan Eccleston claimed "the band retreated to their Wigan rehearsal room and plugged in, tuned up and flipped out into that parallel universe wherein the Verve song resides. And the result is A Northern Soul – a record whose deep, dark funky rock makes their actually rather lovely '93 debut A Storm in Heaven sound almost limp. The Verve essence remains – swirling guitar arpeggios, grand rock themes, sprawling structures – but it's warmer, denser and more powerful in every way."
The lyrics took on a more prominent and personal role, with Ashcroft explaining: "Each song is a northern soul going through different emotions. I hear this character all the way through the record; pretty pained, then elated, then arrogant. All facets of that personality are a northern soul. That's what I am." It has been claimed that many of the album's lyrics (particularly those of "History") were connected to Ashcroft's split with his girlfriend, with Ashcroft himself stating: "We were all working on the record and then I went off to London for about three months to sort some things out with my girlfriend at the time. Things didn't go so well, and I got really fucked up for about two of those months, both physically and mentally. When I got back, the strangest thing was that they were playing music that was precisely the way I was feeling and so the two just went together quite easily."
In a retrospective review of the album, Nick Southall of Stylus
wrote: "The songs, such as they are, are long and have little structure, the production is murky and raw and harrowing, the tempo is unchanging to the point of testing endurance. There is no joy or even solace to be found in this record, only unforgiving turmoil. It is a traumatic realisation of the hopelessness of human existence, a document of fractured mentalities, the sound of four young men old before their time, scarred by life, already dead once and now desperately striving to be alive for just a moment before it all fades. Songs in the key of pain. Modern, urban, tortured psychedelic soul [...] A wall of noise, a sea of anguish, a masterpiece. On a hillside somewhere in the distance a man screams his desolation at the sky and curses his birth, overcome with fear that this emptiness may be all he can ever know. This record is his scream."
declaring it to be "one of the best albums in the last 10 or 15 years. As good as Nirvana's
or the Roses
", and McCabe claiming it contained "some of the best music I have ever heard by anyone." The album was a moderate success upon its release, reaching #13 on the UK album chart. However, in later years the album saw more acclaim, with readers of Q Magazine voting it the 53rd best album of all time in 1998, and NME
ranking it as the 28th best album of all time in 2003 and the 13th best British album in 2006.
Richard Ashcroft
dedicated track 5 to Oasis
guitar
ist Noel Gallagher
, after the latter had dedicated the song "Cast No Shadow" to him—in the lyric booklet for the 1995 album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
it states that "Cast No Shadow" is "dedicated to the genius of Richard Ashcroft."
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by English alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band The Verve
The Verve
The Verve were an English rock band formed in 1989 in Wigan by lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe, bassist Simon Jones, and drummer Peter Salisbury. Guitarist and keyboardist Simon Tong later became a member. Beginning with a psychedelic sound indebted to shoegazing and space...
. The album was released in the United States on 20 June 1995 on the Hut label and in the United Kingdom on 3 July 1995 on Vernon Yard Records
Vernon Yard Recordings
Vernon Yard Recordings was an independent label owned by Virgin Records. Although Virgin owned a controlling interest in the label, they let Vernon Yard operate as a traditional indie , and therefore very few Vernon Yard releases were distributed by Virgin...
. The title is a reference to Northern Soul
Northern soul
Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged from the British mod scene, initially in northern England in the late 1960s. Northern soul mainly consists of a particular style of black American soul music based on the heavy beat and fast tempo of the mid-1960s Tamla Motown sound...
, a popular soul movement in Britain during the 1960s.
Background
Following their performance at LollapaloozaLollapalooza
Lollapalooza is an annual music festival featuring popular alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock and hip hop bands, dance and comedy performances, and craft booths. It has also provided a platform for non-profit and political groups. The music festival hosts more than 160,000 people over a...
in 1994, The Verve returned to their Wigan
Wigan
Wigan is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It stands on the River Douglas, south-west of Bolton, north of Warrington and west-northwest of Manchester. Wigan is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its administrative centre. The town of Wigan had a total...
-based practice room to begin writing and recording songs for their second studio album. Commenting on the effect that working in the "dank rehearsal room" had on the band's songwriting process, frontman Richard Ashcroft
Richard Ashcroft
Richard Paul Ashcroft is an English singer-songwriter. He was the lead singer and occasional guitarist of alternative rock band The Verve from their formation in 1990 until their split in 1999, and continues as a lead vocalist working with guitars and keyboards...
stated:
Initially, the band tried to record the LP inside the rehearsal room itself, so that "they could record as they had been rehearsing", but, when this approach proved to be impossible, they relocated the recording sessions to rural Wales with producer Owen Morris
Owen Morris
Owen Morris is a music producer who has worked with rock bands such as Oasis, The Fratellis, The View and The Verve.He started working in the music industry as a sound engineer at Spaceward Studio in Cambridge when he was 16. He continued as an engineer until 1994 when he started producing some...
