City of Blinding lights!

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dabiggestu2fan

dabiggestu2fan

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Do you guys think if any HTDAAB song will become a classic it will be this one??? To me this song is really aging well and in 10-20 years time I think this could become a real classic like WOWY, Streets, SBS etc. Maybe its just me and I am biased because I was in the video shoot for COBL so it is very special to me and that was an awesome moment in my life but the more I listen to this song now the more I am really liking it. Ofcourse there are other songs from HTDAAB that I still love but non sound as fresh as COBL. Anyway just bored so thought I would start this thread. Any opinions?
 
Listened to this song lastnight after a long break from it.
And you're right, it still sounds fresh as it did when I first heard it :up:

Like I've posted before, it's definetly Streets of the 00's to me :rockon:
 
I really love this song, too, and I think it is disrespectful of it (if that makes sense) to continue calling it the 'Where The Streets Have No Name" of the 00s. I don't really see what the two tracks have in common, other than they both have a slow build-up and they both refer to an urban item in the title. As far as the melody and arrangements go, they're completely different.

Although 'Vertigo' understandably was the marketing tool for the album in general, I really think 'City of Blinding Lights' is the keynote song of the 03-05 period for U2 (much like how 'Discotheque' was the single and 'Please' the keynote song of Pop).

Lyrically, I find 'City of Blinding Lights' very touching. Maybe the older you get, the more you appreciate it.
 
It is definitely the best song from The Bomb and probably their best of the decade. There is some awesome work from The Edge and Clayton in there. Most of Bono's lyrics are pretty good (love the final line). The chorus is a bit cheesy, but somehow it does work. So, yeah, in my eyes it is a classic.
 
everyone knows i'm not the biggest fan of the album, but i've got to admit, i love cobl. i think it's a great song. as for whether or not i think it will be a classic, only time will tell. it's got the potential, though. i think a big part is how fans and critics alike respond to the upcoming album. i think that will determine how the last two albums are thought of (good or bad) as well as how classic any songs or albums are.
 
Axver said:
Quoted for truth.

COBL may be a good song, especially live, but it will nonetheless always appear to be Streets' little brother.
Click to expand...

... Street's little brother that doesn't lose his virginity until he's 30, and only to a miserable girl that Streets paid for the occasion.
 
Axver said:
Are you implying that City Of Blinding Lights is Ian?
Click to expand...

ZING :D

Honesty, this was my favourite song for a long while (check my username, it was also my avatar) but there's other songs on the album I prefer now. I think it probably will become a 'classic', but certainly not in the sense of Streets or Pride, and not even BD status I don't think. The brdge is a bit sucky,
 
It is definitely the best song on the album and I'm sure it will always pop up now and again in U2 shows, but I doubt it will become a live classic, nothing from HTDAAB will.
 
I'm not sure COBL will ever be considered to be up there with the all-time classics like Streets, Bad or WOWY, it is a little derivative and seems to lack the incisive punch of those songs, but its certainly one of the best songs on HTDAAB.

I think the one song from the 00's that we'll look back at in 10-20 years time as one of U2's all-time classics will be Kite.
 
shaun vox said:
No "Beautiful Day" will be the only u2 song remembered from (2000)
I like (original of the species) my-self.
never cared for (Cobl)
Click to expand...

I think Beautiful Day will be the U2 song the public at large remember from the 00's, (unless the new album contains anything to dislodge it), but maybe the die-hards will rate Kite just that bit higher.

I seem to be quite out of step with most fans opinion on HTAAB though, I never really been all that keen on Vertigo (although it does its job) but I've always liked A Man And A Woman. :shrug:
 
Beautiful Day is already a modern classic. It is played everywhere and people seem to show such affection for it. Its funny i remember playing an early pre release leak of it to my mate who said "I dont think it will do much for them."
 
Yes, COBL if anything is to be a classic from that album. (and the decade despite the overhyped BD)
 
I consider COBL to be the best U2 song of this decade, and it's in my top five favourite U2 songs.

It's the sort of song that I have gotten non-U2-fans to like U2 for.
 
digitize said:
I consider COBL to be the best U2 song of this decade, and it's in my top five favourite U2 songs.

It's the sort of song that I have gotten non-U2-fans to like U2 for.
Click to expand...

I think its a time-less song. It will get more popular as time goes on.

I also thin U2 can make it grow live as they tour more.
 
I did get the "streets" feeling when I heard it the first few times, I think it is because the intro has that same build-up (as mentioned before here) and the guitars are somewhat similar to streets, but now i think its far different from streets but it does have that epic sound like streets had. Live this songs rocks so much. I heard it llive umm 8 times LOL 7 times during the video shoot in vancouver and then the night after that 1 time during the actual concert!!! I wonder what this song sounded like back in the pop days since if I am not mistaken this was the result of the POP sessions (correct me if i am wrong) I would love to hear an early version if it will ever surface (which i doubt).
 
dabiggestu2fan said:
I wonder what this song sounded like back in the pop days since if I am not mistaken this was the result of the POP sessions (correct me if i am wrong) I would love to hear an early version if it will ever surface (which i doubt).
Click to expand...

Apparently its musical genesis was during the Pop sessions. Lyrically it didn't exist until much, much later. I imagine it would probably be almost unidentifiable as what became COBL. I can't think of any similar musical threads linking other sessions just off the top of my head, but some lyrical examples come to mind - She's A Mystery To Me, created in 1987, is not something you'd initially think is connected to Love Is Blindness at all, until you listen closely and notice some of its lyrics are early forms of LIB lyrics. Similarly, the line "wake up dead man" goes right back to 1990, but in a totally different context. So you could have a scenario where Edge might have had a chord progression in the Pop sessions that he resurrected for COBL, but that progression could have existed in a wholly different context in the Pop sessions - knowing Edge's love for effects, it might be almost unrecognisable.
 
COBL will live on at concerts and is excellent, the lyrics might now be their best but its a gorgeous song. I think MD and Sometimes are my favorites lyrically from the Bomb, OOTS as well.
 
It depends on what you mean by classic. The general music public may remember Vertigo. Among the U2 fans, COBL has the best chance but it is hard to predict. A live classic? We don't even know if it'll be in the setlist next tour. Will it be the standout track from the album when most people look back? Definitely.
 
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