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

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Summer of Love has one of the best grooves they’ve ever come up with.

This is a mature and confident sounding U2

I’d love an entire album of this vibe this album may have been that without the mix of Best Thing. Though i think the original mix probably had more of this groove versus the pure pop of what made the album

I hope they release that version

Edit

Forgot to add American Soul to the list. While i get the transition out of Get Out, it strikes me that the songs U2 released seem to have that shiny aspect to them, where these other songs are much darker, organic production. Blackout isn’t as shiny but suffers with lack of Edge high in mix
 
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Summer of Love has one of the best grooves they’ve ever come up with.

This is a mature and confident sounding U2

I’d love an entire album of this vibe this album may have been that without the mix of Best Thing. Though i think the original mix probably had more of this groove versus the pure pop of what made the album

I hope they release that version

Listening to it right now and I want to love it so much...but it just doesn't do anything for me...I might to wait a few weeks, it might be a grower, but I don't care for it much :sad:
 
Right; here's my early selection (ordered by preference):

Summer Of Love
Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way
Red Flag Day
You're The Best Thing About Me
The Showman (Little More Better)
Landlady
Get Out Of Your Own Way
Lights Of Home (St Peter's String Version)
The Little Things That Give You Away
Love Is All We Have Left
The Blackout
13 (There Is A Light)
Lights Of Home
You're The Best Thing About Me (U2 Vs. Kygo)
Book Of Your Heart
American Soul
Ordinary Love (Extraordinary Mix)
 
I'll echo Headache in the last thread...

Holy shit. Little Things.

I didn't think they'd be able to improve on the live version, but the album version takes it to a new level. Introduces so many textures, layers, and dynamics that just elevate it. This whole album is worth it for this song along. It's the best song they've released since Moment of Surrender, and is quickly becoming one of my all time favorite U2 songs. Listening to it right now smiling like an idiot as it builds towards the end. I'm so happy.
 
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.

I had that same thought. SOI, it was more revisions. This one feels like they were built from the ground up for the most part.
 
Love is All We Have Left is quickly becoming one of my favourites. Beautiful.

Yep, it's honestly up there for me. Such a ballsy opener, and way more interesting to me than another rawk song. It sets up the rest of the album so well.
 
Summer of Love has one of the best grooves they’ve ever come up with.

This is a mature and confident sounding U2

I’d love an entire album of this vibe this album may have been that without the mix of Best Thing. Though i think the original mix probably had more of this groove versus the pure pop of what made the album

I hope they release that version

Edit

Forgot to add American Soul to the list. While i get the transition out of Get Out, it strikes me that the songs U2 released seem to have that shiny aspect to them, where these other songs are much darker, organic production. Blackout isn’t as shiny but suffers with lack of Edge high in mix

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.
 
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.

Totally agreed. These songs blew me away, I had no idea the band had these sorts of sounds in them. New, fresh, and interesting... in their 14th album. Amazing.
 
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.



It has nothing to do with devotion, you came in here several times and basically said you already made up your mind about this album.

I think looking at some of the louder detractors’ take on this album shows it’s not about, like, devotion.
 
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.

It's one of the rare songs where Edge's guitar riff acts as the chorus. Or it's the 2nd chorus

I know U2 wants that hit, and they'll probably always make the "big" song, but imagine an album of SOL, LL, Little things, etc

Just dark, and the hooks are there but Bono isn't trying to over sing them.
 
First time listening to the album on my PSB headphones...boy what a great album.....a lot of layers to it.

:applaud::applaud::applaud::applaud::applaud::applaud::applaud::applaud::applaud::applaud::applaud::applaud:
 
I’ve never heard an album like this from them in my life. I’m only 23 but it’s really, just, wow guys. Good job. Please continue to make personal albums.
 
Originally Posted by Mack_Again View Post
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.

:doh:
It has nothing to do with devotion, you came in here several times and basically said you already made up your mind about this album.

I think looking at some of the louder detractors’ take on this album shows it’s not about, like, devotion.
:applaud:
 
Wow. First full listen completed.
My first thought is, 'oops'. I've been pretty down on U2 lately, watching them follow a much younger pack, watching them burn credibility like its confetti. I thought, after the singles, this album was going to be painful on a few levels.

What I'm thinking after this first listen is that I was wrong. This album isn't following the pack. It is in the sense that it is poppy, it has very fresh production etc. But it's a heavy mother fucker. THere are songs on here that no-one else would have the gravitas to pull off. Lyrics that no one else has the backstory and experience to write, let alone sing.
Landlady - which is my favourite so far - reminded of Keith Richards 'How Could I Stop'. Not musically, but in that only someone like Keith could write a song like that and have me buy into it. After his life, his experiences, and his wife sticking in there and being his rock. Landlady is like that. A young man could not have written that.

Little Things - which is my favourite so far - does U2 at their best as well as anything since Ground Beneath Her Feet in my opinion. I thought City of Blinding LIghts was going to get there but it never quite did for me. This does. In a way only U2 can. But what makes it mature, what makes it a leader not a follower, is that heavy mother fucker of a lyric. That's heavy shit. Not many people have lived that. So how could they write it?

