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I don't understand why we're stuck in the mindset that it can't be their greatest album. I don't think the chances are bindblowingly high, but it's certainly a possibility. Interference has already judged the album, really: it will be a good, solid album, better than the last two, but noting overly amazing, or terrible. Why? It certainly could be their best work ever; it certainly could be their worst.

A good point.

Exactly, why can't it be? You would imagine that Music is not like sports; where the younger you are the better you tend to perform and the older you are the more washed up you get. You would think that just like any other art form; the older and more wiser you get the better your work would become. But I guess its not always like that.

I still do think that this album can be great, maybe even their best ever...but too many people already have their mindset on the fact that it can't be their best ever without even hearing the album to begin with. So its already got two strikes against it....which is unfortunately the case with many of the last few albums they've released.
 
Did you hear that music's subjective?

It was big news the other day!

Yeah, I hear you. Shall we forget about it, shall we? Let's look forward to a very good - hopefully great - album.

(And, argh, I can never be "mad" at someone quoting Søren Kierkegaard :) Some of his writing has changed my perspective on certain things). About the only philospher who has written something in my native language :)
 
Once the embargo lifts, then we get the real reviews btw. Only the people who were given exclusives are able to release reviews now. I'm not saying that the reviewers' reputations should be in question, but the studio is very careful to hand out exclusives to those they think will give a good review.

That being said, its pretty amazing that Q is giving it 5 stars. Will be interesting to see the Rolling Stone review.
 
Personally, I think reviews of U2's music are worthless. Reviews only mean anything when they introduce people to new artists or find an obscure gem. No one is going to buy or not buy a U2 album based on a good review. U2 are beyond reviews. Not that they have earned the right to not be questioned, but because their prominence in the music industry tends to skew initial perceptions. Didn't Rolling Stone call ATYCLB "their 3rd masterpiece"? Now Q is calling this album greater than UF, JT and AB based on a week or so of listening? It's all based on U2 the band, not the album. Their greatest album is going to be the one you are still experiencing fresh, new things from in 20 years. So far only AB has held up to that extent for me.

Plus I bet we all have differing opinions on which is their best album so far...and you know what? We're all right.

So good reviews are fun to read, but they're meaningless to U2 at this point in the game. Unless they're bad reviews. That, unfortunately, is when they become meaningful again.
 
Yeah, I hear you. Shall we forget about it, shall we? Let's look forward to a very good - hopefully great - album.

(And, argh, I can never be "mad" at someone quoting Søren Kierkegaard :) Some of his writing has changed my perspective on certain things). About the only philospher who has written something in my native language :)

I give Fear and Trembling 5 stars.:drool:

But it still isn't better than TJT.
 
Yeah, I hear you. Shall we forget about it, shall we? Let's look forward to a very good - hopefully great - album.

(And, argh, I can never be "mad" at someone quoting Søren Kierkegaard :) Some of his writing has changed my perspective on certain things). About the only philospher who has written something in my native language :)

Heh, yeah, that sounds good to me. And certainly the last couple of weeks have made me more optimistic about NLOTH being a very good album than I was at the start of the year.

Kierkegaard is truly awesome. I don't always see eye-to-eye with his conclusions, but his thought processes and the way he presents them are fascinating. I haven't read as much of his work as I'd like to ... I need more hours in the day. At the moment, The Sickness Unto Death is one of the books beside my bed that I'm gradually reading.
 
Sure music is subjective, but so is anything else. Art is subjective but there still is shit art among the masterpieces.

Food is subjective too, so does that mean that McDonald's can truly be held in the same light as a Five Star Restaurant? For some yeah, but lets be serious here.

That whole music is subjective argument is total crap. Its stating the obvious in place of actually formulating an intelligent and though provoking argument.

Yeah, music is subjective....that's why the Jonas Brothers are better than the Beatles....at least to 15 year olds they are. Please, lets be real here.
 
