I still stand by what I said, though. I reckon if they went with Miracle over Invisible thinking that the public are more likely to recognise it they're probably overestimating how the album went down. And it's that far removed from the release of the album now people I think will have forgotten those songs, they didn't have the staying power of a Beautiful Day or a Vertigo. So I really don't think it matters what song they open with. Giving it thought on a level of "Invisible was a non-album track" is going too deep.
On this debate, I think Invisible has as good a profile as anything from SOI. It was released in a blaze of publicity, many people snapped it up for free (its distribution was done the proper way, unlike SOI!), and it got a live performance on American television. Sure, that was over a year ago now, but I doubt it's sank that much further than The Miracle. I'd certainly say it's enjoyed a greater profile than Every Breaking Wave, at least in North America. In Europe EBW got a thrashing on the promo circuit, but beyond there its release as a single was so half-arsed that most people have forgotten it's a single. Look at many people accidentally calling Song for Someone the second single!
Speaking of how the album went down, I was struck by how The Age (one of Australia's most prominent papers, for the rest of you lot) reported that Russian politician's homophobic comments today:
The Age said:
Just when you thought U2's ill-fated album release last year would go down in history as a total failure, comments by a senior Russian politician have won the Irish veterans some belated sympathy over release of Songs of Innocence.
U2 delivered the album to 500 million iTunes accounts last September, leading to anger, criticism and outright mocking – even though the record was free.
U2 iTunes album giveaway was 'gay propaganda': Russian official
Keep in mind The Age is normally friendly to U2, with no particular axe to grind against the band. This is how the album has gone down. I was talking about it with a whole bunch of people at a gig last night, none of whom knew I'm a U2 fan. The invective blew me away, including from people who were proud to have seen U2 back on Lovetown and ZooTV.
This is harsh but honestly I think Vertigo was the last time that U2 had some relevance and positivity in the wider pop culture sphere. NLOTH didn't capture people and neither did this album.
I don't think that's harsh. I'd be surprised if anybody argued they've had any particularly good resonance in popular culture since the mid-2000s.
And no rehearsal news yet today, though I believe Peter was intending to head down so hopefully we'll hear from him soon enough.
