SOE 28 - This is Meaningless. We're not getting anything newsworthy for a while

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Lol I have to laugh at all the complaints about song titles! If a song is great, I couldnt care less what it's called. It could be called Dog Shit but if it's great, who cares?? Let's not judge until we hear the actual songs lol.
 
I don't mind the 'Much More Better" title at all.

I'm thinking of it this way- it was a pretty terrible accident. He had to have been shook up about it. Between recovering psychologically from it, the rehab, what ever mix of pain and possibly other shorter term medications; to me it would make perfect sense that someone could have asked him "hey, bono, how are you doing today?" And that was his reply. Because at times you can get jumbled up with all that goes on in a serious recovery from a serious injury (I've had 2 nasty ones).
Even if he didn't say that exactly to me it sounds like something one might say under those conditions.
 
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Lol I have to laugh at all the complaints about song titles! If a song is great, I couldnt care less what it's called. It could be called Dog Shit but if it's great, who cares?? Let's not judge until we hear the actual songs lol.

Much More Better is really pushing it though lol
 
That's exactly the kind of title someone who says "today is going be the best day ever!" or whatever Bono's line is would think is great.
 
Yeah, go take any of his dodgy repeated soundbites since 2000 voila a whole double album worth of song titles: includes the (well not really) hits The Idea Of America (it's Not Just A Country), Very Good (Is the Enemy Of Great) and Three Bad Shots (And Yer Out)...
 
Lol I have to laugh at all the complaints about song titles! If a song is great, I couldnt care less what it's called. It could be called Dog Shit but if it's great, who cares?? Let's not judge until we hear the actual songs lol.

Definitely. I've seen plenty of titles that made me scratch my head, but ultimately ended up loving in the end. It's all going to be in the song itself.
 
Much More Better sounds like a phrase that my family would have used growing up. Kind of an in-joke of sorts.

I imagine Ali, or Eve or whoever asking Bono, post-accident, "How are you feeling?" To, at some point along the way, started replying, "Much more better!"

It doesn't necessarily justify anything in regards to how clunky the title is (hopefully the song isn't), but I can give it a pass.
 
Just thinking about the backlash towards U2 in the other thread, and my thoughts are that the increasing prevalence of social media from the mid 2000s onwards and the vast exposure of Bono, in amongst controversies such as tax affairs, etc, has really done it for them more so than the music.

The music isn't great because there's an incessant need to be popular and that has placed the band in a musical straitjacket culminating in MOR blandness, and when you have a very unpopular frontman pushing quite mediocre songs like The Miracle or You're The Best Thing, then that is simply going to increase irritant levels.

It's a massive shame providing the great music that Bono has provided us, but I do wish they would all take a back step musically and personally. It's constantly harming their reputation to the point that people are quite simply pissed off.
 
One of the worst aspects of modern U2 is how high Bono's vocals are in the mix of recent albums, and just how much he dominates songs, without allowing space for the music to breathe. I was listening to Pop recently, and it's a fantastic record, and Bono's vocals are lower in the mix, making it so much moodier and grimy. But there's an incredible introspection attached to the lyrics which gives it even more intrigue.

Of late, his vocal performances are more of a man who makes sure as hell he will be heard, but doesn't actually have much to say.

If The Fly was released today, he'd probably be 'wooahing' over The Edge's guitar solo. It's a constant pulverising of cut and paste lung bursting choruses that lack depth, when in reality, he needs to take a back step and show more restraint, and more emphasis on the lyrics rather than the generic melodies he is hellbent on writing.
 
Much More Better sounds like a phrase that my family would have used growing up. Kind of an in-joke of sorts.

I imagine Ali, or Eve or whoever asking Bono, post-accident, "How are you feeling?" To, at some point along the way, started replying, "Much more better!"

It doesn't necessarily justify anything in regards to how clunky the title is (hopefully the song isn't), but I can give it a pass.

Yeah, I always read it as intentionally tongue-in-cheek. I don't know why some people are up in arms about it. Same goes for the "happen a boy" lyric in TBT, even after it's been explained as an Irish colloquialism people are still complaining.

The band has many other faults to talk about instead of dwelling on these minor infractions.

Such as:

One of the worst aspects of modern U2 is how high Bono's vocals are in the mix of recent albums, and just how much he dominates songs, without allowing space for the music to breathe. I was listening to Pop recently, and it's a fantastic record, and Bono's vocals are lower in the mix, making it so much moodier and grimy. But there's an incredible introspection attached to the lyrics which gives it even more intrigue.

Of late, his vocal performances are more of a man who makes sure as hell he will be heard, but doesn't actually have much to say.

