ATYCLB Appreciation Thread/ATYCLB >>> HTDAAB

[MsMofoGone]

When comparing these two albums it only makes sense,
that it's how many songs that are liked off that particular album !!

ATYCLB ... I like 8 songs and cannot stand 4 of them !!
HTDAAB ... I like half of the songs and dislike the other half !!

So in comparison ... the winner is ATYCLB, because I like more songs from that album !!

 

[starvinmarvin]

Here's another way of looking at things: which of the 2 albums, if never released, would be the biggest loss to the U2 catalogue and legacy?

The answer is undoubtedly ATYCLB. I can't imagine the band's history without Beautiful Day, Stuck, Kite, Walk On, and Elevation. None of the songs on HTDAAB - with the possible exception of Sometimes - add much to U2's legacy. HTDAAB may be a consistently good album, but nothing really reaches out and grabs you like the best moments on ATYCLB do.

 

[Windmilllane]

I have always said that ATYCLB is a great album. It won grammies for four different songs. But HTDAAB is a little bit more raw and I love raw U2.

 

[roy]

Here's another way of looking at things: which of the 2 albums, if never released, would be the biggest loss to the U2 catalogue and legacy?

The answer is undoubtedly ATYCLB. I can't imagine the band's history without Beautiful Day, Stuck, Kite, Walk On, and Elevation. None of the songs on HTDAAB - with the possible exception of Sometimes - add much to U2's legacy. HTDAAB may be a consistently good album, but nothing really reaches out and grabs you like the best moments on ATYCLB do.

You are right starvinmarvin, Elevation adds so much to U2's legacy. I don't know why I never saw this before...

 

[Joshua87]

are you just gonna go through every single thread expressing the same opinion? we have guessed that you dont like bomb, but theres really no need to go on about it

sorry

 

[starvinmarvin]

You are right starvinmarvin, Elevation adds so much to U2's legacy. I don't know why I never saw this before...

maybe you don't like it, but obviously many people do, and they're still playing it live 5 years on, so i guess your comment can be read both ways.

 

[bread n' whine]

best post ever. I agree with every word.

Now I still don't totally love ATYCLB, but I do really really really like it. It has some filler, and it can't really be called "interesting" the way Pop and Zooropa are. Not an album you could study. Besides "Beautiful Day" it also lacks classic songs. "New York" is almost at that level but somehow I think it could have been even better. Not to knock it, it's quite amazing, but even before 9/11 the specificity of having it just be a tribute to one city turns me off. The lyrics are moving, but feel too generic for the music. Imagine if "One" had had lyrics like that.

It took a bit of hindsight to appreciate this album, because for pure pop, it's quite subtle. Most of it is too produced to sound "back to roots" for me, but they actually pull it off with the middle two tracks, "Wild Honey" and especially "In a Little While." If you like Pop and Zooropa, it was disappointing for U2 to "go backward," but songs like this are so fresh and energetic and unpretentious that they really do feel like a new start for the band. Same with "Stuck in a Moment," though I agree the production is heavy. I don't mind it too much though. And "Elevation" is a pure fun silly pop-rock single that doesn't see itself as changing the world. It's mindlessly catchy in the best way.

I'm almost grateful to U2 for releasing such a bad album in the ATYCLB formula so I could see how good the previous one was rather than constantly being annoyed by how overhyped nu-U2 was as to old U2. Sometimes you have to appreciate what you're given and I think this is one of those cases. There's nothing wrong with the album, and there's a lot right with it. If it doesn't fulfill the press hype of being their best ever (at the time-- since denigrated by the press in order to help hype Bomb), forget that. It's a "sellout album" by 40 year olds for fuck's sake. By those standards it's pretty fucking genius.

Here's why ATYCLB is a good album: it feels joyful and unpretentious. Here's why HTDAAB is such a bad album: it feels like it's trying so, so hard to be joyful and unpretentious, but it also has to be BIG, so it betrays itself. The Joshua Tree and Achtung and Unforgettable Fire and War and Zooropa and Pop, yes, these were big albums too, but they had ideas to back them up, and HTDAAB doesn't. ATYCLB doesn't either, but it doesn't need to, because it's about the small things (mostly- there are exceptions like "Walk On"- but even something like "Elevation" knows how silly it is). 4 guys playing in a room? No, neither one sounds like that, but ATYCLB sounds like 4 guys who haven't worked their joyful songs so hard to fit some formula that there's no joy left in them.

 

[Joshua87]

best post ever. I agree with every word.

Now I still don't totally love ATYCLB, but I do really really really like it. It has some filler, and it can't really be called "interesting" the way Pop and Zooropa are. Not an album you could study. Besides "Beautiful Day" it also lacks classic songs. "New York" is almost at that level but somehow I think it could have been even better. Not to knock it, it's quite amazing, but even before 9/11 the specificity of having it just be a tribute to one city turns me off. The lyrics are moving, but feel too generic for the music. Imagine if "One" had had lyrics like that.

