October(The Album) Appreciation Thread

[namkcuR]

Please appreciate this record with me. It is perhaps their rawest effort ever, and there are a plethora of classics here.

Everyone knows Gloria and it is a classic. Adam's bass-solo makes the song, I think.

I Fall Down is criminally not-talked-about. Raw and damn catchy.

I Threw A Brick is pure raw rock, centered around the chant-like 'no one/no one is blinder/than he...'.

Rejoice - 'I can't change the world/but I can change the world in me/I rejoice' - one of U2's best early lyrics, and towards the end is one of Larry's best drum solos - not there are so many to choose from - which kicks ass.

I love Fire to death. It is possibly the catchiest song on the record, and I piss my pants at the guitar solo in the middle - it's short, but oh so sweet. Dark, brilliant.

Tomorrow is possibly U2's most Irish-sounding song ever. We all know it's about Bono's mother. A great example of the epic U2 buildup, even early on in their career. Some day the changing of the song's pace 2/3 of the way through was a mistake. I disagree.

October is just haunting. Just a keybord and eight lines of lyrics but WOW. I am pleased that this was on the Best Of 1980-1990, even if it was as a hidden track.

With A Shout is another great raw rocker in the vein of Brick and Rejoice. One of the most religious songs, imo, of U2's career.

Stranger In A Strange Land - I like this song a lot. I'd complain about it's placement on the record, but there's nowhere else I can see that would've been better so I leave it here.

Scarlet would have been an epic closer. It should have been the closer. It is one of the most serene, beautiful, minimalistic songs of U2's career. Damn near an instrumental.

Is That All is short but good. But it's not a closer. I think this would have worked well enough between Tomorrow and October. But Scarlet would have been a better closer.


This is a great record people.

 

[MacPhistoPT]

My album chart:
...
11. October

Hey! No, it's not my most disliked album. It's only the one I less love. So, it deserves my appreciation as the other 10 albums do! Only not so much...

Gloria is a classic. Beside it, my favourite songs in this album are Rejoice, Fire, Tomorrow and With a shout. October and Scarlet are huge too. The others I don't care very much about them.

 

[Exit thru Wire]

I'm a big fan of this album.

Rejoice, With a Shout, I threw a brick + Scarlet are all underrated gems.

No its not my fav album, #9 in my u2 rankings, but very very good.

 

[Rachel D.]

I don't even own this one, but I want it. I asked for it for Christmas last year, but I didn't get it. It's only $8 at Wal-Mart, so I should buy it soon.

I have this weirdo "tradition" of buying a U2 album every year in October after my birthday, so I think this year I'll get October in October.

 

[Needle_Chill]

I love October. It's one of my favorites. Fire, Gloria, ITABTAW, Rejoice, October, SIASL, I Fall Down and Tomorrow are all awesome.

 

[-macphisto-]

I love this fricken album, this album woke me up, through the sincerety of the lyrics, and the passion of the music. I dont rate U2 albums, but I honestly love this album, I listen to this album more then JT and AB!

 

[MsMofoGone]

October ... GREAT album !!

The songs Gloria, Rejoice, I Threw A Brick Through A Window, Tomorrow, October,
and Scarlet are the true CLASSICS on this album !!

 

[Aygo]

The most underated album here in the forum, probably...
I really like this album! Such great tunes there, I'm sorry that many people do not like it

 

[kiwilad]

some great songs on here, 'tomorrow' is just such a classic, brilliant song!!

But I do think the album is a little more dated than the rest, although maybe that has more to do with the photography!!

It also doesn't flow quite as well as others, maybe it's just the song order?

But yep, a great album that I need to listen to more often!!

And Stranger kicks ass too!!

Hmm, off to grab album now...

 

[arw]

I love this album and I'm listening to Fire now!

 

[AtomicBono]

I love Fire to death. It is possibly the catchiest song on the record, and I piss my pants at the guitar solo in the middle - it's short, but oh so sweet. Dark, brilliant.

