Songs of Experience 36 - Now with 20% fewer acronyms

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CMIS said:
Oh man, you don't like 13? To each his own, of course, but 13 to me is one of the best things this millenium. That second verse is killer.
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I'm a bit surprised by Axver's disdain for this one too.
It's easy to pull out lyrics and point to how bad they look on a page, but the test for me is how they affect me.
American Soul is destroyed by the lyrics - I can't get past them.
This one though, the combination of a lyrical idea, a haunting melody, flawless vocal delivery and decent - not great - turn of phrase, makes it really work.
ANd while Song for someone is the worst thing on SOI, the way its used on 13 is mostly very good. I think it's the second chorus that gets a bit too SOI for me but otherwise, subtle, delicate and effective.
 
dan_smee said:
How is it settling in for you?
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Neither good or bad; I'm uninterested in it. I would not return to it if it were not U2, and even though it is I have no idea when I will next play it. It's competent but does not excite me.

CMIS said:
Oh man, you don't like 13? To each his own, of course, but 13 to me is one of the best things this millenium. That second verse is killer.
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It's painfully boring. And unlike the other two songs that reuse SOI bits and pieces effectively, in a better way than before, this takes a bad bit of SOI and structures the whole song around it. It's just SFS II and we didn't need that.
 
The BBC special on U2 is aired on Tuesday at 9pm on BBC1 - that's pretty much a prime time slot on the main station in the UK
 
womanfish said:
SFS was in my bottom 2 on SOI, and 13 is in my top 4 on SOE.
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That’s funny! You and I are usually very close in our songs and album likes but SFS is in my top 2(I do enjoy it, second to only EBW) and 13 is at the moment is in my bottom 4 (albeit not last)

I don’t dislike 13 as the lyrics are solid but I’m still trying to figure it out and it might go up.
 
I can't stand SFS. Just awful.

13 is a nice song though. I think it's Bono's refrain from belting out the chorus.

I think this is a good album, but with more time a few things that kind of stick out for me and I'm not quite sure how I feel about them. At the moment annoyed cause the band spent three years, and apparently reworked the album during TJT.....

Two songs are basically Bono songs (1st and Last Tracks), with the first not even 3 mins long.
Two songs call back to SOI, with AS being the blandest as the riff has been around and used for over 10 years
Two songs aren't U2 songs. I can forgive LOH as it's a neat little riff. SOL, while I love the song, rumor has it it's a One Republic song.
The Edge has never sounded less interesting on an album. Hoping live that changes, but we have two solos on the entire album, (I don't count TBT as a solo, it's chords). GOOYOW is stock Edge over the last decade as well. Just a boring solo.

That's really my complaints and they are nitpicking. I'm more annoyed that they spend so long on the music, and yet a few of the songs seem like they could have been made in five minutes with the sampling. Edge seems to be content going into adult contemporary mode with his guitar playing, and there are some nice licks on the album, nothing really stands out. His best playing on SOL may not even be his riff haha

Edit: Little Things has a solo, and it's quite good on the album as it's higher in mix.

I feel a song like AS, Edge would have gone crazy on back in the 80s/90s. Would have been a spectrum of effects and colors. It just plods, and again it isn't a BAD song, it just feels like U2 over the past decade, afraid to take it a little further.
 
BEAL said:
I can't stand SFS. Just awful.

13 is a nice song though. I think it's Bono's refrain from belting out the chorus.

I think this is a good album, but with more time a few things that kind of stick out for me and I'm not quite sure how I feel about them. At the moment annoyed cause the band spent three years, and apparently reworked the album during TJT.....

Two songs are basically Bono songs (1st and Last Tracks), with the first not even 3 mins long.
Two songs call back to SOI, with AS being the blandest as the riff has been around and used for over 10 years
Two songs aren't U2 songs. I can forgive LOH as it's a neat little riff. SOL, while I love the song, rumor has it it's a One Republic song.
The Edge has never sounded less interesting on an album. Hoping live that changes, but we have two solos on the entire album, (I don't count TBT as a solo, it's chords). GOOYOW is stock Edge over the last decade as well. Just a boring solo.

That's really my complaints and they are nitpicking. I'm more annoyed that they spend so long on the music, and yet a few of the songs seem like they could have been made in five minutes with the sampling. Edge seems to be content going into adult contemporary mode with his guitar playing, and there are some nice licks on the album, nothing really stands out. His best playing on SOL may not even be his riff haha

Edit: Little Things has a solo, and it's quite good on the album as it's higher in mix.

I feel a song like AS, Edge would have gone crazy on back in the 80s/90s. Would have been a spectrum of effects and colors. It just plods, and again it isn't a BAD song, it just feels like U2 over the past decade, afraid to take it a little further.
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I agree with this. I think a real good solo is missing in The Blackout - it's a good song but what would have taken it into a higher realm would have been achieved by an Edge solo towards the end. No doubt that back in the Achtung Baby days they would have achieved that with great success.
 
I'd love a solo from the Edge too but I think his playing on the album is excellent. It's not flashy, but there's quite a bit going on, and Little Things is epic and the best use of his classic sounds in...I don't know how long. I actually think this is his best album since Pop.
 
I'm still undecided on some of these sounds and Edge's stuff in particular. Is it all a bit "muted" because that's just how it is, or is it the production style which has taken the edge (no pun intended) off the guitar in particular?
 
BEAL said:
They really feel American Soul is THE song on this album with all the praise going for it.

I just can't get behind a political song that has it's chorus "YOU ARE ROCK N ROLL!" I don't mind the American Soul line, if the chorus was a little more biting

And there's Refu-Jesus :-/
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I've come to terms with You Are Rock n Roll. Like, America IS rock and roll. It's a clumsy way of stating the truth and how they feel at the same time.

There's no redemption for Refu-Jesus
 
Sometimes it boggles the mind at how off the mark this band is about their own material. It makes you cry to think what must have been scrapped and left off final productions.
 
womanfish said:
Sometimes it boggles the mind at how off the mark this band is about their own material. It makes you cry to think what must have been scrapped and left off final productions.
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Too true. I can't fathom how Book of Your Heart didn't make the final 13 cut.
 
An Cat Gav said:
Too true. I can't fathom how Book of Your Heart didn't make the final 13 cut.
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I agree. I put it in my final instead of the Showman. I love the song, but it’s a great example of a song that if they would have spent just a little more time on, I think it could have been extraordinary. Don’t love the Leaf and the bird lyric, but the last minute or two of the song is phenomenal
 
An Cat Gav said:
Too true. I can't fathom how Book of Your Heart didn't make the final 13 cut.
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I think the song is a bit unfinished personally. Don’t get me wrong. I love it, but compared to the album tracks, it’s not quite as polished. Plus, I don’t think the band quite figured out what to do with the guitar solo and outro.
 
mikal said:
I think the song is a bit unfinished personally. Don’t get me wrong. I love it, but compared to the album tracks, it’s not quite as polished. Plus, I don’t think the band quite figured out what to do with the guitar solo and outro.
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It is unfinished. And sounds rather pasted together.


Still, it’s far better than Mercy.


Crystal Ballroom and Invisible are far bigger head scratchers as to why they were left off
 
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