Songs of Experience 37 - now with bonus orchestra

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Lights Of Home
Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way
The Little Things That Give You Away


These are the clear singles on this album. You have rocker U2, 2000s sentimental U2, and classic U2 - all the U2s that people who like the U2s fucking love.

So instead let's release the three songs that they've released.

Baffling. Although they've messed this up so many times I don't think I can even say that it's baffling anymore. It's par for the course.

And Best Thing even did as well as one could reasonably expect the song to so - meaning there was an opening after the good will or JT30 for the band to make a pretty good dent in the adult side of radio... but they went after the kid side instead, and after the modest success of Best Thing it's been nothing but a big ole floperoo.
 
They can still write great songs but can't pick an obvious winning single for shit.
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
Lights Of Home
Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way
The Little Things That Give You Away


These are the clear singles on this album. You have rocker U2, 2000s sentimental U2, and classic U2 - all the U2s that people who like the U2s fucking love.

So instead let's release the three songs that they've released.

Baffling. Although they've messed this up so many times I don't think I can even say that it's baffling anymore. It's par for the course.

And Best Thing even did as well as one could reasonably expect the song to so - meaning there was an opening after the good will or JT30 for the band to make a pretty good dent in the adult side of radio... but they went after the kid side instead, and after the modest success of Best Thing it's been nothing but a big ole floperoo.
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For a pop/rock hit, The Best Thing easily fit the bill. I am a bit surprised the song didn't do better, but your suggestion would have failed even more, IMO, because it's a bit dark and not catchy enough. 2000-era ballad U2 songs have not really been hits, so that doesn't work well either.

Get Out Of Your Own Way seems to be lingering far longer than I thought - and it's not ending. so there's some hope there. Red Flag Day or Blackout may be the next catchy song that becomes a hit. Trouble is, this album doesn't really have that one song - ala Beautiful Day or Vertigo - that could push the album along. That doesn't mean the songs aren't solid or even great, but they aren't commercial. Just solid songs. And I find that refreshing.
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
Lights Of Home
Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way
The Little Things That Give You Away


These are the clear singles on this album. You have rocker U2, 2000s sentimental U2, and classic U2 - all the U2s that people who like the U2s fucking love.

So instead let's release the three songs that they've released.

Baffling. Although they've messed this up so many times I don't think I can even say that it's baffling anymore. It's par for the course.

And Best Thing even did as well as one could reasonably expect the song to so - meaning there was an opening after the good will or JT30 for the band to make a pretty good dent in the adult side of radio... but they went after the kid side instead, and after the modest success of Best Thing it's been nothing but a big ole floperoo.
Click to expand...

Hmmm... I can't really see Lights of Home as a single, personally. Love is Bigger seems to be a feel good tune that could connect with people, but I can also see people viewing it as a "cheesy" tune of sorts or a bit too "lovey dovey". Yet again, maybe it could work as a third single or something along those lines... who knows, I guess?

As for the "kid side", that's not really a thing anyway unless they embraced hip-hop beats or had the Beyonce collaboration. They obviously are aiming to demographics in the Hot AC/AC market, if anything.

As for the choices, I think The Best Thing was probably a good choice for a single based on the chorus hook and the progression naturally lending itself to being an earworm. It didn't set the world on fire, but I certainly heard it on terrestrial radio a lot more than, say, Boots and Magnificent and The Miracle and Every Breaking Wave combined. I actually heard Song for Someone on the radio a few more times than those too, but The Best Thing certainly had a bit more ground than all of them. I doubt everyone knows the song, but it didn't exactly sink right away either. At this point in their career, I'd say it did respectably overall.

I didn't mind Get Out of Your Own Way being a single either, but I only real complaint is that it's basically a rehash of The Best Thing's chorus progression musically. Didn't make too much sense to me to send out another song that was G-D-A-Bm all over again... and oddly enough, if you play that progression in the key of E, it's Song for Someone! So technically three singles in a row then??
 
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trevgreg said:
Hmmm... I can't really see Lights of Home as a single, personally. Love is Bigger seems to be a feel good tune that could connect with people, but I can also see people viewing it as a "cheesy" tune of sorts or a bit too "lovey dovey". Yet again, maybe it could work as a third single or something along those lines... who knows, I guess?

As for the "kid side", that's not really a thing anyway unless they embraced hip-hop beats or had the Beyonce collaboration. I think The Best Thing was probably a good choice for a single based on the chorus hook and the progression naturally lending itself to being an earworm. It didn't set the world on fire, but I certainly heard it on terrestrial radio a lot more than, say, Boots and Magnificent and The Miracle and Every Breaking Wave combined. I actually heard Song for Someone on the radio a few more times than those too, but The Best Thing certainly had a bit more ground than all of them. I doubt everyone knows the song, but it didn't exactly sink right away either.

