Shuttlecock V: Sleep Like Leo Tonight

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Video shoot.. Or did the dramatic photos of Bono's fiery bicycle crash finally surface..
 
djerdap said:
I don't get it either. There is nothing as embarrasing from Bomb (alright, apart from Yahweh) as some of the songs from the first half of this record. I wouldn't listen to The Bomb these days, but at least it had some energy to it after the dead weight of its predecessor. There's some good music in there, ruined by atrocious lyrics (Love and Peace being the primary example).
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I must admit this surprised me too. I think U2's four post-Pop albums are their worst, but at this stage I'd say Songs of Innocence is probably the best one with the least embarrassing moments (disclaimer: I haven't actually listened to it in full since late September and haven't played any song from it since October). Sure there's the awful California intro, some of the song titles, and Sleep Like a Baby Tonight has that c-grade 00s emo-pop line about tomorrow dawning like a suicide, but there isn't a whole lot else that makes me actually wince. The Miracle, Song for Someone, and the like are plain boring. Not quite the same as shitfests like SYCMIOYO, OOTS, and Yahweh, or dumb as fuck lyrics through the entirety of LAPOE and ABOY.

I am, however, starting to think that NLOTH is worse than HTDAAB. I realise I'm one of those who has most viciously reassessed NLOTH this year, though I swear it has nothing to do with the new album causing a kneejerk reaction against the old. I hadn't actually listened to NLOTH in full since late 2009 and hadn't heard any songs at all from it since 2012. So when I relistened to it, I was shocked how bad it was. Part of that can probably be put down to my tastes shifting a little since 2009, when I received it largely positively, but it's mainly because what I remembered fondly did not translate to what I was actually hearing.

At the end of the day I have no desire to put on any of U2's post-Pop albums, so I suppose it's a fairly moot point which is better than the others.
 
Can we get Axver to do a run-down of all of their singles from this century? His opinions always interest me given that he tends to like a lot of B-sides and album tracks more than the hits.
 
Axver said:
I must admit this surprised me too. I think U2's four post-Pop albums are their worst, but at this stage I'd say Songs of Innocence is probably the best one with the least embarrassing moments (disclaimer: I haven't actually listened to it in full since late September and haven't played any song from it since October). Sure there's the awful California intro, some of the song titles, and Sleep Like a Baby Tonight has that c-grade 00s emo-pop line about tomorrow dawning like a suicide, but there isn't a whole lot else that makes me actually wince. The Miracle, Song for Someone, and the like are plain boring. Not quite the same as shitfests like SYCMIOYO, OOTS, and Yahweh, or dumb as fuck lyrics through the entirety of LAPOE and ABOY.

I am, however, starting to think that NLOTH is worse than HTDAAB. I realise I'm one of those who has most viciously reassessed NLOTH this year, though I swear it has nothing to do with the new album causing a kneejerk reaction against the old. I hadn't actually listened to NLOTH in full since late 2009 and hadn't heard any songs at all from it since 2012. So when I relistened to it, I was shocked how bad it was. Part of that can probably be put down to my tastes shifting a little since 2009, when I received it largely positively, but it's mainly because what I remembered fondly did not translate to what I was actually hearing.

At the end of the day I have no desire to put on any of U2's post-Pop albums, so I suppose it's a fairly moot point which is better than the others.
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Well thought out post. I agree with so many of your points about NLOTH. I was a pretty big fan of it when it initially came out except for the middle 3 of course. But other than NLOTH, MOS, and Fez, I really have no ambition to listen to the rest of the album at this point.

As an SOI enthusiast, I would say that it's much much better than Bomb....but.....I have come back around to about half of Bomb a bit. Overall though, the post POP U2 albums for me have all been half good meaning that I like half of the albums (first part of ATYCLB + WILATW, a handful of songs from HTDAAB, and about 4-5 songs from NLOTH). On SOI, I pretty much like all the songs. Surely years from now, like any album, there will be songs that I won't return to, but for me, this is their strongest outing since POP.
 
For myself, the post POP albums that I actually like, minus a few songs (looking at you NLOTH), start-to-finish are NLOTH and SOI.

I mean, I have a weird sentimental/nostalgic thing for ATYCLB... given the time in which it came out and where I was in my life. But I also only really like the first half of that album. Bomb is what it is. It came out, I was excited for it, I think I was posting here the day it leaked and shared the initial excitement with everyone.. Then the album really didn't do much for me. The excitement wore off really fast with Bomb. That actually hasn't happened to me with SOI and I really have made myself sick of the album, but it's one I put on and I don't feel like skipping any songs.
 
BigMacPhisto said:
Can we get Axver to do a run-down of all of their singles from this century? His opinions always interest me given that he tends to like a lot of B-sides and album tracks more than the hits.
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Haha, you mean like this?

