The SAD at People trashing HTDAAB Thread

[Cactus Annie]

WCF, I'm sorry but you've just made my point very clear. These two tracks I find very boring. I fall in love with music because of its melody. MD, OOTS, COBL, Crumbs, SYCMIOYO and Yahweh tick the melody box just perfectly for me. Apart from Walk On, SIAMYCGOO, Beautiful Day and Kite, for me ATYCLB is lacking in material with a great melody.

So what do people mean when they say it's overproduced? How can Bomb be any more overproduced than Pop with all it's use of technology and electronics?

chtung Baby lost to Eric Clapton's Unplugged album. You know why he won? Because his son died and they gave him the award as a way of consoling him in his time of tragedy.

Steely Dan's "Two Against Nature" beat out "ATYCLB". You know why? Because it was the acedemy's way of saying "sorry for not recognizing you in the 70's. Here's your award. Sorry it's a bit late." (btw, i'm a huge steely dan fan, but come on, that album was so below their standards)

So, as you can see, the Grammie's are not known for rewarding people based on creative merit. A lot of politics goes into play.

Why are you so cynical? Well it's a lot better than the Brits which is a cherade. They aren't telling you what to listen to, they're just stating what's they deem to be better musically and lyrically and I trust their judgment. Just because I don't like a song it doesn't make it crap. Who am I to say that? "Well I don't like it, therefore it must be crap". Who's the one with the ego now? I may not like the music but I have respect for people in authority. These people didn't get where they are today without knowing a thing or 2 about music.

Miracle Drug is a beautiful song, if you look at it as a whole, and can look past some of the god awful lyrics. I immediately loved this one when I first got the album, and still do. A few of my friends were going through some issues with loved ones during this time, so I have emotional attachment to the song, but it has aged well for me.

Actually I find MD to be the best song overall lyrically. That's because like Kite the lyrics can tell two different stories. I read in a Rollong Stone interview that when he was writing the lyrics Bono was intending to write it about Christopher Nolan who was born with cereble palsy. But afterwards he realised that he could also relate it to the need for anitviral drugs in Africa. That line about freedom has a scent has never worried me like it seems to for many people because I look at the overall meaning of the song rather than nitpick at every line. I personally thought Please with its line please get up of your knees more irritating but overall it has great lyrics.

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

And you did this by skipping over a bunch of tracks. Makes perfect sense.

So you're telling me there are no U2 songs you skip over? Congratulations, you're a better fan than I am. Bono loves you and I'm jealous.

i don't need to listen to some songs again to know they're shit.

 

[LuvandPeace1980]

I think it's a great album? It probably is a tad boring in bits and the production isn't very interesting but I think it was a step in the right direction.. NLOTH is actually the right direction though

 

[ozeeko]

Why are you so cynical? Well it's a lot better than the Brits which is a cherade. They aren't telling you what to listen to, they're just stating what's they deem to be better musically and lyrically and I trust their judgment. Just because I don't like a song it doesn't make it crap. Who am I to say that? "Well I don't like it, therefore it must be crap". Who's the one with the ego now? I may not like the music but I have respect for people in authority. These people didn't get where they are today without knowing a thing or 2 about music.



Actually I find MD to be the best song overall lyrically. That's because like Kite the lyrics can tell two different stories. I read in a Rollong Stone interview that when he was writing the lyrics Bono was intending to write it about Christopher Nolan who was born with cereble palsy. But afterwards he realised that he could also relate it to the need for anitviral drugs in Africa. That line about freedom has a scent has never worried me like it seems to for many people because I look at the overall meaning of the song rather than nitpick at every line. I personally thought Please with its line please get up of your knees more irritating but overall it has great lyrics.

Okay, where do i begin?

You don't have to be cynical to see the bullshit behind Grammy Awards. What do you think, that the academy actually sits down, listens to, and absorbs every single album and song released in a single year? The fact that they can narrow things down to 5 artists (if you can call them that) in a category was always strange to me. And the fact that these 5 artists are usually ones in the spotlight and mainstream only further leads me to believe that this is not an award show, but a popularity contest, and a way for record companies to inevitably move more units of a specific album if it's nominated, because, after all, people rely on radio and Grammy awards to tell them what they should be listening to. People who respect their authority, people like you.

The fact that you're accusing me of having a massive ego because i'm disagreeing with you..by default actually makes you the ego-maniac.

