I'm a staunch SOI defender, so I've got to chime in here.
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.
I think 'joke of an album' is harsh. At least there's nothing as problematic as the NLOTH middle 3, and at least Bono is trying to say something real in his lyrics and isn't just putting down a bunch of kneels and feels and souls and whatever.
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.
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.
Wow, three haters in a row for the best song on the album. That punky dance beat is something they haven't done in a while, and it's a perfect tribute to the musical scope and conscience of The Clash.
And would have opened the album if it wasn't for the release strategy, according to Bono. An absolute shame. It deserved its day on stage, too.
I'm with Laz and Lance. It's a good track, containing some of the more interesting sounds U2 have created in a while. It sounds like it could've been one of the less aggressive tracks on War, alongside Seconds and Surrender. And I agree that it would make a good opener. That guitar riff at the beginning is really warm, smooth, and inviting; it's always sounded to me like a guitar riff that could've been on In Rainbows.
I actually like Reach Around well enough, but I don't like the "this is the time, this is the season" part. It bothers me for some reason. Maybe contrived? I dunno. overall I don't think the song is remarkable, it's good tho. Anyways the songs I keep going back to are Iris, RBW, SLABT, Troubles...and yeah, EBW and SFS. I actually like those two songs quite a lot.
That's actually one of my favorite parts of the song. I think changing it up there at the end was a good move to keep it from becoming too repetitive.
Really don't know how any longtime fan can complain that much about an album that has such non-traditional U2 songs like Troubles, Sleep, Reach Around, and Wolves. That's only four songs, and the album has some weak, lazy material as well, but go listen to Bridges to Babylon (also approx. 35 years into the artist's recording career) and tell me if you hear anything interesting or worth keeping, you know, aside from the song k.d. lang successfully sued them for plagiarism on.
It's frustrating because we know U2 has the talent and ideas to make a more consistent/less compromised album, but considering how big they are (not a solo, niche artist like Bowie), getting anything outside the box is gravy.
You know I've loved this record from day one, so it should come as no surprise that I agree with you. In fact, I may rate it even a little higher than you.
Iris: been-there, done-that TUF sounds on the verses with some truly embarrassing WOO-WOO asssistance on the chorus from Chris Martin. The lyric is nice, but as has been said here before, Lemon and Mofo are far better songs about Bono's mom.
The less said about SFS and EBW the better, but both are basic as fuck. Impassioned vocals aren't enough alone to do it for me.
Well, here we disagree. I like Iris a lot. As you said, the lyric is very good, and while the sounds in the verses may not be exactly new for them, I think those verses are executed very well, and I love hearing that lower register that Bono almost never uses anymore. As for the chorus, I've never minded it nearly as much as you and others. Yeah, it's saccharine, yeah, it's maybe a little OTT, but you know, I think it's appropriate for the sentiment he was writing about. Yes, I'd take Lemon and Mofo over it, but I think it's still a solid and heartfelt track.
Also, I just learned something new - I never knew the woo-woos were Martin.
EBW may not be in the top half of the record, but it's still catchy, and was maybe the one I had stuck in my head the most when the album was new. But we've had differing opinions on this. I find things to like in both the album and slow/acoustic/live versions, while I believe you've cited that over-production issues kill the former for you and that the latter puts you to sleep. In either case, I find 'if you go/your way and I go mine/are we so/helpless against the tide' to be one of their most effective pop hooks in years. Different strokes.
Tomorrow is the two year anniversary of SOI's release, and I still think it's the best record they've put out since Pop(and that's not an uncommon opinion among some critics outside of here), and I'll keep defending it.
As an aside, I'd like to once again tout the greatness of The Crystal Ballroom and state my disbelief that they kept what would've been one of the best three or four tracks on the record off of it.
I'll finish this post with a custom running order I just put together, dropping SFS and adding back in The Crystal Ballroom and Invisible, and not having the poppy stuff open the record.
1. This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now
2. Invisible
3. Every Breaking Wave
4. California
5. The Miracle
6. Volcano
7. Raised By Wolves
8. Cedarwood Road
9. Sleep Like A Baby Tonight
10. Iris
11. The Crystal Ballroom
12. The Troubles
Coming immediately after the NLOTH middle 3, it's perhaps never been clearer that the band are torn against themselves, wishing to serve certain artistic impulses while simultaneously being desperate to remain relevant, whatever that means to them.
