SOE 21 - It comes down to this...

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I still really like SOI, especially the 2nd half. I know it's not daring or any new territory, but my opinion has always been that the songs are good, and that's what matters. Wish Invisible and Crystal Ballroom were on the album though.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_of_Innocence_(U2_album)

In August 2010, reports indicated that U2 were working on three separate album projects. These were purported to be: a traditional rock album produced by Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton; a dance-centric album produced by David Guetta, RedOne, and will.i.am; and the meditative material comprising Songs of Ascent. When the U2 360° Tour resumed that month, the group debuted several unreleased tracks live, including "Every Breaking Wave". In October 2010, Bono said that U2's new album would be produced by Burton, and that 12 songs had been completed, while McGuinness said it was slated for an early 2011 release. The band continued to make "great progress" on the record in January 2011 working with Burton in New York.

The following month, McGuinness said that the album was almost complete and had a tentative release date of May 2011, although he noted that Songs of Ascent was no longer the likely title. The Songs of Ascent project ultimately did not come to fruition and has not been released; its evolution and apparent abandonment are examined in the book The Greatest Albums You'll Never Hear. Bassist Adam Clayton said, "We thought there was more material left over from No Line... we now feel a long way from that material." The dance-centric album was ultimately aborted as well; Clayton said, "The work we did with RedOne was very, very exciting. But again, I'm not sure it was the essence of what U2 is good at... we have to do what we do best and we have to focus on that, and the work we did with Danger Mouse came closest to that." Guetta clarified that he was not involved in the dance project and had only discussed a possible collaboration with Bono.
 
Yep - really hoping for something cohesive

Mind you, HTDAAB is pretty cohesive sonically, save for the jarring Vertigo > Miracle Drug transition. Otherwise just a little uneven

So, fingers crossed for a cohesive and consistent SOE

Hmmmm... I always felt, and it seemed the consensus around here, that the strength of SOI was its consistency. If we look at the 2000's work, for me, it's as consistent or more so than ATYCLB, but that album still had some pretty weak songs, POE, Grace, Wild Honey... and for me, Stuck.
Walk On was always kind of bland for me as well.

HTDAAB was pretty consistent, but i found it consistently mediocre. Miracle Drug, SYCMIOYO, Man and Woman, Crumbs, Yahweh, are all pretty flat.

No Line, had great highs and disastrous lows, very uneven.

SOI, is the first album since POP that I don't skip anything all the time. Sometimes SFS or Reach, i will skip past, but other than that, i feel it is consistently good to great.

If SOE can keep consistency and hit a few more high marks than SOI, i will be very pleased.

Your comment earlier that there are only being a couple "raw" tracks is sorta dissapointing to hear. "Heartfelt" can often be my least favorite U2. They can get a bit too schmaltzy and cheesy in that territory (at least post 2000). Love the darker tones of SLABT, RBW, The Troubles, etc...
 
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Sometimes i wish they would do the stuff that they feel they AREN'T good at. They seem to think this, "getting back to songwriting" "doing songs we can play acoustically" business is where they need to be, but i think it leads them to some mediocre stuff.
I think we can all agree that we would love to see them push some boundaries ala Zooropa/POP again. Sad to read these kind of comments really.
 
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I still really like SOI, especially the 2nd half. I know it's not daring or any new territory, but my opinion has always been that the songs are good, and that's what matters. Wish Invisible and Crystal Ballroom were on the album though.

God yes. I'm not a huge fan of Invisible, but it is a strong song that has grown on me quite a bit. In my opinion, if TCB and Invisible had replaced SFS and Reach, it would be a damn near perfect album for me.
 
^^^I think 'Reach' is one of the best on the album.


Still think it should have opened the 2nd night of the IE Tour vs playing Miracle both nights.
 
^^^I think 'Reach' is one of the best on the album.


Still think it should have opened the 2nd night of the IE Tour vs playing Miracle both nights.

