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Back when I posted in The Other Place, I was merciless to the "insiders." I hated their "I know something you don't know" attitudes. I was a total bitch about it, but they were so fucking coy.


Sent from my iPad using U2 Interference
 
namkcuR said:
I don't know what he meant, but like I said, I took it to mean in terms of public perception. Like, what the casual U2 fan would think of when you say 'classic u2 albums'. Joshua, Achtung, ATYCLB. Of course in here, most of us would put UF and Zooropa and Pop and probably Boy and War ahead of it, but that's us, not the casual listener.
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The Bomb sold almost as well, and if you factor in increasing piracy I'm sure it's pretty close to even. 3.3 million vs. 4.4 million in the U.S., and 10 million vs. 12 million worldwide. Considering that Steel Wheels (also 24 years after their respective first album) only did 2x platinum in the U.S., an impressive number.

Plus, The Bomb won the Grammy for Album of the Year, which, like it or not, is going to give it a level of posterity when people look back at that list. Four of its songs won Grammy and one was a bonafide hit single.

bobsaget77 said:
Prediction: U2 will back out the iHeart show this week.
Watch it happen.
Meltdown will ensue.
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If they're not actually putting out an album this year, I hope they do pull out. I definitely don't want them playing some dinosaur act show.


Axver said:
Not clear on the classic/great distinction myself, but I'd say U2's last great song is Gone and last great album is Passengers.
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I know you're not a big fan of the recent albums themselves, but you don't think they've had a single great song in almost 20 years? Even more mystifying that you waste so much of your life here. I simply don't get it.
 
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lazarus said:
I know you're not a big fan of the recent albums themselves, but you don't think they've had a single great song in almost 20 years? Even more mystifying that you waste so much of your life here. I simply don't get it.
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There's been a bunch of good songs, but nothing I'd quite call great. Maybe there are a couple I'd call great if I'm feeling generous. But I'm not today.

I don't know what's particularly surprising about somebody being on a forum for a band that produced 20 years of music they love and where they've established a bunch of friendships, though. Hell, since I mainly just hang around in FYM and the subforums of LS, I sometimes barely even notice this is a U2 forum.
 
U2 has released their new single "Staring at the Sun", hoping the public doesn't remember the first time it was released.
 
Bono would need to find a more awkward word than intransigence
 
Axver said:
There's been a bunch of good songs, but nothing I'd quite call great. Maybe there are a couple I'd call great if I'm feeling generous. But I'm not today.

I don't know what's particularly surprising about somebody being on a forum for a band that produced 20 years of music they love and where they've established a bunch of friendships, though. Hell, since I mainly just hang around in FYM and the subforums of LS, I sometimes barely even notice this is a U2 forum.
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exactly. other than once a month or two at most when i'm reeeeeal bored and venture into the other place, the only time i ever talk about u2 is in this thread. i mean shit, i've probably listened to maybe a couple dozen u2 songs total all year. i barely give a fuck about them anymore, certainly not far above other bands like i used to, and haven't really for about 8 years. i come here more for the general discussion (FYM and LS) with people i actually (relatively) know and who's opinions i respect even if i disagree, because i know they are for the most part well reasoned, and where that person is coming from, rather me than going somewhere that's an anonymous echo chamber or a million-person circlejerk and shouting into the hurricane.

i much prefer our few-dozen-sized circlejerk, thank you very much. i like having some minor sense of knowing who the people i'm talking to are and a general sense of their tastes. it's great for asking opinions and generating useful discussions above and beyond "wuts ur fav u2 song lol mine iz gt on yr buuts!11!!" a thousand times over. i've found new music, tv shows, movies, sports, and art that i never would have found if not for the general section of this forum.
 
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Yeah, I definitely come here more for actual U2 discussion than the other place, though that forum occasionally offers some great comedy. I mostly lurk there and post here.

As for the band itself, U2 is still my favorite by far and I am always excited by any new music or tour info. I thought SOI had some great, fresh sounds that I still enjoy, like the entire backhalf of the album. I've just learned to temper my expectations from the height of my fandom. It helps that there's more than enough fantastic music from other artists. I would like a U2 album this year, but I certainly don't need one. This year's given me more than enough incredible music.
 
So there's no album until 2017. Okay, doesn't mean we won't get a single this fall. That could have been the plan all along, to push the new single at iHeart, even though album might not be out until a few months later.