It took a bit of hindsight to appreciate this album, because for pure pop, it's quite subtle. Most of it is too produced to sound "back to roots" for me, but they actually pull it off with the middle two tracks, "Wild Honey" and especially "In a Little While." If you like Pop and Zooropa, it was disappointing for U2 to "go backward," but songs like this are so fresh and energetic and unpretentious that they really do feel like a new start for the band. Same with "Stuck in a Moment," though I agree the production is heavy. I don't mind it too much though. And "Elevation" is a pure fun silly pop-rock single that doesn't see itself as changing the world. It's mindlessly catchy in the best way.

I'm almost grateful to U2 for releasing such a bad album in the ATYCLB formula so I could see how good the previous one was rather than constantly being annoyed by how overhyped nu-U2 was as to old U2. Sometimes you have to appreciate what you're given and I think this is one of those cases. There's nothing wrong with the album, and there's a lot right with it. If it doesn't fulfill the press hype of being their best ever (at the time-- since denigrated by the press in order to help hype Bomb), forget that. It's a "sellout album" by 40 year olds for fuck's sake. By those standards it's pretty fucking genius.

Here's why ATYCLB is a good album: it feels joyful and unpretentious. Here's why HTDAAB is such a bad album: it feels like it's trying so, so hard to be joyful and unpretentious, but it also has to be BIG, so it betrays itself. The Joshua Tree and Achtung and Unforgettable Fire and War and Zooropa and Pop, yes, these were big albums too, but they had ideas to back them up, and HTDAAB doesn't. ATYCLB doesn't either, but it doesn't need to, because it's about the small things (mostly- there are exceptions like "Walk On"- but even something like "Elevation" knows how silly it is). 4 guys playing in a room? No, neither one sounds like that, but ATYCLB sounds like 4 guys who haven't worked their joyful songs so hard to fit some formula that there's no joy left in them.

I think you're my best friend

 

[hedgehog]

Until recently, Ive thought that ATYCLB was a pretty average album.
With the exception of a few songs (Beautiful Day, Walk On, Kite and The Ground Beneath Her Feet) I didn't really care for the album really.

Just lately though, Ive been giving this ablum another chance and playing it more and Ive got a new found fondness for ATYCLB...

My new opinions on this album...

Beautiful day: sadly overplayed on the radio, football grounds, TV, etc... still a great song though. 8/10
Stuck in a moment you can't get out of: oh dear, I used to quite like this song, now Im not so sure... 3/10
Elevation: not bad still I guess. 6/10
Walk on: still the same... 9/10
Kite: as above, only its even better 10/10
In a little while: don't enjoy it as much as I did before 5/10
Wild Honey: used to think this song was absolute crap. Bizzarely this song is the one thats grown on me most, not like anything else U2 has done, now I think its pretty good... 7/10
Peace on earth: another one that Ive learned to appreciate more, good song after all. 8/10
When I look at the world: still alright I guess. 6/10
New York: never really cared for this one before, but this one is another which has grown on me, pretty good. 7/10
Grace: still crap. 2/10
The ground beneath her feet: still as good as ever... 9/10

Still think the Bomb is a much better album though.

 

[sniggirb]

Peace On Earth > Crumbs From Your Table
Up until a few weeks ago, POE was my least favorite U2 song. I was being too hard on it. It's actually quite good. Let the record show my position on that song is officially reversed. It takes a while to get going but once it does it's pretty beautiful, and it really hits home with the world events of today.

FINALLY!!! You have now seen the light Remember our little debate a few months ago where you said you didn't like the song and the majority of people on interference don't either? And then I said "let's see" and a Peace on Earth Appreciation thread was started? I'm glad you see how good it is now.

On a more serious note, my grandfather suddenly passed away a few days after we started this debate. The lyric "..never got to say goodbye..." rang so true. I was listening to the album when I heard the news and couldn't listen to it again for 2 months. Its just such an emotional and personal album. The only songs on HTDAAB that get that same emotional level for me are Sometimes, Original of the Species, and Crumbs.

 

[bathiu]

best post ever. I agree with every word.

Now I still don't totally love ATYCLB, but I do really really really like it. It has some filler, and it can't really be called "interesting" the way Pop and Zooropa are. Not an album you could study. Besides "Beautiful Day" it also lacks classic songs. "New York" is almost at that level but somehow I think it could have been even better. Not to knock it, it's quite amazing, but even before 9/11 the specificity of having it just be a tribute to one city turns me off. The lyrics are moving, but feel too generic for the music. Imagine if "One" had had lyrics like that.

