ATYCLB 20th Anniversary Box Set

[prbiker15]

It’s been a while since I’ve listened to anything from ATYCLB, so today was the perfect day to revisit the album.
A much-needed trip down memory lane.

Also, Kite. Fucking Kite.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

I'm watching the Boston stream and it's making me feel really old knowing that it's already been 20 years.

 

[Irvine511]

I bought this album in Krakow, Poland. Spent the morning walking around listening to it on my discman(loved it instantly).

Then I went to the Auschwitz museum.

The end.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Because apparently we're just making people sad in this thread...

We're at the end of "the next 20 years" bono references in Bullet during the Elevation Tour, and those 676,000 gun deaths were... an underestimation.

 

[ascender_RS]

It’s been a while since I’ve listened to anything from ATYCLB, so today was the perfect day to revisit the album.
A much-needed trip down memory lane.

Also, Kite. Fucking Kite.

One of my all time great U2 memories is seeing him sing that up close in London just after his father passed, spine tingling stuff.

 

[dan_smee]

One of my all time great U2 memories is seeing him sing that up close in London just after his father passed, spine tingling stuff.

Was that the show where they played Gone and Bono screamed “Bob Hewson!!!” In the intro? That was raw

 

[dan_smee]

This show?

https://youtu.be/7n3fTGlgnac

 

[ChargedVT]

So, question for the audiophiles... is the remastered sound a huge improvement?

 

[Hollow Island]

"It's the most complete U2 record," The Edge (real name David Evans) tells USA TODAY. "From beginning to end, you feel like there's not one moment where you're like, 'This is filler.' "

From USA Today

I hope to fuck that this is promo spin and not something he actually believes.

It's weird to use "filler" as a synonym for "weak song" - if a band has a 50 minute album they are by definition not struggling to meet the run time of an lp.

 

[lazarus]

The glorification of this album as if it's anywhere near the level of Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby is fucking infuriating.

Watered-down pap vs the highest level of musical artistic achievement.

What an asshat.

 

[AndrewCowley]

I like ATYCLB but I can’t help but feel it’s the first album where U2 dialled back their musical ambitions and became more concerned with their own legacy. Aside from WILATW the album is sonically unadventurous. They have never really entered back into adventurous territory since. Why can’t Edge do some more solos these days? ATYCLB started this frustration.

 

[rennowba]

Very important record to me the first album I got into. Listened to it the other day. It’s Not perfect. Grace is terrible and wild honey isn’t much better. Think the rest is from good to brilliant though

If they had of gone with this

1 beautiful day
2 stuck in a moment
3 elevation
4 walk on
5 kite
6 in a little while
7 levitate
8 ground beneath her feet
9 New York
10 when I look at the world
11 peace on earth

Then that is faultless to me

 

[prbiker15]

"It's the most complete U2 record," The Edge (real name David Evans) tells USA TODAY. "From beginning to end, you feel like there's not one moment where you're like, 'This is filler.' "

From USA Today

Cringe. Grace is filler.

 

[Hollow Island]

It's not filler - they had more than enough material for an album. "Filler" are songs that were recorded to fill up the run time, like the Beatles' recording Mr Moonlight for Beatles For Sale.

 

[The Slow Loris]

Has anyone managed to hear the remix of ‘Walk On’ (by Wyclef Jean)? Is it any good?

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

It is not

 

[Hollow Island]

I just added up the run time of the "audio highlights from the dvd everyone has had for almost 20 years" and they didn't even max out the run time. Never mind that it's stupid to include Sunday Bloody Sunday, I Will Follow and With or Without You because they're already represented on live albums, but they had room to include one of Gone, New York, Until the End of the World, or In A Little While. What the fuck.


I was looking forward to the Achtung 30th next year, but they'll probably duplicate the 20th box but swap out the Kindergarten set for the audio of Live in Sydney.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

I'm very confused as to why you're upset that they included songs that were regularly played on a concert from the Elevation Tour.

 

[Hollow Island]

Because they included songs that are already represented on other live albums at the expense of songs that aren't on any live albums.

It's not as bad as ditching Bad and the Unforgettable Fire to include two versions of I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, but it's close. They had room on the CD to add an extra song too, so they could have done that without sacrificing anything.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

I mean... If you include a concert, you're inevitably going to have some tracks that have already been represented elsewhere.

