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Anybody seen this latest story going around about Bono being embarrassed by most of their songs? Its fairly benign but THIS part:

While U2 has been one of the biggest bands in the world for decades, its lead singer confessed during an interview on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast that he finds most of their music mortifying. “I’ve been in the car when one of our songs has come on the radio and I’ve been the color of, as we say in Dublin, scarlet,” he said. “I’m just so embarrassed.” But he added that there’s still some salvageable hits within their extensive discography. “The one that I can listen to the most is ‘Miss Sarajevo’ with Luciano Pavarotti. Genuine, most of the other ones make me cringe a little bit,” he said, admitting that he’s “probably proudest” of the song “Vertigo”
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C’mon man!
 
As a musician (guitar/vocals), I get it. I cringe at hearing my own voice even when others say I'm good. It even goes as deep as then wondering if they're saying I'm good just to compliment me while they're really laughing inside by how bad I sound.

That's how real the anxiety gets.
 
There's gotta be some sort of "taken out of context" thing in this interview. I'm gonna take what he allegedly said with a huge grain of salt. But, naturally all of the trolls are hard and ready to spew.
 
I'm listening to it at the moment. All the reporting is a bit of a beat-up, although he genuinely seems to strongly dislike the band name. That said, it's pretty depressing to hear him say he's embarrassed to listen to himself on Boy, but is apparently not embarrassed by Your Song Saved My Life, which is comfortably the worst he has ever sounded. He says his vocals are strained on Boy... I get where he's coming from (if you listen, he's talking about how he hadn't learned how to sing at that point) but then Edge chimes in and says I love your vocals from that era, because they're so passionate and raw and real (the most I've liked Edge in fucking years. Can't play guitar anymore, still a good mate though and at least still has some awareness of what good U2 is).

But BMan... have you heard yourself on your latest song. That is the fucking definition of strained. You can't sing like that anymore. We know you've still got it - see Running to Stand Still on Xmas Eve - but it's pretty depressing to hear how wrong he is, in my view, on what in their catalogue is good. But yeah, there's definitely a self-conscious man in there feeling anxious and over-analysing his work, which I can imagine is pretty common for an artist.
 
It's the self-depricating Bono thing. He's been saying this shit forever. I swear he's said the exact quotes before about disliking his early vocals and hating the band name. For some reason this time it got more attention.
 
elevated_u2_fan said:
I get the anxiety stuff, that wasn't really what I was getting at.

I find him saying he is "probably proudest" of Vertigo to be extremely disturbing.
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so... i can go two ways on this.

i can see how having an absolute smash hit that late in your career (definitely would have been top 10, possibly #1 if they counted downloads appropriately at the time) , after people wrote you off for dead (fairly or unfairly) during the Pop era, would be a moment that you were incredibly proud of.

toss in the iPod/iTunes association - where they really were the first major artist to make it "okay" to embrace digital on such a large scale? yea - i can see how they would see it as an incredible achievement. it WAS an incredible achievement.


now, on the flip side of that, from a creative standpoint, or artistic standpoint? yea, fuck off with that. it's still a great tune that gets slogged on mostly because of how overplayed it became (not their fault) - but, yea - it's a crazy thing to say from a creative standpoint - and he's not reeeeeeeally singing through the verses. artistically it's a fairly simple tune with a great riff - and there are far greater compositions and musical performances than this.
 
Vertigo's chart performance still pisses me off. I get why, but it most certainly would have been Top 10 under current guidelines.

I wish there was a way to see what position it ultimately would have achieved.
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
i can see how having an absolute smash hit that late in your career (definitely would have been top 10, possibly #1 if they counted downloads appropriately at the time) , after people wrote you off for dead (fairly or unfairly) during the Pop era, would be a moment that you were incredibly proud of.
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Yes, but wouldn't Beautiful Day be more appropriate there? That was the real comeback, even if it only hit #21 on Billboard--it still hit #1 in like 15 countries including the UK. Plus it won the two biggest Grammy awards for a single track.

I say this as someone who likes Vertigo way, way more than BD (my least favorite track on ATYCLB).
 
lazarus said:
Yes, but wouldn't Beautiful Day be more appropriate there? That was the real comeback, even if it only hit #21 on Billboard--it still hit #1 in like 15 countries including the UK. Plus it won the two biggest Grammy awards for a single track.



