shuttlecock XXIV: it's the little swings

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Danger Mouse told Bono that rhyming feel with kneel, soul with hole, and heart with shart all on the same song was a bad idea. He had to go.
 
If U2 wants pop they should sign up with Jack Antonoff.

Otherwise honestly I think they were with the right producer with Danger Mouse.

I've been thinking about this too. Clearly, going for arty, experimental, bold producers like Danger Mouse isn't working for the band. They either burn them out or write over their work.

But Jack Antonoff does seem to have the ability to write and produce big songs that are also more interested or vibrant than the zeitgeist. Lorde's Melodrama was the best pop album of the last decade, and I am a full-throated defender of St. Vincent's Masseduction.

He may be a decent fit for the band. There are two major issues though. 1. Antonoff produces multiple records a year and clearly likes to work fast. U2, as we know, clearly doesn't. 2. There's only so much a producer can do. U2 needs to pick a direction for an album, stick with it and try to find some way to evolve outside of the box they've built around themselves for the last 20 years.
 
Random: The U22/From The Ground Up fan club two-fer is low-key one of the band's best official live releases(I consider them two parts of the same whole), and certainly their best of the 21st century. Also a far superior document of 360 than the Rose Bowl DVD.

First off, the sound quality is absolutely pristine, off-the-charts good. I don't know if it was the equipment they were using to record or the natural outdoor acoustics or what, but it almost feels like I'm there when I put the headphones on.

Second, there's a treasure-trove of non-warhorse goodies here.

You've got uber-rarities like Your Blue Room and Electrical Storm, which were both performed only a handful of times ever, all on this tour, are immortalized here.

I was actually at the Giants Stadium show this recording of YBR was taken from, and I've always felt lucky to have been in one of the few audiences that got it. I think they nailed it.

I know ES has its fans and detractors here, but I really dig this performance. The guitars in the chorus here are piercing, almost like sirens, and are actually sonically more interesting than on the studio versions, which feature more straight-ahead riffage.

Then you have a handful of tracks that are getting their first official release ever:

Ultraviolet(ok, this one was on the Rose Bowl DVD as well, but this is a better performance and better sound quality) - definitive live version imo.

Zooropa - This ended up on the I+E release too, but that was a different version without the guitar parts, played as an extended intro to Streets. This one is better imo(even though it irks me that they omitted the 'I have no religion' verse).

Spanish Eyes - Pretty good performance here. The song was played at the Denver JT show that the R&H footage was culled from, so there's a high-quality version of it on YT, but it was never officially released. This is the first official release, I think.

Scarlet - Great to hear this one, even if the little speech about Aung San Suu Kyi didn't age well.

Then you have a few more that had official releases before but hadn't seen the light of day in a long time:

HMTMKMKM - I absolutely love this version, I think it's much better than the Popmart versions. Monstrous, huge, has that cinematic feel of the studio version. Makes me wonder why they don't play it more. The definitive live version.

TUF - Returned to the stage after a 20+ year absence. Like UV, this was on the Rose Bowl DVD too, but this version is better. Yes, I would've liked to have heard all of the lyrics, but outside of that, they did the song justice.

Love Rescue Me - They hadn't played since Lovetown. I think I actually prefer this version to the studio version.

Finally, this has EBTTRT, which was played for the first time in its original key on that tour, which sort of gave the song new life live. It's great.

As an addendum, they may not be 'goodies' per se, but these are my favorite live versions of COBL/Vertigo, as well as all the NLOTH tracks that are here(in particular it was good to get such a high-quality version of Breathe after it was only available in less-than-stellar quality on the Rose Bowl bonus disc).

Just wanted to give these releases some love.
 
where can i get access to it?

Fair question - I downloaded it a long time ago from someone here in the Music On The Internet section, and it's been in my iTunes ever since, so I guess I've sort of taken it from granted.

Fortunately, a quick search shows that the whole thing is on YT - somebody put all the tracks in one video roughly in order of how they'd be in a 360 setlist...

Note: You should actually click through to the site, because the description of the video has links to all the individual songs within the video.

Note 2: Love Rescue Me is not listed in the description because it's part of AIWIY. It's at 1:21:28 of the video if you're interested.

 
I just realized the Edge's Picks I have in my iTunes library doesn't include those bonus tracks. :angry: I have other bootlegs from the tour but need to get these high quality, curated versions.

It's interesting that the person who posted this YouTube link wove the bonus tracks into the main setlist instead of tacking them on at the end, although wasn't the No Line title track typically in the #2 slot? I wish there was an easier way to excise these separately from the long video.

ETA: this guy posted them all, I believe. Here's the first one, you can search his account yourselves for the others:

 
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That's my girlfriend at 40sec, and throughout, btw. She wears my super cool U2 snapback that I forced a street artist in Paris to create for like 80 Euros. He didn't really get it.
 
That's my girlfriend at 40sec, and throughout, btw. She wears my super cool U2 snapback that I forced a street artist in Paris to create for like 80 Euros. He didn't really get it.

Worth 42 Euros, max.
 
I recently got the Another Time, Another Place fan club vinyl and holy shit, this thing is sooo good. Those early shows are the best, and the sound is pristine. Really happy with it.
 
these guys are hilarious and have really good taste in music. i'm surprised this hasn't been posted anywhere on the forum yet.

 
Matt Berninger regularly posts playlists on his Instagram stories. For some reason Stand Up Comedy was on one of them. He captioned it, "Mixed feelings about this one."
 
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