SOI autopsy - what went wrong?

[Nick66]

ATYCLB period. Calculated album done with the main goal to be succesful in mainstream. After their experimental albums Zooropa, Pop, Passengers ,weren´t recieved by public very well, U2 resigned on their artistic ambition and just focused on charts and radio friendly songs. They tried to look cool and young for pop kids, but they weren´t anymore. All the stuff at that era like their music videos, album production, heart shaped stage - simply embarrassing...

Um, yeah.

A record that was an overwhelming critical and commercial success, that appealed to both die hard fans and casuals alike, created an entire new generation of fans, kicked off what is regarded as one of their most successful and memorable tours, won 7 Grammy awards, produced one of their most beloved and successful singles, got them a post 9/11 Super Bowl gig, and cemented the bands legacy for all time was an..."embarrassment".

The only thing embarrassing here is your comment, and your continued nonsensical ranting about a record that the entire world seems to have realised was a success except for you.

 

[MrPryck2U]

ATYCLB period. Calculated album done with the main goal to be succesful in mainstream. After their experimental albums Zooropa, Pop, Passengers ,weren´t recieved by public very well, U2 resigned on their artistic ambition and just focused on charts and radio friendly songs. They tried to look cool and young for pop kids, but they weren´t anymore. All the stuff at that era like their music videos, album production, heart shaped stage - simply embarrassing...

Duly noted. Thank you for taking the time to respond. If that's embarrassing then consider me happily embarrassed. Obviously, most albums in general are recorded with the hope of being successful. One could definitely argue that ATYCLB was also experimental but more focused than Zooropa or Pop. I never thought they "tried" to look cool. I thought they DID look cool.

Damn it, DaveC, you were right again. Tell your sister, you were right! Argghh.

 

[Nick66]

 

[MrPryck2U]

 

[CosmoKramer]

Um, yeah.



A record that was an overwhelming critical and commercial success, that appealed to both die hard fans and casuals alike, created an entire new generation of fans, kicked off what is regarded as one of their most successful and memorable tours, won 7 Grammy awards, produced one of their most beloved and successful singles, got them a post 9/11 Super Bowl gig, and cemented the bands legacy for all time was an..."embarrassment".

I agree with all of this. For me, this album produced 4 awesome U2 songs (tracks 1-4) and is one of the shining moments of U2s career! I adore this album.

The tour was the best show I saw(Pop to current...never saw Zoo TV and prior). The version of Streets was the incredible and it was the best version of the Fly as well.

I really do love millennial U2 and this is one of the major reasons!


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[DaveC]

Damn it, DaveC, you were right again. Tell your sister, you were right! Argghh.

Broken clocks, and all that.

 

[mama cass]

The whole PopMart thing might qualify. Giant mirror ball lemon(getting stuck in said lemon) muscle suits, adam and his helmet and face mask...I get the whole "trying to be ironic" theme but it fell flat.

For Me it wasn't embarrassing but perhaps for others....

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see now, i actually loved all that

 

[mama cass]

ATYCLB period. Calculated album done with the main goal to be succesful in mainstream. After their experimental albums Zooropa, Pop, Passengers ,weren´t recieved by public very well, U2 resigned on their artistic ambition and just focused on charts and radio friendly songs. They tried to look cool and young for pop kids, but they weren´t anymore. All the stuff at that era like their music videos, album production, heart shaped stage - simply embarrassing...

Zooropa did very well and Passengers was released without fanfare and not under the name U2. Let's not rewrite history.


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Um, yeah.

A record that was an overwhelming critical and commercial success, that appealed to both die hard fans and casuals alike, created an entire new generation of fans, kicked off what is regarded as one of their most successful and memorable tours, won 7 Grammy awards, produced one of their most beloved and successful singles, got them a post 9/11 Super Bowl gig, and cemented the bands legacy for all time was an..."embarrassment".

The only thing embarrassing here is your comment, and your continued nonsensical ranting about a record that the entire world seems to have realised was a success except for you.

Duly noted. Thank you for taking the time to respond. If that's embarrassing then consider me happily embarrassed. Obviously, most albums in general are recorded with the hope of being successful. One could definitely argue that ATYCLB was also experimental but more focused than Zooropa or Pop. I never thought they "tried" to look cool. I thought they DID look cool.

Damn it, DaveC, you were right again. Tell your sister, you were right! Argghh.

I agree with all of this. For me, this album produced 4 awesome U2 songs (tracks 1-4) and is one of the shining moments of U2s career! I adore this album.

The tour was the best show I saw(Pop to current...never saw Zoo TV and prior). The version of Streets was the incredible and it was the best version of the Fly as well.

I really do love millennial U2 and this is one of the major reasons!


