How do you rank NLOTH now?

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How is NLOTH?

  • 10: Best

    Votes: 1 0.8%
  • 9: Masterpiece

    Votes: 18 15.1%
  • 8: Extraordinary

    Votes: 33 27.7%
  • 7: Great

    Votes: 28 23.5%
  • 6: Good

    Votes: 19 16.0%
  • 5: Average

    Votes: 8 6.7%
  • 4: Mediocre

    Votes: 8 6.7%
  • 3: Bad

    Votes: 3 2.5%
  • 2: Terrible

    Votes: 1 0.8%
  • 1: Worst

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    119
In general, probably 8/10, but at the moment, 9/10. Boots and Stand Up are my least favorite, but it's more because they really don't fit into the album. They're not bad stand-alone songs, although I still think that Boots is a bit overworked and messy.

I'd place it below AB, JT, War, and Pop, but I don't know whether to put it above TUF and Boy.
 
01. Magnificent - Should've been the first single, no question about it. A great build-up, riff, and lyrical delivery puts it up with their best work.
02. No Line on the Horizon - The experimentation works on this one big time, and the lyrics do wonders for it along with the music. Takes me to another place every time it comes on.
03. Breathe - A pretty good rocker with a great chorus and outro. Always enjoyed listening to it.
04. Moment of Surrender - I don't quite consider this the 'best thing since sliced bread' that a lot of other fans seem to think it is. But I will admit that this is probably the most ambitious track they released in over 10 years, and I really respected that from the first listen. I've actually come to enjoy it a lot more in the past year or two. And yes, I like the live version and Bono's rap with it. :)
05. Unknown Caller - Musically, I like it, and I've come to like it more in the past year or so. I think some of it's a bit weak lyrically though, which takes away something for me. But there's some stand out moments on this one... the "oh, oh, oh oh"s on the chorus, the intro build-up, Edge's solo, etc.
06. Get On Your Boots - Not worthy of being the first single, and the riff itself is just "okay". But I enjoyed it live and it would've made a decent album track, if anything.
07. Fez-Being Born - I listened to it for the first time in awhile, and it does have some interesting things going for it mustically. A bit lacking otherwise or lyrically (obviously on the later), and I sense a sort of Passengers-vibe from it. But it did make a slightly bigger impression on me on the recent listen.
08. Crazy Tonight - I never really warmed to the album version of this (loved it live though, which saved it for me). My initial thoughts on it were "poor man's 'Walk On'", mostly from a musical standpoint.
09. Stand Up Comedy - I like the riff and everything, but I could never get into the rest of the song. Weakest lyrics on the album, imo.
10. White as Snow - Replace this with Every Breaking Wave, and I'd vote the album up a notch.
11. Cedars of Lebanon - Replace this with any version of Winter, and I rank the album up another notch.

This.
 
Winter sucks. A couple of good ideas are in there, fine, but you can't call that glued together monstrosity with its overly obvious lyrics and Coldplay-biting synth strings (what an awful phrase) album-worthy. I guess it's more worthy than SUC, and fits in better thematically, but that's all I would be willing to sacrifice for it.
 
7 is it's best for me. Middle three, or actually just Boots alone, I LOVE Crazy Tonight and SUC so there!, but Boots just kills it.

7+. A stronger lyrical idea unifying the material would help. And mostly, a better lead single...not a rehash of your previous lead single (a first for U2) and, another first for U2, musical mix of 3 separate ideas rolled into one. It would have been better if they had approached the song with the starting point of "let me in the sound" part. Lyrically it's probably their most pointless, too.

The middle three work nicely as the interlude (and it helps expand the sound range of the record), and so NLOTH is a record in 3 parts : first 4 songs, the middle trio and the finishing four.

Would not be a masterpice even with the unfinished lyrics on Winter (plus thematically too close to White as snow), the Coldplay strings and the biggest Edge on autopilot guitar sound. EBW can enter this discussion when we hear the full studio version.
 
Average score is now 7.141025641. I'm considering starting a series of these for U2's whole back catalog.
 
This is my preferred tracklisting:

1. No Line On The Horizon
2. Magnificent
3. Moment Of Surrender
4. Unknown Caller
5. Soon
6. Breathe
7. Get On Your Boots
8. Fez - Being Born
9. White As Snow
10. Winter (Linear Version)
11. Cedars Of Lebanon
12. No Line On The Horizon - 2

Ooh nice!
 
