HTDAAB First Listen

[Earnie Shavers]

What are you going to do? How are you going to listen to it for the first time?

I'm going to go around to my parents place and make some shit up about my crappy Toyota Corolla being bung and try and borrow my fathers car. It has the sweetest, sweetest stereo. I'm going to head out and buy HTDAAB and then go visit my friend who lives about 2 hours up the coast. I'm serious, that gives me two runs of the album in a big-arse BMW on an expressway, at absolute full volume. Then I get to stay the night at my friends, get completely drunk and listen to it again, which will be an entirely different experience I am sure. Then I get a 2 hour drive home the next day to blast it again.

 

[Herco]

I will listen to it the first time totally stoned.....

 

[Earnie Shavers]

I will listen to it the first time totally stoned.....

Well, yes, that will be involved at my friends house as well, I just wasn't going to be so, umm, blunt (excuse the pun).

 

[Axver]

If it leaks, I'll download it and burn it onto CD. If it doesn't, I'll go out and buy it. Whatever the case, I'll end up standing in the middle of my room, holding a CD. Then, I will put it in my stereo system, turn the volume up loud, grab the remote, lie on my bed, hit play, and enjoy the brilliance.

 

[Herco]

If it leaks, I'll download it and burn it onto CD. If it doesn't, I'll go out and buy it. Whatever the case, I'll end up standing in the middle of my room, holding a CD. Then, I will put it in my stereo system, turn the volume up loud, grab the remote, lie on my bed, hit play, and enjoy the brilliance.

.... and of course read the lyrics in the booklet while listening

 

[Axver]

.... and of course read the lyrics in the booklet while listening

Or on the drive home while trying to imagine how the songs sound ...

 

[Herco]

I remember how long the drive-home can be....
It seems forever to drive-home and put that little-allumium disc in your player....

What is better to listen to it the first time... In stereo or Dolby Pro Logic II Music? Any thoughts about that?

 

[brownda7]

put my earphones on and tryto listen for the spanish dudes

 

[paulrg]

I'll turn off my mobile phone, lock the front door, lie on my bed with my headphones and the volume at MAX!

Then listening to U2 always makes me want to get out and about so Ill take the precious CD to my car and go for a drive.

What would you pay to have the CD now?

 

[kobayashi]

ill probably be around 35 000 feet the first time i get a chance to listen. ill put it on my palm and leave it till i get a good hour to enjoy.

 

[U2dork]

My 'first listen' ritual consists of me struggling to open the cellophane wrapper for about 10 minutes until I get fed up and get some scissors. I then struggle with that stupid sticker across the top of the case. But once all of that's over with, I give the album a listen and flip through the booklet. I love the smell of CD booklets. Is that weird?
Once I've heard it all the way through, I put the headphones on and listen at a ridiculous volume while laying on the floor infront of the stereo, pondering the lyrics and trying to find hidden meanings in the album artwork.

 

[steak]

Will you listen to vertigo first?

 

[elfyx]

I'd love to have my first listen on the beacch- but it will be too cold (all those clips have really ingrained the surf into the songs).

In all actuality I will likely be taking the morning off, bundle up, and have my first listen in Central Park surrounded by the City of Blinding Lights.

Of course should there be a midnight sale... well I'll probably wait anyway. And to be *blunt*, there definitely are certain ways to enhance your aureal senses.

 

[RademR]

I had a big plan for ATYCLB, me and my girlfriend at the time were going to meet up at my appartment because I have a great system there. I remember I skipped all my classes that day just to enjoy the new record. We were going to read the lyrics together and listen to the whole album straight. I ran into "Best Buy" as soon as the doors opened and bought ATYCLB but in the end, I couldnt help myself. I unwrapped it and put it in my CD changer in my car and started listening to it. I think I heard the whole album in the parking lot. Something like that will probably happen with HTDAAB as well

 

[Numb1075]

buy it the morning it comes out. "turn it up loud captain" sit in my car and smile

 

[what a bomb!]

I will be taking a half day holiday at work finish at 11.30 am then walk into town on the way home to buy it, then back to my place with coffe on the go U2 playing loud on my surround sound system...several times! Simple but thats how I like it! did the same with ATYCLB! lol Sounds like we are all going to find ourselves a quiet little place and be lost to the world come nov 22/23 !

