North Star decent version?

[cobl04]

UTEOTW ≠ North Star

 

[Von Schloopen]

Good lord. What kind of knucklehead had the audacity to say they were equals?

 

[corianderstem]

It was honest, emotional, sprawling and it grabbed you, for better or worse. New Mercy summed up U2's fear of negative space pretty well...trim all the fat off, have no less than 95% of the song dedicated to Bono's vocals, dumb down the arrangement and you'll have a hit. Bullshit. 6 1/2 minute Mercy had a lot of great sparks and interesting avenues to head down, whereas 4 minute Mercy was just another song.

You know, I have to admit. This makes a ton of sense to me, and I was happy to read it.

I still like the new version just fine, but I an't really disagree with this.

 

[JamietheEdgefan]

They have a couple of tunes like that. Where you can hear the growth in the tune. "No Line On The Horizon" is one. Maybe growth isn't the right word since I don't know which version came first, but hearing the same tune in 2 different colours is a trip.

Ah, "Arms Around The World." The change in that tune from the Kindergarden version to the album cut. It's like they renovated a house, but kept the old furnace. I love that. Oooh! "Even Better Than The Real Thing."I love the transformation that sound took. It took 20 years to bake, and that "Fish Out Of Water" thingy is amazing. I still like the album recording, but that song is basically 2 completely different people now. One of this bands most creative transformations. Do that song back to back. Your head will spin.

That's kinda what I think when I hear something like "North Star." It's a nice little gift. Maybe I'll get to hear it grow and change like some of those other tunes. Maybe not. It's nice if you don't anticipate it.

Plus it's still a shit recording. How anyone can judge a tune without proper fidelity is beyond me. It's rock and roll after all. Sonics matter. You can't play this recording of "North Star" loud and get anything from it. Too much compression. Sonics are 1/2 of it. "Until The End Of The World" wouldn't be nearly the song it is if I couldn't feel the push and pull of Adam's bass and Larry's kick drum.

Regarding Even better than the real thing, i know exactly what you mean - they feel like two completely unique, separate songs, and i can actually listen to them back to back without feeling like i've hit replay at all. And the remix has so much power to it - it's like the song was built to be a dance track like that, all elements of it are so perfect for how they are used.

Regarding North star - to be fair, we've already heard the full song rendered acoustically. And from what i've heard of this studio version, anything new added in to me is either bland (edge's riffs and slide solo, as i've said, strike me as session-musician work), or overly-sentimental and downright cheesy (the strings and bomb-bomb-bomb drum sound). Another section of this recording is played later in the movie, and, it's pretty much more of the same.
However, I completely agree that good quality sound is crucial for really experiencing music, and for that reason i'll reserve final judgement of this song for if and when it is actually released, so i can listen to it fully and in decent quality. But what i can say is that from everything i have heard so far (the acoustic version and the hint of what the studio production adds), i'm just not that impressed.

 

[dazzledbylight]

i really think the old Mercy is better....

but talking about 2 songs out of "one" ultra major Riff.....

UTEOTW and I Feel Free -version 1 ! SWOON

it goes a different road> lyrics, atmosphere, sonics etc

i love them both and just about consider them 2 separate songs.
only i like some of the lyrics in IFF v1 i made up/thot i heard better than what i've seen in lyrics sites.

fucking damn shame they didn't put it in the 20 th aniv album

 

[U2DMfan]

I hadn't even listened to it until just now. Yee-ikes.

This version of North Star sounds like it should be the beginning of U2's Elton John/Phil Collins latter day mid-tempo adult contemporary schmaltz phase.

I mean, that's as bad as a post-October song gets for U2.

Please God let it not be foreboding of anything.

 

[Earnie Shavers]

Ouch. No wonder there have been retirement rumours.

 

[PookaMacP]

Ouch. No wonder there have been retirement rumours.

I presume you're referring to that North Star clip. Astoundingly awful. It's no wonder they never allowed it to go on any released soundtrack.

 

[cobl04]

I hadn't even listened to it until just now. Yee-ikes.

This version of North Star sounds like it should be the beginning of U2's Elton John/Phil Collins latter day mid-tempo adult contemporary schmaltz phase.

I mean, that's as bad as a post-October song gets for U2.

Please God let it not be foreboding of anything.

Ouch. No wonder there have been retirement rumours.

I presume you're referring to that North Star clip. Astoundingly awful. It's no wonder they never allowed it to go on any released soundtrack.

Can we all please just calm the fuck down?

We have not heard the full, finished song yet. Therefore we are forbidden from passing opinion on it.

Only once we have the overproduced, still crap four-minute version in 2013 can we say these things.

 

[gvox]

This is how bad its gotten tho, our expectations have been slowly but steadily compromised over the last 10 years to the point where we're actually even considering these types of songs (incl Mercy old/new)

Christ, we're desperate, eh?

 

[ImOuttaControl]

North Star shows how far downhill U2 have gone?...give me a break. Some of U2's most memorable songs, especially from the 80's are loaded with cliches and half baked lyrics. It's just that those songs work amazingly well because the lyrics, melody, and music all worked together to create that emotional crescendo that U2 perfected in that period.

That being said, I personally love North Star, especially the acoustic version from when the song made its debut performance. I love the melody, and even love the "space cowboy" line. I think done properly, a full band studio version could be fantastic. I won't really judge the Transformers version because the quality is so terrible.

 

[mama cass]

North Star shows how far downhill U2 have gone?...give me a break. Some of U2's most memorable songs, especially from the 80's are loaded with cliches and half baked lyrics. It's just that those songs work amazingly well because the lyrics, melody, and music all worked together to create that emotional crescendo that U2 perfected in that period.

