Next Album Rumours Thread IV - 2 Sing 2 Furious

[brooklynmike]

The Discotheque video did some real damage. People in the US tuned out after that. Chalked it up to U2 is goofy now, and I’m moving on. It didn’t help that they didn’t do any live promo showcasing the songs live.

There are some very good songs on the album, but I’m not sure if anything there makes a good single. Nothing you can sing along to in the car.

If they handed me the album and was tasked with picking the singles, I’d go with:

Gone
Staring at the Sun
Discotheque
Last Night on Earth

Mofo and Do You Feel Loved are good but I’m not sure what stations would play them back in those days.

If God Will Send His Angels is the worst song on the album and should have been left off. North and South of the River in its place.

 

[BEAL]

Had forgotten about North and South. Just gave it a listen.

Such a catchy little pop song that doesn’t try to do too much. Great vocals by Bono and love the Edge at the end.

 

[brooklynmike]

Had forgotten about North and South. Just gave it a listen.

Such a catchy little pop song that doesn’t try to do too much. Great vocals by Bono and love the Edge at the end.

Yup, good song. I love the live performance they did on a TV show in 98’.

 

[the tourist]

LOL. That's so funny. I was driving home from the store and I thought... Ya know, Miami is not horrible and really belongs on POP. If God Would Send... i probably the one that should go.

And they did some pretty killer live performances of Miami.



great minds!

That’s hilarious!

For me the singles for Pop would have gone:

Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me
Last Night On Earth
Staring At The Sun
Discotheque

and the Pop tracklisting would be something like:

Discotheque
Do You Feel Loved
Mofo
Last Night On Earth
Gone
Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me
Miami
The Playboy Mansion
Staring At The Sun
If You Wear That Velvet Dress
Please
Wake Up Dead Man

 

[lazarus]

I love every track on Pop, including Miami and Angels, and the only thing I would do is add three tracks (N&S of the River, I'm Not Your Baby, Holy Joe) and make it a modest double album.

Tracklisting is maybe not perfect but compared to the awful ordering on ATYCLB, SOI, and SOE I'm not complaining.

 

[david]

I’ll go on forever saying that U2 should have kept Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill me off that stupid Batman soundtrack and it should have been the first single from Pop.

A one-two punch of Hold Me... and Last Night On Earth would have been incredible and I think Pop and Popmart would have done much better.

Uhhh that soundtrack had PJ Harvey, Sunny Day Real Estate, The Flaming Lips, Nick Cave, Method Man, Mazzy Star etc.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Uhhh that soundtrack had PJ Harvey, Sunny Day Real Estate, The Flaming Lips, Nick Cave, Method Man, Mazzy Star etc.

That soundtrack is literally what made me a U2 fan.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Seriously what happened to U2's video budget? Achtung Baby had incredible videos, especially the first 3 singles. Then a few years later POP's videos suck (for the most part).

They shut down the highway system in Kansas City to film that video.

Budget wasn't the issue. Direction was.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

I think that SATS video is slick and generic. Give me the one with all the candid footage from Cuba any day.

Yea but coming off of Zooropa they needed a little slick and generic - or at least the perception of slick and generic, as the actual album was anything but.

I can't disagree that Last Night On Earth would have worked, with a video that didn't include lemon grenades and William S. Burroughs.

 

[lazarus]

Yeah, I'm assuming if LNOE had been the first single, they wouldn't have gone with something so...niche.

What's funny is that your average U2 fan (or at least the mainstream ones) probably had no clue who Burroughs was, let alone be able to recognize him by sight, and the people who were into that particular subculture/area of literature wouldn't go anywhere near U2's music or sit through one of their videos in 1997. It's the conundrum of Zooropa to a certain extent the people who might have appreciated it the most weren't likely to see through Bono's ironic rock star satire and just wrote him off as an egomaniacal asshole without knowing how subversive and experimental the music was.

 

[Hewson]

They shut down the highway system in Kansas City to film that video.

