Shuttlecock XVII - The Best Title That Ever Happened a Thread

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Clunkiest assortment of song titles I've ever seen.

"Love is Bigger Than Anything In It's Way" - What an awkward mouthful. Can't be arsed with that.

Hope that the song is the best song they've ever written.
 
cobl04 said:
I am barely containing my laughter at work. What an absolute clusterfuck. But I've gotta thank them for giving me some laughs. Couldn't just leave it as "The Showman", it has to include a second, infinitely worse title in brackets. Three songs with vapid noun-preposition-noun titles. Five titles with at least six words. Three songs with the word 'love'. Two songs that lead off with the word 'love'. Several songs with titles that are needlessly wordy. One title featuring a phrase used in a single from the previous album. A remix with a stupid title that no one asked for.

I know everyone's gonna get shitty about me being so negative, but god, if we can't have a laugh...
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Yeah, I try hard not to dwell on this kind of thing, but I can't imagine an artist looking at all these listed together and not thinking to himself "Gee, this looks kind of dumb".

Not only two song titles that begin with "Love" (and a third with "love" elsewhere in the title) as you said, but also two that end in "Way" and a third in "Away". Like, come on.

With that griping out of the way, I'm a little surprised to see The Blackout so far into the album, considering how catchy it is. Best Thing early on at #3 is as expected, though for the second album in a row the band has put a more upbeat song in the frequent "ballad" slot (WOWY, One, Sometimes, MOS). I guess that means Lights of Home is a slower track, as with Stuck and EBW? Because we already know Get Out isn't a ballad from the video shoot sample we heard.

Also should be noted that the Haim and Kendrick guest spots are both in the first five tracks, trying to bolster that youth cred early on.
 
cobl04 said:
I am barely containing my laughter at work. What an absolute clusterfuck. But I've gotta thank them for giving me some laughs. Couldn't just leave it as "The Showman", it has to include a second, infinitely worse title in brackets. Three songs with vapid noun-preposition-noun titles. Five titles with at least six words. Three songs with the word 'love'. Two songs that lead off with the word 'love'. Several songs with titles that are needlessly wordy. One title featuring a phrase used in a single from the previous album. A remix with a stupid title that no one asked for.

I know everyone's gonna get shitty about me being so negative, but god, if we can't have a laugh...
Click to expand...

I don't know how anyone who likes Sufjan Stevens as much as you do can complain about stupid and overly long song titles...
 
At least Sufjan's lyrics have literary/geographic references to give them depth. He writes for characters, so the song titles are often part of the storytelling.

Get Out of Your Own Way? Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way? Summer of Love? You're the Best Thing About Me? Sounds like David Crosby and Mike Love made an album together.
 
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There's at least some self-awareness in Sufjan's long and weird titles. I can't say the same about Shuttlecock. The new titles sound like Bono looked at a word cloud of U2 lyrics post-2000 and picked the most repeated terms.
 
I just don't know how you look at those titles and don't wonder how you could ever say them aloud without looking like a gormless idiot.

"Yeah man my favourite song of the year is Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way."

Oh get fucked.
 
Axver said:
I just don't know how you look at those titles and don't wonder how you could ever say them aloud without looking like a gormless idiot.

"Yeah man my favourite song of the year is Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way."

Oh get fucked.
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Well in that case it must be really embarrassing to admit to liking Pride (In The Name Of Love) in front of your friends.
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
I think if you're predisposed to thinking that the songs are going to suck, you have a bigger problem with the clunky song titles.

Are they long, clunky titles? Absolutely. Have they always had long, clunky titles? Absolutely.

Bananas (Up The Arse)
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Eh, I really do think the long and clunky titles have become much worse in recent years.

People like to cite Where the Streets Have No Name, but the alternative, Streets, is kind of bland and the title itself manages to look kind of iconic. ISHFWILF is more shit, yeah. But it's not as utterly trite and empty or needless as Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way or Get Out of Your Own Way or Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of.

mikal said:
Well in that case it must be really embarrassing to admit to liking Pride (In The Name Of Love) in front of your friends.
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I own a copy of UF that just calls it Pride. :tongue:

Though, true fact: when I was eleven, a friend of mine mocked me repeatedly for liking a song with the chorus of "what more in the name of love".
 
Pride is at least easy to condense into a single syllable.
 
Back in the day a lot of the long titled songs came out in the middle of their "post-modern irony" AB/ZOO TV/POP phase, so one might look at a title like - Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World or Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car etc and go "okay so that's U2 being all post-modern irony, nice...", same with some of the silly throwaway lyrics on the three records (and Passsengers).

However now and since 2000, you know when they went back into deep sincerity/soundbyte's r us "America is an idea", "Three bad albums and.." mode, they often get it in the neck for these longish and awkward titles that make such daft acronymns plus the often clunky wordplay gets far more critique than say some of the perceived dodgy lines in Babyface, Playboy Mansion, Lady With The Spinning Head or Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses did...
 
patternshirt170 said:
Back in the day a lot of the long titled songs came out in the middle of their "post-modern irony" AB/ZOO TV/POP phase, so one might look at a title like - Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World or Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car etc and go "okay so that's U2 being all post-modern irony, nice...", same with some of the silly throwaway lyrics on the three records (and Passsengers).

However now and since 2000, you know when they went back into deep sincerity/soundbyte's r us "America is an idea", "Three bad albums and.." mode, they often get it in the neck for these longish and awkward titles that make such daft acronymns plus the often clunky wordplay gets far more critique than say some of the perceived dodgy lines in Babyface, Playboy Mansion, Lady With The Spinning Head or Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses did...
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A) who gives a crap about acronyms
B) what?
 
If there is one good line on a post-2000s U2 song, there are ten good lines on a 90s U2 song. Just because the latter era isn't complete perfection from start to finish on that front, that doesn't mean it wasn't head and shoulders above what we're getting now.

"The thing you're defending isn't perfect, so the thing I'm defending is better" (aka B-BUT HILLARY) is a reasoning I see on the internet all the time and it comes up when defending new Bono lyrics too.
 
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Oh man, I hope they bring back Drunk Chicken for Songs of Ascent next. That's what we've all been waiting for.
 
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elevated_u2_fan said:
Apparently @U2 is claiming that 13 (There Is A Light) is some sort of reworking of SFS with different lyrics or something? If that is true its completely indefensible and I've got nothing for that.
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What’s the difference between this and Morning Bell? Or even No Cars Go? (To name examples that immediately come to mind)
 
elevated_u2_fan said:
Apparently @U2 is claiming that 13 (There Is A Light) is some sort of reworking of SFS with different lyrics or something? If that is true its completely indefensible and I've got nothing for that.
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Edge; "Hey, let's rework our most bland and boring song from the last album and put it on the new album."

Bono: "Sure, less lyrics for me to think up."

Larry: "Just slow the tempo a bit, my back hurts."

Adam:" I'm going to have a banana."
 
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