That being said, I personally love North Star, especially the acoustic version from when the song made its debut performance. I love the melody, and even love the "space cowboy" line. I think done properly, a full band studio version could be fantastic. I won't really judge the Transformers version because the quality is so terrible.

i've been listening to Stone Roses Sugar Spun Sister all day and it's such a great song! nothing wrong with a bit of sweetness sometimes lol

 

[ouu2fan23]

Screw this U2 raped my adulthood!

 

[trevgreg]

North Star shows how far downhill U2 have gone?...give me a break. Some of U2's most memorable songs, especially from the 80's are loaded with cliches and half baked lyrics. It's just that those songs work amazingly well because the lyrics, melody, and music all worked together to create that emotional crescendo that U2 perfected in that period.

That being said, I personally love North Star, especially the acoustic version from when the song made its debut performance. I love the melody, and even love the "space cowboy" line. I think done properly, a full band studio version could be fantastic. I won't really judge the Transformers version because the quality is so terrible.

Well put there.

 

[U2DMfan]

North Star shows how far downhill U2 have gone?...give me a break. Some of U2's most memorable songs, especially from the 80's are loaded with cliches and half baked lyrics. It's just that those songs work amazingly well because the lyrics, melody, and music all worked together to create that emotional crescendo that U2 perfected in that period.

Lyrics are only part of the equation. Bono has been capable of crap lyrics since the very beginning. You only began to talk about the music to draw the parallel to the stuff that worked well...hint hint. The driving rhythm sections + Edge's distinctly cool sound + Bono's voice, regardless of what he was singing half the time (oh Julia! you're inside of me...wtf? I don't know but it's awesome!). U2 was always better than the sum of its parts. Now U2 is much more structured and classically orchestrated...not always for the better.

Although this is a common point among some of us, I know this will offend the senses of the apologists. So in light of that, I will extract a quote from U2 by U2 after while. Bono discusses this very thing, where once you figure out what you're doing as songwriters, you lose some magic. It just happens.

There is a fine line between being schmaltz and simply being a sugary sweet little ditty. And that might have to do with the element of cheese we perceive in the songs. I like some outright sugary love songs but there is something always preventing them from entering full-on cheese territory. And maybe it's in the music itself. A great musical backing, no matter how sugary, can save itself from that territory. Lemon is pretty sugary when it gets down to it, but there are elements of it that make it completely beautiful and somewhat subtle. One thing that can't have helped North Star is layering these totally overwrought tones over it. U2 have been pretty bad about doing more of this since the Sweetest Thing redux.

As a musician that loves a wide variety of music, I can sympathize. I've made some really cheesy shit as well and didn't realize it until after the fact. But U2 has to have people around them to say "you need to dial that shit back". Especially entering and into their 50's, where people will be expecting this kind of stuff, only to then slap them around with it.

For some fans, particularly a lot of musicians, lyrics can be practically anything if the music moves you like it is supposed to. After all, that is the difference between the written word (or poetry) and popular music. For some people it is almost exclusively about the words. Think about the song 'Bad', it sounds like Bono is just making shit up...which is precisely how they would write songs back then (still do = 'Bongolese', but back then they would sometimes stay in those incarnations to some degree based on how inspired Bono felt about the words).

'Smile' is a song that feels like it was left there as well. I love it. Chances are, if you don't love that song, it's probably because of the lyrics. And it is a bittersweet love song that has a very classic feel to it. It doesn't remotely approach cheese or schmaltz territory to me. It is handled exactly the way those songs should be handled. Sort of like U2's take on Unchained Melody back in the early 90's.

If 21st century U2 did Unchained Melody, I can only imagine how much cheese would be layered on top of it. Well...they were and are always capable of that. I think their Can't Help Falling In Love (from the same period) is more akin to North Star territory. It's not always easy to know where that line is but U2 should be better about spotting it.

 

[zoopop]

Red hill mining town - YouTube

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

What does that prove? Other than they made a shitty video?

Wait... What the fuck IS THAT?!

 

[LemonMelon]

I have nothing to add to U2DMfan's post. Killer, as always.

North Star shows how far downhill U2 have gone?...give me a break. Some of U2's most memorable songs, especially from the 80's are loaded with cliches and half baked lyrics.

Like what?

 

[gvox]

Someone shoot me.

 

[Galeongirl]

Oh interf.

 

[gvox]

You know it's getting desperate when I can't even muster a bannable offense.

 

[iota]

Yeah, they better sit on that for a while longer. Too risky to release it.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

It's shit, but what's the worth in constantly whinging about it?

Love you, Interference.

 

[gvox]

I hate whining spelled with the extra g.

So there.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

gab pls

 

[cobl04]

I hate whining spelled with the extra g.

So there.

It's a different word... whinge, whine

 

[gvox]

Technically in origins, yes, but nowadays the different spellings revolve more around what part of the world one comes from, than anything to do with meaning.

 

[mama cass]

Technically in origins, yes, but nowadays the different spellings revolve more around what part of the world one comes from, than anything to do with meaning.

i do both, i whinge and whine, but my dog only whines - she never whinges

 

[lemonfly]

Listening to that, I had a horrible flashback of Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler's "animal crackers" scene from Armageddon. U2 entering "power ballad" territory, Bono singing from a tub filled with maple syrup while cheese flakes rain down. I trust Larry is personally burning every copy as we speak.

 

[Galeongirl]

gab pls