Budget wasn't the issue. Direction was.

Meh, like 9 people had to take a detour to pick up their baby backs.

 

[womanfish]

That’s hilarious!

For me the singles for Pop would have gone:

Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me
Last Night On Earth
Staring At The Sun
Discotheque

and the Pop tracklisting would be something like:

Discotheque
Do You Feel Loved
Mofo
Last Night On Earth
Gone
Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me
Miami
The Playboy Mansion
Staring At The Sun
If You Wear That Velvet Dress
Please
Wake Up Dead Man

Ok, what the hell??!! I just got on here to ask people what their track listing would be if they added Hold Me, Thrill Me.

I'll give this a shot

 

[the tourist]

Also would like to just take moment to say Miami isn’t the terrible song it’s been made out to be. In fact the instrumentation is one of the more interesting things they’ve done. The only real problem is Bono and his parts are so much less cringy than things he’s done since then that it’s almost to the point of just being okay.

 

[the tourist]

Ok, what the hell??!! I just got on here to ask people what their track listing would be if they added Hold Me, Thrill Me.



I'll give this a shot

The only rough transition as far as I’m concerned is Staring At The Sun because of the overlap, so maybe I’d move that the after Velvet Dress.

 

[lazarus]

Also would like to just take moment to say Miami isn’t the terrible song it’s been made out to be. In fact the instrumentation is one of the more interesting things they’ve done. The only real problem is Bono and his parts are so much less cringy than things he’s done since then that it’s almost to the point of just being okay.

Yeah, I’ll take “My Mammy” over “Refujesus” or the geriatric falsetto “haven’t heard” from Crazy Tonight any day of the week.

 

[lazarus]

I wish I had written down my custom Pop tracklisting but I’m pretty sure Gone was the Side 1 closer (much more effective than as a side opener) and Discotheque as Side 2 opener. Mofo was in the #1 slot.

 

[womanfish]

Yeah, I’ll take “My Mammy” over “Refujesus” or the geriatric falsetto “haven’t heard” from Crazy Tonight any day of the week.

I think I'll also take it over "Lincoln's Ghost"

 

[womanfish]

I wish I had written down my custom Pop tracklisting but I’m pretty sure Gone was the Side 1 closer (much more effective than as a side opener) and Discotheque as Side 2 opener. Mofo was in the #1 slot.

I always thought Mofo should be the opening song. I'll have to play around with the tracklisting a bit. post yours if you find it or recall it.

 

[the tourist]

Speaking of alternate tracklisting, and I know we’ve probably discussed this a million times about their albums in general, but I recently made a custom Songs of Experience playlist and damn if I don’t grin ear to ear every time I spin it. And I can’t help but think the album would have been much bigger had they released it this way:

01 Love Is All We Have Left
02 The Blackout [single 1]
03 Summer Of Love
04 Red Flag Day
05 The Showman
06 Landlady
07 Lights Of Home
08 Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way [single 2]
09 The Little Things That Give You Away [single 3]
10 13 (There Is A Light)

 

[phanan]

SOE:

1. Love Is All We Have Left
2. The Blackout
3. Lights Of Home
4. Little Things
5. Best Thing
6. Book Of Your Heart
7. Summer Of Love
8. Red Flag Day
9. The Showman
10. Landlady
11. Love Is Bigger
12. There Is A Light

Really only two major clunkers to dump. Best Thing is lightweight but I don't mind it.

 

[Hewson]

10 13 (There Is A Light)

But now the title makes no sense.
Have to change it to: 10. 10 (There is a Bo Derek Movie)

 

[the tourist]

SOE:

1. Love Is All We Have Left
2. The Blackout
3. Lights Of Home
4. Little Things
5. Best Thing
6. Book Of Your Heart
7. Summer Of Love
8. Red Flag Day
9. The Showman
10. Landlady
11. Love Is Bigger
12. There Is A Light

Really only two major clunkers to dump. Best Thing is lightweight but I don't mind it.