The second Lights of Home - which is my favourite so far - is just epic. Epic, melodic, sophisticated, deep, awesome.

I like the poppy middle too, a lot. Though while I like them they don't move me like the three mentioned above.

Wonderful.

Oh, and just to make a complete fanny of myself - i was listening on my quietcomfort35s while outside working with a pair of safety goggles on. About 3/4 into Little Things I had to take the goggles off. They'd gotten foggy. Didn't think U2 would produce another moment like that.

I said in another thread I probably won't buy this album - just stream it. Fuck that. I'm buying the extended deluxe and putting on the wall as a totem of musical resilience through a 40 year career.
Well done lads.
Oh this is great. I have a friend who is my best U2 friend, but up until ATYCLB. He hates or hates on pretty much everything since. Seeing you react so positively gives me hope that he will too. Sent him the songs over whatsapp laat night and he laughed when I said that Book of Your Heart has been getting achtung comparisons (I still haven't heard it btw). He then said he was abput to listen and that was the last I heard from him.

It's going tp be difficult to hate this one, right?
 
Oh this is great. I have a friend who is my best U2 friend, but up until ATYCLB. He hates or hates on pretty much everything since. Seeing you react so positively gives me hope that he will too. Sent him the songs over whatsapp laat night and he laughed when I said that Book of Your Heart has been getting achtung comparisons (I still haven't heard it btw). He then said he was abput to listen and that was the last I heard from him.

It's going tp be difficult to hate this one, right?

Sounds like one of those guys that "will want their money back if you are alive at 33". If they are open minded enough to take a subjective listen and not shut them down because they think they should have quit 25 years ago then they might like it :)
 
The end of Love is Blindness? I mean - shit that's 26 years ago but I'm struggling to think of anything from Pop onwards that lifted and lifted and then exploded, while talking absolutely authentically about reality and heartache, like this song does.

I still think American Soul is pathetic. I don't feel sycophantic. It's just that, this is a really great album.
For me The Best Thing is the weakest. Not a fan of American Soul, but it forms a combo with Get out of your own way. Best thing sticks out like a sore thumb, especially after that incredible opening
 
Wow. First full listen completed.
My first thought is, 'oops'. I've been pretty down on U2 lately, watching them follow a much younger pack, watching them burn credibility like its confetti. I thought, after the singles, this album was going to be painful on a few levels.

What I'm thinking after this first listen is that I was wrong. This album isn't following the pack. It is in the sense that it is poppy, it has very fresh production etc. But it's a heavy mother fucker. THere are songs on here that no-one else would have the gravitas to pull off. Lyrics that no one else has the backstory and experience to write, let alone sing.
Landlady - which is my favourite so far - reminded of Keith Richards 'How Could I Stop'. Not musically, but in that only someone like Keith could write a song like that and have me buy into it. After his life, his experiences, and his wife sticking in there and being his rock. Landlady is like that. A young man could not have written that.

Little Things - which is my favourite so far - does U2 at their best as well as anything since Ground Beneath Her Feet in my opinion. I thought City of Blinding LIghts was going to get there but it never quite did for me. This does. In a way only U2 can. But what makes it mature, what makes it a leader not a follower, is that heavy mother fucker of a lyric. That's heavy shit. Not many people have lived that. So how could they write it?

The second Lights of Home - which is my favourite so far - is just epic. Epic, melodic, sophisticated, deep, awesome.

I like the poppy middle too, a lot. Though while I like them they don't move me like the three mentioned above.

Wonderful.

Oh, and just to make a complete fanny of myself - i was listening on my quietcomfort35s while outside working with a pair of safety goggles on. About 3/4 into Little Things I had to take the goggles off. They'd gotten foggy. Didn't think U2 would produce another moment like that.

I said in another thread I probably won't buy this album - just stream it. Fuck that. I'm buying the extended deluxe and putting on the wall as a totem of musical resilience through a 40 year career.
Well done lads.

Glad to see that you found the leak and that you will be buying the album.

It is a very solid album that is lodging comfortably in my brain. The thing that strikes me about the album is that it seems so joyful, even when dealing with some heavy topics. I know it is too early for me to rank this album in their catalog, but I haven't been as excited by a U2 album this much since ATYCLB - and I enjoyed the hell out of that one (still do).
 
I started off feeling the same way about American Soul, but now that I can hear the atmospherics of the album, I am appreciating it much more. I especially like the "Brother John" background vocals. Very psychedelic Beatles, and with a 70s groove.
Totally agree. I was very negative about the song at first, but in the context of the album, I'm actually starting to like it.
 
LIBTAIIW is the Broadway sound they’ve been trying to write for years. It could be in Dear Evan Hansen and no one would bat an eye.

Such colossal emotions. It’s full-on cheese, but it works.

SOL and Little Things and Landlady are the ones sticking right now. And RFD.
 
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