Shuttlecock XX - Laz Is All You Have Left

[lazarus]

Landlady is the only song on the album that I can't remember anything about musically. Not surprised writers keep forgetting about it.

Well it doesn't have a rhythm section for most of it, and when it does come in it's very subtle. Edge is really just sketching around the vocal; this is totally Bono's show. And he really delivers one of his great performances. "She takes me up to the stars/I'm weightless" is gorgeous.

He went out of his way not to be too sentimental and I think he nailed it.

 

[LemonMelon]

Its in my top 12.

Landlady hints at the off-putting corniness of Original of the Species while equalling the breakneck speed and edge-of-your-seat excitement of Grace.

It's definitely among the top 200 most enthralling U2 tracks.

 

[mikal]

Well it doesn't have a rhythm section for most of it, and when it does come in it's very subtle. Edge is really just sketching around the vocal; this is totally Bono's show. And he really delivers one of his great performances. "She takes me up to the stars/I'm weightless" is gorgeous.



He went out of his way not to be too sentimental and I think he nailed it.

This. I love it in the same way I love One Step Closer and Sleep Like A Baby. A great mellow track without cheesing it up too much.

 

[Axver]

I'm definitely surprised Landlady isn't more popular. Aside from the cumbersome analogy of Ali to a landlady, it's not shabby. The ending is one of the best parts of the album.

 

[corianderstem]

Landlady hints at the off-putting corniness of Original of the Species while equalling the breakneck speed and edge-of-your-seat excitement of Grace.

It's definitely among the top 200 most enthralling U2 tracks.

Ha ha haaaaa

 

[DaveC]

Landlady hints at the off-putting corniness of Original of the Species while equalling the breakneck speed and edge-of-your-seat excitement of Grace.

It's definitely among the top 200 most enthralling U2 tracks.

but also fuck you i like grace

 

[BoMac]

https://www.billboard.com/articles/...barlow-interview-u2-producer-songs-experience

Right back at the beginning, [then-day-to-day manager Brian Celler] took me out for dinner and said, "There's this track called 'The Little Things That Give You Away,'" and he basically just read a list of the world's top producers -- Brian Eno, Steve Lillywhite, Paul Epworth, Danger Mouse -- who have had a go at it. He said, "The band knows there is a great song in there and if you can get this off the ideas table, then you've done something that none of these other producers could." So that became my personal mission. Although quite a few of us worked on it, Jolyon and myself really shaped that track. It's got that Lamb kind of shape to it. The way it goes up the gears and explodes at the end.

 

[Diemen]

I'm definitely surprised Landlady isn't more popular. Aside from the cumbersome analogy of Ali to a landlady, it's not shabby. The ending is one of the best parts of the album.

I’m with you on this one. I think it’s one of Bono’s finer vocals on the album, and that ending is sublime.

 

[Zoomerang96]

Count me as another who considers landlady the highlight of the album

 

[the tourist]

Yeah, I think the chorus of Landlady is pretty memorable. I also like the guitar melody, even if it’s palm muted.

 

[Axver]

Wish somebody would palm-mute Bono.

 

[kiwilad]

Wish somebody would palm-mute Bono.

I wonder just how much charisma/gravitas the guy has in person. Listening to Howard Stern I was waiting for him to show some level of sass to Bono. Ask a particularly awkward question, or call him out on a wishy washy answer.
But he just fawned over him. Perhaps that's the Bono effect. No one tells him no cause they turn to marshmallow around him.

 

[kiwilad]

Also, Landlady is my fave track on the album. Best melody, most sympathetic guitar. Good lyric. It's a subtle song, but so were Stay and Running to Stand Still and Promenade.

 

[LemonMelon]

Even if Landlady were musically up to scratch and captured any of the the magic of those aforementioned tracks (all recorded with Eno nearby), it's still full of bad lyrics.

"Every magic potion
Every false emotion
How unswerving our devotion
To the lies we know are almost true
Every sweet confusion
Every grand illusion
I will win and call it losing
If the prize is not for you"

If these lyrics were from a Bon Jovi ballad, would anyone bat an eye? Honestly.

