new mixes on Best of 90's

[marik]

I'm sure this is detailed somewhere else on this forum, but can we collect all the comparisions into one thread, of the differences of the 4 new mixes on the Best Of compared to the original versions on album?

 

[digitize]

The differences I can tell:

Discothèque: Violently murdered.
Staring at the Sun: Added really nice vocal harmonies at the expense of prominent, powerful guitar.
Gone: Basically just the live version.
Numb: I can't detect a difference, but I think I've only listened to the Hedges mix of it once or twice.

 

[coolian2]

gone is brilliant. the rest are decidedly forgettable.

 

[thelaj]

Numb is very similar, though I lean towards the Best-of mix.
Discotheque is vastly inferior.
I prefer the new mix of Gone, though I also like the album version.
I'm undecided on Staring At The Sun.

 

[the tourist]

I like Numb and Discotheque better. I think Gone and Staring At The Sun are inferior.

 

[dan_smee]

SATS: Added a way too loud bass drum for two beats and then it sinks back into the mix, vocal harmonies and not much else.

Discotheque: Live structure, not as good as the album version, but still very good

Numb: Falsetto toned down, Larry's voice much more prominent, and added bits from the video mix

Gone: Verse guitar adds the passing notes towards the end of the figure like the live version, and plenty of keys added to the mix. Much much better

 

[U2girl]

Discotheque and Gone are closer to the live version, and thus improved.

SATS mix doesn't do anything for me, they just added some more drums.

Numb: more Larry, more guitar and I think some different falsetto is added. I like both versions.

 

[Galeongirl]

gone is brilliant. the rest are decidedly forgettable.

This pretty much.

Gone has the piano replaced with guitar, backing vocals(which I miss BADLY on the studio version) that Edge sings live, more guitar and more keys.

Numb has Larry's and Bono's vocals a bit more audible...that's all I know..

Discotheque was just murdered. Don't bother getting that. No more Boomchas.

SATS didn't get much changes as previously stated.

 

[morgan1098]

I'm in the minority, but I like the Pop version of Gone better. No offense to Larry, but the programmed drums during the bridge are just awesome.

All of the "new mixes" on the Best Of take songs that are were originally very electronic and synthy and try to make them sound like they were recorded for ATYCLB. If they ever go back and re-record Pop (they won't), I would hope they'd come up with a better approach than just trying to make it sound like 2000s-era U2.

 

[Miss Milly]

Second and third previous posts about Discotheque and the abomination that is the Best of version- loved it on Pop, but on the Best of it sounds horrid.

The new Gone and Numb sound similar though with changes such as hearing Larry better (Numb) and a slightly different sound on Gone (sorry have 0 music terminology).

 

[mikal]

i really like the added guitar to the end verses of Numb.

and i'd like to add my displeasure to the murdering of Discotheque.

 

[gman]

Discoteque= Better than original
Gone= Better than original
SATS= Worse than original (my enjoyable lil background guitar riff has been removed)
Numb= Much of a muchness

 

[monsieur fly]

1) Discotheque- No boom-chas, no sleaze, no fuzz and distortion. All in all the hideous sound of U2 taking Pop's lead single and turning into an ATYCLB song- yuck!

2) Gone- better than on Pop but inferior to PopMart rendition which had that big stadium sound. It's home is on stage.

3) SATS- inferior- too much guitar is lost and the harmony vocals are whiny

4) Numb- little different

 

[lmixristhebest]

Isn't there a tiny lyric change on Mysterious Ways, as well? At the end of a verse... can't think of it now, but I remember 2 or 3 words being different.

 

[dan_smee]

^ yep, she sees the man inside the child is changed to and no questions she knows why

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Gone and Discotheque are much, much better on Pop than the 'Best of' versions. As is Staring at the Sun. Not much difference in the 'Best Of' Numb in comparison to the Zooropa version, in my opinion.

 

[allbecauseofu2]

disco stinks on best of.

 

[Salome]

the slightly different take on the POP songs don't really show improvement but I do reckon they fit the Best Of 90s better than the originals would have

 

[Niceman]

Numb is an interesting departure. The rest are trash.

Also, he changed the one line on Mysterious Ways "And no question she knows why"
Crap!

 

[trevgreg]

I dig the Gone version a lot. Haven't really listened to the other versions in awhile either. Unique, sure, but I'm guessing I prefer the originals in the end.

