new mixes on Best of 90's - Page 2

thelaj · 08-29-2009, 04:27 PM

I've just listened to the two versions of Numb against each other a few times. I think I prefer the New Mix due to the superior mixing (Zooropa is so murky), added guitar and more prominent vocals from Larry/Edge#2/Bono.

On the downside it loses a lot of the electronic feel, with the bleeps and bloops removed. Maybe the worst thing is the removal of the "yodelling" voices in the chorus. I think a mix of BOTH versions would be best.

**KhanadaRhodes** · 08-29-2009, 04:58 PM

numb and discotheque are absolutely horrible.

Sergiodino · 08-29-2009, 11:53 PM

who produced the remixes?....any more info on the remix of Gone? (the vocals sounds very ATYCLB-era for me)

thelaj · 08-30-2009, 02:00 AM

Mike Hedges did the production, hence those four tracks are sometimes referred to as the "Mike Hedge Mixes".

The Gone vocal may have been from a different vocal take, as the line "what you thought was freedom just was greed" becomes "what you thought was freedom is just greed".

The Best of 1990–2000 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Earnie Shavers · 08-31-2009, 05:48 PM

The Mysterious Ways one is kinda weird because it’s not meant to be new in any way, just remastered. You wouldn’t notice a thing until he drops that different lyric.

I don’t mind Numb, it is muddy on Zooropa, and they haven’t changed *that* much. If you’re not paying much attention to it on in the background, you probably wouldn’t even notice which one has come up on shuffle.

The rest I don’t care for. Especially Gone, which I can’t stand. Way to suck the feeling right out of it. Criminal.

digitize · 08-31-2009, 06:01 PM

I like the muddiness of Zooropa Numb.

I think Gone, SATS, and Disco have new Bono vocals, but I'm not sure (although I'm pretty certain Gone does). The Bono vocals on Numb are all in fat-lady falsetto, which obviously came from 1993. I wouldn't be surprised if Larry and Edge re-recorded their vocals for Numb, though.

The John Tree · 08-31-2009, 06:09 PM

A lot of the new vocals are from different vocal takes. "Gone", in particular, sounds like it was hobbled together from various live performances, probably to accommodate the "live" arrangement.

I, too, dislike the new "Gone". They took all the "otherness" out of it, making it just a straight rock song. But the worst part was the chorus. The chorus on Pop, with the piano, the heavily reverbed "Goodbye", and most importantly, the screaming siren guitar during the "I'm not coming down" are what give the song its lift. The Best Of remix robs it of all that, making what's a strong, emotional song on Pop into a standard midtempo rock song.

Edited to add: The one redeeming quality that the remix has is that it adds Edge's "down" part during the chorus, which I like. Though it's too low in the mix.

digitize · 08-31-2009, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The John Tree

A lot of the new vocals are from different vocal takes. "Gone", in particular, sounds like it was hobbled together from various live performances, probably to accommodate the "live" arrangement.

I, too, dislike the new "Gone". They took all the "otherness" out of it, making it just a straight rock song. But the worst part was the chorus. The chorus on Pop, with the piano, the heavily reverbed "Goodbye", and most importantly, the screaming siren guitar during the "I'm not coming down" are what give the song its lift. The Best Of remix robs it of all that, making what's a strong, emotional song on Pop into a standard midtempo rock song.

Edited to add: The one redeeming quality that the remix has is that it adds Edge's "down" part during the chorus, which I like. Though it's too low in the mix.

I agree with all of this.

65980 · 09-01-2009, 12:55 PM

I agree, too, that there is something good in the newer "Gone" but also something missing from those choruses. And especially, the break ("I'm al-rea-dy gone...") is much better, melodically, in the original.

I absolutely loathe the new version of "Numb". In fact, I detested it so much when I got the Best of 90--00 that I went out and bought my 2nd copy of Zooropa, just so I could have the original again (I had first bought that album the week it was released)! I don't know what it was, but something about the clean mix just ruined it for me. The vocals weren't right at all.