I love you.

I've recently totally fallen in love with that song. I swear, if they played that during Vertigo tour...

The whole album is criminally underrated, even moreso than Pop I think - Pop at least has a vocal group of admirers (myself included ), October seems to generally be placed at the bottom of everyone's list.

It's a very, very good album. I've only really discovered that in the last couple months. I've always liked it, but now I really really love it.

Gloria really should have been on the Best Of.

 

[starvinmarvin]

October, apart from Gloria, is complete shite. It really is. It's poorly produced, the songwriting is sub-par, and Bono sounds like an idiot sometimes.

 

[Palace_Hero]

October, apart from Gloria, is complete shite. It really is. It's poorly produced, the songwriting is sub-par, and Bono sounds like an idiot sometimes.

Hard to argue with my little African friend.

 

[PopFly]

The inclusion of Another Day and A Celebration would've made this album a lot stronger. It's not awful, but it's not really good, either.

 

[starvinmarvin]

The inclusion of Another Day and A Celebration would've made this album a lot stronger. It's not awful, but it's not really good, either.

It might have been marginally better, but it's still hard to polish a turd, especially one as stinky as October.

The fact that U2 has not played anything on October other than Gloria (and occassonially October, the song) with any regularity since the October tour speaks volumes about their opinion of October.

 

[namkcuR]

It might have been marginally better, but it's still hard to polish a turd, especially one as stinky as October.

The fact that U2 has not played anything on October other than Gloria (and occassonially October, the song) with any regularity since the October tour speaks volumes about their opinion of October.

Firstly, stop using that dumbass can't-polish-a-turd phrase.

Secondly, you have no idea what the band's opinion of the record is. FYI, until AB was released, October was Adam's favorite U2 record. I suspect the band likes all of their own records just fine. And they don't make their setlists based on what their ideal setlist is, they make them based on the best combination they can come up with between what they want to play and what they think people like you want to hear at the concerts. It's not all what they want to play.

Thirdly, October is great record. Is it better than AB? No. JT? No. But it is my personal 5th favorite U2 record at the moment, and eons above HTDAAB. And it didn't need A Celebration or Another Day(which was Boy-Era btw) to make it any better.

 

[MacPhistoPT]

Firstly, stop using that dumbass can't-polish-a-turd phrase.

Secondly, you have no idea what the band's opinion of the record is. FYI, until AB was released, October was Adam's favorite U2 record. I suspect the band likes all of their own records just fine. And they don't make their setlists based on what their ideal setlist is, they make them based on the best combination they can come up with between what they want to play and what they think people like you want to hear at the concerts. It's not all what they want to play.

Thirdly, October is great record. Is it better than AB? No. JT? No. But it is my personal 5th favorite U2 record at the moment, and eons above HTDAAB. And it didn't need A Celebration or Another Day(which was Boy-Era btw) to make it any better.

As I said before October is my 11th album but it doesn't mean that I don't like it. Gloria is the best but it's not the only one.

 

[kiwilad]

Firstly, stop using that dumbass can't-polish-a-turd phrase.

Secondly, you have no idea what the band's opinion of the record is. FYI, until AB was released, October was Adam's favorite U2 record. I suspect the band likes all of their own records just fine. And they don't make their setlists based on what their ideal setlist is, they make them based on the best combination they can come up with between what they want to play and what they think people like you want to hear at the concerts. It's not all what they want to play.

Thirdly, October is great record. Is it better than AB? No. JT? No. But it is my personal 5th favorite U2 record at the moment, and eons above HTDAAB. And it didn't need A Celebration or Another Day(which was Boy-Era btw) to make it any better.

Whoah matey!!
So you DO know how U2 come up with their setlists? Were you in the room? And the band likes all of their records just fine? You asked them? Is it not better than JT and AB? Say's who?

Namk, your opinions are your own, just like starvinmarvin. Let it go!!!



