For all those using the term: "the last 2 albums"...

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Moonlit_Angel said:


Ditto.

Also, I'm beginning to think I'm in a very small group of people on these boards who doesn't have a least favorite U2 album. There's something about each one that I like, from Boy up to HTDAAB.

And yes, thoughts regarding what is and isn't good in regards to music are just opinions, not facts.

Angela

Same here... I think I recently rated my U2 albums from favourite to least favourite and I had Rattle & Hum at the bottom, but it's not like I don't like that album or something, I think it's damn good!! There's no U2 album that I hate. In fact, there aren't really any U2 songs I hate...some are kinda boring (*coughGracecough*) but there's none that I can't stand. Even the ones that I don't find too engaging I do like to a certain extent...

As for the ATYCLB-HTDAAB thing... HTDAAB is no more ATYCLB part II than Zooropa is AB part II or October is Boy part II or The Joshua Tree is UF part II. It is in a similiar style, almost a continuation of themes, but I wouldn't really call it "ATYCLB part II." However, I can see why people would group the two albums together. The sounds on "the last two albums" are very different from 90's U2, especially Pop.
 
Damn, this band is addictive!) and in listening to all of them at once and in no particular order, I can't find a weak one in the bunch. And now that I know more of the history of the band and what was happening around the time each of the albums was made, I really enjoy the progression and how each album reflects a specific time in the band's career.

That's exactily the feeling! Hugz!:hug:
 
Honestly i can see why Bono wants some sycophants...the general public hated 90s U2 for the irony and apparent pretentiousness (seriously i never got people thinking it was pretentious, i mean if you consider 90s U2 pretentious, why the hell not Radiohead then?) but U2 fans like here on Interference, we all love the 90s (most of us)...now some here hate(or dislike) U2 after 2000 because they have gone back to some sounds they used in the 80s (but some new sounds in my opinion too) which the general public liked....but people in some circles want U2 to go back to experimentalism when they were likely the ones bashing their 90s work and wanted something similar to the 80s....:huh: U2 can't win really.....and for the record i can't think of a U2 song i hate either:wink: really i think its close to impossible for them to write a bad song, they can write good songs in their sleep.....

....and someone please describe why so many non-U2 fans hate Discotheque? i always considered it a U2 song the could get easily into........hmm
 
LJT said:
Honestly i can see why Bono wants some sycophants...the general public hated 90s U2 for the irony and apparent pretentiousness (seriously i never got people thinking it was pretentious, i mean if you consider 90s U2 pretentious, why the hell not Radiohead then?) but U2 fans like here on Interference, we all love the 90s (most of us)...now some here hate(or dislike) U2 after 2000 because they have gone back to some sounds they used in the 80s (but some new sounds in my opinion too) which the general public liked....but people in some circles want U2 to go back to experimentalism when they were likely the ones bashing their 90s work and wanted something similar to the 80s....:huh: U2 can't win really.....and for the record i can't think of a U2 song i hate either:wink: really i think its close to impossible for them to write a bad song, they can write good songs in their sleep.....

....and someone please describe why so many non-U2 fans hate Discotheque? i always considered it a U2 song the could get easily into........hmm

I agree totally. No matter what U2 does, they will always have critics. That's just part of the business I guess.

I've found that most non-U2 fans DO like Discotheque; those who know it anyway. I quoted a line from Discotheque to my friend (who isn't a U2 fan by any means) and he goes "that's a good song. gay name, but good song." I almost died. I was like "you...KNOW that song?" and he was like "duh." :drool: DIS-CO-THEQUE! It was the song that got ME into U2...:D
 
A promo cd for ATYCLB that came with a The Times newspaper in the UK with Beautfiul Day on it got me into U2:wink: but my first album was Zooropa..which is kinda of a strange way to get into U2 well at least i think..i like to say i got into U2 through their weird end...if U2 ever had a normal end to begin with:scratch:

hmm all my friends constantly go on about how crap Pop is..when none of them have ever listened to it...i mentioned The Fly was one of my favourite songs to them and 'that album it was on Pop was shit'...they don't have the slightest cue...honestly i can't see how you can hate Discotheque..the riff is infectious...

Most people i know hate the video too...but its hilarious, i burst into a fit of laughter when i saw it for the first time...:lmao:
 
LJT said:
Honestly i can see why Bono wants some sycophants...the general public hated 90s U2 for the irony and apparent pretentiousness (seriously i never got people thinking it was pretentious, i mean if you consider 90s U2 pretentious, why the hell not Radiohead then?) but U2 fans like here on Interference, we all love the 90s (most of us)...now some here hate(or dislike) U2 after 2000 because they have gone back to some sounds they used in the 80s (but some new sounds in my opinion too) which the general public liked....but people in some circles want U2 to go back to experimentalism when they were likely the ones bashing their 90s work and wanted something similar to the 80s....:huh:

You made more sense earlier in the thread. :wink:

I kid.

