The one change I would have made to make this the most complete U2 album I've heard.

[popshopper]

Stand Up Comedy is way better than Mercy, which is utterly horrible. It's a b-side for a reason. Stand Up Comedy will be a single.

I'd go so far to stand Stand Up Comedy is the most mundane, inane and obvious song I've ever from U2. Terrible lyrics, uninspired production and so-so playing. It's like a bad U2 cover band covering a Led Zepplin track written by Noel Gallagher. It sucks the soul out of the album when partnered with it's prettier throwaway sisters Crazy (which is a nice enough track but feels like an HTDAAB b-side, which Mercy actually isn't as it's still unreleased and could end up anything) and Boots (which actually works somewhat in context, but its effect is muted by being surrounded by SUC and Crazy)

Mercy isn't that great in it's 2004 form, but was interesting enough to see what Eno and Lanois could have done with the guitar part.

U2 chickened out, you could can practically hear the thought-processes of "this album needs another obvious rock track, so lets cram this junk in here" in the opening bars of SUC.

 

[mikal]

U2 chickened out, you could can practically hear the thought-processes of "this album needs another obvious rock track, so lets cram this junk in here" in the opening bars of SUC.

you have no idea what their thought process was.

 

[Anji]

I would have dumped GOYB and added Mercy! Perfect Album

 

[Salome]

it would be nice if people might start to recognize that not liking a song doesn't equal to a song being piss poor
I've never gotten into a Radiohead song, but it would be foolish for me to therefore assume that Radiohead is a pile of poo that should be regarded as the musical equivalent of stomach cramps

 

[Sleep Over Jack]

I think Mercy could have slotted into this album somewhere, it's not that different to say, Magnificent, and it is certainly good enough.

 

[Scrumps]

I'd go so far to stand Stand Up Comedy is the most mundane, inane and obvious song I've ever from U2. Terrible lyrics, uninspired production and so-so playing. It's like a bad U2 cover band covering a Led Zepplin track written by Noel Gallagher. It sucks the soul out of the album when partnered with it's prettier throwaway sisters Crazy (which is a nice enough track but feels like an HTDAAB b-side, which Mercy actually isn't as it's still unreleased and could end up anything) and Boots (which actually works somewhat in context, but its effect is muted by being surrounded by SUC and Crazy)

Mercy isn't that great in it's 2004 form, but was interesting enough to see what Eno and Lanois could have done with the guitar part.

U2 chickened out, you could can practically hear the thought-processes of "this album needs another obvious rock track, so lets cram this junk in here" in the opening bars of SUC.

You echo my own sentiments.

And in answer to Salome, I have to trust my own educated yet very subjective judgements. And I think Stand Up Comedy is unredeemable. A bad song that I don't like, as opposed to a bad song I do like or a good song that I don't. I wish to think that I can see the grey in between the black and the white sometimes, and this is my opinion as a result.

Soul rockin’ people moving on
Soul rockin’ people on and on
C’mon ye people
We’re made of stars
C’mon ye people
Stand up then sit down for your love

Honestly. The most terrifying lyrics I've ever heard as a U2 fan. It reads like a Jesus Jones song.

 

[GretzkyU2Yanks]

here's the original tracklisting that will be on Linear, give it a try, works nice. I like the way the CD is, but this works too though:

1. Unknown Caller (the birds starting out the album is great)
2. Breathe
Winter (will be on Linear, was in this spot)
4. White As Snow
5. NLOTH
6. Fes-Being Born
7. Magnificent
8. Stand Up Comedy
9. GOYB
10. Moment of Surrender
11. Cedars of Lebanon

 

[mikal]

You echo my own sentiments.

And in answer to Salome, I have to trust my own educated yet very subjective judgements. And I think Stand Up Comedy is unredeemable. A bad song that I don't like, as opposed to a bad song I do like or a good song that I don't. I wish to think that I can see the grey in between the black and the white sometimes, and this is my opinion as a result.

Soul rockin’ people moving on
Soul rockin’ people on and on
C’mon ye people
We’re made of stars
C’mon ye people
Stand up then sit down for your love

Honestly. The most terrifying lyrics I've ever heard as a U2 fan. It reads like a Jesus Jones song.

why are those lyrics bad?

i personally don't think they're horrible. i don't think it's Bono's best either.

i think it's funny that when people rip on Bono's lyrics, they are never able to quote an entire song, but instead take certain lines out of context.

