What have been your pre-album expectations and initial impressions?

[Catman]

So amidst the calm before the storm of the new U2 single and album, I've wondered what many here thought of past U2 albums upon their impending release - disappointments in first singles? Not satisfied with preview clips? Or was it vice versa - loved the first single and reveled in the preview, or "beach," clips, but when the album dropped... not quite what you had hoped/ expected? Or was it that rare instance where everything came to fruition and you simply loved everything about everything?

For myself, I've only had the pleasure of pre-album hype with HTDAAB... and with undulating reactions. Initially, I loved "Vertigo" and couldn't get enough of it... I remember having the song on iTunes and looping it over and over and over again... good lord, it still has the highest play-count of any song in my library However, when the album dropped, I was a little let down, to be honest. Once the tour came along and all the Grammy nominations had been won, however, my feelings toward the record altered quite a bit - I began listening to it constantly and really appreciating certain songs (I still love the OoTS video). After 4 years though, the dust has settled and I've come back somewhat to my initial response towards the album - tepid.

As for the other records, I started with ATYCLB ("Beautiful Day," along with its accompanying video, just seemed unlike anything else going on - an ethereal incipiency that skyrockets into a surprisingly uplifting song without being too schmaltzy) and was... as with HTDAAB, less than enthusiastic. However, unlike HTDAAB, over time I've really come to appreciate "All That..." and it sits comfortably as my 3rd favorite U2 record. The other albums more or less have the same story - disappointed with AB, TJT, War - but after awhile I've come around. Truth be told, the 2 records I was most impressed with upon first listen, yet still maintained the high quality through frequent future listens, were "Boy" and "Zooropa." Good stuff.


So what about you?

 

[Screwtape2]

The Joshua Tree: I'd already heard the famous the trifecta and praise about the album. The album was good through the first five songs but when Red Hill Mining Town started I just fell in love. It more than met my expectations.

Rattle & Hum: I was at my aunt's and saw she had this album. I knew it came just after The Joshua Tree but nothing else. She played it for me while we were playing a board game. It was sort of like listening to the beach clips. There was just a certain sound that really hooked me.

Zooropa: By the time I got to Zooropa I'd already heard a few tracks from the album and Pop. Those being the title track, Babyface and Lemon. The rest did not disappoint.

ATYCLB: I had heard Beautiful Day everywhere. It felt contrived and I hated it. I had also heard and seen Elevation's video. Was not a fan of it either. I had also heard the whole "U2's third masterpeice" stuff. I saw it at the library and checked it out. I haven't listened to the whole thing straight through seen. It was the first album where I was aware of its hype.

Achtung Baby:
I wasn't really aware of the hype and praise this album had. I really liked it one the first listen. Though not as much as Zooropa, TJT and R&H.

Boy: I knew I Will Follow and Day Without Me. I wasn't that thrilled with it on the first listen. I loved The Ocean and Electric Co. on first listen. Songs like Twilight and ATAP were part of the reason I didn't like it at first.

War: I loved this album on the first listen. Beforehand I knew about this was a really political album. I was a little disappointed that it wasn't as political as people suggested it was.

TUF: I'd seen the documentary on the Slane DVD and was a little disappointed that The Three Sunrises wasn't on the album. However I obsessed over A Sort of Homecoming.

Bomb: I don't think I had been so excited about a new release at that point in my life. Wasn't a fan of Vertigo. At the time, I was really hoping for an album that gave me a feeling like TJT did. You know one of those albums that represent a time for you. I have not to this day been more disappointed by an album. The production was shit and the songs were crap. While listening to it I thought the band really didn't care anymore. During the middle of the album I wanted to turn it off but kept listening for some kind of bright spot. It never came.

October: Got this album for Christmas and heard some negative things about it. I loved it on first listen. I Fall Down, Rejoice, With A Shout and Scarlet contributed to that.

Pop: I was well aware of the media and band dislike for this album so I sort of held back listening to the whole record. When I did I had a mixed reaction. It has so many different sounding songs that I could see why.

My favorite expectation story was actually for the Best of 1980-1990 Bonus Disc. I went on Amazon and listened to the clips and was blown away by just thirty second of some of these songs. The beginning of The Three Sunrises made me think of own of my favorite albums, Ra by Utopia. Love Comes Tumbling sounded so beautiful in its darkness. Luminous Times blow me away. Then there was Walk To The Water. The poetry and the whistling guitar at the end of the thirty seconds made me have to buy the Best of again just for the bonus disc. When I got it I listened to some of those songs more than anything on U2's albums.