Honestly I actually think ATYCLB was an actual challange for them. Maybe even a bigger challange than what Pop was. In ATYCLB they set out to create a successful, commercial, "Poppy" (in Larry's words) that would sell & win back the fans they had alienated in Pop. That IMO, is a pretty damn difficult album to create.

We often talk about how Pop was an album full of great material, tarnished by production (or lack of time in that department). Yet really if any album suffered from great material being ruined through production its ATYCLB... Stuck & Elevation particularly (listed to the Tomb Raider or Influx mix & the Acoustic version of Stuck for example), Walk On, Kite & Wild Honey as well. I think this distain for the production on ATYCLB rubs off on the material. We should not forget that Beautiful Day is an unbelievably catchy single that has got to the point where it will be around for a long time. They haven't written anything as successful (or as well recognised) since With Or Without You or ISHFWILF.

So, I actually do think ATYCLB was actually a difficult album to make by virtue of the fact they set out to appeal to the masses by writing simple, straight foward hook laiden poppy songs. And by the amount of bashing the album gets here... it's safe to say they succeeded.

HTDAAB is another story all together. I don't know what U2 was trying to do when they set out to make this album. I've heard mumurs of back-to-boy, Edge & his guitar love, politically-loaded commentary... yet the album conceptually does not reflect any of these strongly enough. Sure Edge "falls in love with his guitar" on some tracks... but he also neglects his new love to go down to the pub with the boys. Sure Bono makes some political comments in LAPOE & Crumbs... & who can forget his outrageous condemnation of brutual regimes in Sometimes... his exploration of the paradox of communism in Yahweh & his intellectually stimulating play-by-play account of the 2000 Gore-Bush vote controversy in Vertigo. I just really don't see where in there heart this album is coming from. Or what they were trying to achieve. Maybe they didn't mean to achieve anything - but without setting out any goals then aren't you destined to fail?

I'm glad for any output by U2, it's generally better than most things. There is some great tracks on both ATYCLB & HTDAAB, and plus new albums mean new tours... which is always good. So from a purely selfish point of view I'm glad they keep putting out material. However if I were worrying about the legacy (which I think Bono is at least) then I really don't know how much Vertigo etc will add to the cannon.
 
I believe that HTDAAB is more about soul searching than anything else...and usually most of the time you find a lot of confusion within.

I love HTDAAB but i don't find it to be that cohesive as an album..Love and Peace strangely i think would have fit well on Pop rather than Achtung Baby..One Step Closer on The Unforgettable Fire etc....Boy is looking into the future to new possiblities and opportunities in life after childhood and innocence lost...HTDAAB i think was set up as the mature men looking back on that innocence lost, looking at what they have achieved over their lives and whether it was worth it.....i mean i consider Sometimes as basically Bono asking his dad that question 'Are you proud of me?' as well as he recently said its about tking on his old man....this looking back on your career, your life, will obviously lead to certain sounds kinda reappearing again......

The heart of the album? Is confusion, they still (please don't hurt me for saying this:wink: ) haven't found what they are looking for, none of us may never find it...and i consider HTDAAB as maybe them realising that 'we will carry on searching but we might not find it, but hey we will enjoy the trek'..Confusion over what they want to achieve now ( they have more or less achieved what they wanted to initially have they not?)...what can they do that is new now (its possibly why Bono has taken on the African project, they need the challenges)...when you have more or less conquered all before you what else can you do....aim to make great records i guess...this record i think is where they make that realisation which they will put into practice for the next one....
 
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I haven't read through 3 pages of a debate that has probably gone way off track, just sticking my nose in to say that it's not unfair to lump ATYCLB and HTDAAB together. Whether they sound similar or not, they do come from the same place and are of the same goal and U2 'generation'. Much like Achtung/Zooropa/Pop are lumped together despite sounding absolutely nothing like each other, nor being even conceptually or thematicaly close at all.

Oh, and something else I briefly noticed - while I don't think Elevation is a great U2 song at all, I can't believe anyone would pick the clangy mess of noise that is the Tomb Raider mix over the funky, bass driven album version....
 
