NLOTH vs. UF

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Wow, I must be tired...I was scanning the board and I misread "UF" as "UP." So I'm thinking "WTF? Why are they comparing U2 albums to Pixar movies? :huh:"

On-topic, though, I'd have to give a slight edge to NLOTH, probably because it's the first U2 album I was actively anticipating. Leak threads FTW!
(Well, except for the puns. :crack:)
(That I may or may not have been indirectly responsible for, along with a few others. You saw nothing. :shifty:)
 
You've got to be out of your mind to think NLOTH is better than The Unforgettable Fire. And that's coming from someone who thinks NLOTH is the best album U2 has made in the last 12 years.

But The Unforgettable Fire is damn near perfect. NLOTH has Stand Up Comedy and Get On Your Boots. Not even close.
 
So, on that level, I have but one thing to add: anyone who thinks that FBB even remotely approaches UF needs to get their hearing checked. And fast.

It appears the boys are proving me partially correct,
as they are rehearsing TUF for 360 and pairing it with both UC and MOS in the playlist

U2 Barcelona - Links

It wouldn´t surprise me one bit if they snippeted F-BB in TUF.
 
It appears the boys are proving me partially correct,
as they are rehearsing TUF for 360 and pairing it with both UC and MOS in the playlist

U2 Barcelona - Links

It wouldn´t surprise me one bit if they snippeted F-BB in TUF.


Can you kindly explain to me how this proves you correct? If anything, you just proved that TUF still trumps FBB, because even in the tour promoting the album FBB is on, TUF gets the play. Or is that what you meant? :hmm:
 
You think it's silly to compare or make the connection between the two albums. I think it's selfevident. U2 are proving me right.

Ultimately so, by bringing back TUF as part of the set.

I said I'd give 9/10 for TUF (song) and 8/10 to F-BB, but that overall NLOTH is stronger than TUF.

But my point is not how much better NLOTH is than TUF, just that it IS better and it IS obvious to compare the two. There are so many similarities between the albums, not just TUF (song)/F-BB, but very obvious in those two, but also Pride/Magnificent and Bad/MoS, or COL/Promenade etc.

And that's only at first glance, I have yet to dive into the musical intricacies of the songs.

because even in the tour promoting the album FBB is on, TUF gets the play

You know just as well that U2 sometimes leave great (album) songs off the setlist. How many performances of DYFL? 5, 6?? How many times have they played Zooropa? noet even 5! All the while, they played Miami 50 times :doh:

They brought back Elco for Vertigo, but only played Fast Cars on a limited number of occasions. The fact that they haven't played TUF in close to two decades also proves that great songs don't always get played, for whatever reason. They actually managed to skip NYD at my LoveTown concert (was in the orig setlist :angry:)

Pairing TUF with UC proves me right. We ARE supposed to make the connection between the two albums. We ARE supposed to see that TUF is there in stead of F-BB. So IF they do bring back TUF, whether or not they play F-BB, it WILL underline the similarities between the two albums; more so if they snippet FBB in TUF.

That last one is highly contentious (as very rarely do U2 snippet their own songs, when they should be playing them in full) but I wouldn't rule it out. Since F-BB doesn't have a proper chorus, it does lend itself well to snippeting. Especially because the TUF chorus isn't very chorusy either. :wink:

Bottom line is that songs like FBB and UC evoke the memories of TUF (album) same with COL, MOS and Magnificent. So we'll see how those get incorporated into the setlist.
 
NLOTH is way better than TUF. I only like ASOH and TUF from that album, but I can see why this thread compares the two of them.... :)

I'm just glad 48/49yo men released this awesome album...
Please tell another band that was releasing awesome albums in their really late 40's.

:love::hug: I love you, U2 :bow::loveshower:
 
You think it's silly to compare or make the connection between the two albums. I think it's selfevident. U2 are proving me right.

Ultimately so, by bringing back TUF as part of the set.

I said I'd give 9/10 for TUF (song) and 8/10 to F-BB, but that overall NLOTH is stronger than TUF.