About Miracle Drug and the baby sniffing lyrics...listen, i come from this place where I really honestly don't even care what songs are about. I'm not swayed by sentimentality either. The Christopher Nolan story, yea it's a great story. But just because it's the subject matter of a song does not make me like it more than i should. And i'm not in the habit of comparing new things to old, such as your example with "please...get up off your knees". For me, Please wins me over due to the music and the overall effect it has on me. Miracle Drug fails to move me at all with its music or lyrics. "Please get up off your knees" may not be Shakespeare, but at least it isn't cheesy. "Freedom has a scent" is Bono at his corniest. I don't care what it's supposed to mean. Lyrically, it's just horrible.

 

[65980]

I consider the "freedom has a scent" line to be brilliant.

I like Shakespeare, and I have a Master's Degree in English Literature.

I also appreciate aphorisms, folk language, and pop poetry. Open your mind a bit. You might find that what you consider "good lyrics" are really the conservative middle-road between convention (like blues lyrics and "I love you") and unusual, new and fresh ideas (like "the scent of a newborn baby's head"). Try appreciating some new ways of using lyrics in song. If a song is not to your taste overall, I can accept your opinion; but going on about how four words in a song ruin it for you is absurd.

 

[ozeeko]

I consider the "freedom has a scent" line to be brilliant.

I like Shakespeare, and I have a Master's Degree in English Literature.

I also appreciate aphorisms, folk language, and pop poetry. Open your mind a bit. You might find that what you consider "good lyrics" are really the conservative middle-road between convention (like blues lyrics and "I love you") and unusual, new and fresh ideas (like "the scent of a newborn baby's head"). Try appreciating some new ways of using lyrics in song. If a song is not to your taste overall, I can accept your opinion; but going on about how four words in a song ruin it for you is absurd.

No need to be condescending. I listen to all sorts of music, my favorite lyricists being Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, Dylan, Morrissey, Tom Waits, Michael Stipe, Frank Black, Randy Newman, Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel. I think that the idea behind "freedom has a scent like the top of a newborn babies head" probably could work in a different setting, say...like in a novel. It would actually read quite well in a setting like that. In MD, it sounds awkward hearing it on top of the music, and it comes from straight out of nowhere, like a line Bono was keeping with him for a long time, and he just randomly inserted it into a song where the content was halfway revelant to the thought. In another song, with different music, it probably could've worked. There tho, for me, it sounds off, forced, and not to be a broken record, but extremely corny. It just doesn't work for me, plain and simple. It makes me cringe.

 

[catlhere]

why the fuck do you care? she gave an honest review.

i don't need to listen to some songs again to know they're shit.

we could turn the tables on you and pick some album that you don't like but is reverred by many, and you'd say the same thing.

if you like that particular u2 album, but if others don't who cares?

Uh wow where did any of this come from? She could wipe her ass with the Bomb disc for all I care. I was just pointing out that giving an album a "fair chance" by skipping over songs is completely ass-backwards. There is no room for change of opinion, so what is the point of pretending that you're trying to being unbiased when there is clearly a cemented opinion of the album/songs already, thus the skipping of particular tracks. The post made it sound as if they were going to listen to the album end-to-end to give it another shot, and I was making note that this wasn't the case.

So you're telling me there are no U2 songs you skip over? Congratulations, you're a better fan than I am. Bono loves you and I'm jealous.

Same answer.

 

[ShipOfFools]

Bomb is my least favorite U2 album, but that being said, I still enjoy it. I just think that the other albums are better. It's just weaker compared to the rest.

 

[65980]

No need to be condescending. . . . . .In another song, with different music, it probably could've worked. There tho, for me, it sounds off, forced, and not to be a broken record, but extremely corny. It just doesn't work for me, plain and simple. It makes me cringe.

OK, fair enough. You explained your point well. As long as it just comes down to personal taste, we can't argue. What I disagree with is when people argue according to some fixed 'standard' that supposedly acts as a beacon for all later artistic productions to emulate (e.g., Street Legal by Bob Dylan isn't as beholden to the blues as earlier albums, so it sucks!).

She could wipe her ass with the Bomb disc for all I care.

Hmm. . . I believe I have finally found a use for that Pop CD... !

