iron yuppie
ONE love, blood, life
Unreleased and Released disc
That ought to cover everything pretty well.
Unreleased and Released disc
I thought the idea that ATYCLB is their worst album was gone after SoI/SoE?
I don’t think it’s great by any means, but certainly like it more than their last two.
The last time I listened to ATYCLB I was shocked at how distracting the production/mixing is. Probably even worse than Bomb. Everything seemed to have a super tinny sound to it. Is it just me?
I thought the idea that ATYCLB is their worst album was gone after SoI/SoE?
I don’t think it’s great by any means, but certainly like it more than their last two.
The last two albums have lower lows, for sure, but they have higher highs. And the same goes for the writing. Some forehead-slapping embarrassments, but the autobiographical elements are more interesting to me than the saccharine platitudes around across most of ATYCLB.
Most importantly, the last two just have more energy.
I still return to ATYCLB on a fairly regular basis, but I can't remember the last time I listened to SOI or SOE.
Beautiful Day is one of the best pop/rock singles of the 2000s and Walk On, Kite, New York and When I Look at the World all appeal to me a lot more than their 2010s material. It's not close.
I always thought it was generally the notion that How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb was regarded as worse than All That You Can’t Leave Behind.
I thought the idea that ATYCLB is their worst album was gone after SoI/SoE?
I don’t think it’s great by any means, but certainly like it more than their last two.
I still return to ATYCLB on a fairly regular basis, but I can't remember the last time I listened to SOI or SOE.
Beautiful Day is one of the best pop/rock singles of the 2000s and Walk On, Kite, New York and When I Look at the World all appeal to me a lot more than their 2010s material. It's not close.
SOE is unimpressive in the strictest sense. I listened to it once all the way through when it first came out, threw Summer of Love on a shuffle list, and never felt compelled to go back to the album again. I can't remember how any of the singles went.
SOE is unimpressive in the strictest sense. I listened to it once all the way through when it first came out, threw Summer of Love on a shuffle list, and never felt compelled to go back to the album again. I can't remember how any of the singles went.
I just listened to ATYCLB earlier this week, and as I said, it's a very pleasant listen. I don't think there's a bum track on it in terms of songwriting. But as to El Mel's comment, Beautiful Day is without a doubt my least favorite song on the album. Musically it just comes off as recycled glory days to me, and it's emblematic of the anemic production found on the rest of the album. It doesn't have the stripped down simplicity of Wild Honey or In A Little While, or the gravitas of Walk On, Stuck, Kite, or Peace on Earth, and it's not as fun as Elevation.
Come at me.
Keep in mind this is coming from someone who worshipped Pop and loves every song on there, and found ATYCLB's sonic retreat to be a giant letdown, and even a betrayal to a certain extent. So the fact that I even like the ATYCLB at all is saying something.
It's hard for me to take seriously the opinion of those who are like OMG IT WAS MY FIRST U2 ALBUM I'LL ALWAYS LOVE IT. You don't really have any objective vantage point. And if you think Eno's strategy was a good one, you've lost sight of what this band is at their best.
I don't know what you mean when you say "Eno's strategy"? What strategy are you talking about?
But man do I love that song. It has never once sounded forced or desperate to me. All the pieces lock in perfectly like great pop songs, the kind written by specialists in the field, so often do. The lyrics, curiously written in second person, reach out to the listener instead of preaching to them and convey optimism in a very grounded way.
Sure, the production is a little sugary and dated. It's not the most atmospheric or dynamic song instrumentally. But everything just works and flows naturally from one section to the other without feeling boring or static.
U2 was a better band in the Achtung Baby days, sure, but you don't keep a lid on a hit like Beautiful Day. For many people, The Cure was better as a goth rock band, but that doesn't stop Just Like Heaven from being a masterpiece. The problem comes in chasing those songs at the expense of your strengths, like U2 did.
Eno's strategy going into this album was "more time writing, less time recording". I thought that was a widely-known thing around here. Maybe he was just being lazy and didn't want to put in all the studio time.
So you wind up with these "well-crafted" songs that were never given the time to breathe, or better yet metamorphose into something more interesting. As I said, this is not what the band does at its best but I guess the mainstream crowd digs this kind of thing.
There's still too many syllables at times in the verses, so I wouldn't call it "locking in perfectly". It's an instant preview into one of Bono's worst 21st century tendencies. Read the lyrics to yourself and tell me some of those couldn't be pared down.
And. The. Reason. That. You. Had. To. Care.
Also, "someone you could lend a hand in return for grace" is a pretty awkward sentence grammatically.
I've also never understood "you love this town/even if it doesn't ring true". What the fuck does that even mean?
I can forgive the occasional concession to a pop gift delivered from above, as you pointed out with The Cure. But Beautiful Day isn't even fit to hold Friday I'm In Love's jockstrap, let alone Just Like Heaven's.
I've also never understood "you love this town/even if it doesn't ring true". What the fuck does that even mean?