SOI autopsy - what went wrong?

[Nick66]

The "premise" of the thread is "What went wrong with SOI", so it seems to me to be silly complaining about people being "negative" when discussing, um, what went wrong with SOI.

Moreover, I don't consider a simple observation of the obvious to be "negative". It's simply a reflection of the facts...that the rollout, however well intentioned, or who is to blame, ended up being a fiasco. Whether that's fair or not is another matter. We can debate whether there were good aspects to the rollout (e.g. a lot of people got to hear the music), but it's really not in dispute that the release was by and large perceived negatively in the popular zeitgeist, nor that the music itself never really captured the public's attention the way the band would have wanted.

What would be negative would be something like, I don't know, "U2 will never make another good record again", or "The tour is going to suck". That's negativity. But it's not negative to simply recognise that what occurred with U2 and Apple didn't turn out the way either of them hoped.

 

[Bad Exit]

Well, (almost) nothing went wrong for me:
*I got a new U2 album
*it was for free
*it was very decent at the beginning, no low points in it
*it was a grower, as time passes by the decent songs have become good and the good songs have become great.
*I got a couple of extra great songs and some alternative versions in case I got bored.
*no shows this year but I hope to get lucky in 2016.
*one complain: depending on the people you talk to or the media you consume, it became more or less annoying the people complaining about U2, the album, or the release method. That's the only thing that really went wrong for me as a fan.

I honestly thought that THAT would be more or less the reasoning for most U2 fans.

Now, for the not U2 fans... Well, what went wrong was that U2 released an album and they got it even against their wishes, but they were not fans to begin with, so whatchagonnado... They still don't like them and surely they hate them even more than before, but I really don't think the band is worried about them. (I think they're getting more attention from the fans than from the band, either complaining about them or sympathizing them)

For those who didn't cared about U2 before... I guess it was a mixed reaction. Those with strong opinions hated the release method and a couple of weeks later forgot about it. Those more in "meh" mode gave it a chance and many of them liked it and even went to buy albums from the back catalog. Sadly, they're the ones in "meh" mode, so they're not exactly the more vocal about anything, but they bought albums anyway.

This is the group that could've been really impacted with a positive promotion of the album, but bikes.

---

Overall, they could've handled a couple of things better (the invisible time frame) and I'm convinced that had the bike accident hasn't happened, the album would've had a really big positive impact on the people who usually don't really care about U2.

But like I said, I think for U2 and their fans, SOI is going good so far.

 

[U2girl]

How much did U2 promoting the album as "punk rock" hurt the release? Edge smashing up his guitar and leaping ten foot in the air like a 50 year old salmon in the Apple commercial was all very exciting, but seemed to send out the wrong message as to what the songs would be like.

Because U2 is the ultimate punk band ?

Also...re: potential Fallon shows. Maybe it would have helped, maybe not.

If anything we'd read more moaning about "worst promo tour". Just like we did despite EBW impresssing on MTV awards or twitter buzz from SFS on Graham Norton show.

 

[ozeeko]

Although most of the songs are good, there are no transcendent U2 moments. NLOTH had at least a few of those moments, but not here. There's a couple parts that put a lump in my throat, like in Iris and that bell solo during CR (I know, I'm weird), but there's nothing that takes me to that other place. It's a fine, well-crafted collections of pop songs, with a couple less by-the-book numbers, but even those (SLAB, TT) feel somewhat constrained by something.

 

[lemonfly]

Because U2 is the ultimate punk band ?

This strikes me as an odd statement. Are U2 generally known as the "ultimate" punk band? I'm not sure they were considered the "ultimate" punk band in the early Eighties, let alone today.

 

[Bad Exit]

This strikes me as an odd statement. Are U2 generally known as the "ultimate" punk band? I'm not sure they were considered the "ultimate" punk band in the early Eighties, let alone today.

Since U2 is nowhere near the "ultimate punk band", is hard to believe that someone would really believe SOI was a punk album.
(at least that's what I'm supposed to be that comment).

Like Coke saying nobody would actually believe Vitamin Water was healthy.

 

[BVS]

This strikes me as an odd statement. Are U2 generally known as the "ultimate" punk band? I'm not sure they were considered the "ultimate" punk band in the early Eighties, let alone today.