 

[Bottle Bono]

I was on board right back from October in the synthesised early 80s when mullets ruled.
I have seen the boys develop as a band but I still yearn for the real U2 to come out like they promised so early.
To me, U2 haven’t matched the expectation that I felt on hearing October for the first time but to the lads credit they keep on trying.
Nothing other than the greatest album in the history of rock and roll will do.
A sort of Led Zeppelin meets psychodelic Beatles with the raw energy of the Doors and the cheeky wink of the Monkeys.
But still staying true to their spiritualism and observing the fact they have to utilise each member of the band individually and collectively through every beat and every note.
A kind of “I believe in you, I believe for you” mixed with a Zooropa twist.
The first time I hear the album, I don’t want to be able to breathe but have the music fill my spirit so much that my inner consciousness drives my outward body so that the normal requirements of a human are not necessary.
I want them to sound big enough to rip the roof off but small enough to only caress and tickle my inner ear drum.
Anything less than the best is a crime for the boys but I am not holding much expectation on it at all.
When Lanios and co call this group of songs, U2s finest. I want them to have understated the facts.
The hope and faith of mankind for no and for the next 5 centuries could be riding on U2’s output.
I want God from heaven to come down and pass the guitar to the The Edge because he is a more formidable player.
I want Adam to be so sober; he is like the Hannibal Lector of Base Guitarists.
I want Larry to have so much power that he could smash a brick wall down with his bare hands yet still hold a day old chick and give it warmth and comfort.
And I want Bono to sing so sweetly that on hearing the tunes, all the damned souls in Hell reassess their former lives and repent so that a grateful God gives them immunity from their sins and lets them back into Heaven.
As I said, anything less will be a disappointment.

 

[LemonMelon]

I learned about U2 through my parents and hearing Pride a few times. From there, I bought the Best Of 1980-1990, but what really got me interested was the Elevation Boston DVD, which was shown on television in an abridged form one night. I was 10 years old, and my mind was truly blown. A few months later, I went out and bought Achtung Baby and the rest is history. Of course, this means that I became a fan of U2's sometime after ATYCLB was released, so the only pre-album hype I've been exposed to was for HTDAAB. I signed up on this forum in the summer of '04 and listened to every beach clip and live performance I came across.

Then, the day arrived. No, not the day of the album's official release, but the day of the leak. An old friend of mine was stopping by for the weekend, so I missed the Saturday night leak, but when I woke up the next morning, I found out about what had happened and spent the rest of the day with this friend of mine, downloading the tracks and listening as we went. It was a very memorable way to listen to the record, and it just goes to show that there are many other ways to experience a record for the first time besides buying the CD, tearing away the shrink wrap, and popping it in the player that can get you just as thrilled about the album.

The reaction was, of course, very good, as the "ZOMG NEW ALBUM" glow was still very strong. My friend became a U2 fan out of that, and I had a new album to play into the ground. That was good times right there.

 

[U2girl]

I only experienced ATYCLB's 30 second snippets. Loved them, and the album - though it has dropped a little since then.

For Bomb I did read the reviews (and had no idea what to expect) but I didn't hear anything outside of Sometimes acoustic version before the album came out.

This time I heard the '06 beach clips and the U2.com clips but nothing else. As with Bomb, the various descriptions mean I don't know what to expect, and I'm wary of all the Eno/Lanois/Lillywhite hype.

 

[Bottle Bono]

What about if the Streets did have names?

I wonder what they would be?

 

[jphelmet]

joshua tree had been out a couple of weeks when i first bought it. no time to wait for the hype. blown away at first listen. bullet was amazing. exit, mother of the disappered- well the whole thing really. incredible album. fist cd i ever got (about a year after relase). my dad had a cd player in his study, i would lay on the floor and listen to the entire album every 2 weeks or so.

