Shuttlecock XX - Laz Is All You Have Left

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
Status
Not open for further replies.
Does anyone hear The xx in Red Flag Day? Good ol'Pitchfork. :lol:

Other than that, I agree with the sentiment of their review even though I enjoy the album a lot more.
 
So after repeated listens throughout the weekend, the album has marginally improved for me, but not to the level that I can say I really enjoy it. But it’s not the worst thing ever, either.

The Blackout and Little Things are probably my favorites at the moment, although the former would work better on SOI. I also like Lights Of Home but it definitely doesn’t go well where it is - the other version does indeed fit better there.

The middle trio of Summer of Love, Red Flag Day, and The Showman is pleasant enough, and I do like that they sound a bit looser during that stretch, but those tracks feel like they could have been part of a separate EP instead.

Get Out Of Your Own Way and American Soul are awful.

I agree with others that Book Of Your Heart is a good track deserving of a better fate, although Bono’s vocal is too far up in the mix, more so than usual.

The liner notes are cool, and the artwork is great.

At this stage of U2’s career, if we get a couple of good tunes here and there, I’ll take it. At the same time, it’s a bit frustrating because you know they still have it in them to put it all together across an entire album. They just can’t get out of their own way to do it.
 
Pitchfork stole my use of "portmanteau."

Also, the claim that Red Flag Day sounds like the xx and Get Out sounds like Arcade Fire are LOL.
 
Get the feeling most people slagging on Get Out are the same type who really ragged on Crazy Tonight back in those days. Which is perfectly fine of course. I happen to really respond pleasantly to both songs - easy, melodic, pleasant, kind of dumb but catchy stuff.
 
My biggest issue with Get Out of Your Own Way is that musically it is so similar to Beautiful Day. It sounds like when they rip off existing songs for commercials by switching them just enough to avoid legal issues.
 
Pretty disappointed by the quality of the Pitchfork review, where they once again talk more about the band's history and place in 2017 than they do about the actual content. Since they didn't have a review on release day, I thought there would be a little more consideration. Like, maybe reading Bono's liner notes? I didn't see any mention of the album's thematics or the conceit of the songs being letters written to loved ones. That doesn't automatically make it a great album, but if you're going to talk about a band trying too hard to poor results, at least make it clear you know what they were trying for in the first place.

It's also disingenuous to call Red Flag Day an homage to The Xx, when many U2 fans have been drawing a line to War (though perhaps not as strong a line as many here believe). It's certainly reminiscent of their past. Having said all that, 5.3 is a full point higher than SOI and it could have been worse. But I was hoping they'd see through to the level of quality here and embrace the pop music they celebrate so often from younger artists and put it over 6.0. Whatever. The band didn't do themselves any favors in their promotion of the album by pushing its three worst tracks ahead of release. It's enough to sour any reviewer just as forcing an album onto everyone's phones with no warning would.

Conversely, this piece written by some suburban mom is perhaps the best thing I've seen written on the band in years. The writer is a longtime fan who clearly knows her stuff, but she's not some drooling sycophant like you see in...other places. Someone who knows that the band doesn't always put their best foot forward.

Anyway, it's really worth a read:

What No One Else Will Tell You About the New U2 Album
 
Last edited:
corianderstem said:
Pitchfork stole my use of "portmanteau."

Also, the claim that Red Flag Day sounds like the xx and Get Out sounds like Arcade Fire are LOL.
Click to expand...

I don't quite get the xx and Arcade Fire parallels :shrug: I just don't hear that.
 
I'm not going to sit with this album again until Friday, I'm going to three concerts in three nights and then a work conference on Thursday so I probably won't give many thoughts until later.
 
lazarus said:
Pretty disappointed by the quality of the Pitchfork review, where they once again talk more about the band's history and place in 2017 than they do about the actual content. Since they didn't have a review on release day, I thought there would be a little more consideration. Like, maybe reading Bono's liner notes? I didn't see any mention of the album's thematics or the conceit of the songs being letters written to loved ones. That doesn't automatically make it a great album, but if you're going to talk about a band trying too hard to poor results, at least make it clear you know what they were trying for in the first place.

It's also disingenuous to call Red Flag Day an homage to The Xx, when many U2 fans have been drawing a line to War (though perhaps not as strong a line as many here believe). It's certainly reminiscent of their past. Having said all that, 5.3 is a full point higher than SOI and it could have been worse. But I was hoping they'd see through to the level of quality here and embrace the pop music they celebrate so often from younger artists and put it over 6.0. Whatever. The band didn't do themselves any favors in their promotion of the album by pushing its three worst tracks ahead of release. It's enough to sour any reviewer just as forcing an album onto everyone's phones with no warning would.