Whether or not it's their best album, this couldn't be known by anyone for months if not years. Whether your fav album is JT, AB, or something else, you wouldn't be able to adequately determine whether this one surpassed it until much later. See: HTDAAB first impressions.

I'm fully open to this being their best album, and I actually believe it has a 50-50 shot at being top 3. That's pretty fucking optimistic considering how much I love JT, AB, and UF.
 
Whether or not it's their best album, this couldn't be known by anyone for months if not years. Whether your fav album is JT, AB, or something else, you wouldn't be able to adequately determine whether this one surpassed it until much later. See: HTDAAB first impressions.

I'm fully open to this being their best album, and I actually believe it has a 50-50 shot at being top 3. That's pretty fucking optimistic considering how much I love JT, AB, and UF.

Great post! :up: Agree with every bit of it
 
Whether or not it's their best album, this couldn't be known by anyone for months if not years. Whether your fav album is JT, AB, or something else, you wouldn't be able to adequately determine whether this one surpassed it until much later. See: HTDAAB first impressions.

I'm fully open to this being their best album, and I actually believe it has a 50-50 shot at being top 3. That's pretty fucking optimistic considering how much I love JT, AB, and UF.


Very good point indeed.

Truly great albums take time to unfold and become truly great. HTDAAB was a downer for me. I really liked it the first few months, then it just simply went away on me. I started reaching for albums like POP or Zooropa before Bomb, and it was less than 6 months since it had been released. Very disappointing.
 
Sure music is subjective, but so is anything else. Art is subjective but there still is shit art among the masterpieces.

Food is subjective too, so does that mean that McDonald's can truly be held in the same light as a Five Star Restaurant? For some yeah, but lets be serious here.

That whole music is subjective argument is total crap. Its stating the obvious in place of actually formulating an intelligent and though provoking argument.

Yeah, music is subjective....that's why the Jonas Brothers are better than the Beatles....at least to 15 year olds they are. Please, lets be real here.

Read as: "I just want to be able to flaunt that my opinion is better and more worthy than other people."

PowerSurge, heaven forbid people enjoy different things to you.

Get over yourself.
 
No matter what, nostalgia always will win. Anyway, I can live very well without comparing their albums. How about thinking positive:up: they are able to produce great stuff throughout their whole career?
 
Why is it so hard for some of you to just accept that this album is getting good reviews? :huh:

GOYB and NLOTH 2 are both great songs, Rolling Stone gave the GOYB single 4 stars, so it's hard to imagine the album will get anything less then that.

I agree 100% it feels like alot of people WANT this album to fail or be bad! Accept the reviews! I can understand if only one review said it was amazing while the others said it was mediocre but it seems like most reviews are agreeing that it is a great album so why not believe it! If you want a bad album that is up to you but I sure as hell believe that this is not going to be a bad album and I certainly don't want this album to fail!
 
Well that says everything especially giving 4 stars to HTDAAB :huh:

Lots of folks totally missed the boat on that album as did I; U2 gets so much love that's unwarranted from the press; only Pitchfork seemed to get it right and I hated them at the time, but I realized they were right only years later.
U2: How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (2004): Reviews

I actually emailed the writer "Fast Cars" several months ago and she said thanks for the compliment and that "Fast Cars" was pretty good, but she might have been just being nice; I do think it was the most creative song lyrically and shows what U2 can do when they forget the mainstream.

It seems like the Lillywhite half of the album is the commercial fear side and it's going to diminish the album's greatness, though not its accessibility; GOYB was quite discouraging. Still, as long as the other great songs come out this year, I'll be a happy panda.
Anyone who gives GOYB 4 stars is deluded. The video gets 4 stars but the song itself doesn't deserve 4. I like positive reviews but calling it their greatest album is just plain silly.
Yeah, especially since, if we're going by consensus of reviews, no one is saying it's better than Achtung Baby, and GOYB is proof the band doesn't have the guts to take it all the way it did back then. They're still trying to do "Vertigo".

I like your style, Secret Fly!
 
