U2 Still has a great album in them

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I’ve never been a big fan of the mix on ATYCLB and am still confused as to why Peace on Earth made the final tracklist, right after Wild Honey. I think the rest of it is pretty damn good though and don’t understand the hate on some of the songs which became live staples on the tour.

If it wasn’t for the iTunes shit-show, I think SOI would have been regarded as one of their better albums of the 2000s. Same with SOE. For a band who’ve been around as long as they have been, I think they’re batting well above what’s expected of them. There’s certainly nothing on there I skip over like I do on ATYCLB.

But I also agree that they need to shake things up and forget about making the perfect single/radio hit and try new ways of writing & recording music and thinking. Just let go and try something different.

We weren’t expecting to see/hear anything from them for a couple of years at least, so I don’t know if this lockdown has come at a bad time for them as its coincided with planned downtime.
 
lazarus said:
Sorry, but I can’t take a post seriously where someone tries to defend ATYCLB by claiming that a different album has “trite platitudes”.
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Amen to this.

ATYCLB is a difficult one for me to categorize sometimes. It is close to SOI for me, but just isn't as listenable.
Beautiful Day is obviously a classic in its own right. But let's be honest, if that were to be put out by the band now, it would be panned for it's lyrics. It's a good song, great live, but definitely not one that i search out to listen to.
Walk On is a walking platitude, and uninspired to me.
I was never a big fan of Stuck, but I appreciate it as a solid tune.
Elevation, I actually like much more than most people, I don't think anyone can deny it's live performance.
Kite is one of my favorite U2 songs of all time, and what has endeared the album most for me.
I actually like In a Little While quite a lot. A different kind of tune for them and it works IMO.
Wild Honey - meh
POE - Horrible
When I Look... Probably my second or third fave on the album. Really well done. Platitudy, yeah, but I can live with it cause it just sounds great to me.
New York - Pretty cool song. Some days I hate it, some days I think that it was really the more out of the box type song that this album needed.
Grace - Horrible, worst closing song in U2 history.

Song that should have been included (in all countries) Ground Beneath Her Feet.

SOI

Miracle - solid song, but should be down a few notches in the tracklist, good album track, not a single.
EBW - classic U2 song for me. One of their best this past decade
California - I really like it, different type of song for the band and works well
SFS - no thank you. Should have been 13 from the get go.
Iris - another solid tune, but leaves me wanting a bit more, or different. but to me genuine and emotional. Not cut and paste or full of fake platitudes.
Volcano - Great song, borders on "rawk" but there is something that is different and original about it that keeps me listening.
Raised by Wolves - Incredible song, yet another departure from the norm here that is very welcome to my ears.
Cedarwood - Another solid song, but like Iris, could have been tweaked to make it even better, some odd transitions, but overall good song
Sleep LIke a Baby - One of my favorites on the album. Like RBW, it is the darker side of the band which I love. great instrumentation and lyrics. Just a great song
Reach - In the middle for me. I have grown to like it more, I know it was a favorite of a lot of people here when the album first dropped.
Troubles - Amazing song, beautiful and a perfect closer, should have had longer meandering, edge-filled ending.

Song that should have been included - The Crystal Ballroom

So ATYCLB has a few highs, but at least two songs I hope to never hear again, and a couple more I would skip, and a couple middle of the road.
SOI is more even across the board, maybe only one I would skip, a couple outstanding songs, a few really good songs, and few middle of the road.


I think often with the band it comes down to the time and obviously their decision making on how the album is introduced to the world.

ATYCLB was heralded as this "return to form" album after POP. That in itself was a slap in the face to me, as POP is one of my favorite albums. The public was eating it up, and then it became a touchstone post 9/11. Great first single choice, superbowl performance. Everything worked. So the weak parts of the album were overlooked. And that's ok. I'm grateful for this record too, because it pretty much gave them another new life, and prolonged success.

SOI - Everything went wrong. Bono's accident, Apple release, Miracle as first single. Just everything. Had this been a healthy Bono, a very different type of Apple release, and EBW as the first single. Then who knows. It most likely would have been received totally differently. But alas, it was not.
 