Conversely, this piece written by some suburban mom is perhaps the best thing I've seen written on the band in years. The writer is a longtime fan who clearly knows her stuff, but she's not some drooling sycophant like you see in...other places. Someone who knows that the band doesn't always put their best foot forward.

Anyway, it's really worth a read:

What No One Else Will Tell You About the New U2 Album
Click to expand...

That was a great read.

Seems like you have a favorable view of the album, hope to read your thoughts soon!
 
That was a good read. Pitchfork's was predictable. Looked like the reviewer was desperately jostling to find a reason to use "inveterately emulous" in his yarn.
 
Be careful what you wish for! I'm going to follow this in the near future with my custom tracklisting, so I won't be talking much about order or placement this time around. Before the deep dive, I'll preface this by saying I either like or love 13 of the 14 new tracks, which is a welcome surprise. So what follows might seem really negative at first glance, but I'm very much on the positive side regarding SOE.

This is perhaps the hardest U2 album for me to review and parcel out. There's a lot going on, both in terms of content and the various producers and musicians involved, and its issues are more complicated than on previous releases. As Bono once referred to Pop, I'd call it "a mixed-up kid of a record", despite its conceptual nature. So forgive the partial career overview as the context is important to the critique.

For many of us more discerning listeners (and I do mean the people who have frequented this thread series for years), there is a long-waged struggle between the band we want U2 to be, and the band they are, or have chosen to be. Those things are sometimes more unified, and sometimes seem diametrically opposed, even within the same album. Ultimately, one has to evaluate the recordings only after coming to terms with the general path they've taken, or you're just subjecting yourself to perpetual frustration and bitterness.

Personally, I didn't want them to spend "more time writing and less time recording", but I can acknowledge ATYCLB as a well-crafted set of pop songs. That they don't breathe very much or go in measurable interesting directions is what makes it subpar for my taste. Was the album a success? Hard to say it wasn't by their yardstick.

With The Bomb, things opened up a bit more, the main focus this time around was getting back to some rock and roll roots. There's an increase in energy, but once again there's not much sonic ambition, and what you're left with is a collection of a well-crafted set of pop(-rock) songs, often harkening back to earlier incarnations of the band. Was the album a success? A handful of relative hits and a long-coveted second AOTY Grammy says yes. Is this the album I was looking for? Not really, but it's the post-1990s album I have the least issues with, aside from leaving off the session' two best tracks. I can play it straight through no problem as released.

No Line was initially a promising idea, the band finally seeming interested in returning to expansive, atmospheric material again, and Bono attempting some new directions lyrically as well. Somewhere down the line, second-guessing occurred, and there's a major fracture in the unity and cohesiveness of the finished album. It's nearly impossible for most of us to reconcile "the middle three" with what surrounds it, regardless of how we may enjoy some of those individual ill-fitting tracks. For the first time, for me at least, it became impossible to listen a U2 album straight through as intended. I couldn't take it at face value because the band didn't do so themselves. So while it contains some of the band's best and most adventurous late work, it also set the stage for some unfortunate tendencies.

A similar thing happened on SOI, where an exciting new collaboration with a talented and creative younger producer was contaminated by bringing in even younger hands to mess with the material after years of recording sessions. More long delays, and an album that struggles to hold together despite the lyrical focus. What does make it an easier listen than its predecessor is that the album seems split it half by its pop and more creative halves rather than a giant pothole in the middle; one endures the sweet candy to get to the more enriching medicine that follows.

SOE is another animal altogether. The returning presence of Ryan Tedder (now joined throughout by one of his OneRepublic bandmates) isn't exactly a welcome one, but he can't solely be blamed for this album's problems, as he's also responsible for co-producing some of its best tracks. And because this isn't masquerading as a rock album (aside from the choice of brash singles) but rather proudly displaying its pop sensibilities throughout, it doesn't seem as compromised from a sonic perspective--unlike SOI, Tedder was part of the team early on as opposed to being called in for unnecessary damage control.

A common complaint I've seen from fans this time around are that some of the new songs end too soon and/or too abruptly. It's an unexpected new problem to have, and it's hard to pinpoint where the blame lies. Did Tedder encourage them to keep things concise? Jacknife Lee? It's odd to start an album with a spacy, atmospheric prologue (their most indirect, searching opener since Zooropa), but then be unable or unwilling to let others continue to more fitting, satisfying conclusions. Sometimes they do, in the case of Little Things's extended outro or the concluding sing-along of Lights of Home. But there are clear missed opportunities.