I must admit -- although it's sacriledge around here -- that I much prefer the newer "Discotheque"! That, to me, was a superior song almost ruined by inferior production and mixing on the Pop album. I concede that the new mix has clearly been done as a meat-and-potatoes Oasis-style song (i.e. generic), but I think it really pulls out the strength of the composition (the guitar riff; the chorus) in a way that the muddled original failed to do.

thelaj · 09-01-2009, 04:40 PM

I'm enjoying all this conversation about Gone as it is one of my favourite songs. I've had this dilemma between the two versions for years, and thought I'd settled on the new mix - I really like the guitar mixed higher. Now that it has been mentioned, I do miss the atmospheric keyboards and soft Edge "wahhh".

It seems like the brief for the Best of mixes was "de-Pop them".

hasin73 · 09-02-2009, 12:28 AM

Except Gone, no other improvement. And IMO, Gone( album version ) is also
very good in its own right.

hasin73 · 09-02-2009, 12:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The John Tree

A lot of the new vocals are from different vocal takes. "Gone", in particular, sounds like it was hobbled together from various live performances, probably to accommodate the "live" arrangement.

I, too, dislike the new "Gone". They took all the "otherness" out of it, making it just a straight rock song. But the worst part was the chorus. The chorus on Pop, with the piano, the heavily reverbed "Goodbye", and most importantly, the screaming siren guitar during the "I'm not coming down" are what give the song its lift. The Best Of remix robs it of all that, making what's a strong, emotional song on Pop into a standard midtempo rock song.

Edited to add: The one redeeming quality that the remix has is that it adds Edge's "down" part during the chorus, which I like. Though it's too low in the mix.

dan_smee · 09-06-2009, 05:46 PM

How are people not loving new gone? Pop version sounds like a demo. There is no texture in the verses, and it sounds generally flat. The best of version is way more dynamic, and has more keys (especially in the breakdown).

Love that Edge actually plays the chords in the verse too, rather than leaving our brains to fill in the gap they left out.

Earnie Shavers · 09-06-2009, 05:58 PM

Because it doesn’t feel the same. I’m sure if the original didn’t exist, and that new version was one of the ‘new’ Best Of tracks, I’d love it, but I think they just totally washed out the angsty feel and soul of the original. I really don't like that they did that.

lazarus · 09-07-2009, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The John Tree

I, too, dislike the new "Gone". They took all the "otherness" out of it, making it just a straight rock song. But the worst part was the chorus. The chorus on Pop, with the piano, the heavily reverbed "Goodbye", and most importantly, the screaming siren guitar during the "I'm not coming down" are what give the song its lift. The Best Of remix robs it of all that, making what's a strong, emotional song on Pop into a standard midtempo rock song.

This. And I don't understand why so many people are blind to it.

Also, Bono is quoted as saying that when he recorded the original vocal, he felt that someone was walking over his grave. You don't re-record something like that.

Zoots · 09-07-2009, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by morgan1098

All of the "new mixes" on the Best Of take songs that are were originally very electronic and synthy and try to make them sound like they were recorded for ATYCLB. If they ever go back and re-record Pop (they won't), I would hope they'd come up with a better approach than just trying to make it sound like 2000s-era U2.

QFT!

This is why I think the "new mixes" are all pretty much shit! Pop had it's own sound, place and time just like ATYCLB did too. Don't make one sound like the other!

digitize · 09-07-2009, 02:54 PM

The Mike Hedges mixes sound more like AB than Attyclub to me.

U2girl · 09-07-2009, 02:58 PM

Yeah...the remixes sound nothing like ATYCLB.

Zoots · 09-07-2009, 03:05 PM

Well, they don't sound like ATYCLB exactly but when a song like Gone is stripped of it's otherworldly siren-sounding guitar and atmosphere and made into a straightforward pop/rock song with loud Edge backing vocals and lots of piano, it only reminds me of the type of pop-rock on ATYCLB. I guess this point really applies most to Gone.

