How do you really feel about HTDAAB

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How do you really feel about HTDAAB

  • I love it, my favourite U2 album!

    Votes: 2 0.6%
  • It's great, it's in my top 5

    Votes: 90 27.4%
  • It's ok, comparatively in the middle somewhere

    Votes: 139 42.4%
  • It's not good, not awful, below halfway

    Votes: 67 20.4%
  • It's awful, I hate it!

    Votes: 30 9.1%

  • Total voters
    328
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dan_smee

ONE love, blood, life
Joined
Nov 22, 2004
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Feel free to merge this with another Bomb thread, but a valid point has been raised, and i for one agree that I would like to see a spread of what people REALLY think about HTDAAB, in poll format. If only to get the talk OUT of WTAHAN!

So, poll for those voting, lets see what interference says by the numbers.
 
I really thought when it came out, that it was third behind Achtung Baby and Joshua Tree in terms of great U2 albums. Now that time has passed I still think its a great album, full of great songs - in fact thats the main problem. Its too full of 'singles' that it never really feels like an album. Plus the obviously much debated over-production that I also feel hinders the album. Songs like Vertigo, COBL, Sometimes, LAPOE, OOTS are really good songs that are worth being placed high in U2's catalogue of good songs. However, I must admit that I return to it less than some of the others albums.
 
It's shit by U2's standards. It's fucking amazing by everyone else's standards.
 
I think it's great, but it's not in my U2 top 5
So, I voted that it's ok.

Man, this thread will become a mess very soon....
 
I think it's great, but it's not in my U2 top 5
So, I voted that it's ok.

Man, this thread will become a mess very soon....

I pretty much agree with this...although I don't really think it's "great"...I'd say it's somewhere between just okay and pretty good....so I voted that it's ok :shrug:

definitely a great record by most other bands' standards for sure though, but U2 can do much better :)
 
i will admit, there are some good tracks on there.

city of blinding lights is my favourite u2 album track this decade, and a man and a woman is criminally underrated. a lot of the demos are better, sadly.
 
yeah, if i put more than 5 options, the results would be too far spread. I think we should rate it in relation to other U2 albums, because I tihnk most of us agree its rgeat by MOST bands standards
 
COBL is one of my fav from this decade too. The 00's Streets. :reject:
But OOTS might be even better. :heart:
 
The middle, but I doubt it could ever have come close to infiltrating the big two (or three or four) or whatever.

U2 (and those close to them) never talked about being innovative or necessarily different with HTDAAB, they were always about just coming up with some great rock-driven sounds and adopted a back to basics approach.

So messy were the recording sessions leading up to the album, with the whole Thomas saga and carryover from ATYCLB, that 11 songs were slapped together. The songs themselves hold up pretty well when taken on their own (Vertigo, SYCMIOYO, COBL especially), and do seem to adequately achieve what U2 were trying to do with the particular songs at the time, yet any album-orientated focus or cohesion could never really eventuate.

U2, and I think most will agree, are at their most unbelievable when they are at their most visionary, when they have a clear idea of what they're trying to do, what mood they're trying to capture, and it is something they so famously achieved on JT and AB. From all reports, and despite the misadventure with Rubin and the 5 year wait for NLOTH, the new album seems as if it's being delivered from a U2 who are very sure of where they are at and what they're trying to do, there seems to be less confusion and haste, which bodes well if we anticipate a 3rd (or 4th or 5th) classic.
 
I guess the fourth option is closest to my stance. As it stands, it's a pretty weak album - hell, even U2 have admitted it's more a collection of songs than an album. I'd rank only ATYCLB worse. But there is sufficiently decent material from the era that you can make some enjoyable, good, and cohesive alternate tracklistings. There was more potential there than was actually realised.
 
I guess the fourth option is closest to my stance. As it stands, it's a pretty weak album - hell, even U2 have admitted it's more a collection of songs than an album. I'd rank only ATYCLB worse. But there is sufficiently decent material from the era that you can make some enjoyable, good, and cohesive alternate tracklistings. There was more potential there than was actually realised.

I thought that anyone who doesn't like the album has no taste in music...?
 
I thought that anyone who doesn't like the album has no taste in music...?

Digitize comin' in with the
burnsauce.gif
.
 
There was more potential there than was actually realised.

:yes:

IMO...
Native Son > Vertigo
All Because Of You (Alternate) > All Because Of You
Smile, Fast Cars, Mercy > A Man and A Woman, One Step Closer, Original Of The Species

That being said, I don't hate OSC or OOTS. Just don't like them as much as some of the stuff that was shelved. I remember liking the sound of the ATYCLB sessions version of OOTS that was briefly played in that interview with Bono (can't remember which one, 60 Minutes maybe?) better than what turned up on the album. Won't get in to my feelings on AMAAW, though there was a time when I kind of liked it...I think that was mostly due to the fact that it was new U2 and I'd been waiting four years to hear the album.

Without any tracklist tweaking it falls under the fourth option for me.
 
Replacing the album version of OOTS with the Killahurtz mix would make the album rise a place or two in my rankings. Dropping Crumbs and ABOY (replacing them with something... good... anything unreleased from that time period would work), changing the name, and using totally different album art would put also bring it up a decent bit.
 
This is someone's favorite U2 album? :lol:

It was my favorite album of 2004, but I still put it somewhere in the middle to lower end of their work.
 
Replacing the album version of OOTS with the Killahurtz mix would make the album rise a place or two in my rankings. Dropping Crumbs and ABOY (replacing them with something... good... anything unreleased from that time period would work), changing the name, and using totally different album art would put also bring it up a decent bit.

Mercy and Smile. now we're talking.
 
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