 

[GretzkyU2Yanks]

Mercy is obviously unfinished

How does it feel to not know what the hell you're talking about?

Just asking.

glad somebody else said it.

like the song or not, the song was finished as it was intended at the time.

thats not to say they wont change it a bit and release it, but from everything we know about the leak of the song, it was the finished version at the time.

 

[Scrumps]

why are those lyrics bad?

i personally don't think they're horrible. i don't think it's Bono's best either.

i think it's funny that when people rip on Bono's lyrics, they are never able to quote an entire song, but instead take certain lines out of context.

Ok you might think it's taken out of context. I just think that entire bridge is forced and sounds incredibly cheesy. Soul rockin' people? I don't even know what a soul rockin' person is. Or why or where they're moving on to. This part of the song is a spoil for the rest (not that I'm advocating the other parts of it), and it turns it into a marching cry for some false sense of self empowerment that betrays everything I know about U2. U2 motivate and inspire me through beautiful melodies and powerful playing, along with Bono's ability to poetically create a mood. He's gifted at juxtaposing images and using irony to impact on a listener.

In Stand Up Comedy I feel like he's ramming a feel good 'get up and reprezent' message down my throat. Which is fine if thats what he wants to do, but not on this album. It kills the mood for me. Crazy Tonight hints at it without blowing the bubble, but this song is just cookie cutter rock that takes it too far.

 

[popshopper]

you have no idea what their thought process was.

No obviously not, but I know a cynical calculated move when I hear one. SUC is a up-tempo rock 'anthem' completely without passion, exactly like the recent output from Oasis to whom there is a pretty obvious (and dire) lyrical nod.

 

[TheEnd]

In Stand Up Comedy I feel like he's ramming a feel good 'get up and reprezent' message down my throat. Which is fine if thats what he wants to do, but not on this album. It kills the mood for me. Crazy Tonight hints at it without blowing the bubble, but this song is just cookie cutter rock that takes it too far.

That's how I kinda felt about Beautiful Day but for some reason I like Stand Up much more -- guess it's the music and delivery. BD bugged me on all levels.

 

[mikal]

No obviously not, but I know a cynical calculated move when I hear one. SUC is a up-tempo rock 'anthem' completely without passion, exactly like the recent output from Oasis to whom there is a pretty obvious (and dire) lyrical nod.

so you admit that you have no idea what their intentions were and that your opinion is simply an assumption?

 

[popshopper]

That's how I kinda felt about Beautiful Day but for some reason I like Stand Up much more -- guess it's the music and delivery. BD bugged me on all levels.

I think you can start or end album with a track like Beautiful Day, but don't start dark for 4 songs, throw in 3 throwaway upbeat pop songs, and then go back to the darkness for 4 tracks. The Joshua Tree's mood and sonic landscape nearly doesn't survive 'A Trip through your wires' (it's an absolute crime that song was on that album when you hear the songs which should have made it), NLOTH is hamstrung by the need to get happy right where the emotional heart of the album should be.

 

[popshopper]

so you admit that you have no idea what their intentions were and that your opinion is simply an assumption?

When did I claim otherwise?

"you could can practically hear the thought-processes of "this album needs another obvious rock track, so lets cram this junk in here" makes no such claim.

 

[mikal]

Ok you might think it's taken out of context. I just think that entire bridge is forced and sounds incredibly cheesy. Soul rockin' people? I don't even know what a soul rockin' person is. Or why or where they're moving on to. This part of the song is a spoil for the rest (not that I'm advocating the other parts of it), and it turns it into a marching cry for some false sense of self empowerment that betrays everything I know about U2. U2 motivate and inspire me through beautiful melodies and powerful playing, along with Bono's ability to poetically create a mood. He's gifted at juxtaposing images and using irony to impact on a listener.

In Stand Up Comedy I feel like he's ramming a feel good 'get up and reprezent' message down my throat. Which is fine if thats what he wants to do, but not on this album. It kills the mood for me. Crazy Tonight hints at it without blowing the bubble, but this song is just cookie cutter rock that takes it too far.

i personally think the bridge is the best part of the song. if i had one complaint about this song, it's the first 2 minutes, though i do like the riff quite a bit.

i guess if the lyrics and message don't do it for you, then there's nothing else to really say. but though this song is one of my least favorites on this album, i'm glad it's there. it gives the album another color.

 

[Scrumps]

That's how I kinda felt about Beautiful Day but for some reason I like Stand Up much more -- guess it's the music and delivery. BD bugged me on all levels.