For a lot of fans desperate for new, pleasurable material, these flaws will be easily overlooked. And they are relatively minor, rather preventing some already-impressive songs from being next-level fantastic as opposed to crippling the entire piece. These choices are just perplexing considering how almost all of SOI's tracks were allowed to reach their more appropriate conclusions (even if The Troubles could have used a longer fade-out).

While I don't find the album to be aesthetically schizophrenic, it's still troubling to see so many hands on deck. There's simply no excuse to use that many producers, even if you miraculously manage to get something that still holds together fairly well. One wonders what an album headed by just Jolyon Thomas and/or Andy Barlow would have sounded like, but I doubt we'll get the chance. It's especially troubling on an album where Edge really seems to be coasting or fading into the background. That's not to say that there isn't variety to the sounds on the album, but I'm not hearing many interesting guitar parts. It's fine if they want to make less of a capital-R rock album (American Soul being the main exception), but considering how much energy he seemed to be putting into making himself distinctly heard on SOI (Raised By Wolves, Iris, The Miracle, Volcano, Reach Around, Cedarwood, even Song For Someone's acoustic melody), his contributions on SOE don't stand out as much. And I don't want to bury the lede here, but there are credits for "additional guitars" on 9 of the 14 new tracks, from Thomas, Lee, Tedder, and OneRepublic's Brent Kutzle. Even if Bono can't play guitar anymore, there's no reason that Edge shouldn't be laying down the majority of the overdubs. And then you have "additional keyboards" credits on EVERY track, from all of the above people plus Declan Gaffey and Barlow (but not Bono). I don't know how anyone can say this isn't disconcerting, regardless of how much you like the album.

I've tried to make these observations as objective as possible before saying how I actually FEEL about this album. I've given it a lot of spins already, in the car, on the home stereo, and on headphones. And I'm tempted to say that even without messing around with the tracklist, it may be their strongest overall work since Pop. Unfortunately, I still don't think it's an album I'm likely to listen to straight through as officially released. There are only three album tracks by the band that are on my "always-skip" shitlist. Two of those songs are Crazy Tonight and Stand Up Comedy. The other is Get Out Of Your Own Way. It may not stick out sonically like a sore thumb relative to its album like those No Line songs do (and actually fits with the pop directive), but it's offensive in other ways. I can accept a song written to Bono's daughters as a call to action. And the sloganeering and platitudes combined with Bono's overstuffed verbiage on the verses isn't something new. But when you combine it with the desperate and lazy use of Beautiful Day's heartbeat/electronic drum pad thing as well as the "ahh ahh ahh" nonsense, it's basically irredeemable. Making it even worse is that the band has chosen it to represent their return in these promo appearances. I stand with Cobbler in saying this is probably the biggest piece of shit the band has ever perpetrated on a proper album.

There are two other songs which I won't say I merely tolerate, but actually enjoy with slight reservations. Best Thing is undeniable catchy, even if it's the last kind of thing I want to hear the band doing. But the "breakdown" at 2:45 before Edge's sung bridge is one of the most plastic, shallow pieces of music they've ever put down. It sounds like something you'd hear on some manufactured pop star's hit. Appallingly, this isn't even one of the songs where anyone besides Edge plays guitar! Luckily this section is brief. American Soul has some dumb lyrical choices, but as a straightforward rocker, it has
more going on than ABOY, isn't as frankensteined or awkward as Stand Up Comedy, and isn't overpolished like The Miracle. It's not as perfectly executed as Vertigo either, but it has a welcome energy. I do prefer the more distinct War-vibe and surface pleasures of its relative Volcano, however.

With those criticisms out of the way, I find the rest of the songs varying degrees of intoxicating. The aforementioned final section of Lights of Home is maybe the closest the band will come to Hey Jude's rousing second half, bravo to Haim for the inspiration and participation. The trio of Summer of Love, Red Flag Day, and The Showman have been rightfully singled out, all with distinct vibes and great contributions from everyone in (and out of) the band. The former shows yet another shade on the band's palette, continuing to explore different moods and sounds. Whereas Pitchfork wants to criticize the blend of the personal and political on this and Red Flag Day, I think it's admirable that Bono doesn't merely look at these war-torn refugees simply as victims to be pitied, but humanizes them with these half-love songs. They aren't just escaping, they're looking for better lives with their families. And it helps us tie the political section of the album back into the personal material. Before the album's release I saw a lot of mentions of Red Flag sounding like War, and I expected something more muscular akin to Raised By Wolves or Volcano. What I found was something even more welcome, like post-punk with a heavy dose of reggae/island groove. Easily an early favorite. And then you have The Showman, which I'll go out on a limb and say has maybe the catchiest chorus the band has ever put down. I can't call it "dumb" just because it's playful (I love the casual group chatter you can hear in the background at the end), and the self-deprecation here sounds much more natural than the forced approach on Stand Up Comedy. Perhaps a lot of people don't want U2 going in this organic, retro pop direction, but I don't know how it can be done any better than this. It should have been the second single, and hopefully isn't treated as a throwaway and forgotten like the similar but less gleeful Wild Honey. A melody like that is a gift from above. Tedder, Kunzel, Lee, and Lillywhite deserve high praise for the production on all three of these songs, they sound just perfect.

