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

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I love Lights of Home...but does it bother anyone else that a good portion of the guitar work is from a Haim song?
 
Wow, for me, Reach is about a 6.5 and Red Flag Day is about a 9.5.
Never got Reach’s appeal. But glad so many of you love it.

Pretty much the same here. I think Reach is a sneakily good song, and it grew on me after not liking it much at first. I give it a solid 7.0. Red Flag Day is at a 9.0 and climbing. Great song that will translate really well in concert.
 
I love Lights of Home...but does it bother anyone else that a good portion of the guitar work is from a Haim song?

Nope; it doesn't bother me. I consider music to be art, and I don't always expect an artist to make their all of their own components - I just expect them to turn a blank canvas into something beautiful.
 
i guess you guys are more, like, devoted to U2 than I am, because I'm not into this album. it's just......not something I've wanted from U2.
 
Ditching the piano for tangled guitars and synths was the right move. Having the focus be on the piano chords made the song seem boring. Edge is fantastic on this song.
I can see the argument for the piano being boring. I just liked how the sort of tacky electric piano sound, along with Bono's crooning, kinda sounded like a Holiday Inn band from hell. ;) It suited the song. Certainly the song needs the extra guitar and synths, though.
 
i guess you guys are more, like, devoted to U2 than I am, because I'm not into this album. it's just......not something I've wanted from U2.

I don't really think that it's about devotion... It's rough that you're not loving the new album, though. What were you wanting from the boys?
 
On first listen now - kept stumbling into the lousy rip (the 63MB copy where it sound like someone was recording off a mic pointed at their computer speakers) all day and told myself I wouldn't listen through till I found a good one.. then I found the good one with the bonus tracks.

First opinion - this is an album I'm not going to have to work hard to like - I tried so hard with SOI, and even seeing the songs live, it just never clicked - I got into U2 around Passengers-era - so I've been through 6 album releases, and SOI was and is really the only album of theirs I really don't care to listen to. SOE is restoring a lot of faith I had lost.

The variety of sounds and styles covered on SOE is amazing - and the production has depth and layers to it - something SOI was lacking.

Can't wait to get a CD copy next weekend.
 
Odd to see people dragging SOI while praising SOE. I find them to be about on par. But I guess the last album always comes under fire when a new one comes out.
 
I haven't listened to the strings version of Lights of Home yet because I don't want to... I love the album version.

The call back to Iris here... It struck me on the last listen. It's a song about Bono almost dying, and it calls back to a song about Bono's mom dying, but in a more joyous tone with the she lyric.

Just subtle touch that the average Joe won't pick up on, but it fucking floored me when i realized it.

Strings all the way for me!
 
My first playlist is one where I have used all 29 original tracks, and enforced a one for one from each album. I had some of the thematic ties close together, some further away. Playlist:

LIAWHL
EBW
Red Flag Day
SFS
The Blackout
Cedarwood Rd
Lights of Home
SLABT
Book of Your Heart
The Miracle
The Showman
Lucifer’s Hands
TBT
Raised By Wolves
Landlady
California
Summer of Love
Iris
GOOYOW
Reach Around
American Soul
Volcano
LIBTAIIW
The Crystal Ballroom
Ordinary Love
Invisible
Little Things
The Troubles
13
 
I think the Trump delay was only a cover for whatever was going on with Bono, and I think the political angles to Get Out and Blackout are overblown. They're very personal songs to me.

American Soul on the other hand is clearly a political song, but Bono's been going on about America being an idea for so long it was a matter of time until he turned it into a song. Plus it's at least as old as Kendrick's album recording process, so likely predates the delay
That sounds about right.
 
So I’m guessing Tedder will get some better love around here now?

You beat me to it. I don’t know what songs he was definitely on, but if it was red flag, Summer of Love, Little Things, Landlady, Love is Bigger , etc.. people are gonna be eating some crow.

I mentioned earlier how well flowing the songs are. This may be his touch. We will see.
 
You beat me to it. I don’t know what songs he was definitely on, but if it was red flag, Summer of Love, Little Things, Landlady, Love is Bigger , etc.. people are gonna be eating some crow.

I mentioned earlier how well flowing the songs are. This may be his touch. We will see.
Let's see what the breakdown is first.

My biggest complaint with Innocence, and even No Line, was that the producers brought in late in the game went in drastically different directions, and it creates a clash of styles that keeps both albums from really taking off. Maybe having Barlow and Tedder on board together from jump street smoothed that out.

This album really sounds like the album they've been trying, and failing, to write for a while.
 
Nope; it doesn't bother me. I consider music to be art, and I don't always expect an artist to make their all of their own components - I just expect them to turn a blank canvas into something beautiful.



But from a guitar player that, according to Bono, has his own “color”...idk. A song influencing another artist. Sure. All artists influence each other one way or another. But Edge literally copy/pasted from Haim. Edge is better than that.
 
I just downloaded it.. listening to my brother's October album from 1981 already and the download started playing on my mac for some reason.. Love is all we have left came out against I Fall Down and it sounded like it came from the skies.. these are the unexpected moments I live for ... I'm so fucking excited to hear this!!!!

But i'm enjoying October so much I'm going to keep it on for now and be patient. I fucking love U2.
 
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Tracklist, please.

This has been on my mind all day..

Ok, I haven’t done a track list yet. But my Innocence songs are

EBW
California,
Volcano
RBW
SLABT,
Crystal Ballroom
The Troubles

And from Experience

Love is all...
Lights of Home
Summer of Love
Red Flag Day
Little Things
The Blackout
Landlady
Love is Bigger
13

I know I want Love is All to lead off. But that’s about it.
Thinking The Troubles may close it out.
 
Summer of Love is so elegiac and dark in lyric

The lyrics are back to the best of Bono
 
I agree with you on strings version and have already made a new playlist. Losing American soul and adding Book after Landylady as a coda to it.
 
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