SOE 35 - it’s finally here, let the debate on how good/bad it is begin!

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Definitely hearing Million Dollar Hotel atmospherics here. Just heard it twice, so have not formed a concrete impression yet. So far loving the slick production. Lyrically strong like most of the album, like how they stuck with the book metaphor.

There's a guitar line - I think in the chorus. Nothing fancy, like he's playing it on one string with his old 1987 gear/sound. Just sounds like it could be an outtake from Joshua Tree. The song itself is new and creative and not really derivative that I can see. But that guitar line just sounds so... U2y. Love it.

Edit: it's the second chorus/solo
 
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My analysis is based on SOI since it was announced because SOI is a pivotal album. And all I can say about SOE is heavily related with my impression about SOI. SOI is, in fact, a double album: the first half in a safe, traditional environment (EBW might be the exception if you want) and the second half (plus bonus songs) in a new environment.
For me, the 2nd half of SOI ranks at the top of their career along with AB or JT. In 20 years when we hear it again it will sound even better.

My expectation for SOE was the band following that 2nd path. I got a bit nervous reading some reviews and hearing Get out and American Soul (which I like, btw).

After hearing SOE half a dozen times I'm overwhelmed. Blackout, Little Things and Best Thing all are very good but the best news is that Get Out and American Soul are not representative of the album. Lights Go Home, Summer of Love, Showman, Landlady and Red Flag Day are so beautifully composed and produced that it's impossible to connect them with that "famous" SOI 2nd half.

It's really unique that a 40-year old band of nearly 60-year old guys have such an ambition at this stage - and even more when we see they hit what they were looking for.

Yesterday I heard this album really loud on a nice large room and it's wonderful how this songs fill the space. Truly amazing.

It's certainly their best work since POP (sidenote, POP is my 2nd favourite) and along with the sequence from Raised by Wolves to Crystal Ballroom from SOI it's U2 delivering some of their best songs in the whole career.

Of course they won't conquer the world again nor these songs will have a huge impact live because 90% of people going to their shows are just looking for the classical tunes. But that won't change anything at all in this songs' relevance and quality.
 
My analysis is based on SOI since it was announced because SOI is a pivotal album. And all I can say about SOE is heavily related with my impression about SOI. SOI is, in fact, a double album: the first half in a safe, traditional environment (EBW might be the exception if you want) and the second half (plus bonus songs) in a new environment.
For me, the 2nd half of SOI ranks at the top of their career along with AB or JT. In 20 years when we hear it again it will sound even better.

My expectation for SOE was the band following that 2nd path. I got a bit nervous reading some reviews and hearing Get out and American Soul (which I like, btw).

After hearing SOE half a dozen times I'm overwhelmed. Blackout, Little Things and Best Thing all are very good but the best news is that Get Out and American Soul are not representative of the album. Lights Go Home, Summer of Love, Showman, Landlady and Red Flag Day are so beautifully composed and produced that it's impossible to connect them with that "famous" SOI 2nd half.

It's really unique that a 40-year old band of nearly 60-year old guys have such an ambition at this stage - and even more when we see they hit what they were looking for.

Yesterday I heard this album really loud on a nice large room and it's wonderful how this songs fill the space. Truly amazing.

It's certainly their best work since POP (sidenote, POP is my 2nd favourite) and along with the sequence from Raised by Wolves to Crystal Ballroom from SOI it's U2 delivering some of their best songs in the whole career.

Of course they won't conquer the world again nor these songs will have a huge impact live because 90% of people going to their shows are just looking for the classical tunes. But that won't change anything at all in this songs' relevance and quality.

Niiiiiiiiiiicccckkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!
 
Still very early days and we all have the warm glow of a new album, with fresh songs we've never heard before. Time will tell if these songs have real staying power, however my feeling is that this album will have real staying power. Comparing it to previous albums below (SOE could be their best since AB.....)

When SOI was released, I was really positive about it and I still think it's a good album. However over time, the album has diminished and some of the songs I thought were really good have lost their lustre.

With NLOTH, I actually remember being a bit underwhelmed when it was first released, but the album grew on me over time. It has some absolute belters on it (Magnificent, Breathe, White as Snow, Ceders, No Line, MoS etc) but that album has a real low - Crazy Tonight, Unknown Caller and Boots - that really taint the album. This is probably the only U2 album out there where I actively DISlike songs, and it's those 3.

Bomb - I remember hearing COBL when it was released and thinking "this is a U2 classic!". Combined with Miracle Drug and SYCMIOYO (both if which I think are great songs) plus other good songs, it still stands up as a good, solid U2 album for me. It's not groundbreaking by any means, but I personally don't think it has any "bad" songs on it. It may have some bland songs, but there is still a decent melody in there.

ATYCLB - great album, that first 5/6 songs are great. Beautiful Day to In a Little While is a great opening sequence (although I prefer the live acoustic versions of Stuck In a Moment). The second half has more filler - Peace on Earth, WILATW, Grace. New York and TGBMF are excellent.

Pop - So uneven. I love how they were trying to be adventurous and it works some of the time. The songs just sound unfinished (we all know why). It is an underrated album, but would still be a mid ranking album in their catalogue for me.

Zooropa - Great album, some absolute gems on here. However as an album overall it's not quite there and that's partly due to it's experimental nature and the fact it was so quickly put together.

Achtung Baby - absolute monster of an album. Up there with The Joshua Tree in the top 2 U2 albums. Every song is great, the weakest being So Cruel and TTTYAATW but even they are good songs.


