Shuttlecock XIII - Super Deluxe Edition with T-Shirt

[namkcuR]

To claim that Bomb is superior to both UF and Passengers is one of the more astonishing things I've ever seen you say here.

But hey, live and let live.


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[BVS]

Originally Posted by Hewson

Would the Spanish cover of "Spanish Eyes" be "English Eyes"?

They'd have to kick it off with; "one, two, three, fourteen"


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[Hewson]

1. Achtung Baby
2. War
3. The Joshua Tree
4. Boy
5. The Unforgettable Fire
6. Pop
7. October
8. Zooropa
9. Rattle and Hum
10. Bomb
11. SOI
12. ATYCLB
13. NLOTH

Something like that today.

[elevated_u2_fan]

1. Pop
2. Achtung Baby
3. The Joshua Tree
4. Zooropa
5. The Unforgettable Fire
6. War
7. SOI
8. NLOTH
9. ATYCLB
10. Boy
11. Rattle and Hum
12. October
13. HTDAAB

[gvox]

1. The Joshua Tree

[lazarus]

Originally Posted by namkcuR

To claim that Bomb is superior to both UF and Passengers is one of the more astonishing things I've ever seen you say here.

But hey, live and let live.

I've always been consistent in my defense of The Bomb. As I said above, it's the songs. I won't argue with people who take issue with the production and the lack of experimentation, but I just think it has too many solid tunes to deny. And TUF has always been divisive to an extent.

It's also the only 21st century Shuttlecock album that doesn't have track order issues, IMO.

[bobsaget77]

Originally Posted by lazarus

It's also the only 21st century Shuttlecock album that doesn't have track order issues, IMO.

Couldn't disagree more. It's neck and neck with NLOTH as their worst track order IMO.
City of Blinding Lights should have been the opener, no question about it IMO. MD at #2? Dreadful.
This is the track order that I made a couple years ago. I haven't listened to it in long time, but this is what I have on my phone, so I assume it's the best one I made.
1 - COBL
2 - Vertigo
3 - Fast Cars (Jacknife Mix)
4 - A Man and a Woman
5 - Mercy
6 - One Step Closer
7 - Sometimes....
8 - Miracle Drug
9 - Crumbs
10 - OOTS (single version)
11 - All Because of You (Alt version)
12 - Yahweh (alt version)

[iron yuppie]

Do you guys remember when Bomb was coming out, and they were saying that Sometimes was their new Streets and stuff like that? I wonder if they really believed that.

[GirlsAloudFan]

I think COBL was probably the song being compared to Streets, no?

[iron yuppie]

I don't remember where I read it. Someone asked Edge, "do you think you are still able to write songs as magical as Where the Streets Have No Name?" And his response was that he thought Sometimes reached that same pinnacle of songwriting.

[david]

I could see Sometimes being labeled as a new Still Haven't Found..


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[lazarus]

Originally Posted by bobsaget77

Couldn't disagree more. It's neck and neck with NLOTH as their worst track order IMO.
City of Blinding Lights should have been the opener, no question about it IMO. MD at #2? Dreadful.
This is the track order that I made a couple years ago. I haven't listened to it in long time, but this is what I have on my phone, so I assume it's the best one I made.
1 - COBL
2 - Vertigo
3 - Fast Cars (Jacknife Mix)
4 - A Man and a Woman
5 - Mercy
6 - One Step Closer
7 - Sometimes....
8 - Miracle Drug
9 - Crumbs
10 - OOTS (single version)
11 - All Because of You (Alt version)
12 - Yahweh (alt version)

I think COBL would make a great opener...for ATYCLB. If The Bomb was meant to be a rawer, more direct affair, the atmospherics and buildup of COBL is all wrong for the album. It doesn't even sound like anything else on there. For what the album was supposed to be (Bono's quote "This is our first album"), Vertigo is a burst of energy that fits perfectly.

Miracle Drug has a mellow beginning and downbeat verses, but the chorus is pretty rousing so I don't have a problem with its #2 slot.

[LemonMelon]

HTDAAB should have been a rock album and Lillywhite screwed it up. Mercy, One Step Closer, Smile and Sometimes should have been the extent of the album's ballads. Songs like Miracle Drug, Original of the Species (yuck) and Yahweh drag the pacing down too much and aren't overly great to begin with. The album is too sappy and depressing for what it could have been.

1. Native Son or Vertigo, don't really care
2. Xanax and Wine
3. Are You Gonna Wait Forever
4. Sometimes
5. COBL
6. ABOY (original)
7. Crumbs
8. One Step Closer
9. Smile
10. Mercy

Lean and trim, 10 tracks at 40-45 minutes, no ludicrous overproduction.