rattle and hum- my first time waiting for a u2 album to come out. i remember my older sister first seeing the trailer at the theater, and coming home and telling me about it. i had to know everything about it. a month later i recorded the commercial off the tv. i remember recording (on a vcr- i am old) the video for desire off mtv. that used to be the debut of everything. i watched that tape about 1000 times. i recorded desire off the radio, and listened to that on the walkman non stop. when the album finally came out, i listened to it non stop. though helter skelter was very cool. confused by love rescue me lyrics, and loved the album. didn't diappoint, i really loved the live songs- very hard to get bootlegs back then. i listened to the tape so much it was falling apart- literally. the booklet on the inside was in pieces, from taking it out so much,

achtung baby- remember reading the article in rolling stone about the album. i think that was before the fly came out- but not sure. i remember very vivdly sitting in front of the tv, and recording the world debut of the fly. i was blown away. very little hype before hand, just a few articles here and there. no idea what to expect. it was so different and just incredible. the day the album when i out, i was in high school, and my mom agreed to pick it up for me. she picked me up after football practice and i got in the car, she handed it to me. i listened to about 10 times straight through that night. zoo station blew me away, the distortion, bono's voice, everything was really just about perfect. one was an immediate song, blown away the first time. zoo and one, stood out on the first couple of listens. what an album, it literally stayed in my cd player in my room for a year and half straight. i never took it out.

zooropa- so cool, and nice suprise it came out so quickly. i remember reading an article about it in one of the british magazines before the release. i was so intrigued by the description of lemon. sounded so wild, especially for a u2 song. i remember it saying in that article the first track was called babel (i am assuming that is the intro part to zooropa). numb was released first, and again the mtv video was the premiere. i liked it, but didn't love it. i really liked the bono part of the song, but i rememeber thinking the whole album can't be like this. i loved zooropa (the song)immediatley. stay was my favorite from first listen. really like some days right away. at the time i wasn't too sure about the wanderer, but it would grow to be a favorite. not disappointed, but it was not an immediate love. the album had to grow on me.

passengers- no hype at all. didn't even know it was coming out until the day before the release. i remember going to the record shop to buy it a midnight (as was the norm for every album in college- midnight is where the day begins). was excited about it. didn't fully get it, but really loved about half of it. same is true today, to me half this album is throwaway. really loved slug, and your blue room.

pop- the first song i heard was discotheque. i waited up to watch 120 minutes (i think) for the debut video. liked the song, thought the video was kind of funny, but didn't get village people spoof, seemed too over the top. beyond that i really like the song. first album leaked on line (that i heard). i remember reading all about the howie b, and not sure what to make of it. i listened to it about a month before it was officially released, and with the exception of mofo, i thought it was u2. i remember going to buy it at midnight, and there were about 200+ people there. i remember a guy telling everyone that it was really like a dance album, and how different it was. i had heard it countless times by then, and didn't feel that way at all. i really loved if God will send his angels, and gone immediately. always loved the album, and didn't get all the unfinished talk. no one said anything about that, reviewers or band until it didn't sell quite as well. the negative press always seemed very reactionary to me, based on album sales and the poor tour start. its very funny how people talk about it now, because that was not the case the first 6 months or so.

atyclb- remember hearing the 30 second clips and being blown away by the snippet of beautiful day. couldn't wait to hear it. i actually burned the clips to a cd, and listened to them in my car all the time. i don't rememeber a lot of the hype in the press. not even sure the first time beautiful day leaked, but remember liking it right off the bat. when the album leaked i like it all, but never liked stuck in a moment. still don't- just really don't like the cheesy ballad. other than that met expectations (which were pretty high). album still does for me. elevation was never a favorite, but i like the studio version even less now. i loved new york early on, and still do. was lukewarm to grace at the beginning, but really love it now (maybe because i am old now?). got engaged shortly after this album came out, and married about a year after its release- the song is my newlywed album, so i will always love it.

bomb- most on remember the hype and waiting for vertigo. really like vertigo right off. such an immediate song. lost a little since first hearing it, but still ike it very much. the leak didn't diappoint - i really like this album from the beginning, and still do. my first son was born about a year after this album came out, and its the soundtrack to ultrasounds, delivery, and newborn. very special to me. i get the criticism of oots, but it fit so well with having your first child- i still really love it. also one step closer, had its own special meaning for the wife and i. one step closer to knowing our child. thats the way we listened to it. maybe thats why its still very much a favorite. still love the bomb, and was not disappointed.

overall, never been diasppointed by a new release. i think zooropa as an album, i was most lukewarm to initially but it grew on me a lot the first couple of months. the progression of u2 has always seemed very natural to me, and they have always seemed to grow with my taste. so to me, all the talk about the 80's vs 90's vs 00's, etc seems absurd. its the same u2, it just a little different light. i think they have all been great, and can't wait for the next one.