Or late 2017, because U2.
 
Just to put things in perspective, weren't there reports in 2014, even just weeks before SOI dropped, that there wasn't going to be a new album until 2015? I could be remembering that wrong, but I feel like it happened.
 
My distinction between great and classic is that classic would be a masterpiece and great would be something that's pretty good. In other words, "California" is the only pretty good song to me from U2's recent batch of recordings while "City of Blinding Lights" (and some other Bomb tracks) happens to be the last time I felt they put out a perfect song.
 
In that case...

Last masterpiece: The Joshua Tree (I may be willing to call Passengers great, but I won't go so far as to call it a masterpiece)
Last pretty good album: Pop
I would describe every album from Boy to Pop as pretty good at the barest minimum, with the exception of Rattle And Hum. It would have been pretty good if it were a coherent studio affair.

Last perfect song: Gone
Last pretty good song: Cedarwood Road, and I can also see a case for The Troubles
 
Last masterpiece: Zooropa (Pop is borderline, a couple of tracks keep it from that level)
Last pretty good album: NLOTH

Last perfect song: Moment of Surrender
Last pretty good song: Raised by Wolves

When I write it out like that, things don't seem so bleak in the world of U2.
 
I once had a dream in which Tony Soprano and his nephew Christopher were discussing something of great importance on a park bench. At some point they caught Paul Giamatti listening in from behind some bushes and gave chase, intending to presumably whack him or beat the crap out of him. The soundtrack to this dream of mine was 'Slug'.
 
elevated_u2_fan said:
That new album thread is tiring, how can the album be delayed if there was never a release date in the first place?
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I'd say it is delayed, whether or not there was a release date, given that when the IE Tour was announced in December 2014, Bono promised SOE would be forthcoming very soon as part of the official statement. Yes, yes, Bono lies, but the fact they actually did this officially and gave it a name and tied it into the tour made it sound like they were serious about a quick turnaround this time, unlike the teases after ATYCLB, HTDAAB, and NLOTH. They made all the appropriate noises that it was very close. So to announce something in 2014 and not put it out until 2017 definitely reeks of delays/things going wrong/perfectionism/too many cooks, or however you want to allocate blame.

I don't mind though. They pumped out nearly twenty years of brilliant music from the start of their career. I'm perfectly content with that. They're not topping the list of bands from whom I'd love a new album, put it that way.
 
It's a damn shame all the interesting stuff was buried in the back end of Songs of Innocence. I can't think of it as anything but a sort of joke of an album, but there are maybe three songs near the end that are legitimately solid U2. But they're buried so deep, it's like they're ashamed. Also three songs isn't anything to write home about.
 
Controversial opinion time: Reach Around is literally the most forgettable song U2 have ever recorded. I don't mean that it's bad, not at all. That's the problem. It has no qualities that stand out to me positively or negatively. Last.fm reckons I've played it twelve times and I cannot tell you a single thing about it, except that thanks to some wanker over in the Other Place I know that it has a prominent "soldier, soldier" lyric. The song goes straight in one ear and out the other for me. Every other song I could tell you something meaningful about how it sounds.

Though in my head it's accompanied by a video of a silhouette of Bono dancing around like an idiot with a new iPhone.
 
Axver said:
Controversial opinion time: Reach Around is literally the most forgettable song U2 have ever recorded. I don't mean that it's bad, not at all. That's the problem. It has no qualities that stand out to me positively or negatively. Last.fm reckons I've played it twelve times and I cannot tell you a single thing about it, except that thanks to some wanker over in the Other Place I know that it has a prominent "soldier, soldier" lyric. The song goes straight in one ear and out the other for me. Every other song I could tell you something meaningful about how it sounds.

Though in my head it's accompanied by a video of a silhouette of Bono dancing around like an idiot with a new iPhone.
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I'm not too far off from this opinion myself. It's in one out the other for me also.

Although Stranger In A Strange Land is my truly "jesus wtf is this doing on an album" song from them. And FBB ;)
 
Reach Around - if we're calling it that now - is not high on my list of anything. It's so self-referential that you'd have to be pretty invested to hop on board. Musically it's quite good, but it's asking too much of me vis a vis the U2 biography (if anything I end up sympathising with the old man).

My 'interesting' songs off of Songs of Innocence are Raised by Wolves, Sleep Like A Baby etc, and The Troubles. That's it.
 
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