Songs of Experience vol. 29: No More Acronyms

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Headache in a Suitcase said:
I mean... I'm not the biggest Best Thing fan in the world, but to say that Best Thing or Blackout or Little Things are worse than everything on every album since Achtung Baby is a ridiculous statement.
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htaab has worse songs...maybe. Best Thing is their worst song. It's fucking embarrassing: it's badly written; the arrangements - all of them - are a mess; the vocals are irritating af...it's just dreadful. Stand Up Comedy was their worst song up til then but at least that's victimized by being overly ambitious, and the back half of it is decent.

I may have overstated it though: Blackout and Little Things are better than Stand Up Comedy and a few tracks on Bomb. Still, I'd take everything from Zooropa, Pop, OST 1, ATYCLB and SOI, including b-sides, over the three songs.

Flannagan was blowing so much smoke up Bono's ass that he'll be high for the rest of his life.
 
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Hollow Island said:
htaab has worse songs...maybe. Best Thing is their worst song. It's fucking embarrassing: it's badly written; the arrangements - all of them - are a mess; the vocals are irritating af...it's just dreadful. Stand Up Comedy was their worst song up til then but at least that's victimized by being overly ambitious, and the back half of it is decent.
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This post is objectively incorrect.
 
Wow. I have gone from thinking wtf when I first to heard The Blackout to now loving it, especially after hearing that studio version clip.

The attitude in it actually reminds me of The Fly
 
Holy shit, I was not expecting the clip to sound that good.

I thought Blackout had a great groove and confidence about it, but felt there was a certain blandness overall which stopped me falling in love with the live recording.

But I just listened to this clip with some decent headphones, and although it's a lot more produced and dancey than the earlier recording, I think it serves it well. It sounds more like a dance tune than a rock song, but with confidence and an amazing riff. I... I could actually see this being played in a bar or a club without U2 needing to force it onto everyones iphones!

Pissed off we likely have to wait another month and a half before we get the full thing!
 
Hollow Island said:
htaab has worse songs...maybe. Best Thing is their worst song. It's fucking embarrassing: it's badly written; the arrangements - all of them - are a mess; the vocals are irritating af...it's just dreadful. Stand Up Comedy was their worst song up til then but at least that's victimized by being overly ambitious, and the back half of it is decent.

I may have overstated it though: Blackout and Little Things are better than Stand Up Comedy and a few tracks on Bomb. Still, I'd take everything from Zooropa, Pop, OST 1, ATYCLB and SOI, including b-sides, over the three songs.

Flannagan was blowing so much smoke up Bono's ass that he'll be high for the rest of his life.
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Even more then grace, wild honey and peace on earth. Really? Each to their own I suppose
 
rennowba said:
Even more then grace, wild honey and peace on earth. Really? Each to their own I suppose
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Seriously. For me The Best Thing is in the top half of the last 25 years. The Blackout's promise probably puts it in my top third.
 
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the tourist said:
Seriously. For my The Best Thing is in the top half of the last 25 years. The Blackout's promise probably puts it in my top third.
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Yeah I totally agree I was just asking the original poster if they put grace wild honey and peace on earth above the new tracks. Because those tracks are garbage in my opinion
 
rennowba said:
Even more then grace, wild honey and peace on earth. Really? Each to their own I suppose
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Abso-fucking-lutely

They're not exciting but at least they're well constructed and they're not cynical acts of pandering to the lowest common denominator. Best Thing is straight up garbage, to quote Flavour Flav.
 
Hollow Island said:
Abso-fucking-lutely



They're not exciting but at least they're well constructed and they're not cynical acts of pandering to the lowest common denominator. Best Thing is straight up garbage, to quote Flavour Flav.
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Fair enough, everyone's entitled to their own opinion
 
rennowba said:
Fair enough, everyone's entitled to their own opinion
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True.

In my opinion, sheep are carnivores and triangle tastes better than square.

Just my opinion.

I do get Hollow's comments about Best Thing being blatant pandering to pop music norms. Perhaps though, as we've aged, we are forgetting that U2 has always kinda done that. Didn't matter so much to us when we were younger because what WE thought was cool, was what U2 were trying to get to.
Now a lot of us are a tad older and what WE think is cool isn't cool. So U2 are pandering to a different demographic, and that dislocates a few of us.

Reality is, Best Thing is jarringly stitched together and, for me, clunky and overdone lyrically. But there's some good stuff in it, a nice tune. I would say, for me, Boots, Stand Up, Grace, Wild Honey, Miami, they're all less impressive to me.

I'd even put Miracle in that list, although at least Miracle doesn't sound cut and pasted. Then again Best Thing gets me tapping along and singing. Miracle never did.

But stick to your script Hollow. Might still be one or two people who haven't read it yet.
 