Your post is the one I didn’t have time to write Womanfish :applaud:

When I Look At The World has always been one of my favourites on that album, criminally underrated.

You’re right though, its amazing the circumstances surrounding both of those albums’ releases both in terms of the band and the world, which undoubtedly coloured the response to them.

I know its a whole other topic, but I still don’t get the way that the Pop era is looked upon by many these days. For me, the Achtung Baby, Zooropa, Passengers, Pop era is the most exciting in the band’s history. Achtung Baby and Joshua Tree are widely regarded as the best albums they’ve ever done, but Pop & Zooropa are two of my favourites.
 
ascender_RS said:
Your post is the one I didn’t have time to write Womanfish :applaud:

When I Look At The World has always been one of my favourites on that album, criminally underrated.

You’re right though, its amazing the circumstances surrounding both of those albums’ releases both in terms of the band and the world, which undoubtedly coloured the response to them.

I know its a whole other topic, but I still don’t get the way that the Pop era is looked upon by many these days. For me, the Achtung Baby, Zooropa, Passengers, Pop era is the most exciting in the band’s history. Achtung Baby and Joshua Tree are widely regarded as the best albums they’ve ever done, but Pop & Zooropa are two of my favourites.
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That's hilarious. Cause I was going to reply to your post and say - You said what I wanted to say much more succinctly. LOL

Yeah, Achtung is my number one, followed by Joshua Tree, but then it always gets a bit messy, POP, UF, Boy, War, Zooropa, SOI, I always kind of want to squish them all in the top 5.

I just think that the darker side of the band always appealed much more to me than the uplifting, joyful, "inspiring" stuff.
 
womanfish said:
Beautiful Day is obviously a classic in its own right. But let's be honest, if that were to be put out by the band now, it would be panned for it's lyrics.
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How do you mean? I personally would rate 'Beautiful Day' as one of the greatest lyrics the band has ever produced.

(I think their most perfect lyric is "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)"... "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is pretty great, too.)
 
womanfish said:
Amen to this.



ATYCLB is a difficult one for me to categorize sometimes. It is close to SOI for me, but just isn't as listenable.

Beautiful Day is obviously a classic in its own right. But let's be honest, if that were to be put out by the band now, it would be panned for it's lyrics. It's a good song, great live, but definitely not one that i search out to listen to.

Walk On is a walking platitude, and uninspired to me.

I was never a big fan of Stuck, but I appreciate it as a solid tune.

Elevation, I actually like much more than most people, I don't think anyone can deny it's live performance.

Kite is one of my favorite U2 songs of all time, and what has endeared the album most for me.

I actually like In a Little While quite a lot. A different kind of tune for them and it works IMO.

Wild Honey - meh

POE - Horrible

When I Look... Probably my second or third fave on the album. Really well done. Platitudy, yeah, but I can live with it cause it just sounds great to me.

New York - Pretty cool song. Some days I hate it, some days I think that it was really the more out of the box type song that this album needed.

Grace - Horrible, worst closing song in U2 history.



Song that should have been included (in all countries) Ground Beneath Her Feet.



SOI



Miracle - solid song, but should be down a few notches in the tracklist, good album track, not a single.

EBW - classic U2 song for me. One of their best this past decade

California - I really like it, different type of song for the band and works well

SFS - no thank you. Should have been 13 from the get go.

Iris - another solid tune, but leaves me wanting a bit more, or different. but to me genuine and emotional. Not cut and paste or full of fake platitudes.

Volcano - Great song, borders on "rawk" but there is something that is different and original about it that keeps me listening.

Raised by Wolves - Incredible song, yet another departure from the norm here that is very welcome to my ears.

Cedarwood - Another solid song, but like Iris, could have been tweaked to make it even better, some odd transitions, but overall good song

Sleep LIke a Baby - One of my favorites on the album. Like RBW, it is the darker side of the band which I love. great instrumentation and lyrics. Just a great song

Reach - In the middle for me. I have grown to like it more, I know it was a favorite of a lot of people here when the album first dropped.