(Kidding)

 

[Salome]

One can shout from the rooftops that they didn't like it or it sucked or it was mediocre or whatever. The album and the tour were still a huge success. Much to the chagrin of many it seems.

true this

personally I love All that you can't ...
in my personal top 3 favourite U2 albums

when Bomb came out I was extremely underwhelmed
I thought it sounded forced

funny enough I always did enjoy listening to the album
very much even
so they must have done something right

No line ... is on a different level
but Bomb is a good album from a great band

 

[Mac Phisto]

Similar, but different. You had a lot of people really after something different post-Pop as you do now post-Bomb. And considering that, the reaction initially to ATYCLB - particularly 'throwback' songs like Beautiful Day and Walk On - was absolutely huge. It was obviously very satisfying for a lot of people.

I don't think ATYCLB ever reached the levels of distaste that Bomb has though. I think it just ran out of steam. It wasn't turned on in quite the same way, I think people just realised it wasn't all that strong from end to end and they really wanted Atomic Bomb to deliver on that front. It definitely received it's bashings though.

As someone who was actually here when ATYCLB dropped, I can confirm that yes, from the moment the 30 second clips leaked to the Halloween when it was released, there was a sense in the community that the band was giving us something memorable. I remember waiting on line outside Newbury Comics in Boston for the album to be released at midnight and there were far more people waiting to pick up the new P.J. Harvey cd. As odd as it seems today, U2 had become a cult band by 2000, a very big cult band, but nothing close to the mainstream act they were even 6-7 years earlier. So ATYCLB was a huge score for the group, an album filled with pop goodness when the band needed it most. And after all the experimentation of the previous decade, fans were excited to hear U2 bring back the hooks and melody. The band had walked to the edge of the commercial abyss and lived to tell the tale.

HTDAAB was a logical next step, building on that formula of straight-ahead songs that had served them so well on ATYCLB. Unfortunately for me, Bomb came off a little flat. There were highlights, of course: The energy of Vertigo, the surge of CoBL, the passion of SYCMIOYO. But there were also songs like One Step Closer, ABOY, OoTS that lacked that extra gear, tunes they would have knocked out in their sleep in year's past. Meanwhile, Miracle Drug was the textbook example of what Edge feared while recording 'Beautiful Day' four years earlier, specifically, "Does this sound too much like U2?"

So NLOTH provides a bit of corrective steering in a sense, marrying U2's reconnection with their pop smarts with their unique Eno-led sense of adventure. It can make Bomb look and sound a bit too simple in retrospect, but it doesn't necessarily make it a bad record.

 

[coolian2]

i've believed for some time that htdaab could have been redeemed.

nothing, in my view, could have redeemed atyclb.

 

[Earnie Shavers]

I wonder if the band are noticing how much Bomb is getting trashed in a really high % of NLOTH reviews, and if that's surprising to them.

Anyway, I've tried a bunch of times with those songs, even recently in the post-No Line world, and.... no.

 

[Cactus Annie]

You don't have to be cynical to see the bullshit behind Grammy Awards. What do you think, that the academy actually sits down, listens to, and absorbs every single album and song released in a single year? The fact that they can narrow things down to 5 artists (if you can call them that) in a category was always strange to me. And the fact that these 5 artists are usually ones in the spotlight and mainstream only further leads me to believe that this is not an award show, but a popularity contest, and a way for record companies to inevitably move more units of a specific album if it's nominated, because, after all, people rely on radio and Grammy awards to tell them what they should be listening to. People who respect their authority, people like you.

Yes I do immagine they judge albums like that but they don't tell me what to listen to because I never rushed out to buy an album just because its been nominated/won album of the year. I don't like Mariah Carey therefore I won't buy The Emancipation of Mimi, but creatively it must be a great album. You don't get to be the head of a major record company without knowing about music. You mentioned the Oscars, well do you rush out to watch a film just because it won Best Film? I absolutely hate period films. I'd rather have all my teeth pulled out without any anesthetic then be forced to watch The English Patient which probably lasts for 4 hours when it could be told in 2. That annoying girly upper class English accent of the women- it just boring for me, BUT technically it's a fantastic film. Just because you don't like that Steely Dan album doesn't mean it's crap. Just like me saying: I don't like opera, that means Pavarotti was shit.

And Politics does exist at the oscars. Gwyneth Paltrows win of Best Actress that year was apparantly disputed by many people. And why didn't Russell Crowe win Best Actor for A Beautiful Mind even though everyone thought he had it in the bag? Because of his off-screen behaviour.

