NLOTH vs. UF

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Wow talk about a stretch. Seriously, the outtro of Wire reminds you of the numerous verses of a similar vein in many songs on NLOTH?? Wire wasn't radio pop of that day, sorry.

You appear not to understand sarcasm very well...djeez.

And NLOTH and Being Born are 'better' than anything since Pop? Seriously, that's insane. Beautiful Day? Walk On?? When I Look At the World? Original of The Species?? Miracle Drug?? Cmon!!! I'll allow that Breathe gets an 'as good as if not better than' rating.

Walk on...now there's a TUF B-side if there ever was, it stands out on ATYCLB only because the rest of the album is so poor.

BD great single, but it hasn't aged well. Maybe it'll get better in another 10years. Currently it´s typical MOR radio fodder.

I don´t much like WILATW or OOTS, never play them.

Miracle Drug, LAPOE, New York are all great, but overall NLOTH is much stronger than HTDAAB, let alone ATYCLB, which has at least five very weak songs.

HTDAAB and ATYCLB combine for less than half a dozen great songs, NLOTH has more. Breathe, F-BB and NLOTH absolutely obliterate anything from HTDAAB or ATYCLB.
 
One thing that is comparable between UF and NLOTH is the inclusion of "mood songs". Songs like Promenade, TUF, 4th of July, Being Born, COL.

I agree that Pride sticks out on UF, but at least it's a fucking killer classic, which unfortunately cannot be said (by me) about the blatant pop attempts that stick out on the newest album.
 
I love Unforgettable Fire dearly
it used to be my favourite and I possibly give it more credit than it deserves
but not even I am going to deny that if it wasn't for Bad being an incredible song I would have turned it off after Promenade ends more often than not
of course it has more classic tracks than No line, but it also has more classic tracks than Achtung Baby and I never heard people diss Achtung because of this
 
I love Unforgettable Fire dearly
it used to be my favourite and I possibly give it more credit than it deserves
but not even I am going to deny that if it wasn't for Bad being an incredible song I would have turned it off after Promenade ends more often than not
of course it has more classic tracks than No line, but it also has more classic tracks than Achtung Baby and I never heard people diss Achtung because of this

That is because Achtung B. is an overall KICK ASS record which was made during the peak of their creativity:wink:
 
How is Walk On even remotely similar to anything on TUF?

I actually agree with him/her on this. The first I heard ATYCLB, back in late 2000, I was sitting there, amazed at how 'pop' the production of the first few songs was, and then "Walk On" came on my stereo and the first thing I thought was, "Damn, this sounds exactly like an Unforgettable Fire track."

His voice is probably a bit gruffer than the smoother power-tenor of the old days, but the arrangement and especially Edge's guitar tone is exactly like the '84-'85 tracks.

I always thought that it was funny that the band referred to Edge's riffing on 'Beautiful Day' as the Classic-Coke riff -- they should have said this about 'Walk On'! (Speaking of which, it's odd how quickly they dropped 'Walk On' from the set, after Edge praised the song so much back in 2000-2001 -- it seemed to be his favorite song.)
 
I actually agree with him/her on this. The first I heard ATYCLB, back in late 2000, I was sitting there, amazed at how 'pop' the production of the first few songs was, and then "Walk On" came on my stereo and the first thing I thought was, "Damn, this sounds exactly like an Unforgettable Fire track."

But what track? I'm really struggling here. :confused:
 
One thing that is comparable between UF and NLOTH is the inclusion of "mood songs". Songs like Promenade, TUF, 4th of July, Being Born, COL.

I agree that Pride sticks out on UF, but at least it's a fucking killer classic, which unfortunately cannot be said (by me) about the blatant pop attempts that stick out on the newest album.

I think Breathe sticks out on NLOTH and is also (by me) a killer classic.
 
I just did a road trip. Listened to NLOTH and then just by chance the next album on the USB stick was TUF. TUF is timeless and is decidely NOT a low point in U2's career. That's pretty funny, actually! :lol:

Unforgettable Fire
Indian Summer Sky
Wire
Promenade
Pride
MLK
Sort Of Homecoming
Bad

That's 8 songs. Name me 8 songs as brilliant as those on NLOTH.

I'm not knocking NLOTH, I love the album save a couple of tracks. But I don't see any worthwhile comparison to TUF. I'd sooner compare it with Zooropa. Especially in terms of how deep I go into the album before I start skipping to favorites...and I totally don't get the Being Born love. I tried REALLY REALLY hard to listen to it again on my road trip today and just about every song on TUF blows that song out of the water, imo.
 
I just did a road trip. Listened to NLOTH and then just by chance the next album on the USB stick was TUF. TUF is timeless and is decidely NOT a low point in U2's career. That's pretty funny, actually! :lol:

Unforgettable Fire
Indian Summer Sky
Wire
Promenade
Pride
MLK
Sort Of Homecoming
Bad

That's 8 songs. Name me 8 songs as brilliant as those on NLOTH.