Troubles - Amazing song, beautiful and a perfect closer, should have had longer meandering, edge-filled ending.



Song that should have been included - The Crystal Ballroom



So ATYCLB has a few highs, but at least two songs I hope to never hear again, and a couple more I would skip, and a couple middle of the road.

SOI is more even across the board, maybe only one I would skip, a couple outstanding songs, a few really good songs, and few middle of the road.





I think often with the band it comes down to the time and obviously their decision making on how the album is introduced to the world.



ATYCLB was heralded as this "return to form" album after POP. That in itself was a slap in the face to me, as POP is one of my favorite albums. The public was eating it up, and then it became a touchstone post 9/11. Great first single choice, superbowl performance. Everything worked. So the weak parts of the album were overlooked. And that's ok. I'm grateful for this record too, because it pretty much gave them another new life, and prolonged success.



SOI - Everything went wrong. Bono's accident, Apple release, Miracle as first single. Just everything. Had this been a healthy Bono, a very different type of Apple release, and EBW as the first single. Then who knows. It most likely would have been received totally differently. But alas, it was not.
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All That You Can't Leave Behind was out for 11 months, Beautiful Day had won a couple of Grammys, two legs of a sold out world tour were completed, and the album was a massive commercial and critical success before 9/11 or the Super Bowl performance, which came 16 months after the album was released.

If the album wasn't already universally well received critically and commercially, it wouldn't have become a post 9/11 touch point and the super bowl performance wouldn't have happened.

Sorry - I've read about how All That You Can't Leave Behind's success is because of 9/11 and the Super Bowl a few too many times here. It's just not true.

Not saying you're saying that was the only reason - but you sparked my All That You Can't Leave Behind defense systems.

Also - Beautiful Day is the only post Achtung Baby U2 song that's really hung around in the public conscious. This has nothing to do with 9/11. It's because it's a damn good song. The song most associated with 9/11, Walk On, is never played anywhere. Beautiful Day is.
 
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I’ve never heard City Of Blinding Lights on the radio. Maybe a couple times on sporting events’ commercial cuts. Never had a single one of my friends who isn’t a U2 nut mention anything about it. Anecdotally, the only songs I’ve noticed people really talking about, heard on the radio, etc. in the last 20 years are Beautiful Day and Vertigo.
 
City of Blinding lights is absolutely the “intro song to _____” for whatever event going on. It’s a song that people don’t know is U2 and don’t know the name of, but some people generally know the song.

It’s not Beautiful Day and it’s not Vertigo, but it’s definitely a highly relevant post-2000 tune that has staying power.
 
Hewson said:
Must have been a Philly Target, all others play The Fly.
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LuckyNumber7 said:
City of Blinding lights is absolutely the “intro song to _____” for whatever event going on. It’s a song that people don’t know is U2 and don’t know the name of, but some people generally know the song.

It’s not Beautiful Day and it’s not Vertigo, but it’s definitely a highly relevant post-2000 tune that has staying power.
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Yea it's mostly used as background at political speeches and inspirational events - but it's found a home there. Kind of like how Desire found a home as an arena sports event.

I can't remember the last time I heard it on the radio - but it pops up in strange places fairly regularly.
 
The most random thing I heard was when I was at a sports bar a couple years back and "Crazy Tonight" was blaring over the speakers.
 
The Panther said:
How do you mean? I personally would rate 'Beautiful Day' as one of the greatest lyrics the band has ever produced.

(I think their most perfect lyric is "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)"... "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is pretty great, too.)
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I was referring to,
See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light and
See the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out

Pitchfork would have a field day if this were on an album this past decade.

I agree that the rest of the song is strong lyrically, but certainly nowhere close to their best.
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
All That You Can't Leave Behind was out for 11 months, Beautiful Day had won a couple of Grammys, two legs of a sold out world tour were completed, and the album was a massive commercial and critical success before 9/11 or the Super Bowl performance, which came 16 months after the album was released.

