Best Album Survivor: Round Eleven

[The Sad Punk]

It's coz it's Joshua tree and trees are like a natural piece of land like a mountain is

 

[lazarus]

Seems silly to me to be sequencing for vinyl rather than CDs in 1991, especially when you're aiming to release a bold album looking forwards into the nineties. Might as well embrace the medium on the ascendancy, the medium that was clearly going to be the dominant form of releasing music in that decade. It's not like it was 1984 or even 1987 and sequencing for vinyl still made sense.

But then U2 love to talk about embracing the future and rarely do much about it, e.g. Bono's blather about embracing the digital era, taking advantage of the Internet to distribute their music, concerts, etc., and then doing almost nothing about their web presence at all.

It wasn't just vinyl but mainly cassettes that are the issue here. And I think if you research the sales figures, you'll see that CDs were not outselling that format yet at this point. Didn't happen until well into 1992. So when they're making these decisions (probably summer of 1991) there's a legitimate reason for sequencing in that fashion.

I got a CD player in 1988 (the first year CDs outsold vinyl) and I was one of the first among my friends to have one. The transition wasn't as quick as you think.

 

[bonocomet]

Yeah it took me a LONG time to switch to CD, especially if you were older because you already had a VAST record collection by that point, and it was daunting to think of making the switch, and possibly replacing a collection that had been growing since the sixties. I held out for the longest time, and never did replace even a fraction of my vinyl.

A totally separate A and B side to albums was still what most people of U2's age group felt. It was just the way it was, the way our brains were wired, lol. And I agree with the fact that no matter how much U2 like to talk about their forward thinking, they are very much set in the world of making their records the way their brains are wired to do it.

 

[gvox]

You mean you have climbed the highest mountains?

Not to mention ran thru some fields!

 

[Nick66]

CD's started outselling vinyl in 1988; by the time Achtung Baby came out, it was already well on its way to being the dominant format, and that record was originally recorded, mixed, mastered and sequenced for CD.

This is part of the reason, BTW, that the older U2 records needed remastered more so than AB; they were originally mastered for a different format.

 

[bonocomet]

That still doesn't change what I said above. In the end, I think U2 are responsible for the order that the songs appear on their albums, and back then, I think they still were feeling the pull of the vinyl gravity that shaped their minds. (I think the track list order of the songs on AB kind of proves that.)

 

[mikal]

That still doesn't change what I said above. In the end, I think U2 are responsible for the order of the songs appear on their albums, and back then, I think they still were feeling the pull of the vinyl gravity that shaped their minds. (I think the track list order of the songs on AB kind of proves that.)

Agreed completely.

 

[Nick66]

That still doesn't change what I said above. In the end, I think U2 are responsible for the order of the songs appear on their albums, and back then, I think they still were feeling the pull of the vinyl gravity that shaped their minds. (I think the track list order of the songs on AB kind of proves that.)

You know, I never thought there was anything wrong with the sequencing on AB until I started reading about it on this thread. You may be right that they had vinyl (or cassette) in mind at the time, but I think track order works just fine on that record either way.

in fact, the only U2 albums I can think that I think are seriously flawed in that regard are R&H (which should have split the live and studio tracks to separate disc) and NLOTH.

 

[bonocomet]

I guess I should have used the quote feature since Nick's post is edited from what I originally answered, but either way I think you know what I mean. (posts 65 & 66)

 

[bonocomet]

You know, I never thought there was anything wrong with the sequencing on AB until I started reading about it on this thread. You may be right that they had vinyl (or cassette) in mind at the time, but I think track order works just fine on that record either way.

in fact, the only U2 albums I can think that I think are seriously flawed in that regard are R&H (which should have split the live and studio tracks to separate disc) and NLOTH.

Same here, I never have found anything wrong with the order either. And I would have loved a split R&H for sure!

 

[dazzledbylight]

i know i had AB on cassette, I maybe had the vinyl first
and latterbthe CD

 

[dazzledbylight]

Yeah it took me a LONG time to switch to CD, especially if you were older because you already had a VAST record collection by that point, and it was daunting to think of making the switch, and possibly replacing a collection that had been growing since the sixties. I held out for the longest time, and never did replace even a fraction of my vinyl.

you said it when i moved to brooklyn i had to leave about 200 vinyl records behind!

although i did replace a bunch of vinyl with cassette tapes

 

[bonocomet]

LOL Nick you've changed post #65 at least 4 times now!

 

[bonocomet]

*waits to see if my post 66 will begin to make no sense at all*

 

[Nick66]

*waits to see if my post 66 will begin to make no sense at all*

Just didn't want to get into the whole remaster thing again.

 

[bonocomet]

Just didn't want to get into the whole remaster thing again.

Yeah I wasn't sure why you added that to your original post to begin with.

But what I said was partly based on the part of your post that was removed. Anyway, doesn't matter.

 

[OpenG180]

It wasn't just vinyl but mainly cassettes that are the issue here. And I think if you research the sales figures, you'll see that CDs were not outselling that format yet at this point. Didn't happen until well into 1992. So when they're making these decisions (probably summer of 1991) there's a legitimate reason for sequencing in that fashion.

I got a CD player in 1988 (the first year CDs outsold vinyl) and I was one of the first among my friends to have one. The transition wasn't as quick as you think.

I agree with you. And remember that big buying markets like South America in 1991 were basically only selling vinyl and tapes. My first CD was in 1991. And i had AB on tape. CDs only outsold vinyl and tapes in 1995-1996 down here. I guess in Asia it was similar. And probably Eastern Europe. They were still selling cassettes in 2006 when i was in Hungary!

 

[lazarus]

Can someone time the pauses between songs on AB? Possible there's a longer one between track 6 & 7?

 

[cobl04]

The sequencing has never bothered me, and I've only ever known the album on CD.