 

[chrissybaby]

^ great post

 

[josh82]

I was very dissapointed with ATYCLB. I loved Beautiful Day when I heard it, but the whole CD was really a great dissapointment. I learned to like the album, but I don't think it's great. With HTDAAB it was different. I liked Vertigo, and I simply fell in love with Hutdab I first heard it, but now I think it's only a bit better than ATYCLB and way below their best albums(AB and JT)

 

[Scorpionac]

How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb: First U2 anything I heard while being conscious that it was U2. It was in my mom's CDs, and I was just looking for something new to listen to. She received it as a Christmas gift from a co-worker a few years ago. No expectations. I don't think I'd ever even noticed the iPod commercial. I liked Vertigo, except the verses. Bono's voice I didn't like much. Good rock song, pretty infectious, couldn't get it out of my head for a week. After a while I decided to give the other songs a chance, which I later regretted (no, not really). Miracle Drug and Sometimes were nice to have a good cry over. Love and Peace or Else was the second song I listened to regularly. The beginning just hooked me. Oh, I don't even want to talk about the rest. Sorry, but it's all just so loud and annoying and painful and shallow and painful and annoying. The other good song was A Man and a Woman. I'm surprised I own any other U2 albums after it. Aren't you?

All That You Can't Leave Behind: I was expecting so much from this album in terms of sound after hearing Bomb, and it didn't deliver. I guess I was expecting some of the same thing...only better. One of the few times when I just couldn't bear to sit through an album.
My family and I were eating lunch someplace and Beautiful Day was playing there, and one of my brothers pointed out that it was U2. I had no idea, but he told me he knew because of the voice. I didn't know the song that well, just that it was a pop song that was big a few years ago. That day I acquired the album, and it all went downhill from there. Of course I liked Beautiful Day, but it was exhausting and plain annoying after a few back to back listens like most pop music. Not much depth. I kept listening to the album, and Stuck was pretty cloying. The ending was nice in a sort of a sixties way, with the horns and the Stand by Me-like lyrics. Then came Elevation, which I liked until Bono started "singing" his "lyrics". Uh...next! And so on and so forth. It had to get better. It became clear the singles were piled at the front, because it got pretty desperate at the end. Huge disappointment.

Achtung Baby!: I'd heard claims that One was the best U2 song ever. Well, I downloaded it and simply on its merit I needed this album the next day. I didn't really know what I was getting into, besides reading that The Fly was the band's cult club classic (or something like that). On first listen, nothing stood out. It was all weird mostly, because I'd only heard Bomb, ATYCLB and the 80s Best of. The whole thing sounded, well, dirty to me. Not in the 'dirty magazine' sense, but in the grooves of the bass and drums that were so ambiguous, the processed vocals, the sound effects and the sort of suppressed-scream sound of the guitar. I remember one chord change in Until the End.. where I thought, "Wow, this is dark stuff". First fav song: The Fly. For that falsetto, that riff and those freaky phrases =D

Zooropa: Bought it, for what it's worth, on the merits of The First Time. Where to start? My favourite U2 album, but probably my worst initial reaction. I'd heard it described as sort of apocalyptic, cyber punk and whole lot of other things, but I think now I've realized it's pretty hard to describe. I'd read the lyrics and some reviews and was expecting some sort of journey through a futuristic wasteland with a Seven-Eleven in it. So. I hated it; I thought it was self-indulgent, experimentation for the sake of it music. Which it probably is on some levels. I liked the part when 'Zooropa' picked up, talk about a sense of release. Babyface: it was okay, Numb: good, but not as good as Babyface, Lemon: embarassing, but I knew right off the bat "okay, this is complex stuff" and I knew I didn't get it, etc, etc. I liked the opening drums and guitar on Daddy's Gonna Pay. Groovy. The lyrics to The Wanderer awesome, the music? Eh... The First Time I had already heard of course. I whined about it to everyone, I even thought of giving it a bad review on Amazon. It took a while. And then it happened. The miracle. Don't have time for that though.

The Joshua Tree: I expected great things from the rest of the record after hearing the first three songs, and well, I was mildly disappointed. Bullet was surprisingly gritty; I had only heard Best of 80-90 when it came to that decade and didn't think they had it in them back then. I liked Running to Stand Still a lot, but from there it just seemed to get worse as the album went, just like it was put together by the lady that chose the sequence. I guess our opinions were of the same slant. I was greatly disappointed by In God's Country and Trip; I mean, if this was one of the best records U2 ever released... I loved Exit, it was just so funky, the guitar and the lyrics were so dark. It was musically like so many emotional bouts I'd felt. The lyric presents a simple idea but an important one. After a first listen, my favourite song not counting the first three.