 

[Axver]

You single out those lines as being Bon Jovi-esque?

Mate, it's harder to name something from the last decade that would NOT sound out of place as a Bon Jovi lyric.

 

[kiwilad]

Even if Landlady were musically up to scratch and captured any of the the magic of those aforementioned tracks (all recorded with Eno nearby), it's still full of bad lyrics.

"Every magic potion
Every false emotion
How unswerving our devotion
To the lies we know are almost true
Every sweet confusion
Every grand illusion
I will win and call it losing
If the prize is not for you"

If these lyrics were from a Bon Jovi ballad, would anyone bat an eye? Honestly.

Bloody hell man! I'm not suggesting Landlady is anywhere near the same altitude as those songs lyrically.
Or in terms of instrumentation.
Melody - yes I'd suggest it's up there.
Feel/atmosphere/whatever - no, but it's not so far away.

I do think this album is decent and does things I thought U2 couldn't do any more. There's something being said, something being felt, in a lot of these songs. And it has some great tracks. And some, like Landlady, are really great.
Do I think it's one of their best 3 albums? No. Top 5? No. Top 10? Possibly.

And yep, those lyrics you quoted aren't great, but they're not clunkers (save for the magic potion one). I remember the first time I listened to Stay, the day it was released, sitting there in my room recovering from the sonic kung fu of Numb and Lemon. On comes this chilled out 'normal' little guitar ballad intro, and then the guy who wrote the lyrics to One Tree Hill and Running to Stand Still starts singing about 7-11 and lip synching to talk show hosts. I was pretty pissed off.
It's a classic, one of my favourites, but it was merely good, to me, when I first heard it. And lyrically I didn't appreciate some of it for a while.

Give these songs a chance - or at least entertain the idea that you might come back to them in 20 years and think, hey, that was actually pretty good. Or not. Cause who really gives a shit - their back-catalogue is enough for me.

So yes, Bono's lyrics - or at least his inconsistency and overstatement lyrically - is the great weakness of modern U2. But not everything he writes these days is horrible.
Lots of Landlady's lyrics, actually, are pretty good.

 

[BVS]

How unswerving our devotion
To the lies we know are almost true

Even Interference’s most cynical and certain reviews have pointed out the harsh brutality of this line.

 

[mikal]

Baaaaaaaaad lyrics. Other place!

 

[LemonMelon]

Even Interference’s most cynical and certain reviews have pointed out the harsh brutality of this line.

I'm glad you mentioned that. The line is emblematic of so many problematic U2 lyrics this century: nice meaning at its core (it's difficult to argue that Bono's heart isn't in the right place), but overwritten and crippled by clunky word choice. You can hear where the punch in was done on the next line because that one barely fit. Not to mention that it's part of a heavyhanded rhyme scheme that drags everything down.

This is why I roll my eyes when fans dismiss critics for not pointing out the backstory of the record, as if biography would fix basic issues with meter that Bono has struggled with for years. How many times have the lyrics to The Miracle been mocked in these threads for this very reason? I've seen people jab Bono for the "more than a lot" add-on to One, but it's there for rhythmic purposes.

So I'd say the quoted line is more of a good idea than a good line. A line with that much meaning shouldn't come across as complicated and nebulous, let alone challenging to sing along to.

 

[kabigon]

Nobody seems to be making fun of Little Things' lyrics any more, now that we have the full song in studio form.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Baaaaaaaaad lyrics. Other place!

You forgot the eye roll

 

[Axver]

I'm glad you mentioned that. The line is emblematic of so many problematic U2 lyrics this century: nice meaning at its core (it's difficult to argue that Bono's heart isn't in the right place), but overwritten and crippled by clunky word choice. You can hear where the punch in was done on the next line because that one barely fit. Not to mention that it's part of a heavyhanded rhyme scheme that drags everything down.