Little Things on the first half? Seems like it’s a showstopper to me.

I think Best Thing would do better as a stand-alone single or soundtrack to a movie. Also, and I’ve tried, I don’t understand all of the love on here for Book Of Your Heart. To me that belongs right next to The Crystal Ballroom as a Songs-era b-side.

 

[mikal]

Alternate track lists that don’t use the Kygo mix of Best Thing don’t count.

 

[phanan]

Little Things on the first half? Seems like it’s a showstopper to me.

I think Best Thing would do better as a stand-alone single or soundtrack to a movie. Also, and I’ve tried, I don’t understand all of the love on here for Book Of Your Heart. To me that belongs right next to The Crystal Ballroom as a Songs-era b-side.

You already have the showstopper near the end - Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way. Why would you put both songs back to back?

No, it deserves to be near the beginning, and probably should have been a legitimate first single, with The Blackout serving as an early first look.

Looks like we agree with moving The Blackout to the front; it's sequenced much better there, but you should try Lights Of Home right after. They work so well together.

As for Book Of Your Heart, there's certainly nothing earth shattering about the song, but it serves as a nice change of pace track in this context. I didn't notice it had much love on here, to be honest.

And since you mentioned The Crystal Ballroom, here's my SOI, which is essentially the same apart from two key song changes:

1. Invisible
2. Every Breaking Wave
3. California
4. The Crystal Ballroom
5. Iris
6. Volcano
7. Raised By Wolves
8. Cedarwood Road
9. Sleep Like A Baby Tonight
10. Reach Me Now
11. The Troubles

Two decent album entries this way.

 

[Hewson]

1. Invisible
2. Every Breaking Wave
3. California
4. The Crystal Ballroom
5. Iris
6. Volcano
7. Raised By Wolves
8. Cedarwood Road
9. Sleep Like A Baby Tonight
10. Reach Me Now
11. The Troubles

Two decent album entries this way.

Man do those 2 song changes make a world of difference.

 

[the tourist]

You already have the showstopper near the end - Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way. Why would you put both songs back to back?

I’m not sure I’d call Love Is Bigger a showstopper. It’s definitely a big anthem though. I see those two together as a one-two punch like Ultraviolet and Acrobat on Achtung Baby.

 

[wolbersu2]

I’m not sure I’d call Love Is Bigger a showstopper. It’s definitely a big anthem though. I see those two together as a one-two punch like Ultraviolet and Acrobat on Achtung Baby.

A lot of people seem to like Love is bigger..... For me it's the worst u2 song from the last two decades.??

 

[phanan]

Fair enough. I guess the only difference there would be that neither Ultraviolet or Acrobat would have been considered a single, whereas for SOE, if Little Things had been a lead single, I would have rather put it in a more strategic position on the album.

 

[phanan]

Man do those 2 song changes make a world of difference.

In hindsight, they really came close with these albums. I remember being somewhat lukewarm at first blush, and there are certain elements in some songs that still annoy me (like the California intro), but for a band at this stage of their career, they are fairly solid.

 

[Rich79]

Yeah, I’ll take “My Mammy” over “Refujesus” or the geriatric falsetto “haven’t heard” from Crazy Tonight any day of the week.

Oh, for sure. This cracked me up.

I don't even mind "My Mammy". I don't see the cringe moments of POP really being that cringey because the band seemed to want a more playful/satirical image of "selling themselves". So, the Discotheque video, mentioning the cartoon network, insect in your ear, Miami, and the majority of The Playboy Mansion lyrics all make sense to me with this perspective in mind.

I'm biased in my endless love for the album though. I think its beauty is in the dichotomy of making fun of themselves as pop artists, but also creating a deep/dark roller coaster of emotions that came with a lot of late 90s Millennium-changing feelings. It's the party at the end of the world that asks where we go from here and if it's nowhere, can we have just a little more time. I wouldn't change the track order/listing even if you paid me.