Jarvio said:
Peace On Earth is good.
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Not a fan myself, grace, wild honey, when I look at the world and peace on earth are the tracks I skip every time.atyclb is an 8 track album for me Beautiful day, stuck, elevation,walk on, kite, in a little while, New York and ground beneath her feet

Going back to the original poster

No tracks skipped on achtung baby, so cruel is probably my least favourite but I still like it

Zooropa I don't skip any, great album

Passengers is total garbage and I never listen to it. Miss Sarajevo is half Decent live when Bono sings the whole song

Pop I skip Miami and the playboy mansion

Done atyclb above

Bomb I skip man and a woman, one step closer and yahew

Nloth I never listen to like breathe,nloth and moment of surrender the rest I don't care for. Magnificent is ok so is crazy tonight. Not that keen on this album

Soi I don't skip a track ,again great album
 
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Just listened to the first half; I turned on my car radio yesterday just after that commercial break, so just missed the Blackout clip. Liked what I heard. Super excited for the album, no lie.
 
Blackout clip sounds solid, I'd push the tempo a bit but you can't have it all. I love Edge's rhythmic/muted harmonic sounding guitar bit in the second half of the verse, such a cool sound. Can't wait to hear the full thing.
 
Hard to say from a short clip, but this is the kind of sound I like having as an album opener. Energetic, pumping; I'd say with the intro it has in the live version it could've worked pretty well. Production reminds me of Zoo Station, though not quite as inspired or "out there".

EDIT: Oh, and yes I know it's not gonna be the opener, just playing with the thought.
 
Dragonfave said:
Try this link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/23vtlvzy3bmpu4x/Track3.mp3?dl=0
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Thanks for the link! Too bad none of the links seems to work on iPhone so I'll wait till I get home tonight and dl on the computer.

Ps: Back to the discussion that TBT is the worst ever song u2 ever made in the last 20 years. I would disagree, Grace for me IS the worst song u2 ever made. Period. That song puts me to sleep lol. And I can think of quite a few other songs worse than the best thing or the new songs we've heard. Again to each their own and I can only really comment on the best thing really since it's the only studio quality one we have. I'll reserve final judgement on ththe other 3 until we hear the album versions BUT they do sound promising. I wouldn't call them the worst ever or garbage, not by a long shot.
 
dabiggestu2fan said:
Thanks for the link! Too bad none of the links seems to work on iPhone so I'll wait till I get home tonight and dl on the computer.

Ps: Back to the discussion that TBT is the worst ever song u2 ever made in the last 20 years. I would disagree, Grace for me IS the worst song u2 ever made. Period. That song puts me to sleep lol. And I can think of quite a few other songs worse than the best thing or the new songs we've heard. Again to each their own and I can only really comment on the best thing really since it's the only studio quality one we have. I'll reserve final judgement on ththe other 3 until we hear the album versions BUT they do sound promising. I wouldn't call them the worst ever or garbage, not by a long shot.
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Oh you just made me so glad I went back to Android. Lol.

With that said, I'm pretty sure you can still download the Dropbox link and it'll still play on your iPhone.
 
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the tourist said:
Seriously. For me The Best Thing is in the top half of the last 25 years. The Blackout's promise probably puts it in my top third.
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I started out not enthused or put off by it, and now I have to hear it every day. It is my 17 year old daughter's favorite song...so much so that she actually joined me last night to drive around for an hour listening to Bill Flanigan's interview with Bono on Volume (Sirrius XM)

I prefer The Little Things, love The Blackout, and get hooked by The Best Thing every time I hear it. And I am not a fan of contemporary pop, for the most part. AB is my favorite U2 album (JT, War ,and Pop hold the close 2-4), and I have not been thrilled with much in the 2000s (half of ATYCLB is good). But I love this song...and I can't understand the over-the-top hatred of it. Usually I can at least follow extreme opinions, but nothing in this song strikes me as worthy of that much hate.

To each their own.
 
What we've heard so far seems to have a very similar production feel and lightfooted approach to the writing. I'm hoping we get a nice collection of songs that sound like they belong on the same album together.
 
Wide Awake n AZ said:
I started out not enthused or put off by it, and now I have to hear it every day. It is my 17 year old daughter's favorite song...so much so that she actually joined me last night to drive around for an hour listening to Bill Flanigan's interview with Bono on Volume (Sirrius XM)

I prefer The Little Things, love The Blackout, and get hooked by The Best Thing every time I hear it. And I am not a fan of contemporary pop, for the most part. AB is my favorite U2 album (JT, War ,and Pop hold the close 2-4), and I have not been thrilled with much in the 2000s (half of ATYCLB is good). But I love this song...and I can't understand the over-the-top hatred of it. Usually I can at least follow extreme opinions, but nothing in this song strikes me as worthy of that much hate.

To each their own.
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I feel the same way about the Best Thing...progression from “wtf is this” to “meh” to “love it”....I honestly don’t get tired of listening to it.
 
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