"Melody Maker" named "Urban Hymns" as the number one album of 1997 in its year-end list, and the album ranked at number three on "NME"s year-end critics' poll. "Q" also included it in their own list of the best albums of 1997, and it ranked at number 18 on "The Village Voice"s year-end Pazz & Jop critics' poll. At the 1998 Brit Awards, "Urban Hymns" won the award for Best British Album and The Verve themselves were awarded Best British Group. The same year, Richard Aschroft won an Ivor Novello Award for Songwriter of the Year. The album was also shortlisted for the Mercury Prize, which was ultimately awarded to Gomez' "Bring It On". 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 critical and commercial success.