But marvin has raised a point that I wasn't aware of... did they really ditch most of the album in their live sets after the October tour? There are some potential crackers on that album for live U2 emotive stadium rock. Stranger... Tomorrow... I Threw a Brick...

We should get some sort of petition going, that is just criminal.

What I wouldn't give for a 20 hour dvd set of all U2 songs played live, and up to their usual standard!!!

 

[Exit thru Wire]

But marvin has raised a point that I wasn't aware of... did they really ditch most of the album in their live sets after the October tour? There are some potential crackers on that album for live U2 emotive stadium rock. Stranger... Tomorrow... I Threw a Brick...

Not sure if im absolutely right but

'October' songs live after October tour

1. Gloria. Consistently played on all but AB, Pop, Elevation Tours.

2. I Fall Down, War tour regular

3. I threw a brick, War regular

4. Rejoice DROPPED after Octobr tour

5. Fire DROPPED

6. Tomorrow. Never a October tour regular, played a couple of times on War tour

7. October. Played on War, UF, JT tours

8. With a Shout DROPPED midway thru October tour

9. Stranger in a Strange Land. Never played live

10. Scarlet. Never played live

11. Is That All. Never Played Live

So Gloria, October, I Fall Down and I threw a brick survived

Rejoice, Fire, With a Shout were dropped after the tour, tomorrow was a rare live song and the others were never played.

 

[youtooellen]

I love this album.
s'all I can say.

 

[TheQuiet1]

When I first listened to the 'October' album, I didn't like it. So it got left in my CD rack to gather dust. However, a few months afterwards I was having a 'sick of all my records but wanna listen to music' day (dunno if anyone else ever gets those) so I decided to play some of my lesser listened to albums. So I pulled out 'Boy' and 'October'. Imagine how shocked I was when actually listening to 'October' properly for the first time. It was fantastic, nowhere near as bad as I'd expected after reading rather negative comments on the internet. Needless to say, I didn't bother listening to 'Boy' that day 'cos 'October' was so good. I'd admit that, IMHO, it does start to slide as an album after 'October'[the song] but the first half is fantastic, can't praise it highly enough. And 'Fire' is simply amazing, adore the ending.

 

[Joshua_Tree_Hugger]

Gloria is definately one of my most listened to songs at the moment. Apart from that, I really like the song October as well.

Oh and I love "The Cry" riff that is used in this album as well. Always makes me think of Electric Co.

 

[starvinmarvin]

Not sure if im absolutely right but

'October' songs live after October tour

1. Gloria. Consistently played on all but AB, Pop, Elevation Tours.

2. I Fall Down, War tour regular

3. I threw a brick, War regular

4. Rejoice DROPPED after Octobr tour

5. Fire DROPPED

6. Tomorrow. Never a October tour regular, played a couple of times on War tour

7. October. Played on War, UF, JT tours

8. With a Shout DROPPED midway thru October tour

9. Stranger in a Strange Land. Never played live

10. Scarlet. Never played live

11. Is That All. Never Played Live

So Gloria, October, I Fall Down and I threw a brick survived

Rejoice, Fire, With a Shout were dropped after the tour, tomorrow was a rare live song and the others were never played.

These stats only serve to reinforce my original point, which was that U2 doesn't play anything from October except Gloria (and October, the song, until 1988) with any regularity. Yes, they played I Fall Down and I Threw A Brick on the War tour, but that tour was over 20 years ago. These songs haven't been played since.

Don't you think U2 would play songs from October if they liked them? They've brought back obscure material from Boy on this tour, so why not October? The reason is because October hasn't stood the test of time like Boy has.

 

[namkcuR]

These stats only serve to reinforce my original point, which was that U2 doesn't play anything from October except Gloria (and October, the song, until 1988) with any regularity. Yes, they played I Fall Down and I Threw A Brick on the War tour, but that tour was over 20 years ago. These songs haven't been played since.

Don't you think U2 would play songs from October if they liked them? They've brought back obscure material from Boy on this tour, so why not October? The reason is because October hasn't stood the test of time like Boy has.