I don't mind Get Out of Your Own Way being a single either, but I only real complaint is that it's basically a rehash of The Best Thing's chorus progression musically.
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Clearly releasing the two songs that featured Kendrick Lamar was merely coincidental and not related to trying to connect with a younger audience.
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
Clearly releasing the two songs that featured Kendrick Lamar was merely coincidental and not related to trying to connect with a younger audience.
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Truth be told, I don't really see him as someone specifically for the teens or the "kids" though. A wider audience in general that may be a fan of his as well, then yeah, possibly. Spoken word parts on pop-rock songs don't really scream Disney Channel appeal.

They didn't exactly make him a showcase on a hip-hop orientated first single either.
 
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Headache in a Suitcase said:
Lights Of Home
Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way
The Little Things That Give You Away


These are the clear singles on this album. You have rocker U2, 2000s sentimental U2, and classic U2 - all the U2s that people who like the U2s fucking love.

So instead let's release the three songs that they've released.

Baffling. Although they've messed this up so many times I don't think I can even say that it's baffling anymore. It's par for the course.

And Best Thing even did as well as one could reasonably expect the song to so - meaning there was an opening after the good will or JT30 for the band to make a pretty good dent in the adult side of radio... but they went after the kid side instead, and after the modest success of Best Thing it's been nothing but a big ole floperoo.
Click to expand...

This is pretty much spot-on, though I'd go Blackout rather than Lights of Home. Can't believe they seem to have wussed out of Blackout in favour of Blurst Thing.
 
Red Flag Day seemed obvious to me to capitalize on the nostalgic goodwill of JT30. They put The Blackout out to little buzz. Little Things is great but too slow of a build for radio.
 
DeVaul said:
They put The Blackout out to little buzz.
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Is this any shock when it was literally only "released" on Facebook?

This band's promotion activities are baffling. The muddled near-simultaneous release of Blackout and Best Thing did them no favours.
 
Axver said:
Is this any shock when it was literally only "released" on Facebook?



This band's promotion activities are baffling. The muddled near-simultaneous release of Blackout and Best Thing did them no favours.
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This, and the fact it got 10 million views in the first week on Facebook...
 
I'm baffled by not releasing the blackot... Little things... To me their just plain obvious choices. I still really like the album and the songs that really stand out to me:
The Blackout= a ballsy post- achtung era blast with edges fuzzed out riffs and absolute killer baseline. Bonos delivery is perfect middle finger to the world's state of affairs (especially the USA)
Little Things= possibly the best u2 song of the last few albums... It's just a great song that would have played well on a number of radio platform's

For 3 straight albums they muffed the chance at radio airplay and date I say relevancy if another one of mybuddies crack on me about American soul especially opening the ncaa tournament games I'm going toscream as I know their right
 
only thing I can guess is they will release summer of love or red flag day to coincide with the tour. Otherwise i am baffled a band is this capable of writing really solid tunes and no clue about singles. Said it way too many times but it started with Gone and then Kite never being released...criminal!!
 
DeVaul said:
Red Flag Day seemed obvious to me to capitalize on the nostalgic goodwill of JT30. They put The Blackout out to little buzz. Little Things is great but too slow of a build for radio.
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I'm of the mind they shouldn't care about radio when picking singles. Better to release a challenging song that gets positive buzz than an overcalculated "radio friendly" single.
 
superchuk5 said:
I'm of the mind they shouldn't care about radio when picking singles. Better to release a challenging song that gets positive buzz than an overcalculated "radio friendly" single.
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What's interesting is that there really isn't a huge consensus among us anyway on what exactly would have been the best choice. So far, most of the songs off SOE has been thrown out as a suggestion by this or that person.

Yet again, this tends to match the majority of single-related posts I see on most band message boards...

"They are terrible at choosing singles every album! (Such-and-such) would have been such a better choice!"

It certainly isn't just this particular band. Perhaps that's why almost all of us don't work in the industry then?
 
lazarus said:
"When we were on tour back in 2009, we asked people to get on their Aung San Suu Kyi masks for a certain song of ours, a great one called Walk On. Because of recent events, that song has taken on a different meaning. So now we're going to ask everyone to get on...your boots.

This is Get On Your Boots."
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As the only person who likes Get on your boots, that would be awesome.
 
Can somebody tell me what are the singles they've actually released from this album?

Someone earlier said 3 singles, but to my knowledge it has only been 2? (TBT and GOOYOW). And wikipedia says 4 (TBT, GOOYOW, SOL, LOH)??? Plus, The Blackout was once listed on wikipedia as a single too!

So what are the singles so far? I'm very confused and have asked this lots, and nobody has answered yet, and I also can't find the answer by researching, so I'm guessing that nobody knows the answer?

There are virtually no chart positions for any of these songs either, except TBT. And the SOI singles have no chart positions either. What defines a single these days?
 
Jarvio said:
Can somebody tell me what are the singles they've actually released from this album?

Someone earlier said 3 singles, but to my knowledge it has only been 2? (TBT and GOOYOW). And wikipedia says 4 (TBT, GOOYOW, SOL, LOH)??? Plus, The Blackout was once listed on wikipedia as a single too!

So what are the singles so far? I'm very confused and have asked this lots, and nobody has answered yet, and I also can't find the answer by researching, so I'm guessing that nobody knows the answer?

