If you could 'change' one U2 album, which would it be?
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Rusalka
Babyface
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I used to consider that song a waste of space on the album until I learned about the history behind it. Still not one of my favorites, but now I find its presence of the album kind of sweet.
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domo-kun
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Hate Cedars with a passion
BUT! l don't see any connection regarding SoI?Just curious what makes you think this?
Obviously I love SoI But, yeah, Cedars.. my god. Snoozefest.
Galeongirl
Galeonbroad
Hate Cedars with a passion
Just curious what makes you think this?
Obviously I love SoI But, yeah, Cedars.. my god. Snoozefest.
lol I stand corrected then.
The thing that connects them for me is the atmosphere. General more slow songs that tell stories.. for me, there's very little difference in atmosphere between Cedars and say, Sleep like a baby tonight. Both put me to sleep instantly and there's nothing in the song that spikes my interest. I know a lot of people on here love Cedars for its atmosphere, so I figured that's probably why SOI is so liked as well. But apparently not.
Mack_Again
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
how the hell can anyone hate Cedarwood Road? that was one of the best songs on SOI, come on
Galeongirl
Galeonbroad
Who is talking about Cedarwoord Road? We're talking about Cedars of Lebanon.... read a little better before complaining, come on
Mack_Again
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
oops, my bad.
The Panther
Refugee
If I could change one U2 album, I'd probably just delete No Line on the Horizon out of existence.
Of course, it's not a terrible album -- U2 are too good/smart to release total trash -- but it's just disposable. It did nothing for them, advanced no cause, won no new fans, produced no hits, added nothing to their profile. At least Songs of Innocence pissed everyone off; this album just passed everyone by.
And, for me personally, it's easily their weakest (yes, I'll say it: 'worst') album. I rate 'Cedars of Lebanon' as the best track (despite the wonky "got out from a tank" line, because it wouldn't be millennial Bono if there wasn't at least one cringe-worthy line), and 'Magnificent' is quite good (if generic-U2 sounding). I sometimes enjoy 'White As Snow', and that's basically it. The rest of the album I don't ever need to hear again, and the middle three songs are the worst such the band has ever issued. The production and mixing are awful, and Bono's over-singing kills any chance most of the songs have.
I mean, that's a pretty bad return for 3-4 years' working on the album.
I also think Pop kind of did nothing good for them, and is clearly the album that began U2's decline in greatness/relevance, but at least it had some really good songs, albeit poorly produced and (in some cases) performed.
Of course, it's not a terrible album -- U2 are too good/smart to release total trash -- but it's just disposable. It did nothing for them, advanced no cause, won no new fans, produced no hits, added nothing to their profile. At least Songs of Innocence pissed everyone off; this album just passed everyone by.
And, for me personally, it's easily their weakest (yes, I'll say it: 'worst') album. I rate 'Cedars of Lebanon' as the best track (despite the wonky "got out from a tank" line, because it wouldn't be millennial Bono if there wasn't at least one cringe-worthy line), and 'Magnificent' is quite good (if generic-U2 sounding). I sometimes enjoy 'White As Snow', and that's basically it. The rest of the album I don't ever need to hear again, and the middle three songs are the worst such the band has ever issued. The production and mixing are awful, and Bono's over-singing kills any chance most of the songs have.
I mean, that's a pretty bad return for 3-4 years' working on the album.
I also think Pop kind of did nothing good for them, and is clearly the album that began U2's decline in greatness/relevance, but at least it had some really good songs, albeit poorly produced and (in some cases) performed.
LemonMelon
More 5G Than Man
Why not both? Those are two of the best songs of the era.
Catman
Rock n' Roll Doggie
BVS
Blue Crack Supplier
Scorpionac
War Child
I've always found the "sketch" tracks on TUF more interesting in theory than in execution... I almost never want to hear them.
If I were to change another U2 album, I think it would be ATYCLB... Drop "In a Little While," "Wild Honey," and "Peace on Earth" in favour of "Stateless," "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" (which are crazy good) and "Levitate" (which is pretty good). Then you've got a more cohesive album, sonically and thematically.
Something like this:
01. Beautiful Day
02. Elevation
03. When I Look at the World
04. Stateless
05. Kite
06. Stuck in a Moment (acoustic)
07. Levitate
08. New York
09. The Ground Beneath Her Feet
10. Grace
11. Walk On
If they had added Loves Come Tumbling to the second half of The Unforgettable Fire, or replaced Indian Summer Sky by it, then TUF would probably be my favorite U2 album ahead of Achtung Baby. It's mighty close as it is now.
