ATYCLB is better than HTDAAB.

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I really liked ATYCLB when it was released... but I always felt something was lacking on it. HTDAAB has all that I was seeking - it was the album I hoped ATYCLB would have been. This is not a knock against ATYCLB, but I feel HTDAAB is better. Plus, I feel Bono's vocals are stronger on HTDAAB as is the guitar work.

That said, clearly the two albums work well together, as evidenced in concert.
 
Strictly in the sense of a better "album," I agree that ATYCLB is better then HTDAAB.

I went probaby a year without listening to ATYCLB, but a few months ago I threw it in the cd player again and listened. I'd forgotten just how good it was probably due to how criminally underrated it is on this site. The thing that puts atyclb over htdaab is that, like all good albums, it has a common linkage, theme, atmosphere...ect between the songs. The only one that doesn't really fit with ATYCLB's theme of mortality and back to the basics with the important things is Elevation.

My main criticism of HTDAAB is that it seems to me like simply a collection of songs rather than a cohesive album. I love every single song on the album, but where is the link --thematically and atmospheric-- between the songs? It's just not there. You have the God rocking songs (Yahweh, All Because of You), the innocence/naivity songs (COBL, OOTS), the political songs (LAPOE and Crumbs), the Bobby Hewson songs (Sometimes You can't make it and One Step Closer), then the songs that don't really fit any of these themes in Vertigo, MD and AMAAW. The real problem with HTDAAB is that it simply lacks focus IMO. Like I already said, it seems to me like more of a collection of songs than an album. I think that having so many different producers is the reason why the album isn't that consistent song to song.
 
doctorwho said:
I really liked ATYCLB when it was released... but I always felt something was lacking on it. HTDAAB has all that I was seeking - it was the album I hoped ATYCLB would have been. This is not a knock against ATYCLB, but I feel HTDAAB is better. Plus, I feel Bono's vocals are stronger on HTDAAB as is the guitar work.


I agree with this. While I like much of ATYCLB, I have always felt something lacking, and I listen to it less often than any other U2 album.

I came across a really interesting quote from Daniel Lanois (in the book U2 Show) which I think explains this. He's talking about how the band works, and where. It's in what he calls "the band room" that the band really cooks, where things can really build up and explode into something exciting and unpredicatable.

"The band room is more raucous and tends to provide what we love about U2 in that sense of: okay, you've started up the engines and you're off! You're out to sea and now here comes a wave....That's where Bono will usually say, 'Hold that, keep building it,' and then when it reaches a sort of fever pitch it might inspire him to sing a certain kind of phrase or melody. And those are very, very important compositional moments to U2...."

"That process didn't exist so much on ATYCLB, because the band room means screaming for hours on end for Bono, singing in the upper end of his range. It's very demanding on any voice. On this record he had burned out that part of himself a little bit and didn't want to be screaming all the time....In my opinion, it made for a very different record. I miss the band room's ecstasy."

We all know that Bono had serious problems with his voice before ATYCLB was recorded, even "losing" his voice for several months. Going into the recording sessions, he was clearly not prepared vocally to push himself in the way Lanois describes, to become the creative catalyst, to push the band forward into musical "ecstasy". That's what I feel is missing from ATYCLB. There are some beautifully crafted songs, but, for me, (with the exception of Beautiful Day) they lack the passion and exuberance that I can feel in so many of the HTDAAB songs.
 
ImOuttaControl said:
Strictly in the sense of a better "album," I agree that ATYCLB is better then HTDAAB.

I went probaby a year without listening to ATYCLB, but a few months ago I threw it in the cd player again and listened. I'd forgotten just how good it was probably due to how criminally underrated it is on this site. The thing that puts atyclb over htdaab is that, like all good albums, it has a common linkage, theme, atmosphere...ect between the songs. The only one that doesn't really fit with ATYCLB's theme of mortality and back to the basics with the important things is Elevation.

My main criticism of HTDAAB is that it seems to me like simply a collection of songs rather than a cohesive album. I love every single song on the album, but where is the link --thematically and atmospheric-- between the songs? It's just not there. You have the God rocking songs (Yahweh, All Because of You), the innocence/naivity songs (COBL, OOTS), the political songs (LAPOE and Crumbs), the Bobby Hewson songs (Sometimes You can't make it and One Step Closer), then the songs that don't really fit any of these themes in Vertigo, MD and AMAAW. The real problem with HTDAAB is that it simply lacks focus IMO. Like I already said, it seems to me like more of a collection of songs than an album. I think that having so many different producers is the reason why the album isn't that consistent song to song.