. Tom Hiney, writing for The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
in September 1997, claimed that the band's experience of recording during this period was "intense and morose, but it produced an album that will still be listened to in 30 years' time."
Recording
After encountering difficulties during the recording of their debut albumA Storm in Heaven
A Storm in Heaven is the debut studio album by English rock band The Verve , released in June 1993 on the Hut Recordings label...
, the band decided to take a more focused approach to the recording of A Northern Soul, with bassist Simon Jones
Simon Jones (musician)
Simon Jones is an English bass player. He played bass and provided occasional backing vocals for the English band, The Verve.-Personal life:...
stating, "I was like, 'I'm not going through that again. We are writing these songs before we even step through the doors.'" Guitarist Nick McCabe
Nick McCabe
Nick McCabe is a musician best known as the lead guitarist of The Verve.-Early life:Nick McCabe was the son of a bus driver and has two older brothers, Alan and Paul...
took a positive view of the early stages of the recording sessions for the album, stating: "when we went in we had no preconceived notion of what it was going to sound like. We just went in and played...and that's when you know you're playing really well, when you don't have to think about it. There were three weeks during the making of that record which I'd have to say were the best I've ever had in my life." However, the sessions soon became infamous for several incidents, with vocalist Richard Ashcroft describing the experience as "insane in ways that only good music, bad drugs and mixed emotions can make." These incidents varied in nature, from Ashcroft disappearing for days to producer Owen Morris smashing a window after the recording of "History
History (The Verve song)
"History" is a song by English rock band The Verve, and is featured on their second album, A Northern Soul. It was released 18 September 1995 as the third and final single from the album, charting at #24 in the UK Singles Chart...
". Morris later recalled: "They did my head in, completely and utterly. There you go. That's life. It's a fantastic album at the end of the day, but it's not a process that I'd ever want to go through again".
Music
A Northern Soul was a change in style for the band, moving from the psychedelia of their earlier work to alternative rockAlternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
. Guitar Magazine writer Dan Eccleston claimed "the band retreated to their Wigan rehearsal room and plugged in, tuned up and flipped out into that parallel universe wherein the Verve song resides. And the result is A Northern Soul – a record whose deep, dark funky rock makes their actually rather lovely '93 debut A Storm in Heaven sound almost limp. The Verve essence remains – swirling guitar arpeggios, grand rock themes, sprawling structures – but it's warmer, denser and more powerful in every way."
The lyrics took on a more prominent and personal role, with Ashcroft explaining: "Each song is a northern soul going through different emotions. I hear this character all the way through the record; pretty pained, then elated, then arrogant. All facets of that personality are a northern soul. That's what I am." It has been claimed that many of the album's lyrics (particularly those of "History") were connected to Ashcroft's split with his girlfriend, with Ashcroft himself stating: "We were all working on the record and then I went off to London for about three months to sort some things out with my girlfriend at the time. Things didn't go so well, and I got really fucked up for about two of those months, both physically and mentally. When I got back, the strangest thing was that they were playing music that was precisely the way I was feeling and so the two just went together quite easily."
In a retrospective review of the album, Nick Southall of Stylus
Stylus Magazine
Stylus Magazine was an online music and film magazine launched in 2002. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, a number of different podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog....
wrote: "The songs, such as they are, are long and have little structure, the production is murky and raw and harrowing, the tempo is unchanging to the point of testing endurance. There is no joy or even solace to be found in this record, only unforgiving turmoil. It is a traumatic realisation of the hopelessness of human existence, a document of fractured mentalities, the sound of four young men old before their time, scarred by life, already dead once and now desperately striving to be alive for just a moment before it all fades. Songs in the key of pain. Modern, urban, tortured psychedelic soul [...] A wall of noise, a sea of anguish, a masterpiece. On a hillside somewhere in the distance a man screams his desolation at the sky and curses his birth, overcome with fear that this emptiness may be all he can ever know. This record is his scream."
Release, Reception & Legacy
The band thought highly of the album, with drummer Peter SalisburyPeter Salisbury
Peter Salisbury is best known as the drummer of The Verve, which he joined as a founding member in 1989.- Personal life :...
declaring it to be "one of the best albums in the last 10 or 15 years. As good as Nirvana's
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
or the Roses
The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses are an English alternative rock band formed in Manchester in 1983. They were one of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement that was active during the late 1980s and early 1990s...