VintagePunk
Blue Crack Distributor
Blue Room
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
I tend to make the albums with B sides into double albums and change some of he order and include covers.
IE
Rattle and Hum Studio
Hawkmoon 269
Desire
Van Diemens Land
Hallelujah Here She Comes
Unchained Melody
Everlasting Love
Jesus Christ
Angel Of Harlem
When Love Comes To Town
Love Rescue Me
A Room At The Heartbreak Hotel
Dancing Barefoot
Heartland
God Part II
All I Want Is You
Rattle and Hum Live
Where The Streets Have No Name
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking for (feat. New Voices of Freedom)
MLK
Exit
In God’s Country
All Along The Watchtower
Helter Skelter
Bad
Bullet The Blue Sky
Running To Stand Still
Silver and Gold
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Pride
With Or Without You
* I have done this edit with seamless crowd noise in between and it works great IMO
Achtung Baby
Zoo Station
Even Better Than The Real Thing
One
Until The End Of The World
Down All The Days
Heaven Or Hell
Blow Your House Down
Whose Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
So Cruel
The Fly
Mysterious Ways
Lady With The Spinning Head
Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around The World
Where Did It All Go Wrong?
Acrobat
Ultraviolet
Love Is Blindness
Can’t Help Falling In Love
POP
Discotheque
Do You Feel Loved
Mofo
If God Would Send His Angels
Staring At The Sun
Last Night On Earth
Gone
Holy Joe
Wake Up Dead Man
Miami
If You Wear That Velvet Dress
Please
North And South Of The River
Two Shots Of Happy, One Shot Of Sad
Playboy Mansion
Dreaming With Tears In My Eyes
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
Vertigo
Original Of The Species
Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
City Of Blinding Lights
Window In The Skies
Neon Lights
A Man And A Woman
Are You Gonna Wait Forever?
Beat On The Brat
Instant Karma
Crumbs From Your Table
Love And Peace
All Because Of You
Miracle Drug
I Believe In Father Christmas
Fast Cars
One Step Closer
Yahweh
(Ave Maria)
Just a few examples that work for me.
IE
Rattle and Hum Studio
Hawkmoon 269
Desire
Van Diemens Land
Hallelujah Here She Comes
Unchained Melody
Everlasting Love
Jesus Christ
Angel Of Harlem
When Love Comes To Town
Love Rescue Me
A Room At The Heartbreak Hotel
Dancing Barefoot
Heartland
God Part II
All I Want Is You
Rattle and Hum Live
Where The Streets Have No Name
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking for (feat. New Voices of Freedom)
MLK
Exit
In God’s Country
All Along The Watchtower
Helter Skelter
Bad
Bullet The Blue Sky
Running To Stand Still
Silver and Gold
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Pride
With Or Without You
* I have done this edit with seamless crowd noise in between and it works great IMO
Achtung Baby
Zoo Station
Even Better Than The Real Thing
One
Until The End Of The World
Down All The Days
Heaven Or Hell
Blow Your House Down
Whose Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
So Cruel
The Fly
Mysterious Ways
Lady With The Spinning Head
Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around The World
Where Did It All Go Wrong?
Acrobat
Ultraviolet
Love Is Blindness
Can’t Help Falling In Love
POP
Discotheque
Do You Feel Loved
Mofo
If God Would Send His Angels
Staring At The Sun
Last Night On Earth
Gone
Holy Joe
Wake Up Dead Man
Miami
If You Wear That Velvet Dress
Please
North And South Of The River
Two Shots Of Happy, One Shot Of Sad
Playboy Mansion
Dreaming With Tears In My Eyes
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
Vertigo
Original Of The Species
Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
City Of Blinding Lights
Window In The Skies
Neon Lights
A Man And A Woman
Are You Gonna Wait Forever?
Beat On The Brat
Instant Karma
Crumbs From Your Table
Love And Peace
All Because Of You
Miracle Drug
I Believe In Father Christmas
Fast Cars
One Step Closer
Yahweh
(Ave Maria)
Just a few examples that work for me.
Oregoropa
Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
No Salome in Achtung
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Blue Room
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
Kind of tired of it. I listened to it so much before Achtung was released from the Hansa tapes I was burned out on it. I do include it sometimes and if I do it would be like this:
Zoo Station
Even Better Than The Real Thing
One
Until The End Of The World
Down All The Days
Heaven Or Hell
Blow Your House Down
Whose Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
So Cruel
Satellite Of Love
The Fly
Mysterious Ways
Lady With The Spinning Head
Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around The World
Salome'
Where Did It All Go Wrong?