It seems like the Lillywhite half of the album is the commercial fear side and it's going to diminish the album's greatness, though not its accessibility; GOYB was quite discouraging. Still, as long as the other great songs come out this year, I'll be a happy panda.

Lillywhite half? Care to explain?
 
Well that says everything especially giving 4 stars to HTDAAB :huh:

While I'm not singling you out, I am rather annoyed at this constant bashing of HTDAAB! :angry:

In YOUR opinion this wasn't worth 4 stars. It sure was in mine. It is definitely a better album than ATYCLB or "Pop". The album had hits, but nothing that sounded mainstream in 2004. It tried some experimental sounds ("Love & Peace" and "Fast Cars" were like nothing U2 had tried before) as well as a few songs that were great stadium pleasers - the type that people adore on "War", TUF and JT. Yes, there were a few clunkers, but I could say that about every U2 album (and often, I can say there were a lot more than just a "few" clunkers).

Based on what I've heard on NLOTH and what Bono has discussed about the possible next U2 album (and who knows - they could release that for the holiday season in 2010, as they extend their touring), there appears to be no "gotcha" song on either album. There won't be a "Staring..." or a "Beautiful Day" or even a "Vertigo". Given that ATYCLB will be 10 years old come next year and ATYCLB will be 6, I have a feeling that those who became U2 fans because of those albums will suddenly wonder what happened to the U2 that made accessible, fun, music.

So please stop the HTDAAB bashing. If you hate it or are only "meh" on it, great. But please stop taking every opportunity you can to trash it whenever that album is mentioned.

My second problem with posts like this is that you are already dismissing the Q review before having read it and before you heard the album! It's like you already feel NLOTH is bad! So now the NLOTH bashing is already kicking in, albeit, in a less direct way, before the album has come out! :doh: That's just insane!
 
Sure music is subjective, but so is anything else. Art is subjective but there still is shit art among the masterpieces.

Food is subjective too, so does that mean that McDonald's can truly be held in the same light as a Five Star Restaurant? For some yeah, but lets be serious here.

That whole music is subjective argument is total crap. Its stating the obvious in place of actually formulating an intelligent and though provoking argument.

Yeah, music is subjective....that's why the Jonas Brothers are better than the Beatles....at least to 15 year olds they are. Please, lets be real here.
Excellent point. People only use the "it's your opinion" argument when they disagree.
 
While I'm not singling you out, I am rather annoyed at this constant bashing of HTDAAB! :angry:

In YOUR opinion this wasn't worth 4 stars. It sure was in mine. It is definitely a better album than "Pop".

You just singled yourself out by saying something completely ridiculous.

:laugh::laugh::laugh:

Yeah, "All Because of You" is waaaaaaaaaaay better than MOFO.

:lol:
 
I'll be one of the few people to say that this actually sounds really... fucking... fantastic... :drool::drool::drool::drool:

And for what it's worth, I think that Boots and NLOTH are really awesome songs.

You mean there are people like you who don't argue the great reviews?? :applaud: Thank you!!! I was starting to lose hope with so many people questioning the fact that it actually might be a very good album...
 
Lillywhite half? Care to explain?
Maybe Lillywhite didn't do half, but it's fair to say he's had a more mainstream vision for the band. That's not always a bad thing, since he apparently turned "With or Without You" into a pop song (although I'd really like to hear the pre-Lillywhite version).

The band said it was a record of 2 halves, right? They implied that they only left the experimental stuff alone, and Lanois said he was only mixing half the album. Although one might rework experimental stuff, my sense is that this was mostly driven by the desire to have self-conscious hits, rather than just great music; the band cannot escape second-guessing itself and this is evidenced in GOYB, which is very Vertigo-ish, where The Fly was bold and didn't care about mainstream reception. It seems that GOYB (although featuring production from Lanois/Eno) was geared for the mainstream. Ditto Crazy Tonight and Stand Up Comedy and Magnificent. I'm hesitant about these songs, given GOYB's quality.