", and McCabe claiming it contained "some of the best music I have ever heard by anyone." The album was a moderate success upon its release, reaching #13 on the UK album chart. However, in later years the album saw more acclaim, with readers of Q Magazine voting it the 53rd best album of all time in 1998, and NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
ranking it as the 28th best album of all time in 2003 and the 13th best British album in 2006.
Track listing
- "A New Decade" – 4:11
- "This Is MusicThis Is Music"This Is Music" was the first single released from The Verve's second album, A Northern Soul. The aptly named song is full of varied lyrical images. The song charted at #35 in the United Kingdom...
" – 3:35 - "On Your OwnOn Your Own (The Verve song)"On Your Own" is a song by British rock band The Verve, and is featured on their second album, A Northern Soul. It was released 12 June 1995 as the second single from the album charting at #28 in the UK Singles Chart .-Lyrics:...
" (Ashcroft) – 3:33 - "So It Goes" – 6:11
- "A Northern Soul" – 6:32
- "Brainstorm Interlude" – 5:11
- "Drive You Home" – 6:41
- "HistoryHistory (The Verve song)"History" is a song by English rock band The Verve, and is featured on their second album, A Northern Soul. It was released 18 September 1995 as the third and final single from the album, charting at #24 in the UK Singles Chart...
" (Ashcroft) – 5:26 - "No Knock on My Door" – 5:11
- "Life's an Ocean" – 5:43
- "Stormy Clouds" – 5:34
- "(Reprise)" – 6:11
Richard Ashcroft
Richard Ashcroft
Richard Paul Ashcroft is an English singer-songwriter. He was the lead singer and occasional guitarist of alternative rock band The Verve from their formation in 1990 until their split in 1999, and continues as a lead vocalist working with guitars and keyboards...
dedicated track 5 to Oasis
Oasis (band)
Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher...
guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist Noel Gallagher
Noel Gallagher
Noel Thomas David Gallagher is an English musician and singer-songwriter, formerly the lead guitarist, backing vocalist and principal songwriter of the English rock band Oasis. He is currently fronting his solo project, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.Raised in Burnage, Manchester with his...
, after the latter had dedicated the song "Cast No Shadow" to him—in the lyric booklet for the 1995 album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
(What's the Story) Morning Glory?
Morning Glory? is the second studio album by the English rock band Oasis. It was released on 2 October 1995 through Creation Records. The album was Oasis' most enduring commercial success, charting at number one in the UK and number four in the U.S...
it states that "Cast No Shadow" is "dedicated to the genius of Richard Ashcroft."
B-sides
- "Let the Damage Begin"
- "You and Me" (Ashcroft)
- "I See the Door" (Ashcroft)
- "Little Gem"
- "Dance On Your Bones"
- "Grey Skies"
- "Life's Not A Rehearsal"
- "Back On My Feet Again" (Ashcroft)
- "Monkey Magic (Brainstorm mix)"
Personnel
- Richard Ashcroft – vocals, acoustic guitar ("On Your Own", "History", "Stormy Clouds"), percussion ("History", "Life's an Ocean"), electric piano ("No Knock on My Door")
- Nick McCabe – electric guitar, piano ("On Your Own", "Stormy Clouds"), 12-string guitar ("On Your Own"), acoustic guitar ("So It Goes", "Stormy Clouds"), Hammond organ ("So It Goes"), Moog synthesizer ("Stormy Clouds")
- Simon Jones – bass, backing vocals, percussion ("A New Decade"), keyboards ("A Northern Soul"), 12-string acoustic guitar ("History")
- Peter Salisbury – drums, percussion
- Owen Morris – Hammond organ ("Brainstorm Interlude"), synthesized strings ("History")
- Produced by Owen Morris and The Verve
- Mark Lee – studio assistant
- Mastered by Jack Adams at The Townhouse
- Sleeve concept, design & art direction by Brian Cannon for microdot
- Photography by Michael Spencer Jones except: The Verve on the bus (Scarlet Page) and The Verve in the cafe (Mary Scanlon)
External links
- Album online on Radio3Net a radio channel of Romanian Radio Broadcasting CompanyRomanian Radio Broadcasting CompanyThe Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company , informally referred to as Radio Romania , is the public radio broadcaster in Romania. It operates four national radio channels, and, under the Radio România Regional umbrella, eleven regional radio stations. The four national radio channels are: Radio...