I'm not knocking NLOTH, I love the album save a couple of tracks. But I don't see any worthwhile comparison to TUF. I'd sooner compare it with Zooropa. Especially in terms of how deep I go into the album before I start skipping to favorites...and I totally don't get the Being Born love. I tried REALLY REALLY hard to listen to it again on my road trip today and just about every song on TUF blows that song out of the water, imo.


You are just not trying hard enough :wink:

In all fairness. I think you are 100% right.:up:
 
Indian Summer Sky and Wire are very very good, not great
MLK is not particularly a highlight in their career

I would take the first 5 of No line over these 3 songs
and I would take the last 6 over the UF songs you didn't mention

:shrug:
 
My favs from TUF are TUF, Wire and Pride, vs Breathe, FBB and NLOTH. But I don't want to compare those directly.

If I compare TUF, Wire, Pride (9/10) with FBB, Magnificent and GOYB (8/10), the win goes to TUF

TUF > FBB
Pride > Magnificent
Wire > GOYB

Breathe+NLOTH (9/10) would beat ASOH and Bad (8/10):

ASOH < NLOTH
Bad < Breathe

But further down the advantage goes to NLOTH:

ISS and Promenade (7/10) get their balls kicked by UC (8/10) and MOS (8,5/10). And -although I'm not a fan of Crazy, SUC, WAS or COL- they are stil miles better than 4oJ, MLK or EPAA.

Even if I take Three Sunrises/ and Winter into account the win would still go to NLOTH. Also, TUF is not their best that decade, but NLOTH is!

As far as the comparisons in terms of music:

Breathe is Bad with better drumming and less plodding along...
FBB is TUF without a chorus, oh wait...TUF doesn't have a proper chorus either ;)
NLOTH is ASOF filtered thorugh AB
GOYB is similar to Wire, in that's it's trying to concentrate the entire album into a high energy 4min song.
MOS is probably the best "soul" song they've ever done, something clearly missing on TUF. All the slow songs on TUF are merely lullabies, not soulful ballads.

coca cola..football...radio, radio, radio...
 
Songs I find truly among U2's greats on UF:

-A Sort of Homecoming
-Bad
-4th of July
-The Unforgettable Fire (I'm on the fence about this one)

And truly great U2 songs on NLOTH:
-Magnificent
-Breathe
-Unknown Caller (trumps anything on UF, ATYCLB (with the exception of maybe New York) and HTDAAB)
-Cedars of Lebanon
-White as Snow
(on the fence about the last two)

oh, and Winter. Wait, it's not on the album?!

Yep, I'd say these two albums are in line with each other, quality-wise. I wouldn't say they sound anything alike though.
 
One thing that is comparable between UF and NLOTH is the inclusion of "mood songs". Songs like Promenade, TUF, 4th of July, Being Born, COL.

I agree that Pride sticks out on UF, but at least it's a fucking killer classic, which unfortunately cannot be said (by me) about the blatant pop attempts that stick out on the newest album.

Not sure which tracks you're referring to, but for me the blatant pop stand outs are Boots, SUC, and Crazy. I like Boots and Crazy ok, but SUC, meh -it's just not all that for me.

THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE is miles ahead of NLOTH

If I had both these albums on shuffle, I would only leave out the above mentioned traks. But nothing on UF. Still it's not miles ahead of NLOTH, just different and decade's prior, IMO. of course.

coca cola..football...radio, radio, radio...

and funny again how this part of Promenade totally fits into my nostalgia of that time.
Music really is subjective.

.Yep, I'd say these two albums are in line with each other, quality-wise. I wouldn't say they sound anything alike though.

this ^ :up:
 
:banghead: The entire comparison is based on the premise that somehow FBB and Unforgettable Fire sound alike. If they didn't sound remotely similar, noone would even draw a comparison between the two albums. There are way more references to AB, Zooropa and Pop than UF.

So, on that level, I have but one thing to add: anyone who thinks that FBB even remotely approaches UF needs to get their hearing checked. And fast.
 
FBB is better than at least half the songs on TUF.

For the purposes of my post that you responded to:

TUF = The Unforgettable Fire, album
UF = Unforgettable Fire, song

Having said that then...Fez-Being Born is better than Unforgettable Fire (song)??? Not in a million years, and I don't think you're trying to say that, right? Because that was my point. So if the only song from NLOTH that even remotely sounds like any songs on TUF (album) is FBB based on it's percieved similarity to UF (song), and UF (song) >>> FBB, it seems that any comparison between the two albums based on those samples is doomed to be flawed :shrug:
 
For the purposes of my post that you responded to:

TUF = The Unforgettable Fire, album
UF = Unforgettable Fire, song

Having said that then...Fez-Being Born is better than Unforgettable Fire (song)??? Not in a million years, and I don't think you're trying to say that, right? Because that was my point. So if the only song from NLOTH that even remotely sounds like any songs on TUF (album) is FBB based on it's percieved similarity to UF (song), and UF (song) >>> FBB, it seems that any comparison between the two albums based on those samples is doomed to be flawed :shrug:

well i'm not delving into the battle of if FBB sounds like songs on TUF or not. I think it's close for me on FBB and TUF (song, and the song is TUF not just UF as well), since TUF sounds a bit dated for me sometimes but is at other times brilliant.
if they do play TUF live as rumored though I could be easily swayed

anyway I'm just saying that i think TUF is probably the most overrated album on this forum. It's good, yes, and it's excellent in the sense that it flows really well and each song seemingly serves a purpose on the album itself. that said, i would never go listen to 4th of July or Elvis Presley without listening to the album in its entirety. That's where NLOTH takes the cake for me, in comparison to TUF at least.
 