[namkcuR]

Originally Posted by LemonMelon

HTDAAB should have been a rock album and Lillywhite screwed it up. Mercy, One Step Closer, Smile and Sometimes should have been the extent of the album's ballads. Songs like Miracle Drug, Original of the Species (yuck) and Yahweh drag the pacing down too much and aren't overly great to begin with. The album is too sappy and depressing for what it could have been.

1. Native Son or Vertigo, don't really care
2. Xanax and Wine
3. Are You Gonna Wait Forever
4. Sometimes
5. COBL
6. ABOY (original)
7. Crumbs
8. One Step Closer
9. Smile
10. Mercy

Lean and trim, 10 tracks at 40-45 minutes, no ludicrous overproduction.

You dropped AMAAW

[namkcuR]

I'm attempting to construct a playlist that stays true to what the original 2003 Bomb might have sounded like. Obviously, we don't have all the pieces, so we can't do it 100%. But with what we've got, here are the guidelines I've set for myself:

1. The only songs I can cut altogether are the ones that weren't conceived until after the 2003 album was shelved - I believe these are Crumbs and Miracle Drug. U2 By U2 states pretty clearly that Crumbs was conceived later. It doesn't say this about Miracle Drug, but I swear I've seen people here say that. Correct me if I'm wrong.

2. I use all six of the '2003' tracks from Unreleased & Rare(Native Son, Xanax And Wine, Smile, and the three alt versions).

3. I insert Mercy, as well as Are You Gonna Wait Forever, though I'm not sure if the latter was actually around early enough for the 2003 album. Tell me if I'm wrong.

4. I use the album versions of all other tracks(LAPOE, COBL, AMMAW, OSC, OOTS) because those are the earliest versions we have. What can you do?

Result:

1. Native Son
2. Are You Gonna Wait Forever
3. Smile
4. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own(Unreleased And Rare Version)
5. Love And Peace Or Else
6. City Of Blinding Lights
7. Yahweh(Unreleased And Rare Version)
---
8. All Because Of You(Unreleased And Rare Version)
9. Xanax And Wine
10. A Man And A Woman
11. Original Of The Species
12. Mercy
13. One Step Closer

Now, that's 13 tracks, and given the band's history, it seems extremely unlikely they would've put out a 13-track album, so I guess at least one of these tracks wasn't on the 2003 album. My guess is Are You Gonna Wait Forever or Smile. But there's probably no way to know.

I'd be very much interested in hearing the 2003 album in full should the band ever decide to let us have it.

[Axver]

Wow, I really didn't expect laz of all people to defend HTDAAB's atrocious sequencing. Miracle Drug at #2 is one of the worst tracklisting decisions U2 have ever made. They could have at least gone Vertigo/ABOY to open.

As for namkcuR's hypothetical 2003 album, much as I like the idea of getting Mercy, AYGWF, and especially Smile onto the album, the alternative versions of SYCMIOYO, Yahweh, and ABOY are somehow worse than those that got released.

[namkcuR]

Originally Posted by Axver

Wow, I really didn't expect laz of all people to defend HTDAAB's atrocious sequencing. Miracle Drug at #2 is one of the worst tracklisting decisions U2 have ever made. They could have at least gone Vertigo/ABOY to open.

As for namkcuR's hypothetical 2003 album, much as I like the idea of getting Mercy, AYGWF, and especially Smile onto the album, the alternative versions of SYCMIOYO, Yahweh, and ABOY are somehow worse than those that got released.

I agree that Vertigo->MD was just not a good transition at all, the latter killed all the momentum built by the former.

And I disagree about the alt versions. For me, Yahweh's alt version is definitely better, a little less polished, plus I like the double vocal on it.

For Sometimes, neither version is better per se, it's just they're doing two different things. The alt version is almost more of an old-time pop song, like something a standards singer might sing, while for the album version they polished it up and made it into a modern pop song with a hook for radio(and it's you when I look in the mirror...). Plus Bono's vocal in the alt version is a little more ragged and almost drives the emotional core of the song better.

For ABOY, it can really go either way. The album version is catchier, but I've always also felt that there's something stale about the album version. Plus, the alt version, I feel, goes with Native Son and Xanax And Wine better.

[iron yuppie]

They should have put the Temple Bar Vertigo version on there.

[bobsaget77]

Yahweh should have been recorded acoustically IMO, but this band has been terrible at acoustics since Bono gave up trying to be a decent guitarist. So that may have been even more of a disaster.

[lazarus]

The timeline in the special edition book for Bomb shows Mercy as being the last recorded, so it wouldn't belong on a 2003 sessions only version/

The Native Son/Xanax and Wine faction on this forum is one of the most blockheaded for sure. Fast Cars is one of their best from that decade.