The fact that you're accusing me of having a massive ego because i'm disagreeing with you..by default actually makes you the ego-maniac.

I wasn't accusing you personally of having a massive ego, that comment was just for people who's attitude is that they think something it's crap, therefore thats a fact. And if this opinion is contradicted by authoritarian figures they cannot comprehend that creatively it was great. They are many people who don't like The Beatle's and U2, as well as many people who do. They can't all be right.

I consider the "freedom has a scent" line to be brilliant

I agree with 'tis post. Not cheesy at all. Rhyming please and knees is cheesey and corny.

 

[rwhite]

For some odd reason, I've just gotten an overwhelming urge to go listen to my "irredeemable" atyclb album!

 

[Jack Bauer]

Actually U2's Vertigo tour media circus made me discover U2. I loved Vertigo and the album. Then i discovered their other music, indeed U2 other albums are better, this at the time was probably their best. Well i listened to it and great tour, great album, but now i think i'm big enough fan to realize it was indeed pretty weak for U2. But still, U2 weakest is better than most mainstream bands.

But i listened to NLOTH for a while, and didn't listen to HTDAAB for a long time in the last 2 years, and on some show they did an interview and they showed Vertigo, and i was surprised how much i actually still like it. NLOTH is just too experimental for me. I love it though, and i know the songwriting is better, but im not sure if i like it more than HTDAAB.

 

[smileymbcastard]

1 word -- CRUMBS

 

[djparky]

I still love Atomic Bomb- I connected with that album in a way that I hadn't done with U2 since the AB/Zooropa era - it's still in my top 5 U2 albums- I don't really get what it gets hammered so much-although I admit that some of it (One Step Closer especially) is a little close to U2 by numbers- for me it's a great batch of songs

To me anyway Pop is a half a really good album- Discoteque, Mofo, Dead Man, Staring at the sun, Gone plus a couple that probably could have been really good had they been finished- Last Night and God will send his angels

then there is the rest which I can't listen to at all

ATYCLB is an odd one- I don't like the studio versions very much but they're great songs live- that said I think the album is front loaded with the stronger material- after Wild Honey it tails off pretty quickly

 

[mbloom76]

I dig the Bomb and ATYCLB and NOLTH. They all have strengths and weaknesses. Plus there is the personal element - when did you hear the songs and what do they mean for YOU. Not anyone else.

For example, from Bomb, Miracle Drug, COBL and Yahweh have huge emotional meaning to ME. Are they the greatest songs U2 has made? No, but who the heck cares? They don't need to be bashed endlessly.

Music is about joy, life, love. Find the music that makes you feel those things and be thankful....the rest is just noise.

 

[BonosTheMessiah]

I like HTDAAB, but I think they should release a new, two-disc, remastered edition (maybe cutting down on some of the over-production). It needs a couple more hard-edged, guitar songs for overall consistency. I would add Are You Gonna Wait Forever, Fast Cars (two solid rock songs which complement Vertigo, Love and Peace, and All Because of You) and Mercy. Fast Cars actually contains a reference to the album title, and Mercy is a classic. The only weak song on the album, because of the lyrics, is Love and Peace. I thought Miracle Drug was weak until I read about Christopher Nolan. This would be my order:

Disc One:
Vertigo
Miracle Drug
SYCMIOYO
Love and Peace or Else
City of Blinding Lights
Are You Gonna Wait Forever
A Man and a Woman
All Because of You
Crumbs From Your Table
One Step Closer
Original of the Species
Fast Cars
Mercy
Yahweh

Disc Two
Native Son
Xanax and Wine
SYCMIOYO (Alternate Version)
All Because of You (Alternate Version)
Yahweh (Alternate Version)
Love You Like Mad
Neon Lights
Live Versions and demos of songs from album

 

[Cactus Annie]

I like HTDAAB, but I think they should release a new, two-disc, remastered edition (maybe cutting down on some of the over-production). It needs a couple more hard-edged, guitar songs for overall consistency.

Please can I ask you what do you mean by it's overproduced? I've asked interference members this several times and yet they don't seem to give me an answer. NLOTH is way overproduced. Too many effects no hooks or melodies, vocal snippets underneath Bono's vocals. On track 9 (was) someone put on Amazon that there's enhanced vocals and good singing. What do they mean by this? I think he's sunk to new depths and I will never rate him as a singer ever again.