If The Fly was released today, he'd probably be 'wooahing' over The Edge's guitar solo. It's a constant pulverising of cut and paste lung bursting choruses that lack depth, when in reality, he needs to take a back step and show more restraint, and more emphasis on the lyrics rather than the generic melodies he is hellbent on writing.

Can't really argue with any of this analysis, aside from Bono not having much to say. On some songs, yes, there are empty platitudes but there are still a fair number that have great lyrics, particularly the character work on No Line and in the more descriptive autobiographical songs on SOI.
 
One of the worst aspects of modern U2 is how high Bono's vocals are in the mix of recent albums, and just how much he dominates songs, without allowing space for the music to breathe. I was listening to Pop recently, and it's a fantastic record, and Bono's vocals are lower in the mix, making it so much moodier and grimy. But there's an incredible introspection attached to the lyrics which gives it even more intrigue.

Of late, his vocal performances are more of a man who makes sure as hell he will be heard, but doesn't actually have much to say.

If The Fly was released today, he'd probably be 'wooahing' over The Edge's guitar solo. It's a constant pulverising of cut and paste lung bursting choruses that lack depth, when in reality, he needs to take a back step and show more restraint, and more emphasis on the lyrics rather than the generic melodies he is hellbent on writing.

I agree hugely with both your posts.

I listened to 3 U2 albums today - Achtung Baby, which was amazing, ATYCLB, which was amazing, and NLOTH.... which I didn't enjoy at all. They don't make 'em like they used to.

I do think that YTBTAM is slightly underrated however though. I thought The Miracle was HORRIBLE, even worse than GOYB actually. But I actually like YTBTAM aside from the 'a boy' lyric.
 
One of the worst aspects of modern U2 is how high Bono's vocals are in the mix of recent albums, and just how much he dominates songs, without allowing space for the music to breathe. I was listening to Pop recently, and it's a fantastic record, and Bono's vocals are lower in the mix, making it so much moodier and grimy. But there's an incredible introspection attached to the lyrics which gives it even more intrigue.

Of late, his vocal performances are more of a man who makes sure as hell he will be heard, but doesn't actually have much to say.

If The Fly was released today, he'd probably be 'wooahing' over The Edge's guitar solo. It's a constant pulverising of cut and paste lung bursting choruses that lack depth, when in reality, he needs to take a back step and show more restraint, and more emphasis on the lyrics rather than the generic melodies he is hellbent on writing.

He used to be integrated into the mix, now he floats above it. Doing Achtung and SOI back to back is jarring.
 
We can't really blame U2 TOO much for putting Bono upfront in the mix. It's an industry issue with production. Even when working with his old school pals on records like NLOTH that's where they went. The onslaught of the MP3 has much to blame for this.
 
I agree hugely with both your posts.

I listened to 3 U2 albums today - Achtung Baby, which was amazing, ATYCLB, which was amazing

If you're going to put these two albums in the same category, it's hard to take the rest of your post seriously.

At least No Line shows them stretching and exploring. Maybe not to the extent as with Achtung Baby, but it's still more about creativity than craft. ATYCLB was specifically meant to be about craft (more focus on writing than recording) and that's just not the band at their best.
 
One of the worst aspects of modern U2 is how high Bono's vocals are in the mix of recent albums

Agree 100%. But I'd go further and say there is more going wrong here than just the mixing.

Bono's singing style is all wrong. There are too many songs these days with forced and over the top vocals. When Bono sings this way his voice sounds screechy and horrible. Contrast with a song like This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now where he sings within himself. This style is much more befitting his abilities these days.

Coincidentally, if he did sing within himself then there would also be more room for the music and perhaps Edge could play some solos again.
 
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If you're going to put these two albums in the same category, it's hard to take the rest of your post seriously.

At least No Line shows them stretching and exploring. Maybe not to the extent as with Achtung Baby, but it's still more about creativity than craft. ATYCLB was specifically meant to be about craft (more focus on writing than recording) and that's just not the band at their best.



No line explores a tiny only on a few songs but it's a terrible album give me atyclb any day of week
 
I agree hugely with both your posts.

I listened to 3 U2 albums today - Achtung Baby, which was amazing, ATYCLB, which was amazing, and NLOTH.... which I didn't enjoy at all. They don't make 'em like they used to.

I do think that YTBTAM is slightly underrated however though. I thought The Miracle was HORRIBLE, even worse than GOYB actually. But I actually like YTBTAM aside from the 'a boy' lyric.

I agree with all of your comments except ' Miracle is worse than GYOB ' comment.
 
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