Shuttlecock XVII - The Best Title That Ever Happened a Thread

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hewson said:
well, that and that mosh pit incident in 1980



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If there was overnight queuing just to buy tickets, there would still be a bunch of list bullshit.
 
I queued for two nights in Montreal to get Vertigo tour tickets in March 2005. I arrived Thursday night, and was the 20th person in line. By the time tickets went on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. there were hundreds of people in line, possibly 1,000. There was no list and everything went smoothly.

Oh and those first 20 people were actually homeless people paid by scalpers, who swooped in to take their place just before 10 a.m. Saturday.

But I didn't care. The Ticketmaster online and phone system crashed and many didn't get tickets that way. When I was next in line to get tickets I noticed on the LED screen that a second show had been added, so I scooped up tickets for both shows while many who stayed at home were shut out.
 
I'm grateful that Sil does so many Mixlr feeds for shows, but... good lord, she's crying at Bono's generic intro speech for Bad and it's bloody hard to listen to.
 
Yep. Add to that atU2, most of the U2 fan twitter accounts and now Bill Flanagan.

Songs of Experience better than Achtung Baby? Get the fuck out of here. I'm happy to hear a positive take on the album and I really hope I do like it, but even if U2 eschewed all pretenses of relevancy and popularity and made an album full of a handful of the more daring types of songs they've made over the past 10 years, it wouldn't be better than Achtung Baby.

That's just really stupid hype that is only going to result in greater disappointment.
 
cobl04 said:
Yep. Add to that atU2, most of the U2 fan twitter accounts and now Bill Flanagan.

Songs of Experience better than Achtung Baby? Get the fuck out of here. I'm happy to hear a positive take on the album and I really hope I do like it, but even if U2 eschewed all pretenses of relevancy and popularity and made an album full of a handful of the more daring types of songs they've made over the past 10 years, it wouldn't be better than Achtung Baby.

That's just really stupid hype that is only going to result in greater disappointment.
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Yeah you definitely can't be fooled by that hype. I don't think anything will ever top that album but the fact that a lot of people are saying a lot of good things has me feeling pretty excited.
 
I'll still go into it with an open mind. I'm not expecting much thanks to their recent track record - didn't like the majority SoI, don't like Ordinary Love or most of Invisible, hate The Best Thing, but I don't want to hate it.

But you'd have to have a screw loose to think that it's going to top Achtung Baby.
 
cobl04 said:
I'll still go into it with an open mind. I'm not expecting much thanks to their recent track record - didn't like the majority SoI, don't like Ordinary Love or most of Invisible, hate The Best Thing, but I don't want to hate it.

But you'd have to have a screw loose to think that it's going to top Achtung Baby.
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I get the feeling this album is going to be a lot more fun to listen to than their last couple.
 
It's the usual "talk up the new album" gibberish that just comes across as foolish. I don't know why Flanagan would bother peddling it. If he'd said best since ATYCLB that'd be fine. But reaching for Achtung is silly, especially when you consider how unbelievably clumsy and naff The Best Thing is by comparison.
 
The guy is older, and has a family just like Bono does. So I'm not surprised a very personal work would have a lot of resonance for him.

But many of us look for more than that in an album, and without all the inventiveness that Achtung Baby contains, I don't know how it can measure up, even if it has great thematic content, and even a bunch of great hooks. Edge seemed to be a little more adventurous and varied in sound with the guitar on the last album so hopefully that continues, but I can't imagine SOE being anywhere the mind-blowing sonic assault seen on AB or taking the instrument as far as it can go on Zooropa and Pop.

Where I'm more willing to trust him is about the album being very coherent and taking you on a journey. Bono even spoke of a 3-song section as being a suite during the interview. Let's hope it at least has that, because "Songs of Innocence", as pointed out here before, doesn't stick to its title theme as consistently as it should. I say this as someone who enjoys the second half a lot (+ California) and thinks the autobiographical writing is great for the most part.
 
It's around 4pm UK time, 11am here so it'd be semi-logical to release any "Hi, erm, look we're really sorry about what Bill Flanagan said but yeaaah it's not as good as AB, however..." update about now as opposed to later on night Friday afternoon in the US when Europe's snoozing.

Mind you there's the old political adage about releasing news on Fridays. :shifty:
 
This date never made sense to me, as they're in the middle of a 4-night stand being filmed for posterity.

Unless they wanted to record a second new song for the show and have it released before they debut it, but wouldn't we have heard rehearsal news already?

Next Friday after the tour is over always made more sense.
 
He said it was the best since The Bomb, then he said best since AB and arguably better.

No one seems to care that him thinking The Bomb was the best since AB is already suspect.
 
lazarus said:
He said it was the best since The Bomb, then he said best since AB and arguably better.

No one seems to care that him thinking The Bomb was the best since AB is already suspect.
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yeah, pretty much this.

we've heard at least two/three songs from this album, which are probably intended to be representative of the collection in general. i don't think too many people have hopes that this will be a classic by any stretch.
 
If Flanagan genuinely feels that way, good for him. At this point, I’ll be happy if SoE is better than Songs of Innocence (which I think is their best since ATYCLB), but I doubt it will eclipse Achtung Baby.
 
I think it’s pretty clear that U2 are well past their prime. Not that they can’t or aren’t capable of writing truly great songs anymore, as there are some real gems out there in the last decade (Troubles, Moment of Surrender, Cedars of Lebanon), but their outlook on making music is definitely incompatible with the kind of greatness that leads to albums like Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby (funny - talk to text interpreted that as “I can maybe”). Current day U2 is too calculated and risk-averse to be the kind of band that would move from Rattle and Hum to Achtung Baby.

So I suppose I haven’t totally lost hope. There’s a chance that they finally embraced their age and stop caring so much about the charts.

OK, a VERY slim chance.
 
lazarus said:
The guy is older, and has a family just like Bono does. So I'm not surprised a very personal work would have a lot of resonance for him.

But many of us look for more than that in an album, and without all the inventiveness that Achtung Baby contains, I don't know how it can measure up, even if it has great thematic content, and even a bunch of great hooks. Edge seemed to be a little more adventurous and varied in sound with the guitar on the last album so hopefully that continues, but I can't imagine SOE being anywhere the mind-blowing sonic assault seen on AB or taking the instrument as far as it can go on Zooropa and Pop.

Where I'm more willing to trust him is about the album being very coherent and taking you on a journey. Bono even spoke of a 3-song section as being a suite during the interview. Let's hope it at least has that, because "Songs of Innocence", as pointed out here before, doesn't stick to its title theme as consistently as it should. I say this as someone who enjoys the second half a lot (+ California) and thinks the autobiographical writing is great for the most part.
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They haven't stuck with the theme with the songs they've already put out. It's not coherent at all.
 
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