I still think it's an extraordinary album. And I am a fan of Crazy, Boots and SUC. When I start listening to it I only stop after Cedars. I only do that with AB. :)
 
Average score is now 7.141025641. I'm considering starting a series of these for U2's whole back catalog.

Interesting. That actually seems about right for this album.

A poll like this I think is more useful for either "controversial" albums like NLOTH or polarizing albums like Pop. I think for the classics...AB, JT, UF, it will be a little less useful (except to see how many decimal places after 9 you can carry it out)
 
I'm forced to give it a 6 because the ranking system goes from 6 = Good to 7 = Great; though I like the album a lot I don't think it's "great" and the only two tracks I genuinely love on it are Magnificent and White As Snow. There should have been an in-between "Very Good" option or something.
 
I don't rank albums, songs or whatever, because I just can't. It depends by day, mood and anything else. I like NLOTH a lot. It's way better than ATYCLB and Bomb. NLOTH, Magnificent, MOS, UC, Fez, WAS and Cedars are quality.
 
I used the noun system to rate the album. I DO think its a great album....deffo in their top 5 for me. But if i had to rate the album numerically, id give it an 8. The only downside to the album is Boots. I can listen to it without skipping it (so i guess thats something to be thankfull about), but to this day...i still cant believe that the same band that gave us so many phenomonal songs, put their name to that
 
I don't rank albums, songs or whatever, because I just can't. It depends by day, mood and anything else. I like NLOTH a lot. It's way better than ATYCLB and Bomb. NLOTH, Magnificent, MOS, UC, Fez, WAS and Cedars are quality.

:up:

I'm still intrigued by a stat I read a few months ago: How, in spite of the relatively lackluster sales (for U2) of NLOTH in North America, in Brazil, it has actually sold twice as many copies as the Bomb.

Pretty passionate music lovers down there...you know they're onto something. ;)
 
I still think it's an extraordinary album. And I am a fan of Crazy, Boots and SUC. When I start listening to it I only stop after Cedars. I only do that with AB. :)

High five to those that like Stand Up Comedy! I've been trying to listen to it through everyone's negative perspective of it but I just can't quite bring myself to like it less! :lol:
 
I used the noun system to rate the album. I DO think its a great album....deffo in their top 5 for me. But if i had to rate the album numerically, id give it an 8

I think that, if the adjectives were removed, the score would be a little higher for the album. For me, a masterpiece is a 10, whereas fantastic could anywhere from an 8 to a 9. I would give more than one U2 album a 10, so I don't know that a 10 necessarily implies that it's singularly their best. I think people are seeing those adjectives, thinking them a bit extreme, and dropping their score accordingly. Like, for instance, there's no way a 7 would be "great" in my eyes...good, perhaps even very good at times, but that's a strong word.
 
High five to those that like Stand Up Comedy! I've been trying to listen to it through everyone's negative perspective of it but I just can't quite bring myself to like it less! :lol:

:hi5:


Though some lyrics do make me cringe, I still like the song. A lot. Shame they never tried it live.
 
LemonMelon said:
I think that, if the adjectives were removed, the score would be a little higher for the album. For me, a masterpiece is a 10, whereas fantastic could anywhere from an 8 to a 9. I would give more than one U2 album a 10, so I don't know that a 10 necessarily implies that it's singularly their best. I think people are seeing those adjectives, thinking them a bit extreme, and dropping their score accordingly. Like, for instance, there's no way a 7 would be "great" in my eyes...good, perhaps even very good at times, but that's a strong word.
I agree. I gave the album an 8 because that's the score I'd give it but if I had only looked at the words I'd have given it a 7 in this poll.
 
Great to see the overall polling results here...

For me, the biggest disappointment of the 360 tour was how NLOTH was virtually squeezed from the setlists. I really agree with Brian Eno's assessment that Breathe, for example, is one of the best songs U2 have ever written.
 
I think that, if the adjectives were removed, the score would be a little higher for the album. For me, a masterpiece is a 10, whereas fantastic could anywhere from an 8 to a 9. I would give more than one U2 album a 10, so I don't know that a 10 necessarily implies that it's singularly their best. I think people are seeing those adjectives, thinking them a bit extreme, and dropping their score accordingly. Like, for instance, there's no way a 7 would be "great" in my eyes...good, perhaps even very good at times, but that's a strong word.

:doh: do you know this...i procrastinated long and hard over whether using a word to describe something was an adjective, noun, verb or whatever. I even checked wikipedia etc trying to find out, coz its something i have NEVER been able to get to grips with. So i went for Noun, thinking that was the right term haha. Never mind...its all good :hyper:
But yeah.....i didnt feel that the scoring system wording and numerical rating tied up. I too think "Great" is nearer to an 8 or 9 than a 7
 
Great to see the overall polling results here...