So...back to SOE. How does it hold up against all these albums? Again, it's very early days and I will have to live with this album for a few months before it starts to get ranked. However I have to say, this album seems to be their most consistently good since AB. The weaker songs seem better than the weaker songs on previous albums, and the best songs genuinely seem as good or better than many of their albums since AB.

Let's see if these songs truly hold up over the weeks and months ahead, but the early feeling is a great one.
 
I am trying to hear the album in full repeatedly, but has to stop each time after Lights of Home. I can't proceed because I can't help but listen to Lights of Home again and again. It's so infectious and catchy !!! Larry's drumming and Edge's sweet solo.... just :drool::drool::drool::drool:
 
I get your point. But if we break down your list of songs, the bulk of them are attempts at something different, at breaking out of their mold. I tend to not mind that.
What really nuts me is when they promote lame cliche dog shit as if it's some piece of inspired rock and roll god-jizz. I'm think Stand Up, Boots, American Soul.
I'd much rather have partially incomplete pieces like Boomerang or Elvis Presley or Soon than that shit.

But like someone else said, every album has to have its worst track.

How are you feeling about this album so far akaan?



Thank goodness SUC was never promoted
 
My analysis is based on SOI since it was announced because SOI is a pivotal album. And all I can say about SOE is heavily related with my impression about SOI. SOI is, in fact, a double album: the first half in a safe, traditional environment (EBW might be the exception if you want) and the second half (plus bonus songs) in a new environment.
For me, the 2nd half of SOI ranks at the top of their career along with AB or JT. In 20 years when we hear it again it will sound even better.

For fucks sake...

Songs of Innocence is, in fact, not a double album.
 
Although I said The Best Thing is weakest, I dont dislike the song. Love the Edge bridge (sounds like a Samsung product). I will eventually swap in the acoustic version at number three and that will make the album's flow immeasurably better

Where would I find the acoustic version? Not on the deluxe.
 
I got it when I preordered the album from Amazon

EDIT: Actually, no. It's on Spotify
 
God I love Summer of Love. The guitar is just so damn good. It’s so different, and right in every way. This is the unexpected brilliance of this album. Like Love is All and Red
flag Day. I didn’t see them coming and they are new and brilliant.

Agree wholeheartedly. I listened to the low quality stream first and didn't really appreciate the middle songs. Planned to hold out for release date without downloading, but of course I caved and downloaded the better rip. Now having heard the album 4 times, I absolutely love Summer of Love, Red Flag Day, and The Showman. I think it was a combination of the better quality, and knowing the style of song that was coming - they really don't sound anything like any other U2 songs to me - in fact, if you disguised Bono's voice I don't think I would ever identify them as U2 on a first listen.

Landlady is good too. I'll probably get ripped for this, but something about the lyrics and melody in the first half of the song remind me of Neil Diamond. That's not a bad thing in my book - my dad is a huge Diamond fan and I grew up hearing him a lot and still have a soft spot in my heart for him.

I'm growing to appreciate Little Things, but I still don't think it will be among my favorites from this album.

Love is Bigger is just amazing - I sure hope it's a staple on the tour. I agree with someone here who said it should close with 13 as a kind of coda.
 
Minor thing, but I think i'll create an album playlist which ditches Ordinary Love and the Kygo remix at least as they take me out of the moment/vibe/flow of the album which I think is spot on.
 
??? It’s on Spotify, that’s an official release.

Oh okay. I don't know much about what constitutes an official release. But shouldn't I have gotten a copy (like I did for Blackout, GOOYOW, the two Best things, and American Soul) of it when I preordered? I didn't
 
I’m justified for being disgusted with American Soul, Joey Ramone, etc, when they pull out songs like this (that was poorly put considering the aforementioned song is on this album). This is probably their best album since Pop.

Its about fucking time

I just wanted to comment here. I'm really glad to see long time members, that have not ever pandered to the band, or sugar coated anything, come out big for this album.
This makes 4 members now that I thought might not like it, come out with the exact opposite. It makes me feel confident that my love is not fresh album fan boy bullshit.
 
I just wanted to comment here. I'm really glad to see long time members, that have not ever pandered to the band, or sugar coated anything, come out big for this album.
This makes 4 members now that I thought might not like it, come out with the exact opposite. It makes me feel confident that my love is not fresh album fan boy bullshit.

YEp I feel like it will be a strong album indeed. It’s way to early for me to put a place on it amongst other u2 albums. I guess the only safe thing to say for me, still number 1 and 2 album spots in u2 discography will remain the same but time will tell if this album will make it on the top 5 list for me.
 
I was away all weekend but coming back to these pages of (mostly) glowing reviews has me beyond excited!! At this point I'm probably just going to wait to sit with the vinyl proper on Friday.

For all who've lived with it these past few days- does it seem like an album for the fans or will it connect with the general public too?
 
For all who've lived with it these past few days- does it seem like an album for the fans or will it connect with the general public too?

I'm convinced that this album would be a monster success if the band were still in their 20s or 30s but given their age I doubt that will happen, or at least it's much harder to say. It will probably be more of a slow burner outside the U2 fan base.
 
I was away all weekend but coming back to these pages of (mostly) glowing reviews has me beyond excited!! At this point I'm probably just going to wait to sit with the vinyl proper on Friday.

For all who've lived with it these past few days- does it seem like an album for the fans or will it connect with the general public too?

It's an album that SHOULD connect with the wider public. Whether it will or not is another question. There's so much dross at the top of the charts these days.
 
Many superb choices were made in Red Flag Day. The construction of this song is just unbelievable. Hopefully they don't f#%k it up, live, by going totally acoustic. This is one where they need a full band with Bono just parked behind the microphone belting, bringing down the house.
 
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