 

[thelaj]

I've just listened to the two versions of Numb against each other a few times. I think I prefer the New Mix due to the superior mixing (Zooropa is so murky), added guitar and more prominent vocals from Larry/Edge#2/Bono.

On the downside it loses a lot of the electronic feel, with the bleeps and bloops removed. Maybe the worst thing is the removal of the "yodelling" voices in the chorus. I think a mix of BOTH versions would be best.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

numb and discotheque are absolutely horrible.

 

[Sergiodino]

who produced the remixes?....any more info on the remix of Gone? (the vocals sounds very ATYCLB-era for me)

 

[thelaj]

Mike Hedges did the production, hence those four tracks are sometimes referred to as the "Mike Hedge Mixes".

The Gone vocal may have been from a different vocal take, as the line "what you thought was freedom just was greed" becomes "what you thought was freedom is just greed".

The Best of 1990–2000 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Earnie Shavers]

The Mysterious Ways one is kinda weird because it’s not meant to be new in any way, just remastered. You wouldn’t notice a thing until he drops that different lyric.

I don’t mind Numb, it is muddy on Zooropa, and they haven’t changed *that* much. If you’re not paying much attention to it on in the background, you probably wouldn’t even notice which one has come up on shuffle.

The rest I don’t care for. Especially Gone, which I can’t stand. Way to suck the feeling right out of it. Criminal.

 

[digitize]

I like the muddiness of Zooropa Numb.

I think Gone, SATS, and Disco have new Bono vocals, but I'm not sure (although I'm pretty certain Gone does). The Bono vocals on Numb are all in fat-lady falsetto, which obviously came from 1993. I wouldn't be surprised if Larry and Edge re-recorded their vocals for Numb, though.

 

[The John Tree]

A lot of the new vocals are from different vocal takes. "Gone", in particular, sounds like it was hobbled together from various live performances, probably to accommodate the "live" arrangement.

I, too, dislike the new "Gone". They took all the "otherness" out of it, making it just a straight rock song. But the worst part was the chorus. The chorus on Pop, with the piano, the heavily reverbed "Goodbye", and most importantly, the screaming siren guitar during the "I'm not coming down" are what give the song its lift. The Best Of remix robs it of all that, making what's a strong, emotional song on Pop into a standard midtempo rock song.

Edited to add: The one redeeming quality that the remix has is that it adds Edge's "down" part during the chorus, which I like. Though it's too low in the mix.

 

[digitize]

A lot of the new vocals are from different vocal takes. "Gone", in particular, sounds like it was hobbled together from various live performances, probably to accommodate the "live" arrangement.

I, too, dislike the new "Gone". They took all the "otherness" out of it, making it just a straight rock song. But the worst part was the chorus. The chorus on Pop, with the piano, the heavily reverbed "Goodbye", and most importantly, the screaming siren guitar during the "I'm not coming down" are what give the song its lift. The Best Of remix robs it of all that, making what's a strong, emotional song on Pop into a standard midtempo rock song.

Edited to add: The one redeeming quality that the remix has is that it adds Edge's "down" part during the chorus, which I like. Though it's too low in the mix.

I agree with all of this.

 

[65980]

I agree, too, that there is something good in the newer "Gone" but also something missing from those choruses. And especially, the break ("I'm al-rea-dy gone...") is much better, melodically, in the original.

I absolutely loathe the new version of "Numb". In fact, I detested it so much when I got the Best of 90--00 that I went out and bought my 2nd copy of Zooropa, just so I could have the original again (I had first bought that album the week it was released)! I don't know what it was, but something about the clean mix just ruined it for me. The vocals weren't right at all.

I must admit -- although it's sacriledge around here -- that I much prefer the newer "Discotheque"! That, to me, was a superior song almost ruined by inferior production and mixing on the Pop album. I concede that the new mix has clearly been done as a meat-and-potatoes Oasis-style song (i.e. generic), but I think it really pulls out the strength of the composition (the guitar riff; the chorus) in a way that the muddled original failed to do.

 

[thelaj]

I'm enjoying all this conversation about Gone as it is one of my favourite songs. I've had this dilemma between the two versions for years, and thought I'd settled on the new mix - I really like the guitar mixed higher. Now that it has been mentioned, I do miss the atmospheric keyboards and soft Edge "wahhh".

It seems like the brief for the Best of mixes was "de-Pop them".