If the album wasn't already universally well received critically and commercially, it wouldn't have become a post 9/11 touch point and the super bowl performance wouldn't have happened.

Sorry - I've read about how All That You Can't Leave Behind's success is because of 9/11 and the Super Bowl a few too many times here. It's just not true.

Not saying you're saying that was the only reason - but you sparked my All That You Can't Leave Behind defense systems.

Also - Beautiful Day is the only post Achtung Baby U2 song that's really hung around in the public conscious. This has nothing to do with 9/11. It's because it's a damn good song. The song most associated with 9/11, Walk On, is never played anywhere. Beautiful Day is.
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True, i tend to forget how long of a timeline that was, and I understand your defense of it. It was a huge album for them, one that did connect to the public. 9/11 and Superbowl gave the album a whole second life post-grammy's. Which is great. And I will always be thankful for ATYCLB cause it probably granted us many many more years of material than if it had been a dud.

The everything wrong for SOI I don't think anyone can dispute.

I totally agree that BD is definitely one of the only post AB songs I hear, COBL i hear more on TV than radio, Vertigo once in a great while.

So like I said, I know BD is a classic at this point. I just don't find it to be a song from their catalog that I personally jump to listen to if I'm taking in some U2 tunes. And that kind of goes for that album as a whole. I will always take time to listen to Kite, but I just can't put on that album and let it play through like I would almost any other album (save for Bomb and NLOTH).
 
LuckyNumber7 said:
Lol I heard Magnificent in Target the other day.
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I really wish U2 weren't stupid and would have released Magnificent as the lead song off of No Line. Every time i hear it, I think, damn, this song is really fucking good. I think it would have been great coming off the heels of Bomb's success.

But you know, sexy boots :doh:
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
Yea it's mostly used as background at political speeches and inspirational events - but it's found a home there. Kind of like how Desire found a home as an arena sports event.

I can't remember the last time I heard it on the radio - but it pops up in strange places fairly regularly.
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It’s in The Devil Wears Prada, which is a movie that is on television right now and has been continuously since 2007.
 
womanfish said:
True, i tend to forget how long of a timeline that was, and I understand your defense of it. It was a huge album for them, one that did connect to the public. 9/11 and Superbowl gave the album a whole second life post-grammy's. Which is great. And I will always be thankful for ATYCLB cause it probably granted us many many more years of material than if it had been a dud.



The everything wrong for SOI I don't think anyone can dispute.



I totally agree that BD is definitely one of the only post AB songs I hear, COBL i hear more on TV than radio, Vertigo once in a great while.



So like I said, I know BD is a classic at this point. I just don't find it to be a song from their catalog that I personally jump to listen to if I'm taking in some U2 tunes. And that kind of goes for that album as a whole. I will always take time to listen to Kite, but I just can't put on that album and let it play through like I would almost any other album (save for Bomb and NLOTH).
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Yea... Obviously everything went wrong with the Innocence release. One single decision - allow people to download it themselves (like Invisible) vs pushing it to automatically to people's libraries made all the difference.

I only disagree with anyone who thinks the album would have been an All That You Can't Leave Behind type rebound if not for the Apple debacle. I think it would have been closer to, say, Wrecking Ball. A nice, generally well received album that doesn't really move the needle much outside of the first week or so, and is largely forgotten by everyone outside of the core fan base.

The major issue was the damage done to their legacy. They became a punch line to anyone under the age of 30. Instead of sliding gracefully into life as elder statesmen of rock, they became a running joke that they've never really recovered from.
 
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womanfish said:
I really wish U2 weren't stupid and would have released Magnificent as the lead song off of No Line. Every time i hear it, I think, damn, this song is really fucking good.
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Likewise, This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now should have been the lead song from SOI.

Putting aside whether they can make another great album, I really do wonder what the next album will bring. The themes behind SOI and SOE were strong and powered two albums worth of material. I wonder what they have left to say on the next album?
 
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