The Panther
Refugee
Well, I'm still confused as to how to vote, so I haven't, but I agree with several of TrevGreg's points -- except as regards 'White as Snow' and 'Cedars of Lebanon'.
Here's what I think, with hindsight:
1. NLOTH -- This one just passed me by earlier; now I'll say that it's not that bad. I like the energy, the rhythm, the lyrics -- and the chord-change into the chorus is good. Melodically, it's a bit dull, and I think the "Oh-Oh-Oh"s by Bono are really over-kill -- he sings "Oh-Oh"s as the introduction to the bridge before a small bit of verse (a couplet?), and then back to the final verse. I think, as a composition, a stronger bridge would have helped this song a lot. Also, a bit less vocal histrionics.
2. Magnificent -- Fantastic. The only gripe is some of the lyrics in the verses are dead boring. But it's U2 doing what they do best, so A+.
3. Moment of Surrender -- I'm still not getting the appeal of this one. I do appreciate the moody feel of the track, but I think it's more from production values and Eno-isms than anything musical. The change into the choruses is nice, but nothing else is musically interesting. What I really don't enjoy is the way Bono's voice is recorded -- it sounds shrill and... well, bad. The track doesn't justify its length.
4. Unknown Caller -- I like this one, despite some awkward lyrics. It's a song of shimmering beauty, and musically it's strong. It is, of course, a U2-by-numbers sound, so nothing new. The intro calls to mind a B-side from the Unforgettable Fire era. However, that is a great era, so I still enjoy this track (although it's irrelevant to their legacy).
5. Crazy something -- I really hated this song in 2009... and I still do. Here we have Edge playing a super simple riff (akin to "Walk On" as TrevGreg said) that isn't very catchy or interesting, a patched-together melody (sounds like it came from three different songs), a meaningless lyric, and a ridiculous chorus and title. All in a failed attempt to reproduce a "Stuck in a Moment" type of easy-on-the-ears radio hit. Rubbish.
6. Get On Your Boots -- Not a train wreck, but since they pushed it on us as the first single, it of course gets a lot of abuse. The guitar riff is actually pretty good, but somehow they constructed a boring song around it, despite the super-fast tempo. The lyrics are far too obscure to bother trying to sell to radio programmers (they also pass me by, and I'm more analytical than the average top 40 listener). A decent album track, and would have been a great B-side, but like Michael Dukakis it will always be remembered for what it attempted and failed to do!
7. Stand Up Comedy -- Very disturbing that they apparently spent two years working on this. One can only imagine that it was much better in an earlier form. Eno actually indirectly noted this in an interview, where he said that U2 sometimes drive him crazy by pushing the songs too far, often past their peak, and then they get captured on a downward trajectory instead of when the track was fresh. I am wondering if he had this cheese-on-a-stick track in mind when he said it!
8. Fez/Being Born -- I like this. As a composition, it's the kind of thing that they can probably knock off in their sleep, but it sounds cool. (I think this would have been great off the top of the album, but somehow I doubt Larry or Paul McGuinness would have gone for it...)
9. White As Snow -- Great! I love this song, and find it much better on every level than 'Moment of Surrender'. The lyrics are wonderfully evocative, and the (traditional?) melody is very nice. Like, "Cedars", I think these are truly some of Bono's best lyrics in many a year. (It is slightly overproduced, but most of the album is.)
10. Breathe -- And now the opposite: this is a track where the lyrics actually ruin the song for me (along with, again, the badly recorded vocals). I can't explain it, but sometimes Bono really nails the "character-persona" lyrics, and sometimes it's a disaster. This is a lyrical disaster. I do like the soaring part of the chorus ("walk out into the street..."). That's good stuff -- they should have started with that, and thrown out the rest. This track again sounds like three or four different jams thrown together and forced into one song.
11. Cedars of Lebanon -- Love it! This track isn't getting any attention since they don't play it live and it's an album closer, but WHAT A GREAT TRACK. Here is where Bono does the character-thing very well. The lyrics are his best since 'Beautiful Day' and 'Please' -- personal, heartbreaking, evocative, and with a lot of subtlety (something U2 could really work on!). For example, why the images of the soldiers? How does that relate to the journalist-or-whoever stuck in Lebanon, musing over his life? I like this kind of ambiguity, and this lyric kind of matched my life perspective back in 2009 (I was literally a writer/editor, living in a 'strange' foreign country, musing over my lost love, at the time.) The lyric that I love the most is "squeezing complicated lives into a simple headline". Love it, love it, love it!
I don't care much for 'Winter', but it might be better after being worked up more (the "butter on toast" line could go, too).
So, kind of a weird U2 album. Aside from the "U2-by-numbers" songs that we've all heard before ('Magnificent', 'Unknown Caller', 'Boots', parts of 'Breathe') I find the most successful tracks to be "Winter", "Fez/Being Born", and "Cedars". In other words, I'm most impressed by the final third of the album. I think this might have been a rich vein to mine for an entire LP, and certainly the horrors of "Crazy Band" and "Stand up Comedy" should have been avoided. I can only conclude that there was too much calculation that went into the track selection and creative process. The album might have been better if they'd just recorded the whole album in three days, on two tracks.