 

[EdgeVox]

awesome thread I thought I was the only one who does something special for the first listen

Xavier

 

[boosterjuice]

Listening to the album in headphones for the first time is the way to go. Make sure all distractions are eliminated. Maybe light some candles, have some champaign. I think a nice view would help. I like the idea of listening to the album on a beach. But, up here in Canada it's going to be colder than a witches tit by Nov 23.

With ATYCLB I skimmed through the songs and found the ones I liked. I know, I feel ashamed for that. With HTDAAB I will listen from start to finish. NO SKIPPING SONGS!

 

[elfyx]

With ATYCLB I skimmed through the songs and found the ones I liked. I know, I feel ashamed for that. With HTDAAB I will listen from start to finish. NO SKIPPING SONGS! [/QUOTE

Hopefully it'll be an album in which each track completely engages us and the idea of skipping tracks would seem preposterous!

I mean, Vertigo leading into Miracle Drug...

 

[ponkine]

Hola amigos I love to listen every new album´s band in my room, quiet, lying in my bed, with my headphones and lights down so I can listen the record comfortably, without extra noise nor interruptions

I think I´ll do the same with this album

 

[Roland of Gilead]

I love the smell of CD booklets. Is that weird?

I really can't wait to smell this booklet!

 

[U2SJ]

I plan to go to Tower at midnight and then listen all nite long and call in sick the next day to listen all the next day too

 

[Teta040]

I have this little convoluted ritual that I have when listening to albums the first time. In the 80's, in my teenage days, I used to go into my bedroom at midnight and turn all the lights off and plunge the room into toal blackness. It had to be midnight as only then would there be complete silence in the house. Well, back that up. I'd spend at least an hour going over the liner notes. THEN the pitch darkness. I'd go over it in one listen.

Ever since I was caught unaware on the road and hearing "One" in daylight, the ritual has changed. Now, I wait again until midnight--luckily they haven't released an album yet on a day when I wasn't alone in the house!--and then shut off everything. I could be anywhere else when listrning to an album but for nostalgia's sake still have to be at home.

First, I light a candle. The candle HAS to be there. (What scent? Is it important? Believe me, I've come across people who might be obsessed enough to ask--there are scarier fans out there than I. At least I don't have u2 license plates! Oops..not knocking those of you with U2 license plates...)This symbolizes the "unforgettable fire" going on. The never-quenched flame, the heart of the band's search for truth. (I am a romantic and get quite dramatic.)Then I go through the liner notes--my favorite part is the "thank you's--("The Flaming Colossus"? Ha ha, I know who "the Lady Ann" is!). This usually takes up to an hour. Then, pitch blackness. In honor of the "Secret of the Universe" story, Edge being my favorite band member (one of my favorite parts of Flanagan's book) I have to look at "the little red light") on my Walkman as it is playing. Always a Walkman. The first listen is an ntimate one, when their voices have to be right in my ear. As an adult, I find it harder and hearder to listen stright through, so it usually takes me half the night to get through!

Another reason I have to be alone is b/c I seem to have a "private conversation" with the band on first listen...it's unavoidable...I NEVER read the lyrics, I prefer to hear them sung fist..so I end up pacing up and down: "Bono, you @#*!@! You can't MEAN that!!!" etc. I'm much in tune with the spiritual side of the band, so that's my first concern. If it is really good, then I end up like I am yelling at the news anchors. If Bono is still going through his "Ecclesiastes" phase, you know I'll be cursing this time around too.


"Oh my God,!" etc. I get quite dramatic at times. Of course I am yelling at Bono but you know what I mean. Other people wouldn't understand. They'd think I was nuts. "She's talking to herself!" etc. Ha ha Then I think, "this is what it must have been like when a Dylan album came out..

Uh, maybe I don't want to know what rituals fans had when a Bob Dylan album came out. Then you'd hear some REALLY scary stories..?!?

One thing that is an added part of the ritual this time around: I now have a pic of myself with Edge. It was taken outside the Four Seasons in Boston in June of '01. And I willhave to add my printouts of his posts here as well. It'll be a crowded nighstand this time around.