Yeah, theres a lot of love for Reach around here. It's alright, not a bad song, and better than other "bad" songs on previous 2000's albums for sure. That's why i find SOI so consistent. Even the weaker songs IMO are still pretty good.
 
If you are replacing 2 songs on SOI, SFS is a definite, but Reach Around is not even a consideration.

It's a decent song. Would rather they would have added TCB and maybe Invisible to the album. But Reach still falls in the bottom 3 songs for me. I think mostly i get annoyed with the guitar tone and why the hell they used the Theremin sound instead of Edge playing some cool guitar in its place.
 
So I went and was listening to SOI songs on youtube while i work, and it's really interesting to read the comments. People love these songs, and most comments are about how they finally are doing good work again after the blandness of the last few albums before SOI.
ie. Comment about SLABT - "This is the best U2 song in 20 years. It's the return of miserable, fucked up U2 of the mid-to-late 90s"

Also surprising how many people post how they were so happy that the album ended up on their phone and they gave it a listen and really liked it.

one of the funniest ones - "I found this song because I accidentally pressed the song thing on my alarm" LOL

What a difference some time makes. Also how many people listened to the Troubles because of the walking dead ad. They would be smart to try a tie in like that again, hopefully, actually played prominently within an episode of a popular (yet cool) show.
It seems to always be better when people hear a cool U2 song and go check it out, but don't actually SEE the band, like the Apple/Miracle commercial.
Let's be honest, sometimes they are annoying to look at. :wink::D
 
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I want them to push the boundaries but i can never imagine U2 going full-on EDM. Pop was definitely a result of heavy influence from dance music but they turned it to something great.
 
Songs of Innocence is such a weird album for me.

When it came out, I probably listened to it once a day for about a four months straight. I absolutely loved it.

I don't go back to any of those songs though, barring Iris and Raised By Wolves. Which is a shame because I still think it's a very tight album, I just don't have any desire to return to it.
 
I want them to push the boundaries but i can never imagine U2 going full-on EDM. Pop was definitely a result of heavy influence from dance music but they turned it to something great.

Yeah, I know that boundary pushing of the 90's is not really even possible anymore. But it doesn't always have to be that drastic.
If you look at each time they have pushed into new territory, it's been great -
UF, JT, AB, Zoo, POP, a lot of the great material on NLOTH...
In a way they pushed a bit on SOI in that there was some songs with some fresh sound and style to them like California, RBW, Reach, even The Troubles and SLABT a bit, although they could have fit in some of their 90's work.

I just don't think they are ever at their best when they do the "back to basics" focus on doing "what we do best" sort of thing. If they had that mindset in 84 or 87 or 91, or 97, etc... we would have never had the greatness that they created.
 
I am sure I'm in the minority here but I really like SFS....

Well, key phrase being "on here." Song For Someone was liked by a number of people out there... including Simon Le Bon from Duran Duran...

Well my favourite track on @U2's Songs of Innocence is "Song For Someone". It's the kind of thing I wish DD'd written.

... and Peter King from Sports Illustrated.

f. Great cross-country writing music: "Songs of Innocence," the most recent effort by U2. “Song For Someone" is the hidden gem of the album.

It might've been my least favorite on the first listens, but it grew on me a tad after seeing it live the following summer. Helps that it uses the fairly common E-B-F#-G#m progression.
 
Well, go ahead and knock yourself out. But my point was that it seemed to be a song that would be brought up by random people as a highlight from the album. (or dare I say an actual song for someone?, ammirite?!?!?)

.....................

.... I'll just see myself out now.
 
The best thing about SOI was not knowing any of the songs ahead of time. Song leaks can ruin the fun, but are unavoidable when you're a die hard fan. The #1 thing I want from SOE. No leaks. Just give me the album so I can just take it all in at once.
 
Unlikely. He was probably there to talk e/i


Given that EI will be an arena tour and an Australian arena tour is all but out of the question, it's just as likely they'd be rethinking whether to bring JT30 here.

I'd like to be wrong, because an arena tour would be amazing, but it strikes me Coppel would've been sizing up JT30.
 
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