Songs of Experience 36 - Now with 20% fewer acronyms

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kiwilad said:
Have to concede though, and I say this as a fellow critic of Best Thing as a lead single, it's done better than I expected on the radio. And the acoustic version is quite good. While I get your point competely, it's a whole lot better than those other two I reckon.
Out of interest, what would you have chosen as a lead single?
I think I would have gone Love is Bigger
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I'm still hearing it on some of the mainstream radio stations, when SOI singles barely got anything. Even the AAA stations are playing Get Out of Your Own Way occasionally as of late.
 
mikal said:
You should!
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Hahah... I mean I haven't felt the urge to. The best thing about the best thing is the Edge bridge. I am pretty meh on the rest of the song. Again, it is not offensive to my ears, and I do believe there is a good song in there. The acoustic one is far better, but there is still something not quite there.
 
CMIS said:
Also also, Love is Bigger would have been a far better choice as single. That 'If the moonlight caught you crying in Killiney Bay' part is special.
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I like The Best Thing and think it was a good choice for first single, but yeah, Love Is Bigger might've been even better.

Singles should've been Love Is Bigger, Summer of Love, The Best Thing.
 
JoRu said:
I like The Best Thing and think it was a good choice for first single, but yeah, Love Is Bigger might've been even better.

Singles should've been Love Is Bigger, Summer of Love, The Best Thing.
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Little Things should be a single also.
 
aviastar said:
Hmmmm....I love Showman but I think it's track 12 that spoils the run. It's not a bad song, but very boringly cliche U2 whereas Showman has a nice thematic tie in to Little Things and is just something different from the band. 13 doesn't do much for me either....it's a fine closer but nothing amazing.
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This is where I'm at. I can take or leave the Showman, it's a nice blend after Summer of Love despite reading on paper like a horrible song. It's a nice Oasis/Beatles impersonation. But blech, I don't like Live is Bigger. I've already swapped Book of Your Heart in for it and think it's incredible. It also bleeds into 13 quite well and is strong after Blackout.

Oh, and also- I put this away for a week and came back to it again and still like it. Big time. I was over SOI this time last release, and was already hunting B-sides and remixes to make alternate tracklists to discover what was missing on NLOTH at this point back then. Not happening with this one.
 
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I would've really appreciated the option to cough up another $10-$15 with ticket purchase for the vinyl copy of SOE. This is fucking ridiculous.

IMG_8909.JPG
 
mikal said:
The Best Thing is a song that’s easy to hate on, and then you realize you’ve been belting it out in the shower, kitchen, etc every day. And then you realize that you love it.
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Just because you get something stuck in your head doesn't mean it's any good. Pop radio is full of terrible earworms and always has been.
 
I wish GOOYOW was just 3 mins of Edges backing vocals. That’s the only interesting part of the song.

Least favorite on the album. Just such a boring song
 
DeVaul said:
I would've really appreciated the option to cough up another $10-$15 with ticket purchase for the vinyl copy of SOE. This is fucking ridiculous.

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If you buy a dozen or more tickets, they should give you a copy on every obsolete format.

8 track, minidisc, 78 vinyl. Every single as a cassingle.
 
This album surprised me a bit. I was incredibly underwhelmed by the first song I had heard which was the Blackout. Then I think I saw the Best Thing video on YouTube and as much as I enjoyed seeing my favourite city again, I couldn't help rolling my eyes at Bono's full-of-himself boyish antics in this video. Didn't have high hopes for the album. Wasn't planning on getting it even after release.

Then I heard the entire album on streaming and realised that the non singles are way way better! Of course, this is U2 after all. Right now I'm saturated with this album in my head and need to give it a break but I'm really happy with most of it. Here's a quick rating of the tracks:

Love is all we have left - 4/5
Lights of home - 4.5/5
The best thing - 3.5/5
Get out of your own way - 3/5
American soul - 3/5
Summer of love - 5/5
Red flag day - 5/5
The showman - 5/5
The little things - 5/5
Landlady - 5/5
The blackout - 5/5
Love is bigger - 4/5
13 - 4.5/5

The whole second half is stellar! Starting from summer of love roughly all the way to 13. Great effort despite a few missteps. But the missteps this time are way fewer than during nloth or htdaab. Either that or I've aged and more forgiving these days. ;)
 
Now the dust has settled, a ranking of sorts:

Red Flag Day
Little Things That Give You Away

Love Is All We Have Left
Summer of Love
Blackout
The Best Thing About Me

Landlady
Showman

Lights of Home
13

American Soul
Get Out of Your Own Way
Love is Bigger Than Anything
 
A few weeks into album listening sessions this album is still great.

If this is U2s Abbey Road well then they have went out on a high.
 
intedomine said:
Now the dust has settled, a ranking of sorts:

Red Flag Day
Little Things That Give You Away

Love Is All We Have Left
Summer of Love
Blackout
The Best Thing About Me

Landlady
Showman

Lights of Home
13

American Soul
Get Out of Your Own Way
Love is Bigger Than Anything
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This must be from worst to best because Love is Bigger is at the bottom of your list.
 
Yeah, who the fuck puts Love Is Bigger last. Even I feel that one.
 
Axver said:
Just because you get something stuck in your head doesn't mean it's any good. Pop radio is full of terrible earworms and always has been.
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Yes - and they get stuck there and I usually have to start humming THE most obscure B side to rid my self of them. TBT is one of those kind of songs alas.

Subjective as it clearly is, but two weeks in and this over long album is just not working as a complete experience and that's now three albums in a row, with huge chunks of songs, often lumped together, that I just do not want to listen to again and again.

Oh well, each to their own and in time onto the next one... but let's lock numpties like Tedder in a lead lined silo while we're at it.
 
Guys, just because you like a certain food, it doesn’t mean it actually tastes good.
 
kabigon said:
This must be from worst to best because Love is Bigger is at the bottom of your list.
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I would put in the bottom 3 after AS GOOYOW, it sounds so cheesy and Christian rock to me..... blahhhh. Dunno how people love it so much.
 
DeVaul said:
I would've really appreciated the option to cough up another $10-$15 with ticket purchase for the vinyl copy of SOE. This is fucking ridiculous.

View attachment 11686
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I exchanged two of mine at the local bookstores for $3-4 each and used them to purchase some other things. Assuming there's no friends or family that might want one, maybe you can do something similar?
 
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