SOE 30: With a Fanscore of 5 Bananas

[womanfish]

You know this doesn't mean anything real, right? It's bragging rights at this point. I find it amusing that this difference of placement (either way, not very high) would bother you; whether they place in the top 40, top 100, whatever. It's not going to affect people buying the album. How good the song is, how much people are into it, that's going to affect it.

If you're going to be concerned with chart performance, I don't see this as being anywhere near a big deal as the album itself debuting at #1. Because however high a new U2 single places, it sure as hell isn't going to contend for a top spot, or even close. You can take a guess which one the band cares more about.

My point is that it makes no sense!!
You can’t say that them charting on the main singles charts around the world isn’t better for them than NOT charting.
They went for a Wednesday release with TBT to try and get the song as much radio play as possible. With the thought, I’m sure, that they wanted it to chart somewhat respectably. But splitting your highest traffic week in two is just stupid.

They could have easily announced it last Friday and had a full week of downloads, streams,etc... and had even more time to have the album up for presale.
Or wait til this Friday, which wouldn’t be a huge difference in time frame.
Just pointing out it doesn’t make sense when we know this band wants attention and chart success.

 

[Axver]

You're a mess

Your FACE is a mess.

Because of my fist.

 

[kabigon]

What is it you can't face about the Achtung cover?

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Your FACE is a mess.

Because of my fist.

That's it. Let's fight.

 

[kabigon]

I preemptively rate this as a better contest than the one at JT17 Melbourne

 

[lazarus]

My point is that it makes no sense!!
You can’t say that them charting on the main singles charts around the world isn’t better for them than NOT charting.
They went for a Wednesday release with TBT to try and get the song as much radio play as possible. With the thought, I’m sure, that they wanted it to chart somewhat respectably. But splitting your highest traffic week in two is just stupid.

They could have easily announced it last Friday and had a full week of downloads, streams,etc... and had even more time to have the album up for presale.
Or wait til this Friday, which wouldn’t be a huge difference in time frame.
Just pointing out it doesn’t make sense when we know this band wants attention and chart success.

Apparently they don't care about it as much as you do.

 

[lazarus]

It's a mess! I get that loving an album might engender some greater affection to its cover (even if I've never rated UF's cover that highly despite my love for that album), but I've never understood why Achtung's cover is well-liked. It feels as if they couldn't figure out what they wanted to do so they just threw all their ideas together and walked away. It looks especially shit on CD but the larger template of a record sleeve doesn't improve it much.

Oh, I don't know. Maybe because the music itself is an unexpected blend of various musical influences. Maybe because they were in a cheeky mood and wanted to be playful. Maybe because the band was making an image and sonic 180 and they wanted the cover to be the opposite of a single, stark image like they were known for.

You act like you've never heard of a collage before.

 

[Gonna Run 2 U]

 

[Axver]

Oh, I don't know. Maybe because the music itself is an unexpected blend of various musical influences. Maybe because they were in a cheeky mood and wanted to be playful. Maybe because the band was making an image and sonic 180 and they wanted the cover to be the opposite of a single, stark image like they were known for.

You act like you've never heard of a collage before.

It's a rare collage that stands out to me as particularly visually interesting rather than just confused. Achtung is not one of those rare collages.

The visual identity of the singles from that period is much better, and also portrays the band's change of direction amply.

But excuse me, I have a fight to win against Headache.

 

[kiwilad]

It's a rare collage that stands out to me as particularly visually interesting rather than just confused. Achtung is not one of those rare collages.

The visual identity of the singles from that period is much better, and also portrays the band's change of direction amply.

But excuse me, I have a fight to win against Headache.

Achtung was their Exile on Main St. They said this many times. Hence the cover.
And it's a brilliant cover.

 

[Axver]

Surely I can't be the only person who reckons there are a bunch of U2 album covers better than Achtung.

But I can't be fucked running an album cover survivor.

 

[lazarus]

There may be better U2 covers. But you called it the worst next to The Bomb.

 

[dan_smee]

Honestly, I feel that most u2 covers have their haters, and most of them aren’t very good. War, Boy, Zooropa are probably the three most universally appreciated in terms of evoking the right messages, representing the album. The rest are all up for grabs.

 

[dabiggestu2fan]

There may be better U2 covers. But you called it the worst next to The Bomb.

Come on guys! Quick monkeying around! The best u2 album cover BY FAR was their cover for their album Solar!

 

[kabigon]

Honestly, I feel that most u2 covers have their haters, and most of them aren’t very good. War, Boy, Zooropa are probably the three most universally appreciated in terms of evoking the right messages, representing the album. The rest are all up for grabs.

Boy had that weird stretched cover in various countries.

 

[dan_smee]

Boy had that weird stretched cover in various countries.

It was only because those countries had draconian laws/rules about seeing a boy’s top 1/3 torso naked.

It is certainly not recognised as the official cover, and hasn’t been released as such in any country in decades.