But my point is not how much better NLOTH is than TUF, just that it IS better and it IS obvious to compare the two. There are so many similarities between the albums, not just TUF (song)/F-BB, but very obvious in those two, but also Pride/Magnificent and Bad/MoS, or COL/Promenade etc.

And that's only at first glance, I have yet to dive into the musical intricacies of the songs.



You know just as well that U2 sometimes leave great (album) songs off the setlist. How many performances of DYFL? 5, 6?? How many times have they played Zooropa? noet even 5! All the while, they played Miami 50 times :doh:

They brought back Elco for Vertigo, but only played Fast Cars on a limited number of occasions. The fact that they haven't played TUF in close to two decades also proves that great songs don't always get played, for whatever reason. They actually managed to skip NYD at my LoveTown concert (was in the orig setlist :angry:)

Pairing TUF with UC proves me right. We ARE supposed to make the connection between the two albums. We ARE supposed to see that TUF is there in stead of F-BB. So IF they do bring back TUF, whether or not they play F-BB, it WILL underline the similarities between the two albums; more so if they snippet FBB in TUF.

That last one is highly contentious (as very rarely do U2 snippet their own songs, when they should be playing them in full) but I wouldn't rule it out. Since F-BB doesn't have a proper chorus, it does lend itself well to snippeting. Especially because the TUF chorus isn't very chorusy either. :wink:

Bottom line is that songs like FBB and UC evoke the memories of TUF (album) same with COL, MOS and Magnificent. So we'll see how those get incorporated into the setlist.

Ok, well most of that is pretty fantastical, to be honest.

U2 is telling us that FBB reminds us of TUF (album) by including UF (song)? Really? That's a stretch. I think there's a 90% more probability that they are bringing back UF because it's high time they did and because fans are requesting it. Did that cross your mind? :huh:

Please explain how Magnificent reminds you of Pride? It sounds like a mashup of Gloria and a Pop-era sound. How are MOS and Bad related, other than by slightly similar subject matter? MOS also sounds more like mid-late 90s U2 than 1984 U2 :scratch:. And I'm sorry, but there is simply NOTHING alike about COL and Promenade. NOTHING.

They played Electric Co more times than Fast Cars because a. it's a thousand times better and b. 99.9% of the people in the audience over the age of, oh, 30, easily remember Electric Co from UABRS and have(had) no clue what the hell Fast Cars was. Early Electric Co performances are what solidified Bono's reputation as a risk-taker with climbing up things and whatnot, it's an integral part of what made his early live schtick famous! Also, that wee lil bit that is the Electric Co Edgetasticness has simply no parallel in Fast Cars, period.

Finally, pairing UF with UC proves you right, that we are supposed to imagine that FBB would just as easily work there? Honestly, no way. UC, like the other songs you noted from NLOTH, doesn't sound like it belongs on TUF, not to these ears. Pop? Maybe. Zooropa? Sure. TUF? No. Not only that, but there is no guarantee those two songs are even going to be played back to back, much less even in the same shows. :huh:

oh...and Unforgettable Fire doesn't really have a 'chorusy' chorus?? That's just not accurate at all. There is a pronounced chorus in TUF, what are you talking about?!

One more thing: you make the point that sometimes great songs don't get played. Do the most amazing songs of the album being toured ever get skipped? Was there a night where UF wasn't played in 1984/5? Axver? How much money would you put on being sure that FBB will get played, even once, on this tour? I'd say the chances are slim to none, and this is the album they are touring! At least DYFL did get played!

Your comparison model is seriously flawed. NLOTH contains moments that remind you of TUF, I get that. But to say that U2 constructed the setlist to give some sort of nod to FBB, the one song that sounds anything like TUF? Wayyyy to much of a stretch. Like I said, NLOTH sounds way more like 90s U2 with a splash and dash of early 80s to me.
 
Question: let's say the U2 hype machine had not let on that Eno/Lanois had been working on this album and didn't go on and on about how they were experimenting, doing ambient sounds, etc etc...basically setting us up expecting something in the TUF/JT vein..

..AND...there wasn't a song called FBB. Let's say Winter was the track instead.


Be honest...and I know this is going to be hard because it's hindsight and we already know all this stuff..