2Hearts said:
I usually refer to the "last 3 albums" instead of the last 2. I might use that phrase in a sentence like, "The last 3 albums give us a grasp of the diverse talent of U2, and displays their ability to write awe inspiring tunes."

:lol:

I actually don't like their last 2 albums as much as the 3 proceeding that, however I think they were still quite different.
 
Earnie Shavers said:
Oh, and something else I briefly noticed - while I don't think Elevation is a great U2 song at all, I can't believe anyone would pick the clangy mess of noise that is the Tomb Raider mix over the funky, bass driven album version....

The Tomb Raider mix is more true to the live version which was when the song got good. Lyrically it is a touch questionable - but it is a fairly good Pop/Rock song - which is what U2 set out when writing ATYCLB - thus making it a success. Influx is the pick of the bunch though.
 
:lol: at this thread. Bathiu... if you think ATYCLB is really shit, what do you think of say, Justin Timberlake, N'SYNC, Britney or 50 Cent? My apologies if anyone here is a fan of those artists.

I agree with Earnie that ATYCLB and HTDAAB come from the same place and will be bunched together just like Achtung, Zooropa and Pop are. So HTDAAB has louder and more prominent guitar & bass. So what? Both albums seem to have the same back-to-basics approach of creating the song first.

In fact, post 2000 U2 can be summed up by this lyric: I'm just tryin' to find a decent melody, a song that I can sing in my own company.

:wink:
 
I agree that HTDAAB is a far superior album to ATYCLB, but I do think U2 has continued the same "play it safe" type of attitude ever since Pop.

Instead of lumping the two albums together I think people really mean to lump together their attitude when marketing themselves and their music.
 
Zootlesque said:

In fact, post 2000 U2 can be summed up by this lyric: I'm just tryin' to find a decent melody, a song that I can sing in my own company.

:wink:

As with the 90's - "Ready to let go of the steering wheel".
 
LJT said:
I believe that HTDAAB is more about soul searching than anything else...and usually most of the time you find a lot of confusion within.

The heart of the album? Is confusion, they still (please don't hurt me for saying this:wink: ) haven't found what they are looking for, none of us may never find it...and i consider HTDAAB as maybe them realising that 'we will carry on searching but we might not find it, but hey we will enjoy the trek'..Confusion over what they want to achieve now ( they have more or less achieved what they wanted to initially have they not?)...what can they do that is new now (its possibly why Bono has taken on the African project, they need the challenges)...when you have more or less conquered all before you what else can you do....aim to make great records i guess...this record i think is where they make that realisation which they will put into practice for the next one....

If the theme is confuision... then I think ATYCLB & HTDAAB were released in the wrong order then.

ATYCLB while musically simple & poppy, was lyrically very heavy. Infact lyrically ATYCLB was a suicide note, or at very least a goodbye. ATYCLB was IMO the realisation album. Beautiful Day, Walk On, Peace On Earth - matured, individually content songs. When I Look At The World is probably the biggest evidence of the realisation of there place on Earth.

Looking at HTDAAB from a post-ATYCLB/Elevation Tour context & through the way it is being portrayed on the Vertigo Tour I still think the overall concept & meaning to the album is still up in limbo (mind you I think Zooropa had a similar problem - but it's outrageous nature took the focus off that). If indeed it was about confusion and the balance of life etc... it would've made 10 times more sense to have been post-Pop & pre-ATYCLB...
 
I think the better album out of the 2 when you look at the individual songs is HTDAAB. But the better album as a whole is ATYCLB, i think.

ATYCLB has an amazing feeling of hope, togetherness, and paradise. The songs on ATYCLB blend together to make a great atmosphere; this mood is further enhanced by the artwork, the album cover especially. I think part of this sensational feeling has to do with 9/11. ATYCLB came out less then a year before 9/11 happened. The album related quite amazingly with 9/11 through almost every song: Beautiful Day, Stuck, Walk On, Kite, When I Look At the World, New York, Peace on Earth, In a Little While.

The HTDAAB songs are not team players. Individually they are great. Yet together they don't blend very well. However, they can easily destroy their ATYCLB counterparts. Also, the album cover could have been more creative, but that's a whole different story.

The bottom line is that U2 albums are all the same and it is YOU who changes. :wink:
 
well since ATYCLB had 9/11 maybe all HTDAAB needs to bring the album together is a major disaster. It's a shame they didn't write any songs about waves because then the Tsunami could have made it a big hit.

Lets all just hope for a nuclear war, then How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb will mean more to people and will really make it feel like an album.
 