It was a question not a statement. There seems to be some confusion here. Unless you live under a rock you know that U2 are not a punk band.


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[thavidesco]

You're right it doesn't have low points like NLOTH may have had, but it also lacks the high points. There's not a single song on SOI that stands out above everything else, like MOS on NLOTH. The title track, Breathe and Fez also score high points for most people. Yet SOI it's all decent songs, it's consistent yes, yet there's something missing for me that makes it dull.

Yep, but all the album is full of high points. It´s a standrad on this album. Same like AB or JT (with a few moments that sound terribly unfinished)

 

[Flying FuManchu]

Rollout hurt them in the end. It hurt them in terms of the critical reviews because of the cloud of fear in regards to privacy which may have been a bogeyman used for click bait and distracted from the album. I think this album was a good U2 album but was pretty poorly reviewed compared to past successful U2. Not being young or hip or musically in line with today's pop, U2 needed that positive review buzz IMO, especially since they've been out of sight and out of mind for the past couple of years. Also U2 wanted to be relevant with this album but you can't build relevance or trying to reclaim a spot if you're made into a laughingstock or mocked (which is what the iPhone rollout caused) through social media IMO. Not impossible but extremely difficult.


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[Sr. Poop]

This is U2s problem:

They aren't great anymore and they still think that the are.


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[BVS]

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[Super Yo]

Say hello to Bono!

https://twitter.com/LynetteFay/status/569222023043534848/photo/1

 

[Roland of Gilead]

I love seeing those tweets that say something like "finally heard some of this new U2 on my phone and it's not that bad.". I've seen several of those (3/4 on my feed so far, as recent as last month) and I think this is some success in the release method. 1 in 100? 1 in 1000? 1 in 10000? I've no idea, but I think it reached people that would not of given a sec otherwise.


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[Roland of Gilead]

Omgzzz!!! His left eye opened up!?!? What the hell!?!


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[david]

Looks like the anesthesia is wearing off.

 

[Nick66]

This is U2s problem:

They aren't great anymore and they still think that the are.

They're nearly great (but there's something missing).

 

[CosmoKramer]

I love seeing those tweets that say something like "finally heard some of this new U2 on my phone and it's not that bad.". I've seen several of those (3/4 on my feed so far, as recent as last month) and I think this is some success in the release method. 1 in 100? 1 in 1000? 1 in 10000? I've no idea, but I think it reached people that would not of given a sec otherwise.


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I've read a lot of comments/tweets along these lines. They definitely reached people who otherwise would not have ever heard of them. To your point, what that number is....Im not sure.


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[popacrobat]

I've read a lot of comments/tweets along these lines. They definitely reached people who otherwise would not have ever heard of them. To your point, what that number is....Im not sure.


Sent from my iPad using U2 Interference

The number is/was significant enough to have a sales spike in the back catalog the following week.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Say hello to Bono!

https://twitter.com/LynetteFay/status/569222023043534848/photo/1

Who's that chick with John Stewart?

 

[VintagePunk]

Something looks weird and off about him, and I can't put my finger on it. Maybe it's just an odd angle.

He definitely looks very, very thin. I blame Mikal.

 

[Hewson]

He's still in a coma, O'$eary has hired a double to go out and appear in random places till he can squirrel all the money from the tickets sold for the soon to be cancelled tour into a numbered account in the Caymen Islands.

 

[VintagePunk]

Maybe it's skinny Pavel.

 

[Hewson]

Its someone new, Pavel doesn't have the self control to get skinny.

 

[purpleoscar]

It's pretty obvious that Bono isn't eating his usual stuff and after eating hospital food for a long time he lost weight.

 

[mikal]

He used the Atkins Diet feeding tube.


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[CosmoKramer]

Something looks weird and off about him, and I can't put my finger on it. Maybe it's just an odd angle.

He definitely looks very, very thin. I blame Mikal.

Agree. Facelift perhaps???


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[corianderstem]

nm

 

[Yahweh]

Good to see him getting there but yes he looks much thinner then usual.

Just over 3 months to the start of the tour, will be interesting to see how it goes.

 

[mikal]

I think Bono might be dying, guys.


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[DaveC]

I think Bono might be decaying, guys.

Fixed.