I say this as someone who likes Vertigo way, way more than BD (my least favorite track on ATYCLB).
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Yes and no. Beautiful Day was certainly the comeback, but Vertigo was bigger. That damn song was everywhere.

Leave Behind was an unexpected hit. I'm not sure anyone expected them to return to the forefront after Pop. The expectations were low (at least for the general public). I think they debuted the song on VH1's countdown. They couldn't even get MTV at first.

Bomb come with expectations and anticipation. And it delivered. Vertigo was absolutely massive. Leave Behind was the "applying for the biggest band in the world" album. For Bomb they absolutely were just that, again.
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
Yes and no. Beautiful Day was certainly the comeback, but Vertigo was bigger. That damn song was everywhere.

Leave Behind was an unexpected hit. I'm not sure anyone expected them to return to the forefront after Pop. The expectations were low (at least for the general public). I think they debuted the song on VH1's countdown. They couldn't even get MTV at first.

Bomb come with expectations and anticipation. And it delivered. Vertigo was absolutely massive. Leave Behind was the "applying for the biggest band in the world" album. For Bomb they absolutely were just that, again.
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Which they didn’t anticipate, otherwise it would’ve been a US stadium tour instead of the crazy arena run. Vertigo Tour was a venue underplay in the states and the hottest I’ve seen a crowd for them.
 
DeVaul said:
Which they didn’t anticipate, otherwise it would’ve been a US stadium tour instead of the crazy arena run. Vertigo Tour was a venue underplay in the states and the hottest I’ve seen a crowd for them.
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Yup - and the underplay and pent up demand is what ultimately made 360 the biggest tour ever despite an underperforming album.
 
So, have you guys seen this acoustic Sunday Bloody Sunday video they posted the other day?



I didn't say anything when they put out that Running To Stand Still video a while back, because some of you seemed to like it, but to my ears Bono's voice sounded gone.

This sounds even worse to me. Edge is good as always, but Bono's voice sounds completely shot to me. Even during E+I in 2018, I thought he sounded worse than he had on I+E/JT30 in 2015-16-17, but it's now significantly worse than that even.

Like, if this is what his voice is now, I can't even see them touring again. It's concerning.

I can't be the only one hearing this.
 
I would much prefer him singing like this than how he sounds on Your Song Saved My Life, which is, again, the worst he has ever sounded.

Are you saying gone in the sense that he can't hit notes that he used to? I don't think that means it's gone - it's just a sign he should sing within his means.
 
namkcuR said:
So, have you guys seen this acoustic Sunday Bloody Sunday video they posted the other day?



I didn't say anything when they put out that Running To Stand Still video a while back, because some of you seemed to like it, but to my ears Bono's voice sounded gone.

This sounds even worse to me. Edge is good as always, but Bono's voice sounds completely shot to me. Even during E+I in 2018, I thought he sounded worse than he had on I+E/JT30 in 2015-16-17, but it's now significantly worse than that even.

Like, if this is what his voice is now, I can't even see them touring again. It's concerning.

I can't be the only one hearing this.
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i think this narrative is about 50% truth and 50% interference freak out overreaction.

his voice has been on the decline for over 20 years now. so it's crazy to think that his voice will further decline, especially since we haven't heard him in a while.

on the flip side - the two recordings we have to go to are a Christmas eve busk in a church and an acoustic tribute to the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday - not exactly moments to let it all hang out.

so yea... 50/50. his voice is never going to be "better" than the previous tour. that's been the case for a while though - starting with his voice on Popmart being worse than his voice on ZooTV. i think the lone exception may be Vertigo Tour, where he bounced back for a bit, but that's it.

so in the interference tradition - maybe, we'll see.
 
I mean, Dylan just announced a new tour, so I doubt this will stop them if they really want to tour.
 
I have, and I mean this very genuinely, listened to this more in the past 10 minutes than I have any U2 song released in the past 12 years.

[tweet]1500098160210890758[/tweet]

What I wouldn't give for U2 like this.
 
:rolleyes:

If you think this is better than other "recent" moodier pieces like Sleep Like A Baby and The Troubles you have a serious problem, very genuinely.
 
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