Songs of Experience vol. 29: No More Acronyms

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So maybe we hear new music because I think I heard they will be on Fallon this week? Or was I dreaming that?
 
Just looked at those twitter posts from U2 Songs.

Apparently The Showman has a much more better-esque line in the lyrics, and the song leads into The Little Things (the last track).

The Book Of Your Heart - a bonus track on the deluxe edition
 
Bill Flanagan was essentially up Bono's butt during the whole AB/ZOO TV experience, so for him to say that means something to me. Maybe... we'll see...

I also believe Eno said IGWSHA would be a huge hit for U2. It was one of their least popular singles ever!
 
Bill Flanagan was essentially up Bono's butt during the whole AB/ZOO TV experience, so for him to say that means something to me. Maybe... we'll see...

I also believe Eno said IGWSHA would be a huge hit for U2. It was one of their least popular singles ever!



I remember a reading a write up on POP before it came out and it read that U2 might have a summer #1 single with SATS and a winter #1 single with IGWSHA. SATS I thought had potential but IGWSHA I remember thinking “really?”. The video for it was cool though.
 
I also believe Eno said IGWSHA would be a huge hit for U2. It was one of their least popular singles ever!

To be fair, it was the 5th single from the album. 5th singles from albums are automatically at a disadvantage in the charts and whatnot, because the album's been out for ages.
 
The lyrics are actually really good on what was quoted. But then again I thought SOI is Bono in fine form lyrically so not surprised. I don’t care to judge a song by song titles.

But seriously- where is that Blackout clip!??
 
I like all the songs we've heard, but apart from mayyyyybe The Blackout being worthy slipping in there somewhere I'd say none of them are better than anything on AB. So the rest would have to be pretty damn good for that to be my opinion as well. It's nearly impossible; it's not just about some definition of the songs' quality, it's what those songs on AB were at that time in that context coming off of Rattle and Hum, and the whole aura surrounding that album. It's all of those together that makes AB good.

At this point Songs of Experience would have to shock me not just in terms of how good the songs are, but what they sound like, to make me think it's better.

This is very well-explained, and I feel the same way (though while I do like The Blackout it's still not within sniffing distance of even my least favorite AB track). I feel safe in saying that they're not going to do anything at this point to legitimately shock me. SOI had some surprising retro sounds on it that I didn't expect (Volcano, RBW, Reach Around), but nothing that made me go HOLY SHIT!

I think you missed one small piece. He said Best since AB. He initially said Best since HTDAAB then walked it down to AB. From everything else he spoke about I am betting this is ATYCLB part deux

Wait, so that means he thinks The Bomb is the best post-AB album? :|

Also, who else here remembers Eno saying Breathe was the best song U2 had ever written?

Nevertheless, nice to see a positive endorsement from a respected figure

I think it was Danny Lanois that mentioned that there were hints of Achtung Baby on No Line... at least in terms of inventiveness or something like that.

I'm pretty sure there was an Eno interview where he said it might be the best thing the band had ever done. Whether that was before or after they desecrated the work he and Lanois did and brought in Lily-white is unclear.

C
Not to get all PLEBA-Y*, but man. That guy has a LOVELY speaking voice. I could listen to him talk for hours, as long it wasn't hours of his cliched Bono Phrases.




*PLEBA is pretty much dead these days. I should pour one out for it.


It is dead because it's BAGEL now.
 
So this interview aired including a 45 sec the blackout clip and it's nowhere to be found? Surely there has to be a recording of this clip/ interview somewhere. I really wanna hear the studio clip lol
Haha I was driving home from work on the 401 while listening so unfortunately couldn't record anything tho it did cross my mind.

I did get in prior to the end of the show and was ready to record any further clips but they only played Kite in the outro lol
 
The Blackout sounded pretty different. Not sure how I felt about it...

- does not sound nearly as raw as the live version
- more synthetic, especially the drums
- seems faster and dancier
- vocal effect on Bono's voice
 
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Hopefully the clip shows up soon.

Lots of great info there.

I’m curious, why is it people are now only 10-25% confident of info?

I’m constantly amazed by this place - if the info doesn’t come early, we assume it isn’t happening? If it comes early, there is a 0% chance if it happening on the day. Are we that damaged by past experiences that we just don’t trust any more?
 
Hm, sounds like a great interview!

I really like the 'Kite' foundation thing... currently listening to 'Kite' getting weepy, so...

Yeah dan I think we're just fragile. This time I feel like we're in good hands -- a no-nonsense well-planned rollout.

My own personal hopes and dreams:
1. I hope the TBT album mix is a little more in the sci fi/less harsh sounding direction. It's a fine enough song, if they manage to make it sound less grasping and grating.
2. I hope the Blackout album version is more interesting and somehow softens the tryhardy chorus.

Other than that, GOOYOW and TLTTGYA both sound pretty great to me and I certainly like the way Bono's talking about it. We'll see what they have left in the tank, I guess.
 
The Blackout sounded pretty different. Not sure how I felt about it...

- does not sound nearly as raw as the live version
- more synthetic, especially the drums
- seems faster and dancier
- vocal effect on Bono's voice

I haven't listened to it yet, but... hey guys, remember all those times Axver insisted the video was the studio version?
 
Did he? I was heavily involved in those conversations, and I don’t recall this

No, I really did think they'd used the studio take with crowd noise inserted. A raw take, sure, but they've talked about doing something raw for ages and I thought maybe we were finally going to get a couple of tracks with that "live in the studio" sort of production vibe.

It's definitely the implication I got from the song reveal too. They didn't say "hey here's a live version of a new song", just "here's a song from the album". We've all seen plenty of "live" music videos before with some crowd noise added to the studio take.
 
No, I really did think they'd used the studio take with crowd noise inserted. A raw take, sure, but they've talked about doing something raw for ages and I thought maybe we were finally going to get a couple of tracks with that "live in the studio" sort of production vibe.

It's definitely the implication I got from the song reveal too. They didn't say "hey here's a live version of a new song", just "here's a song from the album". We've all seen plenty of "live" music videos before with some crowd noise added to the studio take.

I remember multiple reviews of that video taping explicitly saying that all of it was played live except for Bono. I don't know why they'd actually play it live and not Milli Vinilli it for the video if they were going to use the studio track.
 
A greatness of al album comes years after it's come out. Whether it has legs to it etc etc to say soe is better then achtung baby is abit premature I think. Greatness comes with time but it's still a good comment to hear. So excited for the record now
 
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Yeah that's true. No Line was the third classic initially, according to most of us here. But the initially annoying middle three became a fatal flaw over time.
My fear is the quest for pop relevancy will do the same with this album.

But I'm still amped. New U2 music 32 years after my fandom began is pretty cool!
 
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