SOE 23 - Return of the Trolls

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Most definitely! We can all debate the merits of ATYCLB and HTDAAB until we're blue in the face, but the fact remains; the launch and continued promotion of these records were things of beauty! As far as doing what it took in the early/mid 00s to have a hit record and keep it in the charts for well over a year... NAILED IT.

Then along came NLOTH, and a high school economics class could've come up with a better strategy then what was actually executed. What they did was basically smack everybody over the head, repeatedly, with mediocre material like Boots and Magnificent. Take over BBC, take over Letterman, appear on every awards shows with a stupid song like Boots, etc. It was no surprise to me at all that the album flopped, while the tour was a runaway success.

With SOI, they took a gamble, and they lost... big time.
Magnificent is mediocre ???! Man, that song is a classic. U2
 
Holy crap, skipped this thread for 6 days and had 36 pages to catch up on. Is it time for me to drive up to Detroit yet?
 
Holy crap, skipped this thread for 6 days and had 36 pages to catch up on. Is it time for me to drive up to Detroit yet?



My thinking is 75% chance a new song is debuted.

New single is imminent by all accounts.
Marketing is starting for this/these singles
Detroit show is on 9/3 and that would likely be only a week AT MOST from the new single being released
U2 has an audience of ~50k to debut new material to...why wouldn't they take advantage.

It also wouldn't shock me if they opened the show with a new song (they did it on 360...although ROTSG was never released and turned into lucifers hands)
 
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My thinking is 75% chance a new song is debuted.

New single is imminent by all accounts.
Marketing is starting for this/these singles
Detroit show is on 9/3 and that would likely be only a week AT MOST from the new single being released
U2 has an audience of ~50k to debut new material to...why wouldn't they take advantage.

It also wouldn't shock me if they opened the show with a new song (they did it on 360...although ROTSG was never released and turned into lucifers hands)



I feel like this is just wishful thinking. There is no way they want the first listens to their new single to be dodgy iPhone videos.

If they are sticking with 8 sept (which I do t really understand given the tour schedule), then I'd say little to no chance it is played before then.

There are 50k fans no matter which night it debuts.

Re opening song - is say less chance then the song debuting in Detroit. They have a narrative they have formed, and SBS has opened every show.
 
Yeah, I don't see the set changing much. The new song will come into the encore once it's out there - streaming, radio, whatever's first. But no sooner.
 
"You don't know how beautiful " which I guess is the chorus after listening to it again. I always thought the repeating "get on your boots" was the chorus. The song is just clunky as all hell. If the "beautiful " piece is the chorus it's sad (I think) the chorus of all things ruins the pacing.



It's more of a pre-chorus.
 
No doubt the U2 promotional juggernaut has been a ship without proper direction for most of the last 10+ years. What's crazy is how desperate they seem to be... they want to be cool, relevant, cutting edge, adventurous, exciting and surprising and comforting and classic all at the same time. They want to please the old time fans and get the new kids too. They want to be everywhere on TV/radio and at the same time appear artistic. All while being the 'band with a conscience' or whatever the hell it is they aspire to politically/socially.

Realistically they can't have all that and so they should focus on what they can be at their best. Drop the need for a 'hit' single and give us something unexpected. Stay true to what they have done at their best.

It sounds like we may get this based on early reviews but who knows what can be trusted nowadays. We'll see soon enough.
 
I guess I always thought most people found Magnificent kind of boring. Guess I was wrong, everybody's tastes are different. To my ears, I just found it to be rather MEH even upon my first listening. However, I think "Crazy Tonight" gets too much hate around here, so maybe I'm just all kinds of fucked up on this. :)

I can see the new single (Blackout or Best Thing... not both) showing up periodically at some of the JT shows this fall. But once the single is released, I still don't believe they'll play it every night. Especially when they get down to South America.
 
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