City Of Blinding Lights

[Matthew_Page2000]

i SOOOOOOOOOOOO wanted to say that

I almost bit my tongue but heck, J WANTS people to react to his posts and who am I to deny him?
Plus it was tongue in cheek.

 

[FullonEdge2]

I know I might sound a bit corny saying this but here goes: COBL has the potential to be my favorite U2 song. Everything about it is positively classic and deeply emotional. The climax in the end with Edge singing at the top of his lungs--I just don't have any words to describe it. I can't possibly imagine the emotions this song will evoke live.

I know some people immediately want to dismiss claims that this song is among the best because they respect all the music from the past. You have to look at it objectively though. If this song was released on the JT I'm sure it would be looked at as a classic today. For those of you who think it's overrated, I just don't understand. This is U2 in its essence.

Yes, I would compare this song with Streets.

 

[jackboy]

i think at last u2 are being u2...all that i've heard so far is of the highest quality...can't wait until the offical lp...

 

[camiloj]

I loooooove it.

Seriously, this song, got me almost way MORE excited than Vertigo. I mean with Vertigo, City of Blinding Lights and All About You, I think it is clear enough that this is a way better album than ATYCLB and is DEFINITELY going to be one of the classics, ala JT and AB.

It is sooo good. I am so excited. I almost cannot contain my enthusiasm. I am starting to get those U2 chills....

 

[jick]

Its for the convenience of the members to have the threads merged. This thread should be merged with;

COBL All The Way

http://forum.interference.com/t99437.html

The awesomeness that is COBL

http://forum.interference.com/t99367.html

and even COBL= Streets thread.

http://forum.interference.com/t99529.html

There are already many threads on this song so it puzzles me as to why people start new threads as opposed to just participating in the older threads. I guess they are the ones who really want all the attention. Funny how some people accuse me of being the one who wants to hog all the attention.

Cheers,

J

 

[starsgoblue]

Jick....don't be such a grump!

 

[kiwilad]

Fullon, I think you've nailed it, this song is all that we've come to love JT era songs for being. It may be worse on the album, it may be overproduced and lacking the passion of this live performance, we'll have to wait and see.
But in a stadium packed full of U2 fans, seeing the band coming back for the encore and ripping into this song will blow the socks off anyone, of that I'm sure!!!
And Jick, I'm sure you're just misunderstood. Keep posting those posts of yours, they certainly provide entertainment!!

 

[starsgoblue]

But in a stadium packed full of U2 fans, seeing the band coming back for the encore and ripping into this song will blow the socks off anyone, of that I'm sure!!!

I don't know if I could wait til the encore for this....

 

[jick]

Jick....don't be such a grump!

Hah! If you can't beat then join them. I think I'm gonna do my bit and start my own thread about COBL. In few hours I shall be starting my own thread.

Cheers,

J

 

[starsgoblue]

Hah! If you can't beat then join them. I think I'm gonna do my bit and start my own thread about COBL. In few hours I shall be starting my own thread.

Cheers,

J

Haha, go for it Jick!! I'll be posting there too.... I don't really think you're a grump, teasing is fun though!

 

[Matthew_Page2000]

Hah! If you can't beat then join them. I think I'm gonna do my bit and start my own thread about COBL. In few hours I shall be starting my own thread.

Cheers,

J

Ahhh...The inevitable "COBL" is overrated thread.
I can't wait.

 

[JOFO]

overrated song
J

 

[Rafiennes]

I've only heard a few snippets of COBL and it reminds me of Ryan Adams' 'So Alive' which reminds me of a U2 song...so I guess it negates itself in what it sounds like... huh?

 

[JOFO]

I've just listened to this song 6 times in a row, and I just wanted to point out how great the bass line Adam is playing is.

rythmically, it's nothing, but harmonically, it's so great against the chords, especially in the climb up before the chorus.

 

[Irvine511]

as a long time lurker, it would take a lot to get me to post on one of these forums. i was a WIRE subscriber way back before Pop, and visit several u2 sites each day without so much as a trace. i have to say, not much has done as much for me musically as COBL, even with crappy sound quality. it's going to be an astonishing piece of music -- will be one thing on the album (epic, intricate, you'll be able to wring your own meaning from it depending on the situation, new meanings will surface on an otherwise ordinary tuesday when you're driving home from work) and be something entirely different, and bigger, live (we'll all be connected at the concert, singing the songs in unision, our individual interpretations melding into a massive outpouring of raw emotion from hearts and minds that are not the same but have become one).

COBL is a monster, it belongs in the same line of massive U2 epics that started with "bad" reached something of an apex on "streets" and then reduced in scope but grew in poignancy with "walk on."

get ready. it's just going to get better.

 

[Irvine511]

one more thought: this is the kind of song that only U2 can do well. massive, but intimate. uplifting, but not dumb. accessible, but not easy. only U2, in their finest moments, can pull this off.