The Little Things isn't a surprising standout for many, it captures the driving power of the band when they open up and shoot skyward. Bono's confessional lyrics are some of his darkest and most doubting. Having said that, there is a bit of been-there, done-that to the second half, though I wouldn't go so far as to say Edge is on auto-pilot as there's clearly some feeling there. At the risk of bringing up the "controversial" Mercy, this is cut from a similar cloth, and I prefer the older song. I think its classic-U2 guitar work is more distinct and fitting to the material, whereas here it sounds liberating on a song that doesn't seem to reflect that feeling with its lyrical content.

Landlady is something that could have been terribly saccharine and cringey based on its subject matter. But Edge's subtle texture and shading compliments Bono's conversational, detailed thoughts on the verses. This is one of his great late vocal performances, alternating between tender restraint and a powerful wail on "the stars up there" that legitimately gave me Sinatra vibes. Well-modulated sentiment on this beautiful track. It ends a little too abruptly for my taste, considering the emotion involved and what Edge is doing, he should have had a little more room there.

After the first couple listens of The Blackout, I was ready to ditch it for the "live" version, the only new song pre-release that I was really excited about. I miss the larger (and louder) presence of Edge, the abrasive first sounds reminiscent of Zoo Station teasing something it mostly backs away from. The rhythm section is great regardless; the studio version accentuates the groove and has some other nice details. But I'm also really missing Larry's cymbal work on the "go easy on me" section from the live take as well as the modern punctuation at the end of the verse lines to go along with the bass. This album version is growing on me but I haven't yet decided what's going to make the cut.

Here's where a lot of people around here seem to be getting off the boat. If you can't stomach a big, shameless pop kiss on the mouth, you'll likely roll your eyes into the back of your head at the sounds of Love Is Bigger, especially the vocoded "oh oh ohs" that open and close it (which to me would have been worse if they featured an untreated Bono). I go for this one in a big way, and if there are similarities to Coldplay, what that band doesn't have is a major vocal talent and personality pushing the song past the lightweight and anemic with its power and conviction. That you can tell how personal it is and how it acts as a summation for the album's themes doesn't hurt, either. And the chorus of voices at the end (which to these ears seems to have some women or kids involved but mysteriously only Jacknife is credited with additional vocals) builds to an unforgettable crescendo. Tragically, when it reaches its peak, and stops for what sounds like a breakdown before a reprise, it just ends. I feel robbed every time I hear it, but I guess that's a testament to what a great pop confection this is. As the penultimate track, it really deserved another 30 seconds of SOMETHING before cutting out.

I never minded Song For Someone outside of its generic, obnoxious solo and Bono's "yeah yeah yeah" idiocy because of its lovely guitar melody and the full-bodied chorus. Again, not what I'd prefer the band to be doing, but as a pop song about losing your virginity I've heard far worse. It's not something I needed to hear revisited on the following album. But there's something about the sober delicacy in which Bono lays out his closing thoughts that I feel is pretty moving, and the plaintive, delicate piano from either Edge or Paul Epworth is nicely contrasted by some muted siren wails in the background on the "if there is a light" pre-choruses, which could either be a guitar or keyboard. I think this also works well as a bookend to the similarly downbeat opener. The addition of "someone like me" to the recycled refrain is nice, addressing the idea of things passed on from parents to children, as well as the old notion of "the child is father to the man".

Book of Your Heart isn't as glaring an omission as Crystal Ballroom, Mercy, or Fast Cars, but it's certainly album worthy, not just because of the subject matter about marriage, but because Edge does some of his most notable work of all the new songs in the second half, as him and Bono both give this a bit of Latin flavor and melodrama. It's an interesting mixture with the pulsating electronic foundation, but it works.

