A Storm in Heaven

A Storm in Heaven
Studio album by Verve
Released	21 June 1993
Recorded	Winter 1992-Spring 1993, Sawmills Studio, Cornwall
Genre	Psychedelic rock Space rock Shoegazing Dream pop
Length	47:04
Label	Vernon Yard, Hut, Virgin
Producer	John Leckie
Verve chronology
Verve EP (1992) A Storm in Heaven (1993) A Northern Soul (1995)
Singles from A Storm in Heaven
"Blue" Released: 10 May 1993 "Slide Away" Released: 20 September 1993

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link
Alternative Press link	(Positive)
Must Hear	link
Nude As The News	link
Head Heritage	link

A Storm in Heaven is the debut studio album by English rock band The Verve (at the time just called Verve), released in June 1993 on the Hut Recordings label. It charted at #27 in the UK.

Overview

Like the band's prior EPs and singles, most of the songs on this album are bathed in heavy layers of delay (echo) and reverb, used on both the guitars and the vocals, in order to give a disorientingly psychedelic overall effect.

The lyrics of "Butterfly" [e.g., "You could flap your wings a thousand miles away/ You could take the storm away, forever every day"] pertain directly to the so-called Butterfly effect. (The song "Catching The Butterfly," from the band's 1997 album Urban Hymns, is apparently a continuation of this theme.) McCabe has stated that it was recorded at 3 AM while playing along with a Steely Dan sample ([1]).

The album's closing song is built on a subdued piano motif played by guitarist Nick McCabe.

Like all of the band's releases, A Storm in Heaven features enigmatic artwork. The album's cover photo was shot inside Thor's Cave in Staffordshire, England. The vinyl LP version came in gatefold packaging.

After this album, the band's music moved in a less psychedelic, more structured direction, and their name was officially changed to "The Verve" for legal reasons, so as not to clash with the record label Verve Records.

In a reappraisal of the album's historic importance, Delusions of Adequacy noted that A Storm in Heaven transcended the other albums of its time:

"A highly burnished synthesis of the warbling hard rock of the Doors, the infinite rhythmic groove of Can, the space-fried improvisations of Yeti-era Amon Düül II, and the effects-pedal anchor of My Bloody Valentine, A Storm in Heaven may well have been the best neo-psychedelic album released in the 1990s. While often clumped together with the other English bands leading the shoegaze movement during the same time period, the Verve was creating a far different version of the thick atmospherics the genre became known for. Despite some minor cosmetic similarities, Loveless this was not. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that guitarist Nick McCabe gazed shoe-ward with far better results than Kevin Shields ever did. While Loveless remained firmly anchored to the early-90s British scene, A Storm in Heaven flew figure eights somewhere over its head."

Track listing

1. "Star Sail" – 3:59
2. "Slide Away" – 4:03
3. "Already There" – 5:38
4. "Beautiful Mind" – 5:27
5. "The Sun, the Sea" – 5:16
6. "Virtual World" – 6:20
7. "Make It 'Til Monday" – 3:05
8. "Blue" – 3:24
9. "Butterfly" – 6:39
10. "See You in the Next One (Have a Good Time)" (Ashcroft) – 3:07

B-Sides

1. "Twilight"
2. "Where The Geese Go"
3. "No Come Down"
4. "6 o'Clock"

Personnel

• Richard Ashcroft – vocals, bass, guitar ("See You in the Next One (Have a Good Time)"), percussion ("Already There", "Beautiful Mind", "The Sun, The Sea", "Virtual World", "Blue")
• Nick McCabe – guitar, piano ("Beautiful Mind", "See You in the Next One (Have a Good Time)"), accordion ("See You in the Next One (Have a Good Time)"), keyboards ("Make It 'til Monday")
• Simon Jones – bass, backing vocals
• Peter Salisbury – drums, percussion
• Simon Clarke – flute ("Virtual World"), horn arrangements
• The Kick Horns (Simon Clarke, Tim Sanders, Roddy Lorimer) – trumpet, saxophone ("Already There", "The Sun, The Sea", "Butterfly")
• Yvette Lacey – flute ("Virtual World")
• Roddy Lorimer – horn arrangements
• John Leckie – production, mixing
• John Cornfield – engineering, programming
• Sleeve concept, design and art direction by Brian Cannon for microdot
• Photography by Michael Spencer Jones

External links

• Unofficial Verve site named after this album
• Ranked # 2 on list of Top 25 Britpop Albums at IGN