Rate the Song: Cedars of Lebanon

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Cedars of Lebanon


  • Total voters
    59
  • Poll closed .

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ONE love, blood, life
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Believe it or not, today we begin voting on our last round of album tracks, from the second half of No Line on the Horizon!

Please rate Cedars of Lebanon on a scale from 0 to 10, using whatever criteria you feel allows you to best evaluate the song as a whole. I will not set criteria for people to based on, but if you feel like your best evaluation of the merits of a song comes from voting only based on, say, the studio version, go right ahead and vote that way. Full information on the Rate The Song series may be found in this thread.

Have fun! This poll will close in 96 hours.
 
This, along with the title track, are the two that made me sit up and take notice when I first heard the album.

I love that it's different, a bit experimental (for U2), love the use of Bono's lower register, love its sparseness, and love that the lyrics are a character telling a story.
 
8. I really like this track. This song represented the U2 I wanted on every track on NLOTH.
 
I've stated it in other threads... maybe there's an interesting story or set of lyrics here, but it doesn't make up a good song. I'm not necessarily against spoken-word tracks or stuff with a lackluster instrumentation, but there doesn't appear to be anything else to make up for that stuff here.

The band's had some decent closers in the past, but this isn't one of them. "Gonna last with you longer than your friends" sort of sends out NLOTH on a whimper, which isn't exactly a good thing. 0.
 
This song shows once again that the best closing songs on U2 albums are the dark, unsettling ones (read: Wake Up Dead Man and Love Is Blindness). 9
 
Nice. Like Fez, a taste of the NLOTH that might have been. Among the records best lyrics, along with some of the its most creative production.

You can tell Bono put some thought into this one, as he seems to all U2 album closers. I like to think Songs of Ascent might have gone something like this.

8.
 
The lyric is definitely strong. And I like the tone of it.

Other than that, I don't know, not a favorite. It succeeds at what it set out to do, but I just don't find myself very excited about the track as a whole. Not bad by any means, and it has aspects that I dig.

I think it's either a 6 or a 7 for me.
 
Surreal to think that a song as sublime as this is on the same album as stand up comedy.
best album closer since WUDM.
Even samples my favourite ever ambient record, the Pearl.
10
 
This song is really hard for me to score- one one hand, I get it, it's interesting, it's done well, it has some powerful lyrics, it's experimental. But on the other hand, nothing about it connects with me. I don't like the spoken lyrics (although don't mind that on other songs, like "Oh Berlin,") the sparse music puts me to sleep, the storyline is so specific that I can't relate to it.

I guess I don't like it, but I do have respect for it. I gotta go with my gut on this one- I've voted all of the other songs based on whether I like them or not, so using that reasoning, I'm going with 4, and a strong handshake.
 
But on the other hand, nothing about it connects with me...the storyline is so specific that I can't relate to it.

This is really valid criticism of this song, and while I like the song better than you do, I see, and agree with, what you're saying here. U2 has other songs about specific subjects that still manage to maintain a universality about them; Cedars really doesn't. Though I do like and appreciate it for what it is.
 
:yawn:


Sadly the only song on NLOTH that I never connected to. I love the album, but for me it would've been better without Cedars, and with NLOTH2 in that slot.
 
One of the best narratives Bono has written in a long time. I gave it an 8, but I am already feeling that I underrated it.

the storyline is so specific that I can't relate to it.

I think Bono fearing this sort of reaction is why he took a nosedive as a lyricist following Pop IMO. :shrug: Generic, all-encompassing lyrics that ultimately mean nothing have become a lot more common than intriguing compositions like this one. Many great literary works have universal themes buried in allegories, and this track has a character with a misanthropic streak confronting what he feels is wrong with humanity, his profession, etc. while exiled in Lebanon. It's interesting, it's a gamble. I completely approve of it.
 
Many great literary works have universal themes buried in allegories, and this track has a character with a misanthropic streak confronting what he feels is wrong with humanity, his profession, etc. while exiled in Lebanon.

Right, I get your point- probably what I love best about Bono as a lyricist is his ability to write things that are very specific to him, but to also write them in a way that people can universally resonate with them. One, Streets, Bad, Lemon, among many others, I consider to be in that category, and post-Pop, whether you think the lyrics are any good or not, Walk On, OOTS, SYCMIOYO, and Moment of Surrender also fit in that category, IMO.

I can enjoy a novel or a movie or whatever that is written about a very specific subject matter, but it won't necessarily move me emotionally unless I can see myself in it in some way, even abstractly. For example, I've never been in the trenches of a war, but Saving Private Ryan was emotionally so powerful because of the human stories woven into it. The setting was just a backdrop for the human drama. For me, Cedars is more setting, and the drama doesn't come through so much. For me, something is missing. However, someone who has lived some part of this story, in whatever form, would really connect with it and find a lot of power and emotion within it.

It's interesting, it's a gamble. I completely approve of it.