For me, the biggest disappointment of the 360 tour was how NLOTH was virtually squeezed from the setlists. I really agree with Brian Eno's assessment that Breathe, for example, is one of the best songs U2 have ever written.

I agree! I am disappointed I wasn't able to do the first leg of 360 because I would have just died to hear all those NLOTH songs live. I would have killed for the first leg's Breathe, No Line, and Unknown Caller. I hate when artists feel like they have to get rid of new stuff to please an audience, but that's part of the crappy reality of crowd pleasing.
 
Yeah, but they replaced them with some of the best songs in their discography while removing the ATYCLB detritus, so I don't have a lot of room to complain.
 
Yeah, but they replaced them with some of the best songs in their discography while removing the ATYCLB detritus, so I don't have a lot of room to complain.

Well I feel like now that the NLOTH era is over, we won't be hearing anything from it anymore, unlike the hits that are in constant tour rotation. So I would have liked to hear some of the good ones off NLOTH while I still could.
 
It's kept my vote with a masterpiece. It's a totally different beast from what I've heard from them. Quite a new direction from HTDAAB. The lyrics are one of the strongest elements on this record, and I think the band did what they intended to do: release a strong record, rather than a selection of strong songs.

Highlights of the album:

No Line of the Horizon -- quite a nice shower song
Magnificent - just a beautiful song
Moment of Surrender - gives me goosebumps, maybe one of their best songs ever -- just so much raw energy in that song
Crazy Tonight -- without this song, we would never hear that cool as fuck live mix -- studio version is blah to me
Get on your Boots - live trumps the studio recording, awkward song structure, one of the coolest drum pieces i've heard from U2
Fez - Being Born -- Just a different type of song, I love it. Nice for drives.
White as Snow -- It's not talked about enough -- Sure, it's not a rocker but not all good songs are.
Cedars of Lebanon -- It ends with a slap in the face. Wouldn't have it any way.

PS: Since I like numbers, the average as of now is 7.04 -- which ranks it as a great album with a little weight being pulled toward extraordinary.

The previous ratings thread was formed when NLOTH was released two years ago and the vast majority of the votes were cast within the first few months thereafter. So it's safe to say that the previous score was indicator of the opinion of NLOTH during that time. With that said, the ratings so far only trending slightly lower of the previous 7.96 -- a 11% drop over two years.
 
LemonMelon said:
Yeah, but they replaced them with some of the best songs in their discography while removing the ATYCLB detritus, so I don't have a lot of room to complain.

Cannot understand how people would have preferred to hear Unknown Caller or Magnificent over Zooropa or EBTTRT
 
Cannot understand how people would have preferred to hear Unknown Caller or Magnificent over Zooropa or EBTTRT
Well, is it difficult to understand? "Magnificent" has all the classic U2 hallmarks (i.e., the sound that tens of millions have bought) and has a winning melody. This cannot be said of "Zooropa" or "EBTTRT". (I admit that "Unknown Caller" is nothing very special, though it's still passable.)
 
Cannot understand how people would have preferred to hear Unknown Caller or Magnificent over Zooropa or EBTTRT

I explained it earlier. Yes I love the older stuff, but I did want to hear NLOTH material because I considered 360 to be an NLOTH tour. It was in 2009, but my shows were among the postponed, and by then 360 had shifted away from NLOTH. And it's a shame because I find it very unlikely I'll ever hear that NLOTH material that I didn't get to hear.
 
Well, is it difficult to understand? "Magnificent" has all the classic U2 hallmarks (i.e., the sound that tens of millions have bought) and has a winning melody. This cannot be said of "Zooropa" or "EBTTRT". (I admit that "Unknown Caller" is nothing very special, though it's still passable.)

And that's exactly the point. Magnificent is U2 by numbers. It's so bland, nothing stands out. Live especially it didn't work well imo, it sounded boring to me.
Zooropa and EBTTRT sound so different from the 'regular' U2 sound, it was a shock to actually hear them live, it was amazing!
 
And that's exactly the point. Magnificent is U2 by numbers. It's so bland, nothing stands out.
Okay, but you might as well say that 'Where The Streets Have No Name' is U2 by numbers.

I'm not saying you have to like it -- I'm explaining why most people would prefer it to some more unique tracks. The average 40-year-old radio listener wants U2 to sound like U2, not like The Pet Shop Boys.
 
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