Shuttlecock XXII: Summer of Laz

[cobl04]

This is the stupidest of all of their e/i setlist decisions. And that's saying a lot.

It categorically isn’t. It’s a good song but there are 10 worse crimes I can think of.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

It categorically isn’t. It’s a good song but there are 10 worse crimes I can think of.

It is. It's the best some on the album and they aren't playing it because they thought it got a bad reaction when they played it to close a show before anyone knew it.

 

[cobl04]

It is not remotely close to the best song on the album.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

It is, though. That's the thing

 

[Joey788]

It’s certainly better than a good portion of the SOE songs they are playing live.

 

[BoMac]

If we’re talking about non-album tracks, I’ve always been a big fan of Stateless. I might be in the minority on that.

 

[lazarus]

At least there's a decent balance between 80s and 90s/00s material on that Top 10.

Aside from the generic Electrical Storm, not much to complain about. I actually prefer Salome to most of the JT and UF b-sides, so it would have been much higher on mine. Where did that wind up placing?

Also, North and South of the River is better than half the tracks on there, and maybe half of Pop. Also a clear Top 10er for me.

And Cobbler is right about Mercy. Is this the song that came closest to actually being on an album? Since it was included in a list of album tracks (from the special edition), and we know Larry suggested its exclusion at the 11th hour?

 

[namkcuR]

At least there's a decent balance between 80s and 90s/00s material on that Top 10.

Aside from the generic Electrical Storm, not much to complain about. I actually prefer Salome to most of the JT and UF b-sides, so it would have been much higher on mine. Where did that wind up placing?

Salome finished at #18.

Also, North and South of the River is better than half the tracks on there, and maybe half of Pop. Also a clear Top 10er for me.

#23.

And Cobbler is right about Mercy. Is this the song that came closest to actually being on an album? Since it was included in a list of album tracks (from the special edition), and we know Larry suggested its exclusion at the 11th hour?

I read that the band wanted Ground Beneath Her Feet to be on ATYCLB, but that the label didn't want it, I think because it had already been promoted with a video and all that when the MDH soundtrack came out.

Also, it was well reported that Eno begged the band to include Winter on NLOTH.

 

[namkcuR]

It is not remotely close to the best song on the album.

It is. It's the one track there that sounds like classic U2.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

It is. It's the one track there that sounds like classic U2.

This.

If one argued that Love Is Bigger was a better won't, I wouldn't put up much of a fight.

But there is zero doubt that the song that has the most U2 "magic" of any on the album is Little Things.

 

[iron yuppie]

The only song from SOE that has at all stuck with me is Summer of Love.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

So you're saying you're a closet One Republic fan?

 

[iron yuppie]

Possibly?

 

[cobl04]

Larry suggested its exclusion at the 11th hour?

Christ, what an asshole.

I read that the band wanted Ground Beneath Her Feet to be on ATYCLB, but that the label didn't want it, I think because it had already been promoted with a video and all that when the MDH soundtrack came out.

I've always considered GBHF to be the closing track of ATYCLB.

It is. It's the one track there that sounds like classic U2.

But there is zero doubt that the song that has the most U2 "magic" of any on the album is Little Things.

Crap.

 

[kabigon]

On ya Larry.

As it stands, the album is three seconds shy of an hour and, as Bono says, “too much of a good thing is a bad thing,” so drastic measures need to be taken. “I have a theory,” Mullen begins, and a reverential silence descends as the drummer — traditionally the first band member to be shouted down in these situations — states his case. After just five minutes, it has been unanimously decided that the track “Mercy,” a six-and-a-half-minute outpouring of U2 at its most uninhibitedly U2-ish, must go. Hence a song that any self-respecting band would be proud to call a single becomes what Bono immediately anoints “the best B-side you’ve ever heard.” Later, another more experimental candidate entitled “Fast Cars” (“an Irish/Mexican vibe”) gets evicted, and the album becomes a lean and lithe 11 tracks.

Pop was 60:09 *insert adolescent snicker here*

For non-album tracks that weren't quite fleshed out before being recorded, I always dug Levitate.