Earnie Shavers · 09-07-2009, 06:36 PM

I agree. They're not produced to sound like ATYCLB (they obviously 'sound' nothing like ATYCLB in one sense) but they've been put through the same bold machine.

e.g. Discotheque - while it's not considered such a crime because it was always intended to be a big pop-rock single - it's kind of like the original, dirtier Discotheque liquored up Elevation and then 9 months later... Squeeky Clean Best Of Discotheque is born.

08-29-2009, 04:27 PM	#21
thelaj Refugee Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Liverpool, UK Posts: 2,461 Local Time: 04:18 PM	I've just listened to the two versions of Numb against each other a few times. I think I prefer the New Mix due to the superior mixing (Zooropa is so murky), added guitar and more prominent vocals from Larry/Edge#2/Bono. On the downside it loses a lot of the electronic feel, with the bleeps and bloops removed. Maybe the worst thing is the removal of the "yodelling" voices in the chorus. I think a mix of BOTH versions would be best. __________________

08-29-2009, 04:58 PM	#22
KhanadaRhodes Paper Gods Forum Administrator Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: a vampire in the limousine Posts: 60,695 Local Time: 10:18 AM	numb and discotheque are absolutely horrible. __________________ __________________

09-07-2009, 06:36 PM	#40
Earnie Shavers Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: London/Sydney Posts: 6,609 Local Time: 03:18 PM	I agree. They're not produced to sound like ATYCLB (they obviously 'sound' nothing like ATYCLB in one sense) but they've been put through the same bold machine. e.g. Discotheque - while it's not considered such a crime because it was always intended to be a big pop-rock single - it's kind of like the original, dirtier Discotheque liquored up Elevation and then 9 months later... Squeeky Clean Best Of Discotheque is born. __________________

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08-29-2009, 11:53 PM	#23
Sergiodino Acrobat Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Asuncion, Paraguay Posts: 320 Local Time: 03:18 PM	who produced the remixes?....any more info on the remix of Gone? (the vocals sounds very ATYCLB-era for me)

08-30-2009, 02:00 AM	#24
thelaj Refugee Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Liverpool, UK Posts: 2,461 Local Time: 04:18 PM	Mike Hedges did the production, hence those four tracks are sometimes referred to as the "Mike Hedge Mixes". The Gone vocal may have been from a different vocal take, as the line "what you thought was freedom just was greed" becomes "what you thought was freedom is just greed". The Best of 1990–2000 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

08-31-2009, 05:48 PM	#25
Earnie Shavers Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: London/Sydney Posts: 6,609 Local Time: 03:18 PM	The Mysterious Ways one is kinda weird because it’s not meant to be new in any way, just remastered. You wouldn’t notice a thing until he drops that different lyric. I don’t mind Numb, it is muddy on Zooropa, and they haven’t changed that much. If you’re not paying much attention to it on in the background, you probably wouldn’t even notice which one has come up on shuffle. The rest I don’t care for. Especially Gone, which I can’t stand. Way to suck the feeling right out of it. Criminal.

08-31-2009, 06:01 PM	#26
digitize ONE love, blood, life Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: New York / Dallas / Austin Posts: 14,118 Local Time: 09:18 AM	I like the muddiness of Zooropa Numb. I think Gone, SATS, and Disco have new Bono vocals, but I'm not sure (although I'm pretty certain Gone does). The Bono vocals on Numb are all in fat-lady falsetto, which obviously came from 1993. I wouldn't be surprised if Larry and Edge re-recorded their vocals for Numb, though.