This is why I roll my eyes when fans dismiss critics for not pointing out the backstory of the record, as if biography would fix basic issues with meter that Bono has struggled with for years. How many times have the lyrics to The Miracle been mocked in these threads for this very reason? I've seen people jab Bono for the "more than a lot" add-on to One, but it's there for rhythmic purposes.

So I'd say the quoted line is more of a good idea than a good line. A line with that much meaning shouldn't come across as complicated and nebulous, let alone challenging to sing along to.

Oh come on. Landlady's lyrics aren't nearly on the level of syllable excess as The Miracle.

If the lyric was "to the lies that are almost true" it would be fine. One stray syllable is not nearly the crime that is The Miracle's cluster of syllabic fuckery.

Nobody seems to be making fun of Little Things' lyrics any more, now that we have the full song in studio form.

I can if you want.

 

[BVS]

I'm glad you mentioned that. The line is emblematic of so many problematic U2 lyrics this century: nice meaning at its core (it's difficult to argue that Bono's heart isn't in the right place), but overwritten and crippled by clunky word choice. You can hear where the punch in was done on the next line because that one barely fit. Not to mention that it's part of a heavyhanded rhyme scheme that drags everything down.

This is why I roll my eyes when fans dismiss critics for not pointing out the backstory of the record, as if biography would fix basic issues with meter that Bono has struggled with for years. How many times have the lyrics to The Miracle been mocked in these threads for this very reason? I've seen people jab Bono for the "more than a lot" add-on to One, but it's there for rhythmic purposes.

So I'd say the quoted line is more of a good idea than a good line. A line with that much meaning shouldn't come across as complicated and nebulous, let alone challenging to sing along to.

And I’ve always found this argument so disingenuous, because it never fails; a poster will pretend to care about meter in order to make an argument like this, and then go and praise Springsteen or The National moments later.

 

[kabigon]

Oh come on. Landlady's lyrics aren't nearly on the level of syllable excess as The Miracle.

If the lyric was "to the lies that are almost true" it would be fine. One stray syllable is not nearly the crime that is The Miracle's cluster of syllabic fuckery.



I can if you want.

I double dog dare you

 

[LemonMelon]

Oh come on. Landlady's lyrics aren't nearly on the level of syllable excess as The Miracle.

I never said they were; I said that one highlighted line was.

Go back and listen to it. They had to go back and splice together two separate vocal takes because Bono couldn't fit the line in. That's not good.

But the rest of the song doesn't necessarily have that problem. In fact, the remainder of that section has extremely slow metric pacing that drags somewhat.

And I’ve always found this argument so disingenuous, because it never fails; a poster will pretend to care about meter in order to make an argument like this, and then go and praise Springsteen or The National moments later.

Pointing out inconsistencies in others isn't a defense. Save that logic for FYM.

I don't actually think this is worth arguing about, Landlady's lyrics aren't among the worst of the album by any means, but I figured I might as well substantiate my opinions so I don't come across like I'm trolling.

 

[PhilsFan]

The difference between lyrics by The National and lyrics by latter day U2 is that The National have a lot of good lyrics and U2 do not.

 

[david]

The ending of Landlady kind of reminds me of Falling at Your Feet.

 

[gvox]

The melody and vibe of the chorus kinda reminds me of Spandau Ballet’s True.

And that’s a good thing.

 

[Hewson]

The melody and vibe of the chorus kinda reminds me of Spandau Ballet’s True.

And that’s a good thing.

 

[lazarus]

Even if Landlady were musically up to scratch and captured any of the the magic of those aforementioned tracks (all recorded with Eno nearby), it's still full of bad lyrics.

"Every magic potion
Every false emotion
How unswerving our devotion
To the lies we know are almost true
Every sweet confusion
Every grand illusion
I will win and call it losing
If the prize is not for you"

If these lyrics were from a Bon Jovi ballad, would anyone bat an eye? Honestly.

I don't think Jon Bon Jovi would name-drop a Jean Renoir film, but ok.

For what it's worth, I don't like this section of the song as much as what comes before it. And I'm also not crazy about the abrupt ending, as I've said before.