Urban Hymns  by The Verve

In 1997, the British band Verve released their third studio album titled Urban Hymns. It is likely one of the last, but also one of the most significant britpop albums that were released since this musical movement was slowly coming to an end. Urban Hymns marked the peak of Verve's career, while miraculously it was recorded as the previous year they seemed to have disbanded.

Behind the album was Richard Ashcroft, who composed most of the songs on the album, an album that opens with one of the most iconic songs of the entire 1990s, Bitter Sweet Symphony. Urban Hymns manages to innovate and give momentum and continuity to the British rock scene. Many British bands of the following decade were influenced by this album.

The 2,400,000 copies sold only in the United Kingdom prove how significant the album was for its time. Its worldwide sales have exceeded 10,000,000 copies.