The Verve - A Northern Soul (National Album Day 2025)

This is a National Album Day 2025 release, available in-store and online from Saturday 18th October.

Subsumed in myth and hearsay, the backdrop to the making of The Verves second album, issued in July 1995, has been thoroughly documented. It is a matter of record that the turbulent chemistry within the band Richard Ashcroft, Nick McCabe, Simon Jones and Pete Salisbury - during its making forced the first fracturing of their union shortly after its release, but listening now it is also clear that it is one of the finest rock albums of the era.

As such it is a worthy addition to the UK National Album Day 2025 celebration of the genre; a record of towering musicianship on which four lads from Wigan delivered more than an hour of frequently heavy, brooding and confessional grooves, with their trademark psychedelic blooms and affecting melodies in full effect. And its worth noting that producer Owen Morris, who was central t