Acrobat
Oh Berlin
On The Island
Ultraviolet
Love Is Blindness
Can’t Help Falling In Love
Slow Dancing
womanfish
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
No Line on the Horizon
Magnificent
Breathe
Fez
Cedars
MOS
An incredible EP!!
Magnificent
Breathe
Fez
Cedars
MOS
An incredible EP!!
Last edited:
Mack_Again
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
I would turn NLOTH into a good album.
Last edited:
womanfish
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
Here is my change for How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb...
1. Vertigo
2. City of Blinding Lights
That is all.
Dear God, I just listened to it again yesterday, and i was shocked at how bad it was. So embarrassing that it won Album of the freaking year!!! Just terrible. No Line blows it away and as you can see I would get rid of half of that album as well. But the songs that are left are truly great.
1. Vertigo
2. City of Blinding Lights
That is all.
Dear God, I just listened to it again yesterday, and i was shocked at how bad it was. So embarrassing that it won Album of the freaking year!!! Just terrible. No Line blows it away and as you can see I would get rid of half of that album as well. But the songs that are left are truly great.
The Panther
Refugee
I still think 'Atomic Bomb' is a good album, so I disagree with womanfish (now, there was a bad song!).
(Goes back to look at track-list due to memory lapse.)
"Sometimes You Can't Make It yadda, yadda" is pretty bad, and "Love and Peace" has a few near-cringe moments, but I basically I like all the songs, and the performances too.
The flaw with this album is mainly just the production. I get why some people don't like it -- the attention-grabbing single, the "trying-hard-to-impress" aspect of it, the overwrought nature of a few tracks -- but I still think it's a very solid album musically. It's one of their strongest albums, melodically, and it even rocks quite a bit.
But the production is awful. It would be nice to hear a Flood re-mix and re-'production' of the masters.
(Goes back to look at track-list due to memory lapse.)
"Sometimes You Can't Make It yadda, yadda" is pretty bad, and "Love and Peace" has a few near-cringe moments, but I basically I like all the songs, and the performances too.
The flaw with this album is mainly just the production. I get why some people don't like it -- the attention-grabbing single, the "trying-hard-to-impress" aspect of it, the overwrought nature of a few tracks -- but I still think it's a very solid album musically. It's one of their strongest albums, melodically, and it even rocks quite a bit.
But the production is awful. It would be nice to hear a Flood re-mix and re-'production' of the masters.
ozeeko
Refugee
I think Love and Peace (OR ELSE MOTHERFUCKAH!) is one of the more interesting tracks musically off BOMB. The middle 8 is probably the best moment for me of the entire record (those bizarre bell sounds).
Yea, SYCMIOYO is just...so bland.
I think COBL is rather useless as well. That distorted falsetto on the chorus...i just can't...
Yahweh's chorus is another ughhh moment.
Nixing those 3 and adding Fast Cars and (hate to say this but) Mercy, would've improved the album a LOT.
Aside from those 3, the rest have grown on me quite a bit. You have to let the earnestness come through. I think the album has a definite identity whereas NLOTH was a mixed bag. That's one reason I've, sorta, warmed up to it.
Yea, SYCMIOYO is just...so bland.
I think COBL is rather useless as well. That distorted falsetto on the chorus...i just can't...
Yahweh's chorus is another ughhh moment.
Nixing those 3 and adding Fast Cars and (hate to say this but) Mercy, would've improved the album a LOT.
Aside from those 3, the rest have grown on me quite a bit. You have to let the earnestness come through. I think the album has a definite identity whereas NLOTH was a mixed bag. That's one reason I've, sorta, warmed up to it.
ozeeko
Refugee
oh...i would replace "freedom has a scent etc.." with pretty much anything save "helping God across the road like a little old lady"
Oregoropa
Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
LAPOE is one of their most garbage songs IMO.
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womanfish
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
I think what struck me was how almost every song got "spoiled" somehow along the way. I like some of the songs musically (Crumbs, OOTS) but lyrically, really difficult to get past. LIke you mentioned, production off in many areas. I think the album is more consistent than ATYCLB and NLOTH, unfortunately, i find it consistently middle of the road to poor...
LemonMelon
More 5G Than Man
For all of U2's talk of quality songwriting, there are hardly any great songs on Bomb. Rarely does any magic happen on that record. Couple that with the awful production and unfocused tracklist and you have one of their weakest records.
