So Cruel: Worst U2 Song Ever!!!

[youtooellen]

i admit, at first when i heard 'so cruel' i despised it.
honestly... i didn't like AB at all at the time

but i came back to AB a month later and listened to it and 'so cruel' struck me in awe. how bono makes such images with simple words, his poetic talent describing edge's emotions, the rhythmic drum beat, the beating bass, the endless piano...

i fell in love with it the second time i heard it.

we all have our own unique tastes in music and genres, and i suppose 'so cruel' just doesn't blend well with yours. but i hope you give 'so cruel' another chance because IMO it is an incredible song.

 

[schnazdoodle]

Me likey... I love it...

 

[VintagePunk]

"I'm only hanging on...to watch you go down...my love."

Perhaps one of the most bitter lines every written. I get chills every time I hear it. The song is lyrically brilliant. I expect that brilliance is easier to recognize if you've been there, yourself.

 

[Sken]

So Cruel

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

I was posting my reaction to his opinion, which was shit. "Tit for tat" as they say.

oh so it was your opinion which makes it okay to post such a picture? nope, sorry.

 

[jacobus]

SO CRUEL is beautiful like all the other songs on their BEST ALBUM

i don't like Sweetest Thing at all, what a shitty song that is...despite of all the iluveeyoubabe...sorrysweetheart crap

 

[lesallimc]

Love, hate, codependency, separation, hanging on, letting go, saving someone else, saving yourself...

A brilliant song addressing all of the paradoxes of a love gone wrong.

Desperation IS a tender trap, it get's you every time.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

One of my fav U2 songs of all time.

 

[Meghan]

I'm all for freedom of speech and expression of opinions and the right to have an opinion, but not when it comes to one of my six star songs!
Leave So Cruel alone!!

Aahh-whoooooo-ooooohhh Love,
To stay with you, I'd be a fool,
Aahh-whoooooo-ooooohhh Love,
Sweetheart, You're so cruel...

 

[Zoomerang96]

The lyrics suck (well, mostly), the melody is bland and doesn't go anywhere, etc. etc. And I just hate it.

i've seen your posts around here, and they're ripe for the picking of an intelligent person (such as myself and a few others), to be thoroughly humiliated. this proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt that your opinions are laughable at best.

i honestly cannot believe how ridiculous some u2 fans are. it's obsene, like my spelling, except worse.

 

[Zoomerang96]

Here's how to 'get' So Cruel.

1) Go over to your CD player

2) Eject Achtung Baby

3) Insert HTDAAB

4) Enjoy contemporary radio playlist friendly hooks that could come from one of a hundred bands. Marvel at the lyrics that a 2nd grader understands on the first listen, and have a similar emotional depth to your average Tom Hanks movie. Be continually gobsmacked at how the music has absolutely no relation to the subject or story being told. Listen in wonder to the production that has pushed all catchy noise to the front, to the point of barely being able to separate sounds, and all delicacy waaaaay to the back. Enjoy the non-existent flow of either music or ideas, giving it the incredible feel of a compilation album.

5) Leave Achtung Baby on the shelf for 10 years.

6) In 2015 return to AB, press play.

7) Enjoy what was then, and still would be if released now, an amazing sonic display almost entirely unique to that album. Marvel at lyrics that will forever continue to twist in your mind and release new meaning and understanding as you grow older and experience more in your own life. Be continually gobsmacked at how the music never fails to perfectly tell the story as a perfect mirror to the lyrics (imagine taking away the vocal all together, and left with an instrumental track alone there's a journey to be had with each and every track - try doing that with Crumbs, or Original or Miracle Drug or anything of that album). Listen in wonder to the near perfect production (certainly for 1991) and the depth of it, the subtle noises winding around in the background, bouncing to the front at just the right moments. Enjoy listening to it from beginning to end and let yourself be completely taken away, from the opening thumping bravado of Zoo Station to the sad closing prayer of Love Is Blindness.

One day, I promise you, So Cruel will make you feel like you've been shot in the heart.

i could cry, that was so beautiful. everything in this post is right...especially when you talk about how lame bono's lyrics have become these days. indeed, to think that someone made a thread about how bad so cruel's lyrics are is simply unacceptable.

if so cruel's lyrics deserve to be called poor, then almost everything bono's ever done certainly can too. and i wouldn't agree with that in a million years.

 

[MumblingBono]

I agree with Earnie Shavers.

Don't want to simply bash HTDAAB, but if you compare the "secondary" ballads of the 2 records, 'So Cruel' and 'One Step Closer', you get a pretty good indication of how far they've fallen off from their pinnacle.

 

[BONO'ppetit]

Anybody else agree?

Not me. I love this song.

 

[gareth brown]

To quote beloved film critic and "Raisenette" hawker Roger Ebert, I hated this song. Hated hated hated hated hated it. It's the only black spot on an otherwise great album.

I can understand the "evil", "dark" undertones that Dan says So Cruel was influenced by, and it does segue well into The Fly...but besides that, it's awful. The lyrics suck (well, mostly), the melody is bland and doesn't go anywhere, etc. etc. And I just hate it.

Anybody else agree? Just stating my opinion!

See you later!

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

I'm all for freedom of speech and expression of opinions and the right to have an opinion, but not when it comes to one of my six star songs!

that's a nice outlook to have: i'm open-minded so long as people agree with me.

i honestly can't believe how personally so many of you have taken this. it's a freakin SONG. bono's not going to pat you on the back for defending it. you'd honestly think the op had said he liked to kick puppies. this thread is beyond done.