Most important, though, is the record itself, and what a defiance of the odds it continues to represent. The difference is substantial where No Reason to Cry struggled hard to find the right tone, Slowhand opens with the relaxed, bluesy shuffle of J. is considered to be the end of Britpop’s popularity, with Oasis' Be Here Now bombing and Blur changing their sound with their self-titled album. Discs two and three comprise BBC session material as well as all of the album’s B-sides, which are interesting for their tonal similarity to the rest of the record - there’s no regression to the bombast of A Storm in Heaven or A Northern Soul. Yet the celebrations were brief and strangely muted, for it was the record that knocked Be Here Now off the top of the UK Top 40 – The Verve’s Urban Hymns, that captured the zeitgeist as Britpop went into terminal decline.

The Verve used smaller measures of each to create something that incorporated both Oasis’ anthemic sensibilities and Blur’s musical ambition, and blended them together with limitless heart and empathy. Boasting the remastered album alongside period B-sides and a flood of previously unreleased live recordings – including the group’s landmark hometown performance at Haigh Hall, Wigan, on 24 May 1998 – the 5CD+DVD box set is due for release on 1 September.Though contrasting with the hedonism inherent in Britpop, the introspective A Northern Soul had still generated two British Top 30 hits, “On Your Own” and the keening, string-kissed ballad “History.

With the likes of the widescreen ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’, ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’, ‘Lucky Man’ and ‘Sonnet’, The Verve incorporated a new style of songwriting to sit alongside their established groove-laden style, while ‘The Rolling People’ and ‘Catching The Butterfly’ tapped into the neo-psychedelic soundscapes the band had perfected since their debut album. If these truly were his songs and his songs only, meanwhile, then that particular vein of creative form must have been quite the flash in the pan, given that his first three records were of decidedly changeable quality. And then there’s the slick, celebratory folk-rock of “This Could Be My Moment,” which even in light of Urban Hymns’ sunnier disposition, represents a swerve into MOR too far. At the same time, as “The Drugs Don’t Work” unsubtly suggested, he was eager to put his Mad Richard reputation to bed—and for much of Urban Hymns, he sounds less like the barefoot shaman of old and more like someone easing into a pair of slippers. The Drugs Don't Work' is a perfect song for all those in the later 90s on the big comedown after the wild excesses of the previous years.

But the singer quickly realized his vision would be incomplete without McCabe’s six-string sorcery, and after inviting his old foil back into the fold and reformulating the group as a five-piece, the Verve’s comeback narrative was in motion. There were tastefully implemented strings, something the listening public were in dire need of a reminder of - Urban Hymns was released mere weeks after Oasis’ Be Here Now.

This is the only Verve album to feature guitarist and keyboardist Simon Tong, who initially joined the band to replace their original guitarist Nick McCabe. Also worth noting: that run of Ashcroft’s own releases was interrupted only by The Verve’s 2008 comeback LP, Forth, which was miles better than it ever got credit for and certainly an improvement on his individual output. It was also nominated for Best British Album of the Last 30 Years at the 2010 Brit Awards, but lost to Oasis' (What's the Story) Morning Glory?

Urban Hymns came together slowly, with The Verve cutting demos at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studios in Bath, and then with A Northern Soul producer Owen Morris, before the album sessions proper commenced with producers Youth (The Charlatans, Crowded House) and Chris Potter at London’s famous Olympic Studios in Barnes. With their star firmly in the ascendant, The Verve scheduled their first UK gigs for two years in September ’97, just as the album’s second single, the glorious orchestral swell of “The Drugs Don’t Work,” furnished them with their first UK No. The Verve had previously released two albums, A Storm in Heaven in 1993 and A Northern Soul in 1995. The willy-waving and misplaced machismo of the chart battle between Oasis and Blur in 1995 had driven both bands to opposite extremes - the former painting themselves into a cocaine-fuelled corner with the bloated lunacy of Be Here Now, and the latter moving towards indulgent impressionism never likely to appeal to the public at large. By April 1999, however, renewed tensions within the band, particularly between Ashcroft and McCabe, would lead the Verve to split up for a second time, at the height of their success.

I'm all for having original pressings, but I just picked up a brand new 2016 reissue, and it's one of the nicest pressings of a 90s rock album I've ever heard. Of course, as the lyrics to “Bitter Sweet Symphony” attested, the Verve had at that point become well accustomed to life’s cruel twists and unforgiving ironies. It’s impossible to be so charitable about his most recent, last year’s These People, which was - not to put too fine a point on it - absolutely diabolical. It boasted all the anthemic grandeur of Oasis at their Wembley-baiting best while spinning away from Britpop’s traditional 1960s rock/1970s punk axis for a greater emphasis on lush atmosphere and deep groove.

Sealing the deal, though, were the big-hitting singles; they, ultimately, are the reason why Urban Hymns is the eighteenth best-selling record of all time in the UK. At Richard Ashcroft’s instigation, string arranger Wil Malone ( Massive Attack, Depeche Mode) was brought in and his swirling scores added a further dimension to a number of the album’s key tracks, including “The Drugs Don’t Work” and “Lucky Man. You can also find music from different countries and cultures, providing an exciting experience to explore new sounds.