 

[iron yuppie]

Jesus the rhetoric around that whole album cycle was insufferable. "Lean and lithe" is ridiculously off-base.

 

[cobl04]

On ya Larry.



Pop was 60:09 *insert adolescent snicker here*

For non-album tracks that weren't quite fleshed out before being recorded, I always dug Levitate.

Man how fucking frustrating is this to read. One of the band's very, very best songs never gets released.

 

[Axver]

Meanwhile OOTS not only stayed on the album but became a single.

 

[DaveC]

One of the band's very, very best songs

is this based on anything more than the fuzzy barely-audible version from like 2003 and the shitty attempt at a completely redone live version a few years later?

serious question, because that's all i've ever heard of the song and if there isn't anything else then this:

One of the band's very, very best songs

is fucking absurd. but if there's a proper recorded version i'm not aware of then i'm happy to be corrected.

 

[cobl04]

"fuzzy barely-audible" is extremely OTT.

 

[DaveC]

not nearly as OTT as calling mercy "one of the band's very, very best songs".

 

[kabigon]

The original upload had some noticeable tape hiss and may have been been cleaned up a bit by someone, it was a while ago now.

 

[cobl04]

Even with the hiss it's comfortably the best song they've done since Pop.

 

[lazarus]

"fuzzy barely-audible" is extremely OTT.

Yeah. The idea that we got some unfinished demo version is one of the most ridiculous recurring things on this forum.

And considering it was brought to us by a fan off a burned CD or tape, the quality is perfectly fine. Someone may have cleaned it up and uploaded a new version but regardless it sounds very much like it would have appeared on the album in the same form.

As for overrating it, it's in my U2 Top 10. There's more plaintive emotion in Edge's guitar and Bono's singing than almost everything that's come out post-2000. And I think it's the closest they got to Achtung Baby vibes in 25 years.

I don't know what version you heard, Dave, but I wouldn't consider this "barely-audible":

 

[Axver]

Yeah, you don't have to look far for actual albums that sound worse than the studio version of Mercy that we've got.

I'd hardly claim it for my top 30 or anything, but it's definitely right up there for post-Pop U2. Thinking of the live version from 2010 cracks me the fuck up though.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

is this based on anything more than the fuzzy barely-audible version from like 2003 and the shitty attempt at a completely redone live version a few years later?

serious question, because that's all i've ever heard of the song and if there isn't anything else then this:



is fucking absurd. but if there's a proper recorded version i'm not aware of then i'm happy to be corrected.

This guy fucks

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Yeah. The idea that we got some unfinished demo version is one of the most ridiculous recurring things on this forum.

And considering it was brought to us by a fan off a burned CD or tape, the quality is perfectly fine. Someone may have cleaned it up and uploaded a new version but regardless it sounds very much like it would have appeared on the album in the same form.

As for overrating it, it's in my U2 Top 10. There's more plaintive emotion in Edge's guitar and Bono's singing than almost everything that's come out post-2000. And I think it's the closest they got to Achtung Baby vibes in 25 years.

I don't know what version you heard, Dave, but I wouldn't consider this "barely-audible":

lol the guy who made the video called it, in the video that you just posted, a "low quality internet bootleg"

Solid way to make your case there

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

So... Mercy.

It's not inaudible. It's also not a full high quality recording.

It's clearly much further along than a demo. We also don't know for sure that it's the release version.

It came off a copy of the cd that Bono gave to a fan. The way this band operates, nothing is finished until it goes to press. It's PROBABLY a finished product, minus mastering. But there's a chance it was an earlier version that was never intended for release. We don't know for sure.

 

[LemonMelon]

"fuzzy barely-audible" is extremely OTT.

vs

 

[DaveC]

okay, so there's a better-quality version around than the one i heard. i just listened to it again.

there's a case to be made that it's one of their better songs of the last 20 years, sure. i'd even be inclined to agree, if only because its competition for that title is mostly shit.

but one of their "very, very best" ever? lol no.