If you're best acquainted with the magnificent fireworks and impassioned preaching that characterised The Verve's epic parting shot, Urban Hymns, then No Come Down should prove a peculiar second take on Wigan's finest. An American release, it collects together rarities and live versions of The Verve's earliest work. "Make It Till Monday" and "Butterfly" are acoustic takes on the dazed psychedelic sketches that appeared on The Verve's disappointing debut, A Storm In Heaven. Stripped down from their original incarnations, they find a new, more impassioned soul that allies "No Come Down" with The Verve's soulful acoustic forays. It's the quite remarkable live take on "Gravity Grave" that proves No Come Down's centrepiece, though--recorded live at Glastonbury, it's the deepest reading of The Verve's tripped-out anthem that you'll find. --Louis Pattison
|