There are virtually no chart positions for any of these songs either, except TBT. And the SOI singles have no chart positions either. What defines a single these days?
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So there's a couple questions in here I'll attempt to run down. "The Blackout" , if I recall right, was the first official snippet the band released from the record, as a Facebook live promo. Little Things and TBT had been leaked before or performed live throughout the preceding year. The first single was TBT. Then GOOYOW, and now, it appears, American Soul will follow with the NCAA basketball tie in.

It would have been all too logical and perhaps better for the band to have just released the heavier, better produced Blackout from the album as first single, followed by Little Things, then one of the dumb and obvious songs (GOOYOW, TBT, American Soul), showcasing more variety from the record. But that's just me. I think those two are top five on the album while the others are the worst, but to each their own.

Can't offer any help anymore on how charts work now as there are so many, they all seem dominated by crap, and clicks/views play a role. This used to be so much easier and significant.
 
Axver said:
This is pretty much spot-on, though I'd go Blackout rather than Lights of Home. Can't believe they seem to have wussed out of Blackout in favour of Blurst Thing.
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I could swap out Lights of Home with Blackout or Red Flag Day... but I think Lights of Home would have done the best and had greater cross over appeal between rock radio and adult pop stations.
 
trevgreg said:
What's interesting is that there really isn't a huge consensus among us anyway on what exactly would have been the best choice. So far, most of the songs off SOE has been thrown out as a suggestion by this or that person.

Yet again, this tends to match the majority of single-related posts I see on most band message boards...

"They are terrible at choosing singles every album! (Such-and-such) would have been such a better choice!"

It certainly isn't just this particular band. Perhaps that's why almost all of us don't work in the industry then?
Click to expand...
There's a fairly large consensus that Little Things and Love Is Bigger should have been singles. Choice three is where you start to see a split, but that split is pretty much between Blackout, Lights of Home and Red Flag Day, with a side of Summer of Love.

There's always a little bit of "the grass is greener" syndrome, and I imagine if Best Thing wasn't released there'd be a decent amount of people singing its praises as a potential single.

I don't think many people would have said shit a out Get Out and American Soul, tho


I'll also add this - if Best Thing were to have been released at the height of their popularity in the early 2000s, perhaps as the lead single to the Bomb follow up, it would have been a smash. It is a good song with pop crossover appeal, and is catchy as a mothafucker. But that's their problem now, and what they can't figure out - nobody's interested in pop crossover U2 on a large scale anymore.
 
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Headache in a Suitcase said:
There's a fairly large consensus that Little Things and Love Is Bigger should have been singles. Choice three is where you start to see a split, but that split is pretty much between Blackout, Lights of Home and Red Flag Day, with a side of Summer of Love.

There's always a little bit of "the grass is greener" syndrome, and I imagine if Best Thing wasn't released there'd be a decent amount of people singing its praises as a potential single.

I don't think many people would have said shit a out Get Out and American Soul, tho


I'll also add this - if Best Thing were to have been released at the height of their popularity in the early 2000s, perhaps as the lead single to the Bomb follow up, it would have been a smash. It is a good song with pop crossover appeal, and is catchy as a mothafucker. But that's their problem now, and what they can't figure out - nobody's interested in pop crossover U2 on a large scale anymore.
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Fair points. Maybe I'm not reading the forums as much, but I guess I'm not really seeing a consensus sort of form around solely one song that would have been the right choice. Maybe a few people have spoken out in favor of those two, but it still seems a bit fractured to me. Second or third singles are always debatable, but yeah.

And like you said, if it was any other one, there'd be people saying The Best Thing would have been a more proper choice anyway. So it'll always be something.

I don't know... I think all thing's considered, the first single was probably a right choice here. It did okay on Hot AC and AAA stations, which might be as good as you can expect them to do in the Spotify age. And as much as people sing praises to The Little Things or The Blackout (both of which I like too), I don't know really know who would have played either of them as easily. Length-wise, chord-wise, and even hook-wise... I think The Best Thing just lends itself to those things a lot better regardless.

I did hear The Blackout on an AAA station once or twice, but that type of station is probably an exception anyway.
 
Being here in San Antonio (Final Four 2018) I took my boys to the 'Fan Fest' which is a big interactive sports exhibit at our convention center/downtown (really cool event).

When you walk in they had a huge entrance with the team logos & lights along with 'American Soul' blasting. Pretty cool. Not a fan of the song but pretty neat regardless.
 
zoopop said:
Being here in San Antonio (Final Four 2018) I took my boys to the 'Fan Fest' which is a big interactive sports exhibit at our convention center/downtown (really cool event).

When you walk in they had a huge entrance with the team logos & lights along with 'American Soul' blasting. Pretty cool. Not a fan of the song but pretty neat regardless.
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You are rock n roll
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
I don't get this idea that Little Things isn't radio friendly - as if everything has to be a mid to uptempo rocker in order to get radio play.
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Agreed, as I think it's just a fantastic song it may have reached over many platforms, it's just that good I think.
 
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