Shuttlecock XIII - Super Deluxe Edition with T-Shirt

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Today I was in a Mexican restaurant for lunch and they're cranking Spanish pop songs over their system. I started to hum along with one song and couldn't put my finger on how the hell I knew it until the outro melody. It was Walk On in Spanish, but as soon as the "all that you..." outro came on I knew what it was, it reminded me how solid of a song it is.

There was a Spanish cover of Tainted Love played as well :)


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

Would the Spanish cover of "Spanish Eyes" be "English Eyes"?
 
I may have positioned myself as one of UF's biggest fanboys, but these days I'm starting to think that maybe Boy is my #1 U2 album.

But will that make me even more of a contrarian? Being a contrarian isn't cool any more, and we all know that I dislike One just to be cool.



:up:

My rankings would probably go something along the lines of...
-Top Tier
1 - Achtung Baby
2a - Boy
2b- The Unforgettable Fire
2c - The Joshua Tree
2d - Zooropa
-2nd Tier
6 - Pop
7a - War
7b - Original Soundtracks 1
7c - October
-3rd tier
10 - NLOTH
11 - Rattle & Hum
12 - ATYCLB
13 - SOI
-Worst easily
14 - Bomb
 
:up:

My rankings would probably go something along the lines of...
-Top Tier
1 - Achtung Baby
2a - Boy
2b- The Unforgettable Fire
2c - The Joshua Tree
2d - Zooropa
-2nd Tier
6 - Pop
7a - War
7b - Original Soundtracks 1

You named my top 8, just in a different order.

1. Zooropa
2. The Joshua Tree
3. Pop
4. Achtung Baby
5. Boy
6. War
7. OS1
8. The Unforgettable Fire

And these are all the U2 albums I still listen to with some frequency.
 
1. Achtung Baby
2. Joshua Tree
3. Zooropa
4. The Unforgettable Fire
5. Boy
6. Pop
7. War/Passengers TIE
8. Rattle And Hum
9. Songs Of Innocence
10. October
11. All That You Can't Leave Behind
12. No Line On The Horizon
13. How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb

Or something like that. Achtung is always #1, 2-8 can fluctuate, Bomb is always in last place.
 
This game again.

1. The Unforgettable Fire
2. Boy
3. The Joshua Tree
4. Passengers
5. October
6. Pop
7. Achtung Baby
8. Zooropa
9. War
10. Rattle and Hum
11.SOI
12. NLOTH
13. HTDAAB
14. ATYCLB

Honestly, my ranking of 5 to 8 is very even. You could just about consider them a four-way tie for fifth. So don't read too much into Zooropa being eighth.

But 1-4 and 9-14 are much more firm. Like I say, I'm increasingly tempted to swap UF and Boy, and whether HTDAAB or ATYCLB comes last is a bit of a toss-up, but the rest is fixed.
 
Haven't done a ranking in a while.

01 - Achtung Baby
02 - The Joshua Tree
03 - Zooropa
04 - All That You Can't Leave Behind
05 - Pop
06 - The Unforgettable Fire
07 - Songs of Innocence
08 - No Line on the Horizon
09 - Rattle and Hum
10 - War
11 - Boy
12 - How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
13 - October
 
1. Achtung
2. J. Tree
3. POP
4. TUF
5. Zooropa
6. War
7. Rattle and Hum
8. ATYCLB
9. Boy
10. HTDAAB
11. October
12. Songs of Innocence
13. NLOTH
 
I'm starting to form the view that some of the tendencies that have crippled latter-day U2 - the second guessing, the fear - were already there in nascent form in the POP period. And I am of the view that whatever the band say, we should be glad they had no longer to work on it. Maybe it wasn't 'finished' but it would have only gotten worse with another six months to tinker, I think. What little is out there of the work when it was in embryonic form suggests to me they had plenty of juice, plenty of inspiration, but they were maybe already starting to lose their sixth sense. So what I'm saying is, it's a good thing that it came out a little raw and imperfect.

I actually think another six months or a year might have led them to scrap much of what they did and push more in a Staring At The Sun direction. Remember this was the high water mark of Oasis, whom Bono for whatever reason strongly related to (well, I know the reason, they wanted to be massive, they were populist in instinct, and the UK press hated them). Now it's quite a good song, but it's also a fair early warning of where they were to head in future, with the classic/traditional song structures, the 'perfect pop song' ethos and so on, and the taming of their more unpredictable tendencies.
 
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Jesus, we've turned into The Other Place.

