The Verve – A Storm In Heaven

Released in the UK on 21 June 1993, A Storm In Heaven was a modest UK hit (No. 27 in the album chart) but over the past two decades has come to be regarded as something of a psychedelic classic. Drenched in echo and reverb it is highly atmospheric, extremely nuanced and, for many long-term fans, remains the band’s ‘lost’ masterpiece.

For a debut it was as adventurous and audacious as they come - with Richard Ashcroft’s semi-hallucinatory lyrics of hope, love, isolation and insanity reflecting the burgeoning mood of a generation. Life under post-Thatcher Tory rule might have been grim, but as Ashcroft sang in Slide Away: ‘These are our times and your highs.