Electrical Storm: it's place on Best of, and the Vertigo tour

[marik]

so i was listening to Electrical Storm today and had the following thought...


it is one of the best song U2 has made in the last couple yrs - since Pop. SO it occurred to me that the sales of the Best Of were NOT dependant on the "NEW" songs. i mean anyone buying the Best of would be a) a hardcore fan that had every song but would buy it anyways, or b) someone that 'kinda' likes a few U2 songs and wants a collection of their best known hits on one cd.
I don't think that many people bought the cd STRICTLY for Electrical Storm or Hands that Built America. If they were only buying it for those reasons they coulda bought the ES Single for much cheaper, or the Gangs of NY soundtrack.

SO basically U2 added 2 new songs just for the sake of being able to say '2 new songs'. the quality of the songs didnt really matter that much to the album's sales.

SO, my question is, would it have been better to save those 2 songs, specifcally ES, and put it on the new album- Atomic Bomb. And instead put two of the lesser quality tracks from Bomb onto the Best of in their place. Basically just swap 2 songs. (assuming that they could have had them all created back when Best of was being released)

you must consider the album flow, but i think it would have been a good idea. ES would flow pretty well after VErtigo in the beginning of the album to re-emphases the 'doubt/fear' concept of the album. As for Hands, it fits in nice and well in the live show, so i believe that it could be fit into the album flow somewhere. perhaps after Love and Peace, leading into City of Blinding Lights?

what songs shoulda been dropped to the best of then? perhaps Miracle Drug (would fit around the time that Bono started his public humanitiarian efforts) , or All Because of You (kinda like a thank you song to the fans to go along with the best of)

just a thought. comments?

 

[namkcuR]

And maybe add Fast Cars in too? Something like:

1.Vertigo
2.Electrical Storm(Orbit Mix)
3.Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
4.Love And Peace Or Else
5.Hands That Built America
6.City Of Blinding Lights
7.A Man And A Woman
8.Fast Cars
9.Crumbs From Your Table
10.One Step Closer
11.Original Of The Species
12.Yahweh

I think that'd be better than the the actual record...

 

[mobvok]

Optimally U2 would repeat what they did with The Sweetest Thing on the Best of 80-90 and take a B-Side from that decade and spiff it up for A-Side release. That way we keep continuity, as opposed to a song from 2002 butting into the Best of 1990-2000.

Would have liked to have seen North and South of the River or Alex Descends myself. I don't see any need for an Atomic Bomb to be dropped.



.......

An obvious issue is that Electrical Storm came from a different recording session then HTDAAB, and the sound wouldn't quite fit, but that's a fixable flaw.

 

[typhoon]

"Electrical Storm" doesn't fit into the Best Of, the Vertigo Tour, or anywhere else. It's the bastard child of their discography. May Bono never wax philosophic about trucks again.

 

[U2girl]

It doesn't fit on the Bomb because Edge's guitar sounds too similar to Crumbs.

 

[1stepcloser]

i personally am glad ES was on the best of because i wasn't a fan and the 2 'best of's were my first U2 CD's. ES was the reason i bought the 'best of 1990-2000' because i liked it so much.

i think it would have worked well on the Bomb too.

 

[POP-ROMANCER]

hmm, i don't know. Electrical storm was a single to get attention for the best of to be released. When it was a weaker song, maybe they didn't get much attention and the album sales would not have been so high (or better: were lower). Of course the hardcore fans buy a copy but people that like a couple of songs from u2 and want toi buy the best of have to be attracted by a good single.

On the other hand, I don't think the sweetest thing was a very good single.
Maybe they had to pick a b-side (very good one of course) from one of their 90s singles and release it. The same way as best of 8090 and save electrical storm for bomb. I think it fits very well on bomb.

 

[drt4]

Well I've never understood the love for Electrical Storm and all the desire to hear it on this tour. I always found it to be fairly mediocre and less than the sum of its parts. It just does not come together into anything that special, and seems kind of awkward to me. It was a disappointment to me.

 

[namkcuR]

On the other hand, I don't think the sweetest thing was a very good single.

Sweetest Thing was a GREAT single!

 

[AtomicBono]

It upsets me that Electrical Storm and Hands That Built America were on the Best Of at all, since they were both made AFTER 2000. If you ask me, U2 should have released the new mix of Gone to support the Best Of, since Gone was never a single and it would still technically be a "new" song since it's a new mix (I'm not entirely thrilled with the Pop remixes either, but that's another story...)

ES could be on the Bomb, I think. Edge's guitar too similar to Crumbs? If anything Crumbs is too similar to Walk On; the chord progression is identical. ES is album-worthy though I wish Bono would have thought of something better than "baby don't cry" for the end...it does have some of my favourite lyrics though - "on rainy days we'd go swimming out/on rainy days swimming in the sound." Hands however, while an underrated song (around here anyway), would feel out of place on a U2 album. It should stick to the soundtrack. If you want album-worthy soundtrack material, try The Ground Beneath Her Feet and Statless