It took a bit of hindsight to appreciate this album, because for pure pop, it's quite subtle. Most of it is too produced to sound "back to roots" for me, but they actually pull it off with the middle two tracks, "Wild Honey" and especially "In a Little While." If you like Pop and Zooropa, it was disappointing for U2 to "go backward," but songs like this are so fresh and energetic and unpretentious that they really do feel like a new start for the band. Same with "Stuck in a Moment," though I agree the production is heavy. I don't mind it too much though. And "Elevation" is a pure fun silly pop-rock single that doesn't see itself as changing the world. It's mindlessly catchy in the best way.

I'm almost grateful to U2 for releasing such a bad album in the ATYCLB formula so I could see how good the previous one was rather than constantly being annoyed by how overhyped nu-U2 was as to old U2. Sometimes you have to appreciate what you're given and I think this is one of those cases. There's nothing wrong with the album, and there's a lot right with it. If it doesn't fulfill the press hype of being their best ever (at the time-- since denigrated by the press in order to help hype Bomb), forget that. It's a "sellout album" by 40 year olds for fuck's sake. By those standards it's pretty fucking genius.

Here's why ATYCLB is a good album: it feels joyful and unpretentious. Here's why HTDAAB is such a bad album: it feels like it's trying so, so hard to be joyful and unpretentious, but it also has to be BIG, so it betrays itself. The Joshua Tree and Achtung and Unforgettable Fire and War and Zooropa and Pop, yes, these were big albums too, but they had ideas to back them up, and HTDAAB doesn't. ATYCLB doesn't either, but it doesn't need to, because it's about the small things (mostly- there are exceptions like "Walk On"- but even something like "Elevation" knows how silly it is). 4 guys playing in a room? No, neither one sounds like that, but ATYCLB sounds like 4 guys who haven't worked their joyful songs so hard to fit some formula that there's no joy left in them.

Do you realize that it's only "your opinion" and actualy THE BAND'S OPINION is exactly oposite to that?
They said ATYCLB is without a theme, that it's their pop record with 11 singles etc,etc

 

[namkcuR]

Do you realize that it's only "your opinion" and actualy THE BAND'S OPINION is exactly oposite to that?
They said ATYCLB is without a theme, that it's their pop record with 11 singles etc,etc

I don't think either record has a real theme in the sense of a story being told.

 

[bathiu]

I don't think either record has a real theme in the sense of a story being told.

same as me, but since the band's opinion is "holy word" here (especialy about POP not being finished), I just wanted to point that.
U2 said HTDAAB has a "from darkness to light"/"from fear to hope" theme... that even the tracklist is like it is to show this theme more... in some way... looking here and there on the lyrics, it's true.

 

[Kieran McConville]

I'm NOT afraid anymore!!!!!!

 

[bread n' whine]

Do you realize that it's only "your opinion" and actualy THE BAND'S OPINION is exactly oposite to that?
They said ATYCLB is without a theme, that it's their pop record with 11 singles etc,etc

that was actually my exact point, which I guess you missed. both of them are records of simple emotional radio-friendly pop songs, and ATYCLB is not trying to be anything other than that. it doesn't have a grandiose self-conscious theme. that is exactly what makes me like it, it feels lived in and honest.

I can stand grandiosity and pretension when you have something to say-- Joshua Tree, Zooropa, Pop, etc.-- not when it's an album of simple radio-friendly pop songs that have just been inflated really large, without the music or lyrics to back them up. then you're in Keane territory.

but a lot of people here like Keane. probably the same ones who like Bomb.

 

[MrBrau1]

but a lot of people here like Keane. probably the same ones who like Bomb.

I like Bomb, and can't stand Keane.

 

[starvinmarvin]

Keane are awful. They sound like contemporary Christian music. That is not a good thing.

 

[cf]

the bomb is much more raw and have 3/4 (vertigo, sometimes, original, love&peace, an maybe crumbs) songs that maybe can be in an ipotetical best of 2000-2010, all that is too plain the only real masterpieces are kite, elevation and maybe bd (walk on is way better in the single version and it's too plain, as md) in my opinion U2 should go into the studios tomorrow and make another walk on or md or even bd, but i don't think they could do another vertigo or love&peace or sometimes.
that's my opinion.
i don't remember who asked me if i'm german, but i'm not.

 

[Lemonfix]

but a lot of people here like Keane. probably the same ones who like Bomb.

Ouch! Those be fightin' words!!!

Seriously, though, when I was thinking about why I prefer the Bomb it often comes down to the flow of the album. With ATYCLB it has a foundation of being a great soul/pop album (Stuck, IALW, Wild Honey, etc.) but then there's more rock songs, pop/rock songs, whatever Grace is, mixed in, and it sounds, I dunno, too random with not a whole lot of direction.

And yes, I will grant that the Bomb does have some adult-contemporary flavor to it, maybe I am getting old