So there's a lot of promising developments and some others that leave me wary. If this is the end of a cycle before another course change on a potential final album, its fine with me. I'm not sure how much further they can go down this particular road with this many rotating collaborators. I guess it depends on how much it sells, if it receives award recognition, how well the songs go over live. I'll be missing a U2 tour for the first time since I've been a fan (ZooTV being my initial live experience with them), but I'm ok with that as three of the songs sure to be in the setlist aren't ones I care to hear, and I can bet they'll skip a few of my favorites. I'll be able to feed on what this album has to offer (in some altered form) for quite a while, I think.

Thanks for reading to those of you who were able to stay awake.
 
lazarus said:
Be careful what you wish for! I'm going to follow this in the near future with my custom tracklisting, so I won't be talking much about order or placement this time around. Before the deep dive, I'll preface this by saying I either like or love 13 of the 14 new tracks, which is a welcome surprise. So what follows might seem really negative at first glance, but I'm very much on the positive side regarding SOE.

This is perhaps the hardest U2 album for me to review and parcel out. There's a lot going on, both in terms of content and the various producers and musicians involved, and its issues are more complicated than on previous releases. As Bono once referred to Pop, I'd call it "a mixed-up kid of a record", despite its conceptual nature. So forgive the partial career overview as the context is important to the critique.

For many of us more discerning listeners (and I do mean the people who have frequented this thread series for years), there is a long-waged struggle between the band we want U2 to be, and the band they are, or have chosen to be. Those things are sometimes more unified, and sometimes seem diametrically opposed, even within the same album. Ultimately, one has to evaluate the recordings only after coming to terms with the general path they've taken, or you're just subjecting yourself to perpetual frustration and bitterness.

Personally, I didn't want them to spend "more time writing and less time recording", but I can acknowledge ATYCLB as a well-crafted set of pop songs. That they don't breathe very much or go in measurable interesting directions is what makes it subpar for my taste. Was the album a success? Hard to say it wasn't by their yardstick.

With The Bomb, things opened up a bit more, the main focus this time around was getting back to some rock and roll roots. There's an increase in energy, but once again there's not much sonic ambition, and what you're left with is a collection of a well-crafted set of pop(-rock) songs, often harkening back to earlier incarnations of the band. Was the album a success? A handful of relative hits and a long-coveted second AOTY Grammy says yes. Is this the album I was looking for? Not really, but it's the post-1990s album I have the least issues with, aside from leaving off the session' two best tracks. I can play it straight through no problem as released.

No Line was initially a promising idea, the band finally seeming interested in returning to expansive, atmospheric material again, and Bono attempting some new directions lyrically as well. Somewhere down the line, second-guessing occurred, and there's a major fracture in the unity and cohesiveness of the finished album. It's nearly impossible for most of us to reconcile "the middle three" with what surrounds it, regardless of how we may enjoy some of those individual ill-fitting tracks. For the first time, for me at least, it became impossible to listen a U2 album straight through as intended. I couldn't take it at face value because the band didn't do so themselves. So while it contains some of the band's best and most adventurous late work, it also set the stage for some unfortunate tendencies.

A similar thing happened on SOI, where an exciting new collaboration with a talented and creative younger producer was contaminated by bringing in even younger hands to mess with the material after years of recording sessions. More long delays, and an album that struggles to hold together despite the lyrical focus. What does make it an easier listen than its predecessor is that the album seems split it half by its pop and more creative halves rather than a giant pothole in the middle; one endures the sweet candy to get to the more enriching medicine that follows.

SOE is another animal altogether. The returning presence of Ryan Tedder (now joined throughout by one of his OneRepublic bandmates) isn't exactly a welcome one, but he can't solely be blamed for this album's problems, as he's also responsible for co-producing some of its best tracks. And because this isn't masquerading as a rock album (aside from the choice of brash singles) but rather proudly displaying its pop sensibilities throughout, it doesn't seem as compromised from a sonic perspective--unlike SOI, Tedder was part of the team early on as opposed to being called in for unnecessary damage control.

A common complaint I've seen from fans this time around are that some of the new songs end too soon and/or too abruptly. It's an unexpected new problem to have, and it's hard to pinpoint where the blame lies. Did Tedder encourage them to keep things concise? Jacknife Lee? It's odd to start an album with a spacy, atmospheric prologue (their most indirect, searching opener since Zooropa), but then be unable or unwilling to let others continue to more fitting, satisfying conclusions. Sometimes they do, in the case of Little Things's extended outro or the concluding sing-along of Lights of Home. But there are clear missed opportunities.

For a lot of fans desperate for new, pleasurable material, these flaws will be easily overlooked. And they are relatively minor, rather preventing some already-impressive songs from being next-level fantastic as opposed to crippling the entire piece. These choices are just perplexing considering how almost all of SOI's tracks were allowed to reach their more appropriate conclusions (even if The Troubles could have used a longer fade-out).