Would you REALLY think a FBB-less NLOTH sounded like / was paying homage to The Unforgettable Fire? REALLY?

I wouldn't. I didn't pay alot of attention to the Eno/Lanois influence hype. I just waited for the leak, plopped on the headphones and listened. I didn't get much TUF vibe at all, until I got to FBB, and even then I was like 'meh, that sounds like a weak attempt to resurrect a TUF b-side'. I even searched a bit to see if that was one of those 'old songs we wrote long ago' songs like COBL or whatever. The rest of the album sounded way more like the experimental years of the 90s (with a bit of the fluffy radio 00s) to me, and this was a good thing. :shrug:
 
What's with the comparisons between FBB and TUF? They sound absolutely nothing alike. A much closer comparison is FBB and Indian Summer Sky. I don't really love either of those, but I don't understand how an arbitrary comparison between two individual tracks should decide the preference of the two albums involved anyway. Seems completely irrelevant to me.

Anyway, I still prefer NLOTH, for the reasons I outlined earlier in this thread. I simply enjoy more individual tracks on NLOTH, and I don't find Crazy Tonight, Boots, and SUC all that much more offensive than ISS, EPAA, and MLK, none of which I particularly like.
 
They played Electric Co more times than Fast Cars because...

you seem to have trouble grasping analogies, which is probably why you're not getting the TUF to NLOTH link. All that stuff you wrote about elco getting played loads of times earlier in their career, or TUF getting played on the TUF tour is pretty pointless.

I used Elco only as an example of an old song returning
like TUF might
at the expense of a new song (for Fast Cars read F-BB)...that's it.

It happens, I don't see why you want to interpret this as U2 disowning F-BB or snubbing that particular song in favour of some old classic.

If however, UC gets segued into TUF that would mean something. No interpretation necessary.

Do the most amazing songs of the album being toured ever get skipped?

Yes they do; there are more good examples of great and crucial album tracks not -or barely- getting played on the album's tour.

Obvious examples: Red Hill Mining Town and Acrobat (both never played live)
But also Zooropa (3), DYFL (6),

Fast Cars was played 16 times on Vertigo, but the point is that Elco was played 70 times on that tour. So in a way Elco made it's return at the expense of a brilliant and essential album track. Fast Cars is basically the title song to HTDAAB.

Like I said, NLOTH sounds way more like 90s U2 with a splash and dash of early 80s to me.

You can hear whatever you want to hear, but the bottom line is that dozens of U2 fans have chimed in on this thread how NLOTH reminds them of TUF (regardless of organs, Lanois' vocals, lyrical content or whatever) same with
dozens of critics.

Good bands should never go back, who's interested in a retro sound from an artist aiming to break new ground? If they are going to be referencing older stuff, it's always going to be filtered through modern sound, technology, instrumentation etc.

they have organs. And Brian Eno. Therefore, they are alike.

If you played TUF on an acoustic guitar or piano and the did same with F-BB the similarities would still be there.

It's simple, the links are there for you to hear, if you don't: your loss.

BTW I'd like to think that Eno has grown as well, since TUF; it has been 25years. Have you ever listened to Eno-era Roxy Music? They had organs, and Eno, did they sound like TUF? Is TUF Glam rock? :wink:
 
you seem to have trouble grasping analogies, which is probably why you're not getting the TUF to NLOTH link.

etc

etc

BTW I'd like to think that Eno has grown as well, since TUF; it has been 25years. Have you ever listened to Eno-era Roxy Music? They had organs, and Eno, did they sound like TUF? Is TUF Glam rock? :wink:

I don't have trouble grasping analogies, there just isn't one that can be substantiated between TUF and NLOTH (the albums) when taken in their totality. I'm not the only one who thinks so. Matter of fact, in this thread alone, I count more people saying the albums don't bear comparison than people who do. UC sounds nothing like anything on TUF. Period. Most critics don't think so either. I'll repeat it again: there are way more nods, references, and blatant samples from 90s U2 than TUF on NLOTH. How you don't hear that is beyond me. :shrug:

BTW - Roxy Music is glam rock??! :scratch: :huh:
 
Back
Top Bottom