Here's what I think, with hindsight:
1. NLOTH -- This one just passed me by earlier; now I'll say that it's not that bad. I like the energy, the rhythm, the lyrics -- and the chord-change into the chorus is good. Melodically, it's a bit dull, and I think the "Oh-Oh-Oh"s by Bono are really over-kill -- he sings "Oh-Oh"s as the introduction to the bridge before a small bit of verse (a couplet?), and then back to the final verse. I think, as a composition, a stronger bridge would have helped this song a lot. Also, a bit less vocal histrionics.
2. Magnificent -- Fantastic. The only gripe is some of the lyrics in the verses are dead boring. But it's U2 doing what they do best, so A+.
3. Moment of Surrender -- I'm still not getting the appeal of this one. I do appreciate the moody feel of the track, but I think it's more from production values and Eno-isms than anything musical. The change into the choruses is nice, but nothing else is musically interesting. What I really don't enjoy is the way Bono's voice is recorded -- it sounds shrill and... well, bad. The track doesn't justify its length.
4. Unknown Caller -- I like this one, despite some awkward lyrics. It's a song of shimmering beauty, and musically it's strong. It is, of course, a U2-by-numbers sound, so nothing new. The intro calls to mind a B-side from the Unforgettable Fire era. However, that is a great era, so I still enjoy this track (although it's irrelevant to their legacy).
5. Crazy something -- I really hated this song in 2009... and I still do. Here we have Edge playing a super simple riff (akin to "Walk On" as TrevGreg said) that isn't very catchy or interesting, a patched-together melody (sounds like it came from three different songs), a meaningless lyric, and a ridiculous chorus and title. All in a failed attempt to reproduce a "Stuck in a Moment" type of easy-on-the-ears radio hit. Rubbish.
6. Get On Your Boots -- Not a train wreck, but since they pushed it on us as the first single, it of course gets a lot of abuse. The guitar riff is actually pretty good, but somehow they constructed a boring song around it, despite the super-fast tempo. The lyrics are far too obscure to bother trying to sell to radio programmers (they also pass me by, and I'm more analytical than the average top 40 listener). A decent album track, and would have been a great B-side, but like Michael Dukakis it will always be remembered for what it attempted and failed to do!
7. Stand Up Comedy -- Very disturbing that they apparently spent two years working on this. One can only imagine that it was much better in an earlier form. Eno actually indirectly noted this in an interview, where he said that U2 sometimes drive him crazy by pushing the songs too far, often past their peak, and then they get captured on a downward trajectory instead of when the track was fresh. I am wondering if he had this cheese-on-a-stick track in mind when he said it!
8. Fez/Being Born -- I like this. As a composition, it's the kind of thing that they can probably knock off in their sleep, but it sounds cool. (I think this would have been great off the top of the album, but somehow I doubt Larry or Paul McGuinness would have gone for it...)
9. White As Snow -- Great! I love this song, and find it much better on every level than 'Moment of Surrender'. The lyrics are wonderfully evocative, and the (traditional?) melody is very nice. Like, "Cedars", I think these are truly some of Bono's best lyrics in many a year. (It is slightly overproduced, but most of the album is.)
10. Breathe -- And now the opposite: this is a track where the lyrics actually ruin the song for me (along with, again, the badly recorded vocals). I can't explain it, but sometimes Bono really nails the "character-persona" lyrics, and sometimes it's a disaster. This is a lyrical disaster. I do like the soaring part of the chorus ("walk out into the street..."). That's good stuff -- they should have started with that, and thrown out the rest. This track again sounds like three or four different jams thrown together and forced into one song.
11. Cedars of Lebanon -- Love it! This track isn't getting any attention since they don't play it live and it's an album closer, but WHAT A GREAT TRACK. Here is where Bono does the character-thing very well. The lyrics are his best since 'Beautiful Day' and 'Please' -- personal, heartbreaking, evocative, and with a lot of subtlety (something U2 could really work on!). For example, why the images of the soldiers? How does that relate to the journalist-or-whoever stuck in Lebanon, musing over his life? I like this kind of ambiguity, and this lyric kind of matched my life perspective back in 2009 (I was literally a writer/editor, living in a 'strange' foreign country, musing over my lost love, at the time.) The lyric that I love the most is "squeezing complicated lives into a simple headline". Love it, love it, love it!
I don't care much for 'Winter', but it might be better after being worked up more (the "butter on toast" line could go, too).
So, kind of a weird U2 album. Aside from the "U2-by-numbers" songs that we've all heard before ('Magnificent', 'Unknown Caller', 'Boots', parts of 'Breathe') I find the most successful tracks to be "Winter", "Fez/Being Born", and "Cedars". In other words, I'm most impressed by the final third of the album. I think this might have been a rich vein to mine for an entire LP, and certainly the horrors of "Crazy Band" and "Stand up Comedy" should have been avoided. I can only conclude that there was too much calculation that went into the track selection and creative process. The album might have been better if they'd just recorded the whole album in three days, on two tracks.