While I don't find the album to be aesthetically schizophrenic, it's still troubling to see so many hands on deck. There's simply no excuse to use that many producers, even if you miraculously manage to get something that still holds together fairly well. One wonders what an album headed by just Jolyon Thomas and/or Andy Barlow would have sounded like, but I doubt we'll get the chance. It's especially troubling on an album where Edge really seems to be coasting or fading into the background. That's not to say that there isn't variety to the sounds on the album, but I'm not hearing many interesting guitar parts. It's fine if they want to make less of a capital-R rock album (American Soul being the main exception), but considering how much energy he seemed to be putting into making himself distinctly heard on SOI (Raised By Wolves, Iris, The Miracle, Volcano, Reach Around, Cedarwood, even Song For Someone's acoustic melody), his contributions on SOE don't stand out as much. And I don't want to bury the lede here, but there are credits for "additional guitars" on 9 of the 14 new tracks, from Thomas, Lee, Tedder, and OneRepublic's Brent Kutzle. Even if Bono can't play guitar anymore, there's no reason that Edge shouldn't be laying down the majority of the overdubs. And then you have "additional keyboards" credits on EVERY track, from all of the above people plus Declan Gaffey and Barlow (but not Bono). I don't know how anyone can say this isn't disconcerting, regardless of how much you like the album.

I've tried to make these observations as objective as possible before saying how I actually FEEL about this album. I've given it a lot of spins already, in the car, on the home stereo, and on headphones. And I'm tempted to say that even without messing around with the tracklist, it may be their strongest overall work since Pop. Unfortunately, I still don't think it's an album I'm likely to listen to straight through as officially released. There are only three album tracks by the band that are on my "always-skip" shitlist. Two of those songs are Crazy Tonight and Stand Up Comedy. The other is Get Out Of Your Own Way. It may not stick out sonically like a sore thumb relative to its album like those No Line songs do (and actually fits with the pop directive), but it's offensive in other ways. I can accept a song written to Bono's daughters as a call to action. And the sloganeering and platitudes combined with Bono's overstuffed verbiage on the verses isn't something new. But when you combine it with the desperate and lazy use of Beautiful Day's heartbeat/electronic drum pad thing as well as the "ahh ahh ahh" nonsense, it's basically irredeemable. Making it even worse is that the band has chosen it to represent their return in these promo appearances. I stand with Cobbler in saying this is probably the biggest piece of shit the band has ever perpetrated on a proper album.

There are two other songs which I won't say I merely tolerate, but actually enjoy with slight reservations. Best Thing is undeniable catchy, even if it's the last kind of thing I want to hear the band doing. But the "breakdown" at 2:45 before Edge's sung bridge is one of the most plastic, shallow pieces of music they've ever put down. It sounds like something you'd hear on some manufactured pop star's hit. Appallingly, this isn't even one of the songs where anyone besides Edge plays guitar! Luckily this section is brief. American Soul has some dumb lyrical choices, but as a straightforward rocker, it has
more going on than ABOY, isn't as frankensteined or awkward as Stand Up Comedy, and isn't overpolished like The Miracle. It's not as perfectly executed as Vertigo either, but it has a welcome energy. I do prefer the more distinct War-vibe and surface pleasures of its relative Volcano, however.

With those criticisms out of the way, I find the rest of the songs varying degrees of intoxicating. The aforementioned final section of Lights of Home is maybe the closest the band will come to Hey Jude's rousing second half, bravo to Haim for the inspiration and participation. The trio of Summer of Love, Red Flag Day, and The Showman have been rightfully singled out, all with distinct vibes and great contributions from everyone in (and out of) the band. The former shows yet another shade on the band's palette, continuing to explore different moods and sounds. Whereas Pitchfork wants to criticize the blend of the personal and political on this and Red Flag Day, I think it's admirable that Bono doesn't merely look at these war-torn refugees simply as victims to be pitied, but humanizes them with these half-love songs. They aren't just escaping, they're looking for better lives with their families. And it helps us tie the political section of the album back into the personal material. Before the album's release I saw a lot of mentions of Red Flag sounding like War, and I expected something more muscular akin to Raised By Wolves or Volcano. What I found was something even more welcome, like post-punk with a heavy dose of reggae/island groove. Easily an early favorite. And then you have The Showman, which I'll go out on a limb and say has maybe the catchiest chorus the band has ever put down. I can't call it "dumb" just because it's playful (I love the casual group chatter you can hear in the background at the end), and the self-deprecation here sounds much more natural than the forced approach on Stand Up Comedy. Perhaps a lot of people don't want U2 going in this organic, retro pop direction, but I don't know how it can be done any better than this. It should have been the second single, and hopefully isn't treated as a throwaway and forgotten like the similar but less gleeful Wild Honey. A melody like that is a gift from above. Tedder, Kunzel, Lee, and Lillywhite deserve high praise for the production on all three of these songs, they sound just perfect.

