The Verve

An explosion of fireworks from a band that had smoldered throughout the Brit pop excesses of the 1990s. "The Drugs Don't Work" -- inspired by the death of singer-songwriter Richard Ashcroft's father, with vocals recorded in one take -- and "Lucky Man" are two highlights of this triumphant grand finale to both the band's recording career and the Brit pop phenomenon.

Theft? Yeah, brilliant theft. Before the Verve sampled that bit of symphonic Stones in
"Bitter Sweet Symphony," the riff -- cribbed from an old Muzak platter laughably credited to
the Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra (as if the Stones' old manager actually waved the
baton) -- was just soft cheese. The Verve and their sunken-cheeked singer/lyricist Richard
Ashcroft turned it into great theater, a swelling, swaggering pop treatise on her... More >