well i'm not delving into the battle of if FBB sounds like songs on TUF or not. I think it's close for me on FBB and TUF (song, and the song is TUF not just UF as well), since TUF sounds a bit dated for me sometimes but is at other times brilliant.
if they do play TUF live as rumored though I could be easily swayed

anyway I'm just saying that i think TUF is probably the most overrated album on this forum. It's good, yes, and it's excellent in the sense that it flows really well and each song seemingly serves a purpose on the album itself. that said, i would never go listen to 4th of July or Elvis Presley without listening to the album in its entirety. That's where NLOTH takes the cake for me, in comparison to TUF at least.

Honestly, I think you will be swayed if/when you hear it live. I can't wait!

I'm curious though...because I'm thinking you're not really comparing apples to oranges...FBB is nothing like the songs you mentioned you wouldn't go listen to on TUF by themselves...take a different two...say Cedars of Lebanon or I dunno, Stand Up Comedy or Get On Your Boots or...would you REALLY listen to those songs all by themself on NLOTH without playing the entire album? I can't say I would...
 
maybe it's because it's still pretty new to me, but i've gone and listened to every song on NLOTH as a standalone many times since it's come out. Cedars is probably the best comparison for the point you are making I'd think. Boots and Comedy are fun, quick, catchy songs that I do enjoy. They don't take a lot of prior investment to get into, so for me they're fun to drive along too- I usually don't have to drive very far so I don't usually listen to a whole album when I'm driving.

There have been plenty of times when I've gone and listened to Boots/Comedy and then skipped back to MOS and then to Crazy tonight and then to Cedars. Maybe I'm just strange or maybe because the album is still new to me- but I feel like the songs on NLOTH you can do that with AND listen to it front to back and still get a good album feel out of it, whereas you can't really do that with TUF - but you do get an excellent album feel out of it.

If that makes any sense at all.
 
Actually it does...which is partly why I don't get 'comparison' threads..NLOTH has alot of great singles, for sure, and songs that stand out on their own. For me, FBB ain't one of em lol so I'm not getting the comparison to UF (song) because UF stands out on its own no matter what album we're talking about, imo. TUF (album) feels more like an album, a journey, to me. Or maybe that's just me..
 
yeah I don't understand the need to compare albums either. Especially one from the mid 80s to the late 00s. i enjoy both albums a lot, but I prefer NLOTH. is it because it's newer? maybe, but I don't think so. I truly think NLOTH is a better album and it'll likely end up in my top 3 U2 albums.

it's almost like comparing Pop and War to me. Two totally different albums.
 
^ again, totally agree with that last statement. Why would you bother? I'd quicker give more thought to a comparison between Zooropa and NLOTH, I think they are closer. Wait, I already said that.

You gotta admit this tho: look how people still talk about and clamor for UF even today to be played live, 25 years later. I'd be willing to be almost anything that 25 years from now noone will be requesting FBB. Seriously. They'll still be asking for UF, tho...
 
^ again, totally agree with that last statement. Why would you bother? I'd quicker give more thought to a comparison between Zooropa and NLOTH, I think they are closer. Wait, I already said that.

You gotta admit this tho: look how people still talk about and clamor for UF even today to be played live, 25 years later. I'd be willing to be almost anything that 25 years from now noone will be requesting FBB. Seriously. They'll still be asking for UF, tho...

:huh:
 
I'm not, as I was there when they last played UF live.

I'm hoping they never ever play it so it'll stay that way :wink:
 
^ again, totally agree with that last statement. Why would you bother? I'd quicker give more thought to a comparison between Zooropa and NLOTH, I think they are closer. Wait, I already said that.

You gotta admit this tho: look how people still talk about and clamor for UF even today to be played live, 25 years later. I'd be willing to be almost anything that 25 years from now noone will be requesting FBB. Seriously. They'll still be asking for UF, tho...

:yes::yes: :rockon:
 
^ again, totally agree with that last statement. Why would you bother? I'd quicker give more thought to a comparison between Zooropa and NLOTH, I think they are closer. Wait, I already said that.

You gotta admit this tho: look how people still talk about and clamor for UF even today to be played live, 25 years later. I'd be willing to be almost anything that 25 years from now noone will be requesting FBB. Seriously. They'll still be asking for UF, tho...

We'll see what that holds. I think at this point it's unfair for to say people would or wouldn't clamor for FBB in 25 years and compare that to UF. We've already had now 25 years to clamor for UF. I wish they were playing FBB, but they're not. Maybe along the lines they will.

That said, I think both songs are excellent and I have to be in the right mood to hear both, but when I am and do they are both among their best songs. :shrug: maybe I'm easy to please.
 
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