The Little Things isn't a surprising standout for many, it captures the driving power of the band when they open up and shoot skyward. Bono's confessional lyrics are some of his darkest and most doubting. Having said that, there is a bit of been-there, done-that to the second half, though I wouldn't go so far as to say Edge is on auto-pilot as there's clearly some feeling there. At the risk of bringing up the "controversial" Mercy, this is cut from a similar cloth, and I prefer the older song. I think its classic-U2 guitar work is more distinct and fitting to the material, whereas here it sounds liberating on a song that doesn't seem to reflect that feeling with its lyrical content.

Landlady is something that could have been terribly saccharine and cringey based on its subject matter. But Edge's subtle texture and shading compliments Bono's conversational, detailed thoughts on the verses. This is one of his great late vocal performances, alternating between tender restraint and a powerful wail on "the stars up there" that legitimately gave me Sinatra vibes. Well-modulated sentiment on this beautiful track. It ends a little too abruptly for my taste, considering the emotion involved and what Edge is doing, he should have had a little more room there.

After the first couple listens of The Blackout, I was ready to ditch it for the "live" version, the only new song pre-release that I was really excited about. I miss the larger (and louder) presence of Edge, the abrasive first sounds reminiscent of Zoo Station teasing something it mostly backs away from. The rhythm section is great regardless; the studio version accentuates the groove and has some other nice details. But I'm also really missing Larry's cymbal work on the "go easy on me" section from the live take as well as the modern punctuation at the end of the verse lines to go along with the bass. This album version is growing on me but I haven't yet decided what's going to make the cut.

Here's where a lot of people around here seem to be getting off the boat. If you can't stomach a big, shameless pop kiss on the mouth, you'll likely roll your eyes into the back of your head at the sounds of Love Is Bigger, especially the vocoded "oh oh ohs" that open and close it (which to me would have been worse if they featured an untreated Bono). I go for this one in a big way, and if there are similarities to Coldplay, what that band doesn't have is a major vocal talent and personality pushing the song past the lightweight and anemic with its power and conviction. That you can tell how personal it is and how it acts as a summation for the album's themes doesn't hurt, either. And the chorus of voices at the end (which to these ears seems to have some women or kids involved but mysteriously only Jacknife is credited with additional vocals) builds to an unforgettable crescendo. Tragically, when it reaches its peak, and stops for what sounds like a breakdown before a reprise, it just ends. I feel robbed every time I hear it, but I guess that's a testament to what a great pop confection this is. As the penultimate track, it really deserved another 30 seconds of SOMETHING before cutting out.

I never minded Song For Someone outside of its generic, obnoxious solo and Bono's "yeah yeah yeah" idiocy because of its lovely guitar melody and the full-bodied chorus. Again, not what I'd prefer the band to be doing, but as a pop song about losing your virginity I've heard far worse. It's not something I needed to hear revisited on the following album. But there's something about the sober delicacy in which Bono lays out his closing thoughts that I feel is pretty moving, and the plaintive, delicate piano from either Edge or Paul Epworth is nicely contrasted by some muted siren wails in the background on the "if there is a light" pre-choruses, which could either be a guitar or keyboard. I think this also works well as a bookend to the similarly downbeat opener. The addition of "someone like me" to the recycled refrain is nice, addressing the idea of things passed on from parents to children, as well as the old notion of "the child is father to the man".

Book of Your Heart isn't as glaring an omission as Crystal Ballroom, Mercy, or Fast Cars, but it's certainly album worthy, not just because of the subject matter about marriage, but because Edge does some of his most notable work of all the new songs in the second half, as him and Bono both give this a bit of Latin flavor and melodrama. It's an interesting mixture with the pulsating electronic foundation, but it works.

So there's a lot of promising developments and some others that leave me wary. If this is the end of a cycle before another course change on a potential final album, its fine with me. I'm not sure how much further they can go down this particular road with this many rotating collaborators. I guess it depends on how much it sells, if it receives award recognition, how well the songs go over live. I'll be missing a U2 tour for the first time since I've been a fan (ZooTV being my initial live experience with them), but I'm ok with that as three of the songs sure to be in the setlist aren't ones I care to hear, and I can bet they'll skip a few of my favorites. I'll be able to feed on what this album has to offer (in some altered form) for quite a while, I think.