I agree with you. It is interesting. It is a gamble, which I love to see. I really respect it, I just don't like it. But it's awesome that you do. :up:
 
10

Best closer since Love is Blindness. Simple, ambient, minimalist, moody. A song where the spoken word delivery works perfectly, the abstract—Zooropa-esque background reflects the chaotic, isolated life lead by the protagonist, and the haunting chorus echoes in your mind long after the song is finished.

"Gonna last with you longer than your friends..." Can't think of a better way to close off No Line On The Horizon. It's a perfect bookend to the stark, bleak album cover as well as the photography within the book.
 
Right, I get your point- probably what I love best about Bono as a lyricist is his ability to write things that are very specific to him, but to also write them in a way that people can universally resonate with them. One, Streets, Bad, Lemon, among many others, I consider to be in that category, and post-Pop, whether you think the lyrics are any good or not, Walk On, OOTS, SYCMIOYO, and Moment of Surrender also fit in that category, IMO.

I can enjoy a novel or a movie or whatever that is written about a very specific subject matter, but it won't necessarily move me emotionally unless I can see myself in it in some way, even abstractly. For example, I've never been in the trenches of a war, but Saving Private Ryan was emotionally so powerful because of the human stories woven into it. The setting was just a backdrop for the human drama. For me, Cedars is more setting, and the drama doesn't come through so much. For me, something is missing. However, someone who has lived some part of this story, in whatever form, would really connect with it and find a lot of power and emotion within it.


I agree with you. It is interesting. It is a gamble, which I love to see. I really respect it, I just don't like it. But it's awesome that you do. :up:


No problem with anything you wrote, at all. If you can't place yourself in the shoes of the protagonist, you can't connect with the emotions the setting provokes.

Basically, I just used a perfectly respectable negative comment as a springboard to bag on Bono. :lol: But that's how it is when you see one of your heroes make a big lyrical comeback; you get very defensive of those sparks you find. NLOTH is full of amazing (and terrible) lyrical moments, and I think he's only an album from regaining his consistency.
 
Love the themes in play here, great lines throughout ("the best of us are geniuses of compression" is my favorite). The haunting "Return the call to home" is note perfect. On this record, Bono has proved himself to be very adroit in writing in character, and Cedars is his best stab at it. A very brave way to close the album, and kudos to them. 10
 
This might be my favorite song on the album. Like cori, this and the title track made me sit up and take notice. It's just so brilliantly evocative of the time and place (and character), and I find everything about it executed extremely well and, frankly, better than I expected U2 to execute this kind of song at this stage in their career. This could very well have been another One Step Closer, but everything came together - the ambient-ish instrumentation, the lyric, the vocal performance(s). I wouldn't mind U2 using this song as a springboard for an entire album in the same vein.
 
This song to me seems like a really big lyrical reach for Bono... and I think it works.
 
LemonMelon said:
I just used a perfectly respectable negative comment as a springboard to bag on Bono. :lol: But that's how it is when you see one of your heroes make a big lyrical comeback; you get very defensive of those sparks you find. NLOTH is full of amazing (and terrible) lyrical moments, and I think he's only an album from regaining his consistency.

:lol: too true, I'm with you there!
 
Strong lyrics, very tranquil and beautiful track. One of my favorite album closers, to be honest. Bono's lyrics are great, but it's my least favorite on NLOTH. 7.
 
corianderstem said:
I love the ending - it's unsettling, even maybe a little menacing.

:yes: i love the little bass loop right after "where are you in the cedars of Lebanon" line right before the last line :up:

I remember reading the lyric before hearing the song thinking it sounded lame but it works so well.
 
This might be my favorite song on the album. Like cori, this and the title track made me sit up and take notice. It's just so brilliantly evocative of the time and place (and character), and I find everything about it executed extremely well and, frankly, better than I expected U2 to execute this kind of song at this stage in their career. This could very well have been another One Step Closer, but everything came together - the ambient-ish instrumentation, the lyric, the vocal performance(s). I wouldn't mind U2 using this song as a springboard for an entire album in the same vein.

yep yep yep :up:

Maybe my favourite too. Music, lyrics, delivery, it's all just brilliant. 10
 
nice work :up:

agree with Cori too re. the ending - somewhat discomforting, and menacing, yeah... uneasy
 
This could very well have been another One Step Closer, but everything came together - the ambient-ish instrumentation, the lyric, the vocal performance(s).

That's because Eno has his fingerprints all over this song (unlike the weak One Step Closer). Hell, part of of the beginning is sampled directly from the beginning of "Against the Sky" with Harold Budd.

Recognise anything? :)

Against the Sky (Eno & Budd)
 
I absolutely love this song. The story behind the lyrics is interesting, and the closing lyrics have been my motto since the song come out. 9.
 
The most perfectly captured song on the album. The highlight of the entire record. A lyrical treat. Musically intense.

This is, indeed, the kind of track that Eno does his best work on. (He does his worst on the 'rock and roll' tracks.)
 
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