Now, Magnificent may indeed be great, but GOYB hardly matched the catchiness or the boldness of anything on Achtung Baby; if the band wants catchy guitar stuff, why can't it do something of the quality of "Mysterious Ways" or "Until the End of the World"? I know it's hard, but GOYB seems so lacking in interesting melodies; it's so dull. It's too into fist-thumping instead of the beauty it purports to revere.
 
nope I always know its your opinion and sometimes i agree with it while other times I don't
Yeah, but people only make that argument in order to defeat the legitimacy of one's opinion when they disagree with it. Not necessarily you, but most people, as I encountered on atu2.com and sometimes here.
 
Lots of folks totally missed the boat on that album as did I; U2 gets so much love that's unwarranted from the press; only Pitchfork seemed to get it right and I hated them at the time, but I realized they were right only years later.
U2: How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (2004): Reviews

U2 doesn't get much love from the press, I don't know where you live, but most media I know bash the band on a regular basis.

And you "realized" Pitchfork was right because you agree with them by not liking the album, that hardly makes their opinion more right or wrong.

It's people who want U2 to fail with their new album who say: Review mean nothing, because most of those reviews are actually good. Things would be different if we'd have mostly negative reviews.

Just because you agree or disagree with a reviewer's opinion doesn't make the review "right" or "wrong".
 
Exactly, AB is the answer. It's just because it would be bloody hard to compete against the most mindblowing - almost divine - record in the history of rock'n'roll (To this day I'm still puzzed and bewildered about how they actually managed to pull out an album like this - I mean God did indeed walk through the room - 12 times).

At this point - after listening to the 45-sec - I'm actually pretty sure we will get a fantastic album - but their greatest? No.

Edit: But I would still love to read that Q review.

I fully respect your opinion of AB. It is perhaps my second favorite U2 album (sometimes fights with TUF, depending on my mood).

However, AB is not without its flaws. And I can't help but wonder if time has been very generous to AB in the eyes of U2's fans.

First, AB has a great collection of singles on it - the type that U2 tried again with ATYCLB and HTDAAB. Yet those two albums get much hate on these boards, while AB is worshipped. I will admit that U2 succeeded with those singles more than they did with the singles on ATYCLB and HTDAAB, but there were plenty of fluff songs on AB. "Even Better..." is pure fluff. "Wild Horses" is really a silly love song. "One" is magnificent, but ask Axver about that. :sexywink: "Trying to Throw..." is one of my least favorite U2 songs ever. "Ultraviolet" has Bono at his lyrical worst, with a refrain of "baby, baby, baby... baby, baby, baby... baby, baby, baby, light my way" repeated endlessly. In other words, it is a pop album, but it worked because the singles flowed well together, while they still sounded quite different (a weakness of JT was that the songs sound too similar to each other). Given that U2 hadn't tried a "pop" album at the time, it was a departure that fans enjoyed. AB was an accessible album.

But I can't help but wonder if the 'net was around then or if AB came out now how "generous" the fans would be with their praise. I have a feeling if AB came out now, following ATYCLB and HTDAAB, there would be a lot of complaints about another album of "singles" and Bono's vocals and silly lyrics and whatnot.

So perhaps, just perhaps, time will also be generous to U2's more recent work (after all, ATYCLB will be 10 next year!).
 
Yeah, but people only make that argument in order to defeat the legitimacy of one's opinion when they disagree with it. Not necessarily you, but most people, as I encountered on atu2.com and sometimes here.

bingo.

its a crutch for those who can't formulate an intelligent explanation about why their opinions differ from someone else's. And its used way too much on this board.
 
You just singled yourself out by saying something completely ridiculous.

:laugh::laugh::laugh:

Yeah, "All Because of You" is waaaaaaaaaaay better than MOFO.

:lol:

And you just singled yourself out by saying something totally disrespectful.

It's ok to not like an album, but it's not okay to ridicule others who like it.

Oh wait a moment, that's what's been going on on this board with HTDAAB for years. :|
 
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