Sent from my iPad using U2 Interference

Elevation was my best live show too - was perfect... cannot wait for this next one

 

[thavidesco]

Regarding Zooropa. It is a fantastic album and I love it, but it didn´t do well in standards of U2. They wanted it to be a big, succesful album like they always do They were a bit disappointed by the public perception, with exception of Europe. Bono always said 2 not commercially succesful albums in a row and you´re out of the game. So, after Zooropa and Pop, they were in a panic.

The reaction was ATYCLB. Album to please the radios. Not to challenge themselves musically, not to explore something new, but to get themselves on the top of pop charts. Listen to that record and tell me, it is not more than a a few nicely packaged songs, well crafted for mainstream radios.
It looked like they cannot age with grace, they tried to play young, cool band, which they weren´t anymore. Bono looked like an old sprinter that had a very hard time to catch his breath on a track that is not apropriate for him anymore.

I´m happy they are much more authentic themselves personally and musically now than at that time. ATYCLB wasn´t time when I was proud of the band at all.

 

[gvox]

ATYCLB period. Calculated album done with the main goal to be succesful in mainstream. After their experimental albums Zooropa, Pop, Passengers ,weren´t recieved by public very well, U2 resigned on their artistic ambition and just focused on charts and radio friendly songs. They tried to look cool and young for pop kids, but they weren´t anymore. All the stuff at that era like their music videos, album production, heart shaped stage - simply embarrassing...

Sent from my ass crack

 

[Kieran McConville]

Regarding Zooropa. It is a fantastic album and I love it, but it didn´t do well in standards of U2. They wanted it to be a big, succesful album like they always do They were a bit disappointed by the public perception, with exception of Europe. Bono always said 2 not commercially succesful albums in a row and you´re out of the game. So, after Zooropa and Pop, they were in a panic.


I´m happy they are much more authentic themselves personally and musically now than at that time. ATYCLB wasn´t time when I was proud of the band at all.

What he actually said was 'two crap albums' and you're out of the game. And they are.

 

[BVS]

Regarding Zooropa. It is a fantastic album and I love it, but it didn´t do well in standards of U2. They wanted it to be a big, succesful album like they always do They were a bit disappointed by the public perception, with exception of Europe. Bono always said 2 not commercially succesful albums in a row and you´re out of the game. So, after Zooropa and Pop, they were in a panic.

Can you for once speak in facts? What are you basing this on? It got good reviews, went platinum in several countries, did great on MTV, and got a Grammy.

You can't even get your Bono quote right.



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[Galeongirl]

Zooropa sold well in the US as well, it sold 2 million copies, 2x platinum.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

All That You Can't Leave Behind did more to gain U2 new fans than every other album other than Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby.

 

[thavidesco]

Can you for once speak in facts? What are you basing this on? It got good reviews, went platinum in several countries, did great on MTV, and got a Grammy.

You can't even get your Bono quote right.



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The message of what he said was obvious and the change of their approach towards the pop mainstream the band did with next 2-3 records after Pop was evident as well.

You name what trophies the band recieved for the record but it doesn´t say anything about what are the real qualities of it. It also doesn´t say anything about the radical change of their approach and what was their focus for those 2-3 records like I tried to explain in my point of view.

 

[BVS]

You name what trophies the band recieved for the record but it doesn´t say anything about what are the real qualities of it. It also doesn´t say anything about the radical change of their approach and what was their focus for those 2-3 records like I tried to explain in my point of view.

Now you're even being a revisionist historian with your own posts, one only needs to look back a few posts to see you are lying.

You spoke nothing about the "qualities" of Zooropa, you spoke about the reception of the album and the success of the album and you were flat out wrong.




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[Headache in a Suitcase]

 

[Earnie Shavers]

Regarding Zooropa. It is a fantastic album and I love it, but it didn´t do well in standards of U2. They wanted it to be a big, succesful album like they always do They were a bit disappointed by the public perception, with exception of Europe. Bono always said 2 not commercially succesful albums in a row and you´re out of the game. So, after Zooropa and Pop, they were in a panic.

The reaction was ATYCLB. Album to please the radios. Not to challenge themselves musically, not to explore something new, but to get themselves on the top of pop charts. Listen to that record and tell me, it is not more than a a few nicely packaged songs, well crafted for mainstream radios.
It looked like they cannot age with grace, they tried to play young, cool band, which they weren´t anymore. Bono looked like an old sprinter that had a very hard time to catch his breath on a track that is not apropriate for him anymore.

I´m happy they are much more authentic themselves personally and musically now than at that time. ATYCLB wasn´t time when I was proud of the band at all.

Holy hell, what a misread.

I'm not much of an ATYCLB fan, but it was actually new for them (return of certain sounds aside), was even experimental for them. And if you read quotes from Bono at the time, I think they were OF COURSE reacting to Pop in a calculated way, but he was also talking about (and if you remember the music climate, particularly rock, at the time) how trying to launch simpler melodic pop-rock loaded with hope and joy was a pretty daring and unique thing to do. And it was. And I'd say Beautiful Day nailed the brief pretty damn well.

