The Verve
A Storm In Heaven

THE REVIEW

Surely, those who love the Verve for Bittersweet Symphony, Sonnet, and Lucky Man might wrinkle their noses a bit when first listening to this album, released in 1993. And that's exactly what happened to me, to be honest...
But then, after listening to it two, three, four times, I realized the value of this work, which has absolutely nothing of pop in it...

It is a very homogeneous album, without particular shifts between ballads and slightly more upbeat rock. The homogeneity lies in the fact that there are 10 tracks of very calm psychedelic rock, where in some parts the music overpowers Richard Ashcroft's voice (as in "Slide Away" and "Already There"), but this does not bother the listener at all; on the contrary, it makes one appreciate the distinctive sound of the English band in its early days.

"A Storm in Heaven" begins with the beautiful electric charge of "Star Sail," the most rock track along with "The Sun, The Sea" and "Blue." "Virtual World" is a semi-acoustic ballad, with a very light drum supporting the melodies expressed by the guitar and with sweet flutes in the song's final part.
The first seconds of "Butterfly" slightly remind us of Oasis's "Fade In-Out," for the rest, it’s a track with constant changes of pace, first calm, then sped up, then calm again, until the introduction of the sax (also present in "The Sun, The Sea"), which takes us to the end of the track.
"See You In The Next One (Have A Good Time)" brings us back a bit to solo Lou Reed and is a classic British-style ballad with a piano intro with which the album closes.

This is an album to listen to in complete relaxation; these 46 minutes will further relax you.
The final result is a work worthy of the (now lost) genius of Richard Ashcroft, and to think that I found it two years ago in a store for 18,000 lire and didn’t buy it simply because it said "Verve" and not "THE Verve" on the album (I didn’t think it was Richard's band, can you imagine...) ...by the way: in the band's name on this album, the "The" is not present: they acquired it later because of a dispute with a record label...(thanks giov for the info!!!)