The Unforgettable Fire: Well, come to think of it, I expected something a lot less structured and the songs to run together. I think it was from Bono's comments concerning landscapes and being out of focus. When I got it, it seemed like quite a small collection of songs, as I'd already heard Pride, Bad and TUF. The last two hardly qualify as songs. Everytime I listen to this album it puts me to sleep. I think it's that sound. The first time I listened I fell asleep in the middle of Bad. Wire was a good rock song and Indian Summer Sky I got immediately. Sounded kinda eighties-ish to my ears, and the lyrics I could relate to. ASOH and Promenade love came later.

Pop: I expected a disaster because of all the bad hype the album gets, but on the whole it seemed to be a more solid set of songs than the last two records. (And they were supposed to be a shot at an album's worth of single material?) I listened to it in chunks on YouTube, because I was scared it would be a waste of money. Instead of just testing the waters, I began to frequent Discotheque and Last Night on Earth on the youtube. Good start. Thoughts on song titles: If God Will Send His Angels I loved and still do (the song doesn't live up); I thought The Playboy Mansion was going to be a whole lot darker. I don't know, but I think it had something to do with Batman. Anyway, I heard about half the album before getting it so I felt safe. There was no one song I particularly disliked, but if I had to pick, my least favourite was Wake Up Dead Man. Probably still is. Also, I didn't get Please at all; by that point in the album I was tired emotionally and was expecting a lot from that song based on what had been said on this board about it. It didn't deliver in the typical U2 way, but there were things below the surface.

Boy: I had a notion that it would be more punkish than anything before I got it, and cleaner sounding. It was a little too eighties-sounding for me. I Will Follow was the only song I'd heard off it besides An Cat Dubh/Into the Heart live. Hated the production on An Cat Dubh, didn't get the hoopla over The Electric Co (what's Bono saying?) and didn't get the hate for Shadows and Tall Trees. Nice and catchy, not too deep but sonically pleasing. Awesome guitar in Out of Control and Twilight =D

Rattle and Hum: I heard this album in bits, the last being Heartland, but I have heard it all. Just not as a proper album. No real first impressions, but When Love Comes to Town and Angel of Harlem were two of the first songs I got into on the 80s Best of. I do believe it deserves the bashing it got; nobody needed those live versions of old U2 songs and covers. But everything new from that time period I really enjoy. But suppose U2 had cut the live material and the film and just released a studio album - those things definitely helped garner a negative response. ZooTV ensued, and I am willing to sacrifice whatever could've been for that.
Note: One of my favourite album covers and titles.

 

[mikal]

^^^^^

interesting perspective. i don't know if i could ever think about U2 in any other terms than chronological order.

 

[neatperson42]

I'm 22, so the first album that I was actually aware of prior to release was ATYCLB. I wasn't even really a U2 fan then, but when I heard Beautiful Day, I was instantly hooked. I admit, I used to listen to the entire album a lot more than I do now, but all of my pre-album expectations were met. That album made me go out and buy every U2 album, and I couldn't believe what I had been missing out on for so many years! With HTDAAB, there was a lot of pre-album excitement for me. I heard Vertigo and loved it! As someone else mentioned here, I also have a very high playcount for it in itunes, although I don't consider it the best song off of the album. It was just really fun to listen to when the album was released. Out of the 2 albums, I prefer ATYCLB.

 

[LemonMelon]

^^^^^

interesting perspective. i don't know if i could ever think about U2 in any other terms than chronological order.

I bought the albums in this order:

Best Of 1980-1990 (January '02)
Achtung Baby (May '02)
The Joshua Tree (May '02)
ATYCLB (June '02)
War (June '02)
Pop (July '02)
Zooropa (October '02)
Boy/Unforgettable Fire/Best Of 1990-2000 (Christmas '02)
October (January '04)
HTDAAB (November '04)
Rattle & Hum (March '05)

It was more or less in the order of what others consider to be their best-to-worst, but the strange thing is that I actually enjoyed U2's music more and more as I went. Achtung Baby didn't blow me away immediately, but Zooropa did.

 

[Bottle Bono]

U2 need to lean on the idea of re-inventing themselves rather than putting out product.

They should make an album for themselves rather than for their fans.

All their best albums have been by the band for the band and if anyone else listens then good luck to them.

 

[LemonMelon]

They should make an album for themselves rather than for their fans.

Who's to say they haven't been doing that over the past couple of albums?

Is your statement proven by objective fact?