 

[James U2]

I will listen to the new album the same way I've listened to every new U2 record for the first time. I'll buy the album at midnight, take it home, put it in the CD player, turn off the lights, sit right in the middle of the couch (for a proper stereo spectrum), turn the volume up to a moderately loud level and just sit there for an hour, hearing new U2 for the first time (as i refuse to download anything early).

james

 

[oceane]

I'm sure a lot of us will have some sort of ritual... Or at least make sure that we can listen to the whole album by ourselves without being bothered. The headphones and lights off might be a good idea for me this time around.

I have a funny story about the release of ATYCLB...

The day it was released, I had to work all day, so I had planned to pick it up after work and go home, light candles, make sure no one would interupt, and listen to it in the stereo really loud. But then during the day, I had to set-up some lights in a big training room for a show (I was working for a circus...). At some point, there were about 4 people 60 feet in the air, waiting for me to tell them where to put up the lights ( I was the one with the plan), when I heard the first notes of Beautiful Day playing in the stereo.

I immediately realized that this was probably NOT the single, but the new album itself, that someone had bought and wanted to play for everybody. It was a very big room, with about 50-70 people total in it. Totally panicked at the idea that I would be listening to U2's new album in a very 'not proper' situation, I ran out to the guy who had put the album in (leaving the four guys in the ceiling waiting), and begged him not to play it. He was showing some stuff to a group of about 7 people, none of whom I knew, so I stood there explaining to those total strangers how U2 was my favourite band and that the first listen was very important, and I couldn't just listen to it like that while I was working and all...

Needless to say, they all looked at me like I was a total nutcase, but the guy said he was also a U2 fan and understood how I felt, so he stop the CD before the end of BD. (!)

 

[Teta040]

Hey, Oceane! Don't be ashamed! This ranks with the stories of people getting out of tickets becuase the cop was a u2 fan..or one I read in the summer of 2000 about a car mechanic who docked his client's bill by 40% when he saw her u2 license plates b/c he didn't want her to go broke.."You have to save up for the tour, I know." (!!!! Why couldn't that happen to me!>!>! )

I know ehn I was waiting in line for tickets in Feb of 1992 we were camped out in our cars in a sub-zero cold and at 1 in the morning a squad came along demanding to know what we were doing there. When the captain foind out what for, he offered to buy us coffee and doughntus and look out for us if we put his name on the ticket list. it wasn't the greatest part of town, and only our fandom made us nuts enoughto do that.

 

[Teta040]

oh.,....and LMAO, by the way. That's one of the best stories I've ever heard..I'll have to spread that one around.

(Uh..and Edge...if you're reading this...try not to laugh too hard, OK? Or maybe you can relate

 

[Queen Bee]

My 'first listen' ritual consists of me struggling to open the cellophane wrapper for about 10 minutes until I get fed up and get some scissors. I then struggle with that stupid sticker across the top of the case. But once all of that's over with, I give the album a listen and flip through the booklet. I love the smell of CD booklets. Is that weird?
Once I've heard it all the way through, I put the headphones on and listen at a ridiculous volume while laying on the floor infront of the stereo, pondering the lyrics and trying to find hidden meanings in the album artwork.

That perfectly describes what my first listen ritual consists of, except that I've become an expert at opening up cellophane CD wrappers.

As for the scent of CD booklets....

 

[Herco]

I hope this cd-booklet is more like POP then ATYCLB, that booklet was really boring compared to POP

 

[Roland of Gilead]

Not to brag, but for the last two studio releases I have been able to pick up the album on the Friday BEFORE the release date thanks entirely for a dear friend that owns a cd store that I helped financially get started. I have never asked once to be able to pick up a disc before its release date. He knows that U2 are my favorite band and this is his way of thanking me for the help. This also works for the single releases too. So, I'll have Vertigo on Nov.5th and the album on Nov.19th.

I am a damn lucky bastard!

It is an absolute bliss to listen to new U2 on Fridays. To stay up late Friday night/early Saturday morning until the entire album has been digested like an overweight baby pounding back a warm bottle of milk or two.