Chizip said:
well since ATYCLB had 9/11 maybe all HTDAAB needs to bring the album together is a major disaster. It's a shame they didn't write any songs about waves because then the Tsunami could have made it a big hit.

Lets all just hope for a nuclear war, then How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb will mean more to people and will really make it feel like an album.

:lol:
 
Myself, Aygo, Moonlit_Angel, and Shaliz are forming a sect whose distinction is that we actually love all of U2's albums. I am not a person who likes everything I hear, but U2 didn't become my favorite artist just by writing a few decent songs. They're my favorite b/c they have more songs that resonate with me than anyone. For me, they Edge (pun intended) out The Beatles, which is no small feat.

Anyone want to join??
 
2Hearts said:
Myself, Aygo, Moonlit_Angel, and Shaliz are forming a sect whose distinction is that we actually love all of U2's albums. I am not a person who likes everything I hear, but U2 didn't become my favorite artist just by writing a few decent songs. They're my favorite b/c they have more songs that resonate with me than anyone. For me, they Edge (pun intended) out The Beatles, which is no small feat.

Anyone want to join??

:lol: :up:
 
The only thing that you're allowed to dislike about October is the album cover. :wink:
 
Hee! Well ... I do like October more than I used to, and am sure it will continue to sound better and better to me ...

So yeah, okay. I'm in! :wink:
 
2Hearts said:
The only thing that you're allowed to dislike about October is the album cover. :wink:

<-----:reject: :coocoo:

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.
 
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2Hearts said:
Myself, Aygo, Moonlit_Angel, and Shaliz are forming a sect whose distinction is that we actually love all of U2's albums. I am not a person who likes everything I hear, but U2 didn't become my favorite artist just by writing a few decent songs. They're my favorite b/c they have more songs that resonate with me than anyone. For me, they Edge (pun intended) out The Beatles, which is no small feat.

Anyone want to join??

I'm in! :wave: There was actually one album I didn't like at all but for some reason it clicked when it came on my playlist last week or so and I must have listened to it 15 times since. :coocoo: :uhoh: (and no it's not October )
 
I'm in too in loving all the albums....and umm Neutral may i ask which album you now like?:wink:

Just wondering if its one of the ones that gets a lot of worship here...
 
neutral said:

:ohmy:

haha i keep on saying this somewhere but Zooropa was my first U2 album:wink: I loved the first half straight off...that was like 4 years ago...i didn't start liking the second half til this year:eyebrow: ...i have learned to give albums time to grow on me...even if it is 4 years
 
LJT said:
Honestly i can see why Bono wants some sycophants...the general public hated 90s U2 for the irony and apparent pretentiousness (seriously i never got people thinking it was pretentious, i mean if you consider 90s U2 pretentious, why the hell not Radiohead then?) but U2 fans like here on Interference, we all love the 90s (most of us)...now some here hate(or dislike) U2 after 2000 because they have gone back to some sounds they used in the 80s (but some new sounds in my opinion too) which the general public liked....but people in some circles want U2 to go back to experimentalism when they were likely the ones bashing their 90s work and wanted something similar to the 80s....:huh: U2 can't win really

Exactly. The public (and the fans) can't seem to make up their mind on what they want U2 to do, the band'll upset somebody somewhere with a sound they choose. Which is why I maintain that U2 should just do what U2 wants to do when it comes to making music. If I like it, I'll buy it, if I don't, I won't (but I highly doubt that second one'll ever happen with me :)).

I especially don't understand why some people bash the last couple of albums since they do indeed go back to their 80s sound in some ways...I dunno, I haven't heard a ton of complaints regarding their 80s sound on here in general, so if they go back to that...what's the problem now?

I've talked to people before who stopped being into U2 around the time of their early 90s work, and are getting back into them with these last couple of albums, too, by the way. I don't get the pretentiousness accusations, either, but eh...*Shrugs*.

It is nice, by the way, to see others here who don't have a least favorite album :hug: :). And yeah, there's a few songs that aren't my absolute favorites (don't have a least favorite album, but do have a least favorite song), but that number is insanely small compared to the number of songs I love. Like others have said, I appreciate each album for what it meant to U2's career and everything. And I can find songs on each one that are great. Each decade has brought many different, fun, creative things for the band, and I just like it all :shrug:.

And dammit, I like "Elevation"! LOL. It's a fun song.

Angela
 
Moonlit_Angel said:

And dammit, I like "Elevation"! LOL. It's a fun song.

Angela

:yes: That song is soooo much fun to sing at the top of your lungs while jumping around! :dancing:

I was starting to think I was the only one who thought so. :reject:
 
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