1. Achtung Birdie
2. The Nashua Tourn
--These two are pretty set in stone.

3. Cockropa
4. Poppycock
--I always wrestle with these two, they're very, very close.

5. Whore
6. Shuttle & Bum
--I've really grown to love the former more in the last year or so.

7. How To Manhandle an Atomic Serve
8. Original Poundcocks One
9. No Net On The Horizon
10. Sons of Illegitimacy
--I think Atomic Serve gets the edge here because of what I feel is its consistency. It doesn't reach the heights of No Net or SOI (unless we're including Mercy), but it also doesn't have gut-wrenching misfires along the lines of Cock Crazy and Stand Up Referee. And I put No Net above SOI because it has a much better opening run. Both finish strong but having a lackluster start really hurts the latter. Cockengers is an experiment I respect more than I enjoy (or listen to), but it's damned consistent and ranks higher because of the sheer nerve behind it.

11. The Unforgettable Liar
12. BallBoy
13. All That You Can't Leave Courtside
14. Cocktober
--Likely my most controversial rankings. I admire the initial Eno/Lanois collaboration for its new sounds/direction, but the number of standout songs just aren't there for me. A Sort of Cock Coming is an all-timer and the whole first side is extremely impressive, but side two usually bores me to tears, including the far inferior studio version of Bad(minton). I guess I was persuaded pretty quickly today to re-rank the debut a little higher than ATYCLC, I just needed some reminding. Cocktober is just weak as fuck outside of a handful of tracks. Just doesn't add enough to their palette from the first album, and it lacks the power of Whore. So there.
 
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To claim that Bomb is superior to both UF and Passengers is one of the more astonishing things I've ever seen you say here.

But hey, live and let live.


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1. Achtung Baby
2. War
3. The Joshua Tree
4. Boy
5. The Unforgettable Fire
6. Pop
7. October
8. Zooropa
9. Rattle and Hum
10. Bomb
11. SOI
12. ATYCLB
13. NLOTH

Something like that today.
 
To claim that Bomb is superior to both UF and Passengers is one of the more astonishing things I've ever seen you say here.

But hey, live and let live.


I've always been consistent in my defense of The Bomb. As I said above, it's the songs. I won't argue with people who take issue with the production and the lack of experimentation, but I just think it has too many solid tunes to deny. And TUF has always been divisive to an extent.

It's also the only 21st century Shuttlecock album that doesn't have track order issues, IMO.
 
It's also the only 21st century Shuttlecock album that doesn't have track order issues, IMO.


Couldn't disagree more. It's neck and neck with NLOTH as their worst track order IMO.
City of Blinding Lights should have been the opener, no question about it IMO. MD at #2? Dreadful.
This is the track order that I made a couple years ago. I haven't listened to it in long time, but this is what I have on my phone, so I assume it's the best one I made.
1 - COBL
2 - Vertigo
3 - Fast Cars (Jacknife Mix)
4 - A Man and a Woman
5 - Mercy
6 - One Step Closer
7 - Sometimes....
8 - Miracle Drug
9 - Crumbs
10 - OOTS (single version)
11 - All Because of You (Alt version)
12 - Yahweh (alt version)
 
Do you guys remember when Bomb was coming out, and they were saying that Sometimes was their new Streets and stuff like that? I wonder if they really believed that.
 
I don't remember where I read it. Someone asked Edge, "do you think you are still able to write songs as magical as Where the Streets Have No Name?" And his response was that he thought Sometimes reached that same pinnacle of songwriting.
 
Couldn't disagree more. It's neck and neck with NLOTH as their worst track order IMO.
City of Blinding Lights should have been the opener, no question about it IMO. MD at #2? Dreadful.
This is the track order that I made a couple years ago. I haven't listened to it in long time, but this is what I have on my phone, so I assume it's the best one I made.
1 - COBL
2 - Vertigo
3 - Fast Cars (Jacknife Mix)
4 - A Man and a Woman
5 - Mercy
6 - One Step Closer
7 - Sometimes....
8 - Miracle Drug
9 - Crumbs
10 - OOTS (single version)
11 - All Because of You (Alt version)
12 - Yahweh (alt version)

I think COBL would make a great opener...for ATYCLB. If The Bomb was meant to be a rawer, more direct affair, the atmospherics and buildup of COBL is all wrong for the album. It doesn't even sound like anything else on there. For what the album was supposed to be (Bono's quote "This is our first album"), Vertigo is a burst of energy that fits perfectly.

Miracle Drug has a mellow beginning and downbeat verses, but the chorus is pretty rousing so I don't have a problem with its #2 slot.
 
HTDAAB should have been a rock album and Lillywhite screwed it up. Mercy, One Step Closer, Smile and Sometimes should have been the extent of the album's ballads. Songs like Miracle Drug, Original of the Species (yuck) and Yahweh drag the pacing down too much and aren't overly great to begin with. The album is too sappy and depressing for what it could have been.

1. Native Son or Vertigo, don't really care
2. Xanax and Wine
3. Are You Gonna Wait Forever
4. Sometimes
5. COBL
6. ABOY (original)
7. Crumbs
8. One Step Closer
9. Smile
10. Mercy

Lean and trim, 10 tracks at 40-45 minutes, no ludicrous overproduction.
 
HTDAAB should have been a rock album and Lillywhite screwed it up. Mercy, One Step Closer, Smile and Sometimes should have been the extent of the album's ballads. Songs like Miracle Drug, Original of the Species (yuck) and Yahweh drag the pacing down too much and aren't overly great to begin with. The album is too sappy and depressing for what it could have been.

1. Native Son or Vertigo, don't really care
2. Xanax and Wine
3. Are You Gonna Wait Forever
4. Sometimes
5. COBL
6. ABOY (original)
7. Crumbs
8. One Step Closer
9. Smile
10. Mercy

Lean and trim, 10 tracks at 40-45 minutes, no ludicrous overproduction.

You dropped AMAAW :sad:
 
I'm attempting to construct a playlist that stays true to what the original 2003 Bomb might have sounded like. Obviously, we don't have all the pieces, so we can't do it 100%. But with what we've got, here are the guidelines I've set for myself:

1. The only songs I can cut altogether are the ones that weren't conceived until after the 2003 album was shelved - I believe these are Crumbs and Miracle Drug. U2 By U2 states pretty clearly that Crumbs was conceived later. It doesn't say this about Miracle Drug, but I swear I've seen people here say that. Correct me if I'm wrong.

2. I use all six of the '2003' tracks from Unreleased & Rare(Native Son, Xanax And Wine, Smile, and the three alt versions).

3. I insert Mercy, as well as Are You Gonna Wait Forever, though I'm not sure if the latter was actually around early enough for the 2003 album. Tell me if I'm wrong.

4. I use the album versions of all other tracks(LAPOE, COBL, AMMAW, OSC, OOTS) because those are the earliest versions we have. What can you do?

Result:

1. Native Son
2. Are You Gonna Wait Forever
3. Smile
4. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own(Unreleased And Rare Version)
5. Love And Peace Or Else
6. City Of Blinding Lights
7. Yahweh(Unreleased And Rare Version)
---
8. All Because Of You(Unreleased And Rare Version)
9. Xanax And Wine
10. A Man And A Woman
11. Original Of The Species
12. Mercy
13. One Step Closer

Now, that's 13 tracks, and given the band's history, it seems extremely unlikely they would've put out a 13-track album, so I guess at least one of these tracks wasn't on the 2003 album. My guess is Are You Gonna Wait Forever or Smile. But there's probably no way to know.

I'd be very much interested in hearing the 2003 album in full should the band ever decide to let us have it.
 
Wow, I really didn't expect laz of all people to defend HTDAAB's atrocious sequencing. Miracle Drug at #2 is one of the worst tracklisting decisions U2 have ever made. They could have at least gone Vertigo/ABOY to open.

As for namkcuR's hypothetical 2003 album, much as I like the idea of getting Mercy, AYGWF, and especially Smile onto the album, the alternative versions of SYCMIOYO, Yahweh, and ABOY are somehow worse than those that got released.
 
Wow, I really didn't expect laz of all people to defend HTDAAB's atrocious sequencing. Miracle Drug at #2 is one of the worst tracklisting decisions U2 have ever made. They could have at least gone Vertigo/ABOY to open.

As for namkcuR's hypothetical 2003 album, much as I like the idea of getting Mercy, AYGWF, and especially Smile onto the album, the alternative versions of SYCMIOYO, Yahweh, and ABOY are somehow worse than those that got released.

I agree that Vertigo->MD was just not a good transition at all, the latter killed all the momentum built by the former.

And I disagree about the alt versions. For me, Yahweh's alt version is definitely better, a little less polished, plus I like the double vocal on it.

For Sometimes, neither version is better per se, it's just they're doing two different things. The alt version is almost more of an old-time pop song, like something a standards singer might sing, while for the album version they polished it up and made it into a modern pop song with a hook for radio(and it's you when I look in the mirror...). Plus Bono's vocal in the alt version is a little more ragged and almost drives the emotional core of the song better.

For ABOY, it can really go either way. The album version is catchier, but I've always also felt that there's something stale about the album version. Plus, the alt version, I feel, goes with Native Son and Xanax And Wine better.
 
Yahweh should have been recorded acoustically IMO, but this band has been terrible at acoustics since Bono gave up trying to be a decent guitarist. So that may have been even more of a disaster.
 
The timeline in the special edition book for Bomb shows Mercy as being the last recorded, so it wouldn't belong on a 2003 sessions only version/

The Native Son/Xanax and Wine faction on this forum is one of the most blockheaded for sure. Fast Cars is one of their best from that decade.
 
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