Beautiful Day: I totally get how this was massive and why people love it, I just have no desire to listen to it. Overexposure back in the day? I'm not sure. Summer Rain's a good little b-side though. If U2 must do acoustic sets live, I wish they'd make it a bit interesting by including something like that.
Stuck in a Moment: Well done U2, you released a shitty single that manages to be maudlin and saccharine.
Elevation: Boring rock for boring people.
Walk On: I legit loved this song back in the day. I've cooled on it since, I guess because what seemed mildly profound and uplifting when I was thirteen now seems cliche and simplistic.

There's one era for you. The only song I revisit from ATYCLB because I think "hey yeah I really want to listen to that song right now" is The Ground Beneath Her Feet.

mikal said:
Well thought out post. I agree with so many of your points about NLOTH. I was a pretty big fan of it when it initially came out except for the middle 3 of course. But other than NLOTH, MOS, and Fez, I really have no ambition to listen to the rest of the album at this point.

As an SOI enthusiast, I would say that it's much much better than Bomb....but.....I have come back around to about half of Bomb a bit. Overall though, the post POP U2 albums for me have all been half good meaning that I like half of the albums (first part of ATYCLB + WILATW, a handful of songs from HTDAAB, and about 4-5 songs from NLOTH). On SOI, I pretty much like all the songs. Surely years from now, like any album, there will be songs that I won't return to, but for me, this is their strongest outing since POP.
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Cheers. Yeah when I went back to NLOTH this year I was thinking "OK so the middle wasn't great but the rest should be enjoyable". For example, according to my memory, Unknown Caller was a good song tarnished only a little by a mediocre chorus. Instead I couldn't actually sit through it. Get on Your Boots made me wince so much I probably looked like I was having a fit (how the hell was that a single?) and Stand Up Comedy made me want to toss my speakers out the window. The title track I still enjoy, in either its album or b-side forms, but simply not as much - that guitar tone could be much richer and punchier. Fez remains the best track but in a way it's the most damning indictment of the album: while it's interesting and I love hearing U2 push themselves into territory so atmospheric and (in recent years) unfamiliar, it's no classic. If even the album's most interesting moment hasn't a chance of cracking my U2 top fifty, then the album can't be much chop.

I hope one day we get a whole bunch of unreleased tracks from the NLOTH and SOI sessions. You can make fairly enjoyable custom playlists of both ATYCLB and HTDAAB thanks to the b-sides and Unreleased & Rare tracks. The little non-album material we have from the last few years, though, doesn't necessarily inspire confidence... Winter may have the worst single lyric of the band's career.
 
I'd listen to Passengers over their post 2000 output any day of the week. And no, not 'even Passengers'. Passengers is fucking gorgeous.
 
Axver said:
There's one era for you. The only song I revisit from ATYCLB because I think "hey yeah I really want to listen to that song right now" is The Ground Beneath Her Feet.
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A really great track that they could never bother doing properly live. It didn't belong on ATYCLB but what the hey, I guess the Australian market caught a break.

That and Stateless and a few other Million Dollar Hotel era tracks hinted at a direction I thought I could see, and then... POW, straight to the moon!
 
It isn't :yawn: like much of the album, for one thing. It's upbeat and doesn't sound mailed in and the lyrics aren't cringe. There's something oddly fresh about it.

Really derivative though. It sounds like a cover of We Exist, which itself was Arcade Fire covering Rock the Casbah and Billie Jean at the same time. It's not worth shoehorning into a DI list.
 
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I'm going to cover the song 20 times in different styles and then create MySpace pages for all of the bands I made up to cover the song, just so I can make an entire DI list of just The Crystal Ballroom.
 
I don't feel bad about this sequence of posts, because AtomicBono went back to Space Moon after one round of DI. She's happier than any of us.
 
I thought that before it was a cool opinion to have.



Which of course still means that I give both albums some variable rating of 7 because I love U2 and I am biased as fuccckkk
 
Kieran McConville said:
I'd listen to Passengers over their post 2000 output any day of the week. And no, not 'even Passengers'. Passengers is fucking gorgeous.
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I love Passengers and the band's more experimental side, but there are a few songs on the last two albums that are better than anything on Original Soundtracks. Same with the two M$H tracks.
 
lazarus said:
I love Passengers and the band's more experimental side, but there are a few songs on the last two albums that are better than anything on Original Soundtracks. Same with the two M$H tracks.
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There are individual tracks, I admit. I'll give you Moment of Surrender and Cedars of Lebanon. I'll give you The Troubles. But for sitting through an entire record? That's a different matter (though I've little desire to sit through the Million Dollar Hotel soundtrack either).
 
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