 

[monsieur fly]

Please can I ask you what do you mean by it's overproduced? I've asked interference members this several times and yet they don't seem to give me an answer. NLOTH is way overproduced. Too many effects no hooks or melodies, vocal snippets underneath Bono's vocals. On track 9 (was) someone put on Amazon that there's enhanced vocals and good singing. What do they mean by this? I think he's sunk to new depths and I will never rate him as a singer ever again.

Well "production" is a fairly broad area encopmassing mixing, sonic effects and even arrangements/ I think there was too much studio sheen and sparkle put on HTDAAB for a start- Native Son sounded "rougher" than Vertigo for example and all the better for it. Furthermore Original Of The Species was overproduced in a different sesne of the word- ghastly, overbearing strings were lumped on top of it when the arrangement ought to have been much more stripped-down. Then, there is the sense that the sound was too "in your face", like cats fighting over tins as one intereference member has put it. I would consider that an example of overproduction. Perhaps over-glossed would be better than overproduced- there is certainly less "gloss" on NLOTH and more murk and mystery. On HTDAAB everything was screamingly obvious, one of the many reasons why it is a poor album.

 

[monsieur fly]

I will embellish my argument with some actual examples. It is arguable for instance that Native Son is better than Vertigo- yes it's rougher and less accessible but those are actually qualities rather than problems. Similarly, Xanax And Wine, a rocker with a dirty riff is better than Fast Cars in my view. By adding gloss they seem to lose the magic sometimes.

 

[Cactus Annie]

^Thank you for being the first person to explain this to me. I know what you mean by adding too much gloss destroys the character of a song and thinking of the songs you mentioned I understand what you are saying. This is what I was trying to state when I posted a thread some time ago about cheating in music. Some people on here kind of contradict themselves because I was told music is not a competitive sport and yet theirs endless threads on how the Edge should do more guitar solos so they can here what he can do or how Bono doesn't sing like Celine Dion or Mariah Carey (who I've been told by producers use oodles of effects on top of their voices by the way). I find it strange how people are always nit picking faults when maybe some of these singers may not hit a note any better than him but because they are so insecure in themselves or they're too lazy to do a retake they have a need to cover it up. His voice isn't as overprocessed as a lot of singers voices are and that's all that matters to me because I think the human voice and the singing is the most important thing for me in music. I think that woman on Amazon didn't speak English very well because who message wasn't very clear. Maybe she meant that it was treated with distortion or something. The Boots version of NLOTH his voice sounded very wierd, as though it was distorted or something. It will take a few listens for me to love this album as much as I love Bomb. But I do like MOS and the title track

 

[youtooellen]

... I like how the title opposes the trashing and yet trashing continues in here.

Nonetheless, I suppose I'll add my own thoughts. Okay, well, HTDAAB was a good album. IMO. I didn't enjoy ATYCLB, enjoyed HTDAAB, and am enjoying NLOTH. All of them have different sounds and lyrics.
There are different ways of enjoying all of the albums, like listening to certain tracks based on the mood you're in, your setting, the time of day, and whatnot. It's not like you'd listen to 'Yahweh' at some ecstasy high dance club or something.

In this generation, where music is... inappropriate for 12 year old kids to be listening to, or even the lyrics of driving pimped out cars with large rims, or blinging with your homies, U2's music is definitely a new addition to the poor musical scene we have in the mainstream.

Everyone has their own opinion about U2's style (usually released in 4 year intervals.. ) but I don't think we should go criticizing individual choice in music... yeah. 'Nuff said. I apologize if this was irrelevant to the discussion this thread was originally focused on. Heh.

 

[Mr. Person]

It's the first U2 album I bought, so I still like it, but it's horribly flawed. The biggest problem is the track order; Miracle Drug (mediocre) into Sometimes (good, but slow and sentimental) succeeds in killing the pace by track three. As a result Love and Peace sounds boring, nearly ruining the best stretch of the album (songs 4-6). A Man and A Woman is my least favorite U2 song (horrible lyrics, total filler). Crumbs From Your Table, makes no impact after that horror and another good song ends up sounding like noise, from which One Step Closer only seems like a reprieve from the chaos, and not the haunting ballad it could be. The gem Original of the Species gets overlooked among the overbearing nothingness, and Yahweh feels like it runs on emergency backup power.