And it's reception and the overall reaction and feeling towards U2 at the time? Overall it was really good.

I think if you're marking a downfall in perception, I think you can symbolically hold up the American flag jacket "can Bono save the world" Time cover as the point where *he* really crossed the line (went uber political-preachy, the original Jubilee thing was pretty well received, that's where Make Poverty History/One Campaign started), and Atomic Bomb as where they musically crossed the line (that's where U2 stopped being debatable and started being written off/no argument).

ATYCLB and everything around it only feels like that in hindsight, but I actually feel like it's more tied to 'old' U2 than 'new' U2.

 

[corianderstem]

Bono did not say "two commercially unsuccessful albums and you're out." He said "two crap albums and you're out."

He did not define "crap."

 

[BVS]

Bono did not say "two commercially unsuccessful albums and you're out." He said "two crap albums and you're out."

He did not define "crap."

We have mind readers amongst us, who needs clarification?


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[thavidesco]

Bono did not say "two commercially unsuccessful albums and you're out." He said "two crap albums and you're out."

He did not define "crap."

I know what he said, but in the context of his words he certainly meant two crap albums in a row = two albums that aren´t commercially succesful, it wasn´t a quote about music qualities or something else, we all know very well how much he aspires for appreaciation of masses and that affected ATYCLB era heavily in a negative way

 

[BVS]

:facepalm::facepalm::facepalm:


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[corianderstem]

but in the context of his words he certainly meant two crap albums in a row = two albums that aren´t commercially succesful,

And, in case you are unfamiliar with that American pop culture reference, I shall rephrase:

There is no "certainly" about it.

But if you want to stick with your certainty, then you might as well tweet Guy Oseary to let him know that they've had two crap-selling albums in a row. Guy will surely say "well, Bono said it a few years ago, and his word is gospel, so it's my duty as manager to force them to break up."

Best of luck with that, sir.

 

[Nick66]

I know what he said, but in the context of his words he certainly meant two crap albums in a row = two albums that aren´t commercially succesful, it wasn´t a quote about music qualities or something else, we all know very well how much he aspires for appreaciation of masses and that affected ATYCLB era heavily in a negative way

There's a similar rule here: two crap posts in a row on Interference and you're done.

Which means you checked out about 939 posts ago.

 

[corianderstem]

 

[BVS]

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[Catman]

ATYCLB period. Calculated album done with the main goal to be succesful in mainstream. After their experimental albums Zooropa, Pop, Passengers ,weren´t recieved by public very well, U2 resigned on their artistic ambition and just focused on charts and radio friendly songs. They tried to look cool and young for pop kids, but they weren´t anymore. All the stuff at that era like their music videos, album production, heart shaped stage - simply embarrassing...

As much as I do enjoy POP, I can't help but feel the band's "artistic ambition" regarding the record is grossly overstated by some fans--many of the criticisms you level at ATYCLB can, IMO, be just as easily directed towards its predecessor.

Main goal was to be successful w/ mainstream audiences?
A band doesn't support a tour of Popmart's magnitude with something esoteric. Didn't Bono say something along the lines of wanting "Discotheque" to be the "Sledgehammer" of the 90s? And it's not like SATS, IGWSHA and LNOE are tunes that continue down the rabbit hole of experimentation--I'm pretty sure the band had hoped for at least one of those singles to make a splash.

"They tried to look cool and young for pop kids, but they weren´t anymore."
Honestly, I see the whole POP phase as far more pandering to "look cool and young for pop kids" than singing about beautiful days and being stuck in moments they can't get out of.

"All the stuff at that era like their music videos, album production, [lemon] stage - simply embarrassing..."
Again, whether you agree or not (clearly you don't), the same could be said for POP.


But like I mentioned earlier: I enjoy POP! And I'm also quite fond of ATYCLB. But what I'm not really sold on is the idea that one album is the result of artistic ambition and the other a shallow, bland, vanilla wafer of a record, solely aimed at pleasing the masses. Personally, I believe both works were a bit of a risk but in decidedly different ways, and U2's intentions when creating the albums weren't that different from one another.

 

[Nick66]

The real question is, since it's tax day in the US, I'm curious how many of you reported Songs of Innocence as a gift on your 1040 form?

 

[LemonMelon]

There's a similar rule here: two crap posts in a row on Interference and you're done.

Which means you checked out about 939 posts ago.

 

[ozeeko]

On VH1 Legends Bono said (paraphrasing here) that "crap" doesn't refer to relevance or sales, but to the moment you stop blowing your own mind.

So, certainly, there is no certainty, and never will be, unless he one day says "ATYCLB was crap and was always intended to be."