08-31-2009, 06:09 PM	#27
The John Tree War Child Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Baltimore Posts: 844 Local Time: 03:18 PM	A lot of the new vocals are from different vocal takes. "Gone", in particular, sounds like it was hobbled together from various live performances, probably to accommodate the "live" arrangement. I, too, dislike the new "Gone". They took all the "otherness" out of it, making it just a straight rock song. But the worst part was the chorus. The chorus on Pop, with the piano, the heavily reverbed "Goodbye", and most importantly, the screaming siren guitar during the "I'm not coming down" are what give the song its lift. The Best Of remix robs it of all that, making what's a strong, emotional song on Pop into a standard midtempo rock song. Edited to add: The one redeeming quality that the remix has is that it adds Edge's "down" part during the chorus, which I like. Though it's too low in the mix.

09-01-2009, 12:55 PM	#29
65980 Refugee Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 1,059 Local Time: 08:18 AM	I agree, too, that there is something good in the newer "Gone" but also something missing from those choruses. And especially, the break ("I'm al-rea-dy gone...") is much better, melodically, in the original. I absolutely loathe the new version of "Numb". In fact, I detested it so much when I got the Best of 90--00 that I went out and bought my 2nd copy of Zooropa, just so I could have the original again (I had first bought that album the week it was released)! I don't know what it was, but something about the clean mix just ruined it for me. The vocals weren't right at all. I must admit -- although it's sacriledge around here -- that I much prefer the newer "Discotheque"! That, to me, was a superior song almost ruined by inferior production and mixing on the Pop album. I concede that the new mix has clearly been done as a meat-and-potatoes Oasis-style song (i.e. generic), but I think it really pulls out the strength of the composition (the guitar riff; the chorus) in a way that the muddled original failed to do.

09-01-2009, 04:40 PM	#30
thelaj Refugee Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Liverpool, UK Posts: 2,461 Local Time: 04:18 PM	I'm enjoying all this conversation about Gone as it is one of my favourite songs. I've had this dilemma between the two versions for years, and thought I'd settled on the new mix - I really like the guitar mixed higher. Now that it has been mentioned, I do miss the atmospheric keyboards and soft Edge "wahhh". It seems like the brief for the Best of mixes was "de-Pop them".

09-02-2009, 12:28 AM	#31
hasin73 Refugee Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Bangladesh. Posts: 1,462 Local Time: 09:18 PM	Except Gone, no other improvement. And IMO, Gone( album version ) is also very good in its own right.

09-06-2009, 05:46 PM	#33
dan_smee ONE love, blood, life Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Canberra, Australia Posts: 14,059 Local Time: 01:18 AM	How are people not loving new gone? Pop version sounds like a demo. There is no texture in the verses, and it sounds generally flat. The best of version is way more dynamic, and has more keys (especially in the breakdown). Love that Edge actually plays the chords in the verse too, rather than leaving our brains to fill in the gap they left out.

09-06-2009, 05:58 PM	#34
Earnie Shavers Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: London/Sydney Posts: 6,609 Local Time: 03:18 PM	Because it doesn’t feel the same. I’m sure if the original didn’t exist, and that new version was one of the ‘new’ Best Of tracks, I’d love it, but I think they just totally washed out the angsty feel and soul of the original. I really don't like that they did that.

09-07-2009, 02:54 PM	#37
digitize ONE love, blood, life Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: New York / Dallas / Austin Posts: 14,118 Local Time: 09:18 AM	The Mike Hedges mixes sound more like AB than Attyclub to me.

09-07-2009, 02:58 PM	#38
U2girl Blue Crack Addict Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: slovenija Posts: 21,099 Local Time: 05:18 PM	Yeah...the remixes sound nothing like ATYCLB.

09-07-2009, 03:05 PM	#39
Zoots Blue Crack Supplier Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: the great beyond Posts: 36,802 Local Time: 05:18 PM	Well, they don't sound like ATYCLB exactly but when a song like Gone is stripped of it's otherworldly siren-sounding guitar and atmosphere and made into a straightforward pop/rock song with loud Edge backing vocals and lots of piano, it only reminds me of the type of pop-rock on ATYCLB. I guess this point really applies most to Gone.