No, the reason is that the songs on Boy are more easily digestible to the kinds of people that think Vertigo is great rock music. Also, I think they rehearsed some other October songs before the tour started.

 

[starvinmarvin]

No, the reason is that the songs on Boy are more easily digestible to the kinds of people that think Vertigo is great rock music. Also, I think they rehearsed some other October songs before the tour started.

Songs on Boy are more easily digestible the songs on October because October is nauseatingly self-rightous, pompous, and lacks good songwriting. U2 did not rehearse anything from October except Gloria before this tour.

 

[namkcuR]

Oh, and your point about the band not playing the October songs and that therefore meaning the band doesn't like the record is rubbish.

Look at War.

Aside from SBS and NYD, none of its tracks have been played with any regularity since the War tour or maybe the UF tour, unless you count "40".

Look at UF.

Aside from Pride and Bad, TUF and MLK are the only ones to have any kind of regularity and even they haven't been regular in any live set since the late 80s.

That must mean the band doesn't like War or UF either.

Your arguements are pathetic.

 

[starvinmarvin]

Oh, and your point about the band not playing the October songs and that therefore meaning the band doesn't like the record is rubbish.

Look at War.

Aside from SBS and NYD, none of its tracks have been played with any regularity since the War tour or maybe the UF tour, unless you count "40".

Look at UF.

Aside from Pride and Bad, TUF and MLK are the only ones to have any kind of regularity and even they haven't been regular in any live set since the late 80s.

That must mean the band doesn't like War or UF either.

Your arguements are pathetic.

Actions speak louder than words, and you can think U2 loves October all you want to, but the fact remains that they never play any of the songs except Gloria. The reason for this is that OCTOBER IS LOUSY. Play any of it to anyone except diehard Intereference U2 fans, and you will get one of 2 responses - (1) What the fuck is that crap?, or (2) zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......Seriously, many people on this board would by a recording of Bono taking a crap and call it a work of art. It isn't, and you can still be a fan if you admit that something is crap when it is crap.

 

[namkcuR]

Actions speak louder than words, and you can think U2 loves October all you want to, but the fact remains that they never play any of the songs except Gloria. The reason for this is that OCTOBER IS LOUSY. Play any of it to anyone except diehard Intereference U2 fans, and you will get one of 2 responses - (1) What the fuck is that crap?, or (2) zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......Seriously, many people on this board would by a recording of Bono taking a crap and call it a work of art. It isn't, and you can still be a fan if you admit that something is crap when it is crap.

Stop sidestepping and respond to my post. They don't play much from those two record regularly either. Do they not like those records as well? Answer me.

 

[starvinmarvin]

Stop sidestepping and respond to my post. They don't play much from those two record regularly either. Do they not like those records as well? Answer me.

The difference between October and War/UF is that while Gloria is the only song EVER played from October (and infrequently at that!), U2 plays the best songs from UF (Pride and Bad) and War (Sunday Bloody Sunday and New Years Day) ALL THE FUCKING TIME. 40, MLK, and A Sort of Homecoming have also been played live over the years far more than anything from October ever has been.

 

[namkcuR]

The difference between October and War/UF is that while Gloria is the only song EVER played from October (and infrequently at that!), U2 plays the best songs from UF (Pride and Bad) and War (Sunday Bloody Sunday and New Years Day) ALL THE FUCKING TIME. 40, MLK, and A Sort of Homecoming have also been played live over the years far more than anything from October ever has been.

I don't neccessarily think Pride is one of the two best songs on UF, but I digress.

The bottom line here is that neither you nor I know what U2 thinks of October. What you say about U2 not liking October is speculation. When I say that Adam's favorite U2 record until AB was released was October, that's a fact that I know others here have read too. That doesn't seem like 'not liking' the record. But like I said, neither of us know for sure. The difference is, I don't claim to know for sure. You do. Because your opinion is always fact.