Oregoropa
Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
Vertigo is a classic including a hard to come by original guitar riff
COBL is awfully pretty
Sometimes is very good although feeling derivative of 90s.
The rest is mehhhw to garbage
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COBL is awfully pretty
Sometimes is very good although feeling derivative of 90s.
The rest is mehhhw to garbage
Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
bobsaget77
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Things I love about Atomic Bomb:
The transition between Vertigo and MD. Great mixing.
The lyrics to LAPOE. Really good lyrics and song title.
The opening to ABOY. Can't get enough. I actually have the first 11 seconds edited out and sometimes I just listen to it on repeat for hours. Pure musical ecstasy.
The way Bono sings "you ate all your friends" on Crumbs is one of the finest vocal moments of his career.
The mixing of OOTS is perfect. "Do doo doo doo doo" part gives me chills every time.
Track listing is perfect and makes total sense. LAPOE-COBL-ABOY is particularly extremely logical and well planned. Smart to stick COBL in the middle of the album instead of as the opener. Good call.
Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
The transition between Vertigo and MD. Great mixing.
The lyrics to LAPOE. Really good lyrics and song title.
The opening to ABOY. Can't get enough. I actually have the first 11 seconds edited out and sometimes I just listen to it on repeat for hours. Pure musical ecstasy.
The way Bono sings "you ate all your friends" on Crumbs is one of the finest vocal moments of his career.
The mixing of OOTS is perfect. "Do doo doo doo doo" part gives me chills every time.
Track listing is perfect and makes total sense. LAPOE-COBL-ABOY is particularly extremely logical and well planned. Smart to stick COBL in the middle of the album instead of as the opener. Good call.
Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
The Panther
Refugee
I agree with most people's comments above, but I sharply disagree with this one. I actually think Bomb is one of their strongest collection of songs, ever. It's certainly their strongest line-up of songs since Achtung Baby, in fact. You can pick apart a weak lyric line or two (I actually like the "newborn baby's head" line), but musically these songs are tuneful; diverse in mood, tempo, melody; and have strong individual identities. The production is bad, and the collection of songs makes the album sound more like a 'Greatest Hits' album than a cohesive album, but this only indicates how strong the individual songs are.
"Sometimes You Can't Make It" is not aging well, however.
the tourist
Blue Crack Addict
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- Dec 25, 2003
- Messages
- 27,919
Rattle & Hum.
Prefaced by saying the songs with a * would be removed as Joshua Tree B-Sides.
Disc 1: Studio
1. Desire
2. Angel Of Harlem
3. Heartland
4. God Part II
5. Spanish Eyes*
6. Walk To The Water*
7. Deep In The Heart*
8. Van Diemen's Land (full band with halftime beat come in for the third verse, harmonies and organ added throughout)
9. Hawkmoon 269
10. Luminous Times*
11. All I Want Is You
Disc 2: Live
1. Helter Skelter (live)
2. All Along The Watchtower (live)
3. Silver and Gold (live)
4. Exit (live)
5. Sunday Bloody Sunday (live)
6. Bullet The Blue Sky (live)
7. Running To Stand Still (live)
8. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (live)
9. Bad (live)
10. With Or Without You (live)
11. Pride (live)
12. Where The Streets Have No Name (live)
Accompanying EP:
1. When Love Comes To Town
2. Angel Of Harlem (some sort of different version)
3. Love Rescue Me
4. Hallelujah Here She Comes
5. A Room At The Heartbreak Hotel
6. Slow Dancing
Prefaced by saying the songs with a * would be removed as Joshua Tree B-Sides.
Disc 1: Studio
1. Desire
2. Angel Of Harlem
3. Heartland
4. God Part II
5. Spanish Eyes*
6. Walk To The Water*
7. Deep In The Heart*
8. Van Diemen's Land (full band with halftime beat come in for the third verse, harmonies and organ added throughout)
9. Hawkmoon 269
10. Luminous Times*
11. All I Want Is You
Disc 2: Live
1. Helter Skelter (live)
2. All Along The Watchtower (live)
3. Silver and Gold (live)
4. Exit (live)
5. Sunday Bloody Sunday (live)
6. Bullet The Blue Sky (live)
7. Running To Stand Still (live)
8. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (live)
9. Bad (live)
10. With Or Without You (live)
11. Pride (live)
12. Where The Streets Have No Name (live)
Accompanying EP:
1. When Love Comes To Town
2. Angel Of Harlem (some sort of different version)
3. Love Rescue Me
4. Hallelujah Here She Comes
5. A Room At The Heartbreak Hotel
6. Slow Dancing
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