Thanks for reading to those of you who were able to stay awake.
Click to expand...



How do you like the album?
 
Great write-up! I was adding a lot of mental "YES"es to many of your points.

After the first few listens, I was surprised to be reminded of how many producers were on this album. It didn't feel like an album of multiple producers like SOI, so at least it has a more consistent feel to me. Will be curious to see the liner notes ... if Amazon will ever even ship out my goddamned deluxe CDs.
 
This is a bit random, but I listened to Zooropa straight through for LN7's survey the other day, and as I was listening to Lemon and being reminded of how great it is(I gave it a 10), I was also reminded of how the one thing I always thought maybe could've been better about it is if the different parts of it had been arranged a little differently. There's no clearly defined chorus or bridge or anything, or any consistency to the way things are ordered. It's a bit haphazard imo.

Now, to be sure, there's a valid argument to be made that that's part of it's charm, that it doesn't need a more traditional structure. But I wanted to try my hand at it in Audacity. What I aimed to do was kind of like what the band did with the single mix of IGWSHA, just a simple re-arrangement. They kind of did this themselves with Lemon with the single edit, but that still wasn't quite there, mostly because it was a radio edit so it was two minutes shorter than the album version. By contrast, mine is actually a litter longer.

So what I did was basically add an extra 'midnight' refrain after 'holding on to nothing', and moved all of the 'a man does this a man does that' stuff to after the second midnight refrain(after 'drifting out to her') for use as a middle 8/bridge, and then after that it's unchanged. I also re-purposed a stray 'see through in the sunlight' lyric from later on in the song to make the second verse a bit longer. Anyway...

Here is the link if you'd like to give it a listen: https://www.mediafire.com/file/aswc7df4wce3zcv/Lemon(Rearranged)_m4a

This was just something I'd tried my hand at and wanted to share.

I'll put a lyrical representation of what I did in a spoiler tag if you're interested.

V1
Lemon, see-through in the sunlight.
She wore lemon, see-through in the daylight.
She's gonna make you cry, she's gonna make you whisper and moan.
When you're dry she draws water from a stone.

Pre-chorus
I feel like I'm slowly, slowly, slowly slippin' under.
I feel like I'm holding on to nothing.

Chorus(This is added, they did this is in the single edit too)
Midnight is where the day begins.
Midnight is where the day begins.

V2
Lemon, see-through in the sunlight.(this was a stray line originally right before 'a man builds a city' that I moved here to make the second verse longer)
She wore lemon to colour in the cold grey night.
She had heaven and she held on so tight.

Pre-Chorus
And I feel like I'm drifting, drifting, drifting from the shore.
And I feel like I'm swimming out to her.

Chorus
Midnight is where the day begins.
Midnight is where the day begins.

Middle 8 (both of these sections together)
A man makes a picture, a moving picture
through the light projected, he can see himself up close.
A man captures colour, a man likes to stare.
He turns his money into light to look for her.

A man builds a city, with banks and cathedrals.
A man melts the sand so he can see the world outside.
A man makes a car, and builds a road to run (them) on.
A man dreams of leaving, but he always stays behind.

You're gonna meet her there
She's your destination
You gotta get to her
She's imagination

Pre-Chorus
And these are the days when our work has come asunder.
And these are the days when we look for something other.

Chorus x2
Midnight is where the day begins.
Midnight is where the day begins.
Midnight is where the day begins.
Midnight is where the day begins.

Outro
A man makes a picture, a moving picture;
Through light projected, he can see himself up close.
A man captures colour, a man likes to stare.
He turns his money into light to look for her.

Gotta meet her there
She's your destination
There's no sleeping there
She's imagination

She is the dreamer, she's imagination.
Through the light projected, he can see himself up close.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

C
Hello from the Twin Cities!
Replies
3
Views
777
trevgreg
trevgreg
Janet H
  • Sticky
Forum Update - We're back! Ask your questions here.
2
Replies
36
Views
2K
Popmartijn
Popmartijn
MrsSpringsteen
Gilead States Of America
Replies
16
Views
865
MrsSpringsteen
MrsSpringsteen
S
"Red Zone"
Replies
4
Views
3K
Racerke
R
Headache in a Suitcase
  • Locked
  • Sticky
Reminder - Forum Downtime for Software Update Begins January 23, 2024.
Replies
0
Views
266
Headache in a Suitcase
Headache in a Suitcase

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom