Shuttlecock XIV: Bono the Vampire Slayer

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Buffy and Angel are two of my favorite shows of all time. Is it just me or are the later seasons of those shows (6 & 7 for Buffy, 4 & 5 for Angel) severely underrated?
Never seen Angel so I can't speak to that but of course Buffy seasons 6 and 7 are great. 6 has motherfucking ONCE MORE WITH FEELING and Dark Willow. I still would pick seasons 2, 3, and 5 over it, though.
 
I have a feeling I'm going to be disappointed by the new version of Red Hill Mining Town
 
The first few seasons of Angel are okay, but it got pretty damned awesome in its stride. Great last couple of seasons, too. I should go back and do a rewatch.
 
Precisely.

I tried to point out in The Other Place that the whole reason behind this new version is to familiarize fans with Bono's new "approach" so they aren't shocked when they hear it live, but it's hard to pierce the shell of some of the true believers.
 
It just seems like a really dumb and unnecessary idea to me. Live Pride doesn't sound anything like the album version. Live ISHFWILF hasn't adhered to the album version for years. And neither has Bullet, or a whole host of others. Why re-record RHMT?
 
Precisely.

I tried to point out in The Other Place that the whole reason behind this new version is to familiarize fans with Bono's new "approach" so they aren't shocked when they hear it live, but it's hard to pierce the shell of some of the true believers.



Not saying you're wrong, but you do realize people have been stating this theory since end of last year when rumors of the re-recording first surfaced, right?
 
As far as I know Red Hill Mining Town is being or has already been re-recorded and Bono is hand delivering it to radio in March.
 
It doesn't say much that hasn't been written to death elsewhere, but it does a good job of summing up why the post-Pop era is so frustrating compared to how it could have been.
 
That is a good piece, and positions the album as a conflicted masterpiece without saying it outright. For me, Pop never sounded confused - lyrically at least, it has a thematic coherence they haven't remotely approached since, even when directly trying to do so on SoI.
 
Pop Turns 20 - Stereogum

Quite the deep dive. Well-written.
i like it, though from the moment i bought it, i was firmly in the "pop is awesome" camp. perhaps it was because the year before was when i went from just having achtung baby and zooropa on cassette to deciding i had to slowly spend my money buying all of their stuff on cd, so i'd been able to exhaustively hear everything prior to this and pop was the first new album of theirs i bought. but i've always loved it.

it's not perfect and yes, you can tell it was rushed. but especially in retrospect with how overthought, rife with delays (moreso than pop, i think even its detractors would agree post-90s albums are more calculated and the release dates get pushed back aaaaall the time), and overprocessed their albums after pop are. i know pop has its moments of being overcooked too, but imo even at its most well done, overburnt hockey puck of a steak, it's not as bad as how it is in their later albums.

plus i mean...popmart. such an awesome tour. i may have had nosebleed seats (man i wish i'd done ga, oh well. i was 13 and had never been to a rock concert) but it was still such an amazing experience. plus tbh i'm glad i saw the tour early in its first leg: i got electric sats, even though they did fuck it up and have to start over.

while achtung baby and perhaps even zooropa* were imo their last perfect, classic albums, pop is definitely their last attempt at a classic album. the next two are unlistenable to me. nloth was redeemable but is just very good at points, but there are too many poor songs that drag it down and make it not a classic. soi...i've listened to it maybe a handful of times, didn't even go to the tour. kept meaning to see them and put it off, saying i'd see them on the next leg, then the next. then i realised the tour was over and was like "oh well, not like i wanted to hear the miracle anyway."



*passengers isn't u2 whaaaat
 
Nice thoughts Katie. Pop and Popmart were my first album/tour as well. I love Pop and the lyrics seem to resonate with me a lot more as I've reached my mid 30's. Lots of mid-life crisis/crisis of faith stuff in there.
 
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i like it, though from the moment i bought it, i was firmly in the "pop is awesome" camp. perhaps it was because the year before was when i went from just having achtung baby and zooropa on cassette to deciding i had to slowly spend my money buying all of their stuff on cd, so i'd been able to exhaustively hear everything prior to this and pop was the first new album of theirs i bought. but i've always loved it.

it's not perfect and yes, you can tell it was rushed. but especially in retrospect with how overthought, rife with delays (moreso than pop, i think even its detractors would agree post-90s albums are more calculated and the release dates get pushed back aaaaall the time), and overprocessed their albums after pop are. i know pop has its moments of being overcooked too, but imo even at its most well done, overburnt hockey puck of a steak, it's not as bad as how it is in their later albums.

plus i mean...popmart. such an awesome tour. i may have had nosebleed seats (man i wish i'd done ga, oh well. i was 13 and had never been to a rock concert) but it was still such an amazing experience. plus tbh i'm glad i saw the tour early in its first leg: i got electric sats, even though they did fuck it up and have to start over.

while achtung baby and perhaps even zooropa* were imo their last perfect, classic albums, pop is definitely their last attempt at a classic album. the next two are unlistenable to me. nloth was redeemable but is just very good at points, but there are too many poor songs that drag it down and make it not a classic. soi...i've listened to it maybe a handful of times, didn't even go to the tour. kept meaning to see them and put it off, saying i'd see them on the next leg, then the next. then i realised the tour was over and was like "oh well, not like i wanted to hear the miracle anyway."


All of this. Bottom line, I think we've now learned that "rushed" is relative considering how long the band was recording Pop for, and that running out of time is still preferable to too much time, which is how we get compromised messes like the last two albums.

And I also feel lucky for having seen Miami live, which was fantastic. I was at the final show of the leg (July 2nd at Foxborough/Boston), and when the weather turned bad near the end, the band finished with a cover of the Beatles' Rain. Magical.
 
And I also feel lucky for having seen Miami live, which was fantastic. I was at the final show of the leg (July 2nd at Foxborough/Boston), and when the weather turned bad near the end, the band finished with a cover of the Beatles' Rain. Magical.

I was there too. Did you steal my popcorn?
 
I was at one of the six shows that got "Do You Feel Loved" so I guess that's....something
 
I was there too. Did you steal my popcorn?


Ironically, I left the tour shirt I bought in the bathroom and never saw it again, so I'm going to assume that was you. Bastard.

I also snuck in a tape recorder to bootleg the show but something was wrong with the mic and I barely got anything.
 
Ironically, I left the tour shirt I bought in the bathroom and never saw it again, so I'm going to assume that was you. Bastard.

I also snuck in a tape recorder to bootleg the show but something was wrong with the mic and I barely got anything.

Its a little tight. Why the F would you buy me a medium?

I snuck in a disposable camera (was 3rd row on field on Claycourt's side), remember running back down the aisle to take a pic of the lemon opening up, haven't looked at those pics in ages.
 
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