Revised tracklist:

Fast Cars
Vertigo
Original of the Species
Crumbs From Your Table
Love and Peace or Else
One Step Closer
City of Blinding Lights
All Because of You
Mercy
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own

 

[Cactus Annie]

It's the first U2 album I bought, so I still like it, but it's horribly flawed. The biggest problem is the track order; Miracle Drug (mediocre) into Sometimes (good, but slow and sentimental) succeeds in killing the pace by track three. As a result Love and Peace sounds boring, nearly ruining the best stretch of the album (songs 4-6). A Man and A Woman is my least favorite U2 song (horrible lyrics, total filler). Crumbs From Your Table, makes no impact after that horror and another good song ends up sounding like noise, from which One Step Closer only seems like a reprieve from the chaos, and not the haunting ballad it could be. The gem Original of the Species gets overlooked among the overbearing nothingness, and Yahweh feels like it runs on emergency backup power.

Revised tracklist:

Fast Cars
Vertigo
Original of the Species
Crumbs From Your Table
Love and Peace or Else
One Step Closer
City of Blinding Lights
All Because of You
Mercy
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own

Jeez does it matter? I never listen to albums all the way through anyway I'm always pressing the skip and back buttons. If you want to listen to the album in that order than just press in the PROGRAM or equivilent button on your CD player and put in your choice order of songs. If you press the shuffle button you can listen to it in any multiple orders your CD player chooses. I will never understand why people get so hep up about a cd's track running order.

BTW I think Original works better with the string orchestra because more is always best. Stripped back would be duller. Native Sun wasn't as loud as Vertigo, and again, louder is better.

 

[JoRu]

I love Atomic Bomb for one, but it has flaws as most U2 album has got in some way. Atomic Bomb suffers from a sound that screams "Make me a hit album" instead of doing something unexpected, and risky to make the album more interesting. Atomic Bomb doesn't represent what U2 got famous for in the first place. This is just another great album by an existing band. There's not a single song that is different or experimental in any way.

However, it has some great melodies and choruses and has some of the most memorable tunes U2 has made. COBL is one of the best song U2's made in recent days, including the songs on NLOTH and ends IMO extremely well with OSC, OOTS and Yahweh. Also, Vertigo is a better single and in general a better song than Boots.

 

[Muldfeld]

I wasn't on any message boards when either album came out and I tried really hard to love them both; however, it took me a while -- over a year -- to realize ATYCLB was pretty lame, except for Stuck in a Moment and In a Little While. HTDAAB took me about 2 to 6 months to realize how much I disliked it; while I never liked Vertigo (I deluded myself that it would grow on me for about a week) or All Because of You or One Step Closer, I accepted "A Man and a Woman" and "Love and Peace" and "Crumbs" for a little longer; then it took about 8 months to accept that Sometimes and City were fairly lame as well as Yahweh, which I've never hated as much as the critics. All that is left for me to still enjoy are Miracle Drug and Original, which have great melodies, but cringe-inducing lyrics.

Also, the failure of HTDAAB to live up to my hopes for a great record (It was the first album for which I was able to follow pre-album promises and speculation by Bono.) only exacerbated my dislike for ATYCLB. I initially though that HTDAAB was a far better album than ATYCLB, but, after about 2 years, I realized that it was worse because it was more derivative. I don't think I'd hate ATYCLB as much if it was followed up by a return to experimentation, but instead it started the band on a path toward commercialization and dumbing down of their art to appeal to the mainstream or to ensure a greedy amount of popularity that relies on appealing to people who can't appreciate complexity -- a path the band still hasn't fully abandoned -- that I resent it so much.

 

[Muldfeld]

Please can I ask you what do you mean by it's overproduced? I've asked interference members this several times and yet they don't seem to give me an answer. NLOTH is way overproduced. Too many effects no hooks or melodies, vocal snippets underneath Bono's vocals. On track 9 (was) someone put on Amazon that there's enhanced vocals and good singing. What do they mean by this? I think he's sunk to new depths and I will never rate him as a singer ever again.

I interpret it as a substantial lack of loud and soft for dynamism. "Tryin' to Throw Your Arms" has so much texture with certain guitar notes in the background barely being audible. Another example is the addition of Daniel Lanois' scratch guitar in the background for "Running to Stand Still". They're both so beautiful -- definite 10/10s for me. Now, compare that to "A Man and a Woman" in which every note is forced to be noticed and there's too much simplicity in composition -- not enough complexity, which has characterized their work this past decade.