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half assed impressions of new remixes..

One Tree Hill - LOVE this. different vocal. St Francis is Hotel is Declan Gaffney, I believe. I like what he does with them
Bullet - dark. makes me feel uneasy
WOWY - a neat, ambient take. Lanois adds some pedal steel
RTSS - interesting. bathed in Lanois' signature warmth.. which is a little weird for this song.. I prefer the starkness of the original.
Streets - a swampy stew. not what I expected. alt 1987 vocals. fuck, Bono could belt it out in those days...
 
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I'm giving a listen to all the bonus tracks now, and I'll write up a description of each one. I'll wrap them in spoilers for anyone who doesn't want to know anything until first listen.

One Tree Hill (St Francis Hotel Remix) -
this sounds like a club remix where the beat never quite enters. There's a quiet beginning with no sign of the Edge (no highlife guitar riff or regular guitar), just Raad strings, and the backing vocals from the chorus ("like a river to the sea" vocals). After about 2 min, Bono's vocals come in - it 's a more subdued take of him that's used for the first verse. For the second verse, Edge's highlife guitar riff finally enters. After the 2nd chorus, the song continues to vamp, with the background "like a river to the sea" vocals doing the heavy lifting. The third verse is omitted entirely.
 
Bullet the Blue Sky (Jacknife Lee Remix) -
this sounds like a Nine Inch Nails remix of the song. Do NOT expect Larry's pounding drums for a while. Instead, you get some dark pulsing synth.
Bono's vocals are heavily processed and perhaps doubled with a vocoder. For the second chorus, the drum take from Larry that we know and love finally enters. The spoken word portion features some pulsing synths and a mix of Edge's guitar bits from various parts of the song. The guitar solo sounds fantastic with a layer of noise supplementing it and Bono's "ooo-oooo-oooo"'s from the chorus in the background. Where the original version ended, the song continues, sampling Bono's "of America" over the pulsing synth and some very odd electronic voices.
 
Running to Stand Still (Daniel Lanois Remix) -
No harmonica or piano to open the song, instead just some very soft ambient synths and pedal steel. The piano finally makes an appearance in the chorus. The pedal steel completely dominates the song. It sounds nice but also seems like it was lifted from a completely different song and placed in this one. It doesn't really follow the song's chord progression. Some of the more powerful parts of the song are very much missing, like the loud pounding of Larry's drums in the third verse, and the removal of the harmonica at the end.
 
With or Without You (Daniel Lanois Remix) -
A very quiet, sparse remix of the song. An echoing electronic drum beat is the backbone of this remix. A lot more ambient synths and some subtle pedal steel. The only sign of Edge in this version is the Infinite Guitar. The bass seems a little lower in the mix here. There's an alternate take of Bono's vocals used in various parts, which is very interesting to hear once he starts the high "with or without you" vocals.
 
Where the Streets Have No Name (Flood Remix) -
Immediately starts with a fade-in to the third chorus, before quickly fading out. The next minute and a half is just quiet synths and a brief sample of "Outside it's America" from "Bullet the Blue Sky". Then Bono's vocals enter but sound muffled, as if he's singing from the inside of a closet. It's definitely a different vocal take (or perhaps the original before all of the screwdriver work), as couplets are sung in different orders. Curiously, as Bono sings the "Where the streets have no" line, he variously ends it with "faith" "love" and "name". After the 2nd chorus, Bono's vocals final emerge from the closet and the Edge's guitar FINALLY enters, before the ending part is played over the choral synths. There's absolutely no coherence to this remix -
it sounds more like a discarded sound collage than a song.
 
Thanks. I'll wait until it's streaming on Google Music tomorrow but it's a nice little treat.
 
Holy crap the live show sounds so fecking good! Blows away the bootleg which sounded pretty darn good in its own right. But this is a revelation. Better than the Paris audio and might be my favorite live mix from a U2 release. It is so good I am actually angry it isnt the complete show yet we get dupe outtakes and crap remixes for this release. I can only pray they offer the remaining tracks as downloads or something. Please!!
 
corianderstem said:
Stuff I order is rarely late, especially with Amazon Prime. I'm special.
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Every post I read of yours I always hear it in Tina's depressing tone and i realize that no matter what you write It comes off as sad. You need to change your avatar!!! :)


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unclejosh said:
Holy crap the live show sounds so fecking good! Blows away the bootleg which sounded pretty darn good in its own right. But this is a revelation. Better than the Paris audio and might be my favorite live mix from a U2 release. It is so good I am actually angry it isnt the complete show yet we get dupe outtakes and crap remixes for this release. I can only pray they offer the remaining tracks as downloads or something. Please!!
Click to expand...


You just got me excited even more for this!


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
 
Who has the best price for the vinyl deluxe box for the US? So far, it looks like Amazon at $178 although I could take a chance with Amazon UK for about $155US but shipping would probably be killer.
 
Just listened through Spotify.

RHMT is the best one on here, followed by RTSS and WOWY. The rest are too bland or esoteric to make me think I'd ever want to listen to them again. I don't feel like I'm missing anything by not shelling for another uber deluxe set.
 
iTunes US has it already downloaded for me (must have been in the last 10 min or so)


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
 
Up now on Google Play, will listen tomorrow on a long drive. The live recordings sound amazing, damn the tempo on Streets is off the charts... so good.
 
I love the remixes. It sounds like one, continuous piece of work, and it really works.

THIS is what I was hoping for when I heard the descriptions of SOE - the Bullet remix is so interesting and strange. OTH sounds like Angels and Airwaves, which isn't surprising considering they basically cite TJT as the sole reason they write music.
 
Dont mind the Bullet remix.... Sounds kinda badass. I could live with some of that vibe on SOE. Has a real Jacknife feel.
 
The remixes are...there. Modestly interesting takes that remind me how great the originals are. None improve on the originals, not that it would be a fair expectation that they would. The Streets mix is one that is just a waste.

The sound on the MSG show is improved over the Wolfgang version which is nice.

Overall, not the best money I've ever spent on U2. Have a feeling I will rarely return to any of these tracks.
 
Cancelled my pre-order for the CD box set this week and stuck just with the 2 CD version and downloaded the remixes from Google Play. The original 2007 boxset ticks most of the boxes for me and I decided I didn't really need to shell out nearly £80 on more JT era photo books.

The Bullet mix is really good, especially when it goes all Kraftwerk near the end. The others are nice enough but pretty bland, but the Flood mix of Streets is a mess. Half of it sounds underwater and it's got no structure at all. A mess.

Looking forward to the live CD popping through the door later. Just a shame that Bad, TUF etc had to be omitted due to lack of space.
 
Registered Dude said:
half assed impressions of new remixes..

One Tree Hill - LOVE this. different vocal. St Francis is Hotel is Declan Gaffney, I believe. I like what he does with them
Bullet - dark. makes me feel uneasy
WOWY - a neat, ambient take. Lanois adds some pedal steel
RTSS - interesting. bathed in Lanois' signature warmth.. which is a little weird for this song.. I prefer the starkness of the original.
Streets - a swampy stew. not what I expected. alt 1987 vocals. fuck, Bono could belt it out in those days...
Click to expand...

Agreed mostly, though personally I don't care for ambiental takes on OTH and Streets.

WOWY and Bullet are the stars of these remixes, really good reworkings.

RTSS is also nice with that soft Lanois guitar. Add the Lillywhite remix of RHMT and it's a nice CD.
 
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