Well this makes me understand where people who like the song a bit more are coming from. Because I how you feel in the regard to the lyrics, the difference is I enjoed the music on Beautiful Day a great amount whilst really disliking the sound of Stand Up Comedy. But neither song is really more noteworthy than the other when it comes to the written word. Although if you compare the 'Soul rockin' people' section to the 'See the world in green and blue', I think you'll find more a intelligent and honest peice of songwriting in the latter.

 

[mikal]

When did I claim otherwise?

"I know a cynical calculated move when I hear one."

 

[Scrumps]

i personally think the bridge is the best part of the song. if i had one complaint about this song, it's the first 2 minutes, though i do like the riff quite a bit.

i guess if the lyrics and message don't do it for you, then there's nothing else to really say. but though this song is one of my least favorites on this album, i'm glad it's there. it gives the album another color.

It ruins the mood of the album for me, it adds more interest and diversity to you.

Horses for courses, each to his own.

 

[mikal]

It ruins the mood of the album for me, it adds more interest and diversity to you.

Horses for courses, each to his own.

 

[popshopper]

"I know a cynical calculated move when I hear one."

It certainly sounds like one, and I'm not the only person to think so.

 

[Achtung_CJ]

I think Fez should come straight after Boots, as the 'Let Me in the Sound' refrain has a greater impact in this couplet.

I agree with you there. I think it's odd that the "let me in the sound" bit comes up in Boots and then randomly reappears later.

On a side note,

SUC ... reminds me of Jason Mraz - The Remedy.

Haha I think so too. I wouldn't call the song "garbage" (though it's not my favorite) but I was listening to it the other day and I immediately got The Remedy stuck in my head afterwards, lol. Just thought it was interesting that we both thought that!

 

[mikal]

It certainly sounds like one, and I'm not the only person to think so.

well, quotes from the band sound a lot different. Bono went on record several times towards the end of last year saying how excited the band was about this song. not one of them mention that the band thought that they needed another rocking track. they just really liked the song.

 

[Screwtape2]

I think Mercy would have been amazing on the album. I'd either end the album with Mercy or Fez-Being Born. The end of the album needed to be epic instead you have Cedars which is a terrible closer.

 

[mikal]

I think Mercy would have been amazing on the album. I'd either end the album with Mercy or Fez-Being Born. The end of the album needed to be epic instead you have Cedars which is a terrible closer.

Cedars is amazing.

 

[MrPryck2U]

To the original poster,

I think you should quit your day job and go work for U2 as a producer because Bono and the boys clearly need your help. Why didn't you shoot Bono a text about Mercy? How could he have left it off of the album. It's such a fabulous song. So fabulous in fact that U2 left it off their LAST album. Which means that, guess what, it will NEVER be on a NEW album.

You're not beating a dead horse by mentioning Mercy. Hell, you're beating a can of dog food for Christ's Sake!

So, have a little mercy and put Mercy out to pasture with all the other tracks that didn't make it onto a U2 album.

 

[Salome]

so what if this song was a calculated move
U2 has been calculative like that since October (at least) when they included Fire because they reckoned it would make a single (ok, maybe not a successful calculated move but still ....)

Pride was a calculated move
most of RH
most of POP
and so on and so on

 

[mikal]

so what if this song was a calculated move
U2 has been calculative like that since October (at least) when they included Fire because they reckoned it would make a single (ok, maybe not a successful calculated move but still ....)

Pride was a calculated move
most of RH
most of POP
and so on and so on

i personally wrote Bono after they included EBTTRT on Achtung Baby and said, "I know what you're doing, and I don't like it."

 

[allcub]

To the original poster,

I think you should quit your day job and go work for U2 as a producer because Bono and the boys clearly need your help. Why didn't you shoot Bono a text about Mercy?

Man I have to agree with you on that one...............and the same should go for a whole heap of others on here. Don´t get me wrong I´m all for debate, both positive and negative and I too have not always cared as much for some tracks as much as others, but what´s with all the arrogance and bitterness and the "I obviously know better than they do" attitude that permeates so many posts on here. So many of you insult the band so blatantly in your posts that it goes way beyond the realm of opinion or any kind of genuine constructive criticism and makes me wonder if some of you are actual fans or just sad whiney childish attention seekers that can only appreciate things that they want done their way.

 

[scottyT]

Fez - Being Born
Get on your boots
Crazy Tonight
No Line
Magnificent
White as Snow
Breathe
Stand Up
Unknown Caller
Moment of Surrender