 

[Hollow Island]

I mean...they didn't include the complete concert on the 2 cd edition, which is what I'm talking about. I'm taking issue with the songs they chose to include and with the songs they chose not to include.

 

[dan_smee]

Someone would take issue no matter which songs they chose. Leaving enough run time to fit another song is a bit pants, but the selection of songs is hard to get upset over in this instance.

 

[tommycharles]

Until you mentioned that, I hadn’t realized they’d done an edit of the Boston show for the 2-CD set. I agree, not including all the ATYCLB songs, as well as Gone and Bullet, was a mistake. There’s nothing interesting about the Elevation versions of IWF, SBS, Desire, or WOWY, and adding back Kite, Gone, New York, In a Little While, and Bullet, would make for a far better set.

The 1 CD edit for people like me who had missed it:

Elevation
Beautiful Day
Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of
Kite
I Will Follow
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Desire
Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
Bad/"40"
Where The Streets Have No Name
With Or Without You
The Fly
Walk On

Edit: the changes I proposed above still work out to 79 minutes, so it could have worked. Sigh.

 

[ascender_RS]

I’ve been listening to the album (and the “rarities”) a lot these last few days and I still really like it as an album, but its way off being my favourite.

I’ve always thought Peace on Earth was lazy writing and maudlin in the extreme. I’ve never liked it and time hasn’t done it any favours.

There’s some really great songs on the rest of it though, particularly the first half + WILATW. There’s just that one song I don’t like, the rest are OK and the album flows well.

Like others have said though, I was disappointed that they’d gone in a more traditional direction although could you blame them given some of the response to Pop and Pop Mart?

Re the live discs, its exactly what we’ve come to expect from them. Again, its a great live show and a good listen, but its really nothing new or interesting for the fans.

I also didn’t realise they’d done an edit for the CD version. I was listening to the deluxe version via Apple Music. If they’d played all the album tracks, a live version of the album would have been more interesting for me.

 

[lazarus]

Because they included songs that are already represented on other live albums at the expense of songs that aren't on any live albums.

It's not as bad as ditching Bad and the Unforgettable Fire to include two versions of I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, but it's close. They had room on the CD to add an extra song too, so they could have done that without sacrificing anything.

I mean...they didn't include the complete concert on the 2 cd edition, which is what I'm talking about. I'm taking issue with the songs they chose to include and with the songs they chose not to include.

I have to agree here.

Then again, this is probably my least favorite tour of theirs post-superstardom so I wouldn't be reaching for it too often over other options anyway.

 

[tommycharles]

Then again, this is probably my least favorite tour of theirs post-superstardom so I wouldn't be reaching for it too often over other options anyway.

Interesting. What makes it so?

 

[lazarus]

Well, it being the tour for my second least-favorite album by the band doesn't help.

I saw 2 Elevation shows and 3 Vertigo shows, if memory serves. Much preferred the latter. Bono sounded better to me, I liked the return of An Cat Dubh, Gloria, The Ocean, and Electric Co., as well as a couple AB tracks that hadn't been around in a while, better stage show with the light curtain.

 

[dan_smee]

Until you mentioned that, I hadn’t realized they’d done an edit of the Boston show for the 2-CD set. I agree, not including all the ATYCLB songs, as well as Gone and Bullet, was a mistake. There’s nothing interesting about the Elevation versions of IWF, SBS, Desire, or WOWY, and adding back Kite, Gone, New York, In a Little While, and Bullet, would make for a far better set.

The 1 CD edit for people like me who had missed it:

Elevation
Beautiful Day
Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of
Kite
I Will Follow
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Desire
Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
Bad/"40"
Where The Streets Have No Name
With Or Without You
The Fly
Walk On

Edit: the changes I proposed above still work out to 79 minutes, so it could have worked. Sigh.

I think the elevation versions of IWF are some of the best - the Bono break downs were extended and varied from show to show, and the performances were tight. Better than most since. I have to say TJT30 in 2019 had some of the very best IWF performances though - so much energy and passion.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

I mean...they didn't include the complete concert on the 2 cd edition, which is what I'm talking about. I'm taking issue with the songs they chose to include and with the songs they chose not to include.

I did not realize this, because CDs.

 

[Hollow Island]

Peace on Earth is a good song.


Feast away, boys. I accept my fate.