2Hearts said:
The only thing that you're allowed to dislike about October is the album cover.
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I like the cover, but I'm one of the few people who liked Adam's afro.
ATYCLB is safe and pop? In it's sound? Lyrically? Or it's safe because it's U2. How can a sound be safe?
Adam said for ATYCLB, he tried to use as little bass effects as possible, for a more pure bass sound. Probably same for "Atomic Bomb."
I was re-reading an interview with U2 from Rolling Stone, and Bono, Edge, and Adam didn't see it as a safe happy pop album.
"I can't think of a record besides Bob Dylan's "Time Out of Mind" more concerned with mortality."--interviewer to Bono.
"Bassist Adam Clayton recalls how they listened back to the album's running order and decided they needed to add 'Wild Honey' one of the more simple, up songs from the recording sesssions. "We realised, 'This is our most joyful song,' he says. 'We've got to put that in to stop people jumping out of the window."
"If U2 meant to write a straightforward record full of uplifting songs, real life intervened. 'You know, the record we were trying to make was quite a bit more joyful and about a certain kind of love of life and vitality,' says the Edge. 'And that's in there, but there's also this other side, which sort of crept into the record without me noticing."
I've listened to lots of songs that would be considered "safe, pop," things some would say about ATYCLB, and ATYCLB doesn't fit that bill, save "Wild Honey" and "In a Little While."
"Atomic Bomb" is a much more personal "Bono" album, lyrically. Most of the time it's Bono talking about someone else, or putting himself in someone else's shoes, but this is more personal, (which would also explain the connections to Boy, another more personal album).
Sometimes, about his father Bob.
A Man & a Woman, think Bono said it was about him and Ali. Certainly the line, "never take a chance on losing love to find romance." I interpret it as, romance being flings with other women, and love is Ali. It is one of the few U2 songs that actually made me swoon.
One Step Closer, that's my "moping" song off the new album.
Think Larry uses brushes on "City" at least at the beginning.
Crumbs is the one that took the longest for me to like, I dunno why. But if 3 of 4 of them really were drunk when writing it, guess I can't fault them too much. Larry says he doesn't remember it though. (or was he just goofing?)
In sound, "Atomic Bomb" is nothing like ATYCLB. Adam certainly stands out more, (maybe Lillywhite likes his work more than other producers, I mean, I did have to really turn up the volume and bass to hear it on ATYCLB, whereas with "Atomic Bomb" didn't have to mess with the volume. (And this was with radio, not the CD).
I do like Adam's description of it, "The arc of the record is that it starts in a place of fear in Vertigo, and then it reaches a place of safety in Yahweh."
Rattle and Hum is probably the U2 album I like least, but I still like some of the songs on it, certainly the live songs.