 

[lazarus]

Honestly, I feel that most u2 covers have their haters, and most of them aren’t very good. War, Boy, Zooropa are probably the three most universally appreciated in terms of evoking the right messages, representing the album. The rest are all up for grabs.

I didn't know AB's and JT's covers had a lot of detractors?

 

[kabigon]

I'd say in terms of quality / evoking the feeling of the album

JT vinyl
War
Zooropa
Boy
Achtung
UABRS
ATYCLB
Pop

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Honestly, I feel that most u2 covers have their haters, and most of them aren’t very good. War, Boy, Zooropa are probably the three most universally appreciated in terms of evoking the right messages, representing the album. The rest are all up for grabs.

I think the only bombs were October, Innocence and, well, Bomb.

Otherwise I think they've had some terrific covers. Even No Line, my least favorite album by far, has a great cover.

 

[Axver]

There may be better U2 covers. But you called it the worst next to The Bomb.

Well yeah, because all the others prior to HTDAAB are pretty good. I wouldn't rate October, UF, or Pop's covers that far above Achtung - though I do seem to like October's cover more than most. Boy, UABRS, War, JT, and Zooropa all have excellent covers, and Rattle and Hum and ATYCLB's are pretty decent.

The only U2 albums with covers I actively dislike are HTDAAB and SOI. And if we count it, I'm not a big fan of Wide Awake in America's cover either.

 

[dan_smee]

I think NLOTH has a fantastic concept, which was ruined by execution. Firstly, it’s called No Line On The Horizon, yet they chose an image with a clear line, when there are 10000000000s of images online where the line is blurred.

Secondly, have we all forgotten the meltdown over the = sign?



When they could have used:

 

[lazarus]

Well yeah, because all the others prior to HTDAAB are pretty good. I wouldn't rate October, UF, or Pop's covers that far above Achtung - though I do seem to like October's cover more than most. Boy, UABRS, War, JT, and Zooropa all have excellent covers, and Rattle and Hum and ATYCLB's are pretty decent.

The only U2 albums with covers I actively dislike are HTDAAB and SOI. And if we count it, I'm not a big fan of Wide Awake in America's cover either.

Can't really take anyone seriously who thinks October's cover is good. More contrarianism.

 

[hasin73]

I think the only bombs were October, Innocence and, well, Bomb.

Otherwise I think they've had some terrific covers. Even No Line, my least favorite album by far, has a great cover.

 

[superchuk5]

Can't really take anyone seriously who thinks October's cover is good. More contrarianism.

But the hair

 

[Danny Boy]

AtU2 published the entire track list:

Side 1:

1) Love Is All We Have Left
2) Lights Of Home
3) You're The Best Thing About Me
4) Get Out Of Your Own Way
5) American Soul

Side 2:

1) Summer Of Love
2) Red Flag Day
3) The Showman (Little More Better)
4) The Little Things That Give You Away

Side 3:

1) Landlady
2) The Blackout
3) Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way
4) 13 (There Is A Light)

Side 4 (bonus tracks):

1) Ordinary Love (Extraordinary Mix)
2) Book Of Your Heart
3) Lights Of Home (St Peter's String Version)

 

[kiwilad]

AtU2 published the entire track list:

Side 1:

1) Love Is All We Have Left
2) Lights Of Home
3) You're The Best Thing About Me
4) Get Out Of Your Own Way
5) American Soul

Side 2:

1) Summer Of Love
2) Red Flag Day
3) The Showman (Little More Better)
4) The Little Things That Give You Away

Side 3:

1) Landlady
2) The Blackout
3) Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way
4) 13 (There Is A Light)

Side 4 (bonus tracks):

1) Ordinary Love (Extraordinary Mix)
2) Book Of Your Heart
3) Lights Of Home (St Peter's String Version)

Woah! That's a lot of new music!

 

[Yahweh_OMG]

So we get 14 new songs

 

[Danny Boy]

Sort of. Sounds like 13 is a reworking of Song for Someone.

 

[Y2K]

Songs of Parentheses

 

[Axver]

Can't really take anyone seriously who thinks October's cover is good. More contrarianism.

Mate, don't diss the one cover where I'm in the photo.

AtU2 published the entire track list:

Side 1:

1) Love Is All We Have Left
2) Lights Of Home
3) You're The Best Thing About Me
4) Get Out Of Your Own Way
5) American Soul

Side 2:

1) Summer Of Love
2) Red Flag Day
3) The Showman (Little More Better)
4) The Little Things That Give You Away

Side 3:

1) Landlady
2) The Blackout
3) Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way
4) 13 (There Is A Light)

Side 4 (bonus tracks):

1) Ordinary Love (Extraordinary Mix)
2) Book Of Your Heart
3) Lights Of Home (St Peter's String Version)

Wow, 13 songs on the regular album. The longest U2 album ever, if you discount the live stuff on Rattle and Hum.

Ordinary Love (Extraordinary Mix) though

And Little More Better? I guess that confirms Much More Better became The Showman.