ATYCLB 20th Anniversary Box Set

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In a world of streaming music, cutting tracks from a live show to fit it on CDs that cost nearly nothing to produce is exactly the kind of forward thinking we’ve come to expect from the U2 camp.
 
Peace on Earth is a good song.


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Peace on Earth is a good song.

Me too.

I love the watery guitar (always reminded me of Jimmy Page on Down By The Seaside), Larry’s drumming on the chorus really pops. And I don’t know why some dismiss it as maudlin because there’s certain bitterness to Bono’s vocal, seen most obviously in the way he spits out the title near the end of the song, as if he’s disgusted at where the world is. And I think when you consider the context of the lyrics and what inspired this song, it’s very close to home for the band, and I do find the invocation of the murdered children’s names to be powerful and moving.

Why anyone would call this overwrought or whatever and then give a pass to Kite is beyond me.
 
My favorite song on the album has always been New York. Yes, I know the lyrics are clunky. But the melody is solid and music is fantastic and the direction I wish they’d gone more going forward from there.
 
Me too.

I love the watery guitar (always reminded me of Jimmy Page on Down By The Seaside), Larry’s drumming on the chorus really pops. And I don’t know why some dismiss it as maudlin because there’s certain bitterness to Bono’s vocal, seen most obviously in the way he spits out the title near the end of the song, as if he’s disgusted at where the world is. And I think when you consider the context of the lyrics and what inspired this song, it’s very close to home for the band, and I do find the invocation of the murdered children’s names to be powerful and moving.

Why anyone would call this overwrought or whatever and then give a pass to Kite is beyond me.


Peace on Earth is a pretty bitter, bleak song. I've always really liked the part with names, followed by "their lives are bigger than any big idea." The lyrics are a bit clunky overall, but I think they're effective. I think the pairing of this song with When I Look at the World are the heart of the album. I also like Grace* though, so what the heck do I know.

I don't know if "they say that what you mock will surely overtake you" really fits though - it seems to relate more to where U2 think they found themselves at the end of the 90s than it does to terrorism.

*musically, Grace is like a sci fi version of the Velvet Underground's third album. It's pretty and delicate, and it's a lovely way to end the album.
 
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Its the lyrics of Peace on Earth which I’ve always struggled with rather than the delivery or the underlying music. I think its the verse with the names which just jars, but I’m not entirely sure why. Some of the rest of the lyrics remind me of Wake Up Dead Man - a less angry but more bitter version maybe?

I also like Grace though, so this album is a real conundrum to me.

FWIW, I don’t skip a single track even though I’m not a fan of POE.
 
Listened to the album straight through for the first time in donkeys years yesterday and was pleasantly surprised by Grace. I know, “it’s not just a name for a girl...” is one of B’s worst lines. But the song is just so peaceful, I could listen to Edge noodle around those chords for a long while, lyrics be damned.
 
Bono mucking up an otherwise interesting/moody piece of music with his bonehead first-draft lyrics has been a theme since *at least* this album
 
Kinda late to this party but hard to believe it’s been 20 years. I’ve been a U2 fan since ‘84, and I remember this being the first album I was underwhelmed with. And all the stories about this being “back to what U2 used to be”, and I remember thinking that it didn’t sound like anything U2 did before, it was just a little boring. I couldn’t figure out what I was missing, and the album still puzzles me in its ordinariness since Eno/Lanois were the producers
 
Ol’ Sour Puss was just interested in breaking out the synth brass on Stuck
 
Got the standard double vinyl as I didn’t have a copy anyway, arrived today. Random observation from today’s listen through - I love how unselfconscious Elevation feels as a rock song. It wanders in with some synth noises, Edge’s Whammy pedal, some drums... even after the first verse it comes back down, just enjoying the groove... and when it’s all done, we get a little more of that.

Boots and The Miracle (and even Vertigo to an extent) feel so labored by comparison. Elevation feels like it was made for fun.
 
Boots and The Miracle (and even Vertigo to an extent) feel so labored by comparison. Elevation feels like it was made for fun.

I love it when he uncharacteristically nails the Big Dumb Riff (see also: HMTMKMKM & Discotheque), because they're fun, and what's happening around that Big Dumb Riff is interesting. Maybe one of these days The Edge will write a successful clone of The Fly and/or Elevation. It might get loud, indeed.
 
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