...not that I want to offend you... but it's a total BS.

It is HTDAAB that (as someone - Edge maybe - from the band said) has a theme: from darkness (Vertigo - lights go down, it's dark) to light (Yahweh - dawn, sun-rise...)
While ATYCLB (also words of the band) has no theme at all.
"there's no theme... every song could be a single... they're not connected with eachother... there's no storytelling on this album... blah.. blah..."
Bono even joked that there is a "space" or "air" theme on ATYCLB because in (almost?) every song there are words like: kite, bird, plane...etc.
:rolleyes: ...please...

I'll play jick for a moment: "That may be your opinion... but the band's opinion is diferent... and the band's opinion is the truth here..."
 
bathiu said:


...not that I want to offend you... but it's a total BS.

It is HTDAAB that (as someone - Edge maybe - from the band said) has a theme: from darkness (Vertigo - lights go down, it's dark) to light (Yahweh - dawn, sun-rise...)
While ATYCLB (also words of the band) has no theme at all.
"there's no theme... every song could be a single... they're not connected with eachother... there's no storytelling on this album... blah.. blah..."
Bono even joked that there is a "space" or "air" theme on ATYCLB because in (almost?) every song there are words like: kite, bird, plane...etc.
:rolleyes: ...please...

I'll play jick for a moment: "That may be your opinion... but the band's opinion is diferent... and the band's opinion is the truth here..."

...not that I want to offend you, but I respectfully would have to say that I think your opinion is complete BS. I think I mentioned numerous times in my post the term "in my opinion." Maybe you need to look what that means up in the dictionary?? Nothing that irritates me more when poeple think their opinions are somehow superior.

Anyone who says there are no common themes to ATYCLB must be deaf, 'in my opinion.' :eyebrow: HTDAAB From darkness to light? :rolleyes:..please So you can have the 1st and last song connect, but where's the story in the middle? It isn't there; there are too many ideas with nothing holding them together. All are great songs, but they don't make up a great album in my book.
 
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i just skipped the last couple of pages...WHO (besides me) has actually agreed so far that ATYCLB is better than HTDAAB?
 
Only looking at the first half, I'd agree. ATYCLB has a strong start, but HTDAAB wins because of the second half. I also think Peace on Earth and When I look at the world spoil the optimistic tone of the rest of the album.

I also think HTDAAB has a theme; it's like looking at a diary of Bono's mind.
 
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blahblahblah said:
i just skipped the last couple of pages...WHO (besides me) has actually agreed so far that ATYCLB is better than HTDAAB?

Me and ..........................................
 
ImOuttaControl said:


...not that I want to offend you, but I respectfully would have to say that I think your opinion is complete BS. I think I mentioned numerous times in my post the term "in my opinion." Maybe you need to look what that means up in the dictionary?? Nothing that irritates me more when poeple think their opinions are somehow superior.

Anyone who says there are no common themes to ATYCLB must be deaf, 'in my opinion.' :eyebrow: HTDAAB From darkness to light? :rolleyes:..please So you can have the 1st and last song connect, but where's the story in the middle? It isn't there; there are too many ideas with nothing holding them together. All are great songs, but they don't make up a great album in my book.

Why don't you attack the band for their opinion then?
You're not arguing with me here, but with the band.
All that I said was from various interviews from the band...
Even the order of the song was created for this theme of dark->light.

And BTW there's alot of story on HTDAAB in the middle... all in the "darkness" (theme or literaly "at night") up to the sunrise in Yahweh...
You must be deaf and blind not to notice it...

And: No! ATYCLB has no theme, it's a collection of songs, when you'd rotate the order of songs nothing would change, because there's no theme...
The band even created a false "symbol" (plane) for the album (false because it has nothing to do with the songs) in the videos so people could create a "travel" or "home" theme, wich clearly have nothing to do with the album at all.
 
Everything that I said about ATYCLB... I take that back.

ATYCLB has a theme... it's mid life crisis... with the album itself being a perfect example of it...:p
 
Unlike HTDAAB(who, unlike Rattle and Hum for example, DOES have a story to tell), ATYCLB is not cohesive. The band is not trying. Edge and Adam are invisible. It literally falls apart in the second half. Songs like Wild Honey, Peace on Earth and Grace would be flushed down the toilet, if they were outtakes from The Bomb. That's what I think.
 
i like htdaab better

plus i think the htdaab songs are better live

vertigo, miracle drug, sometimes, lapoe, cobl, aboy, oots, and yahweh are all fantastic live :drool:

there really arent any songs off atyclb im dying to hear in concert
 
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