 

[gorman]

I'm shocked that COBL hasn't been called _the_ best song on the album in the reviews thus far. Without question, COBL has already become one of my favorite U2 songs of all time. All of this from a terrible quality MP3 of its first live performance. So if COBL is in fact not the best song on the album, I can't begin to imagine how good those songs will be. I also can't help but think that Bono is right in saying that this may be their best or second best album.

Out of all of the leaks, I've yet to hear anything that I didn't like. COBL is epic and very emotional, ABOY sounds like a great U2 rock song, Miracle Drug is classic U2, L&PoE sounds very intriguing and unlike any other song, and Vertigo is full of energy and is definitely very catchy. This is certainly no ATYCLB, and really isn't any other album either. I really think this is going to be the album we've been waiting for U2 to make.

 

[shart1780]

I have a feeling this will be kind of like a second Achtung Baby. I can't really say why. Vertigo and ABOY remind me of AB, and the overall feeling and variety of the album reminds me of AB. Also how it's so guitar driven. I'll probably be proven totally wrong though.

 

[AtomicBono]

I loved this song from the get go. I like it even more now that I know J doesn't like it.

that's great. ditto, my friend Seriously though I'd agree with the sentiments of most people in that it's a brilliantly beautiful song...not sure if in the end it will be considered as classic as songs like Streets and Bad, but it's a great song nonetheless. Definatley better than Walk On, which I personally love - but there's no use in comparing it to other songs eh? The emotion of COBL shines through even if you can't hear the lyrics, but with the lyrics it's even more powerful. Can't wait for the album version of this...and then on tour...

btw Irvine - I agree with your post 100%. No other band could really write a song like this without sounding like they're trying too damn hard or not trying enough... it would either seem way too cheesy or too heartless... U2 is truly unique.

"Massive, but intimate. Uplifting, but not dumb. Accessible, but not easy."

Seriously, you need to post more

 

[oceane]

one more thought: this is the kind of song that only U2 can do well. massive, but intimate. uplifting, but not dumb. accessible, but not easy. only U2, in their finest moments, can pull this off.

This is the most amazing and accurate way to describe U2 in so little words. And yes, COBL is the perfect example of that.

 

[elfyx]

one more thought: this is the kind of song that only U2 can do well. massive, but intimate. uplifting, but not dumb. accessible, but not easy. only U2, in their finest moments, can pull this off.

Definitely! I agree, post more.

 

[Irvine511]

hey all -- thanks for the kind words. i'll offer a few thoughts ... the reason COBL will be a class is because it embodies exactly what U2 can do that no one else can. let's take the concert experience. i've been lucky enough to see many artists who exist in the same realm as U2 -- commercially successful, artistically valid. REM, Springsteen, Beck, PJ Harvey, etc.

two examples to highlight the difference between U2 and everyone else: a springsteen show is about the great, great bruce. you're there to watch a warhorse, a legend, rock his heart out for 3+ hours. an REM show is about the strength of the song. it could be intimate or gorgeous -- "at my most beautiful" -- or a perfect piece of songwriting -- "man on the moon." both are great, but both are ultimately limited. because they have finite goals.

a U2 show is about us. you and me and the band, and about breaking down the distinctions between us until the arena or stadium is a single, living, breathing organism. bono knows he doesn't own his words, or his voice; edge knows he doesn't own those notes (ever notice how they echo, they bounce off us and the walls and back to him and are everywhere at once?) for a band accused of such ego, they are so selfless. it has more in common with a rave, say, than your typical rock concert. it's about finding yourself by losing yourself, about being humbled by the scope and scale of what is all around you yet feeling utterly precious and special just to be a part of it. it's not music, it's something else (and i wouldn't dare define what that "else" is, i wouldn't presume to limit it with words ... you know it when you feel it). it's limitless.

this is why, i think, U2 fans are the most obsessive in all of popular music, and probably the most messianic (who hasn't spent hours trying to convert others?) because we've been there, we know. it's something we share with people who saw them in 1979, and who will see them in 2005. it’s something that COBL is a part of, along with “streets” and “bad.” the song is about us, all of us, because we are all so beautiful. tonight.

 

[FullonEdge2]

Wow! That is one incredible post!

 

[dandy]

this is why i love this place, and other u2 fans. we rock. amazing stuff, irvine.

 

[starsgoblue]

:holding up a bic lighter: Yeah! That rocked!

 

[Roland of Gilead]

I am so mesmerized by this song, in all its crappy recorded live take, that I can not begin to think how the rest of the album will be, based on the reviews so far.

 

[boosterjuice]

You know; I think this song is going to have more of a back-beat when we hear it on the CD. The drum and bass don't come in as strongly as the guitars/vocals do on the TOTP recordings.

 

[TC2290]

*Bumporama*

After watching it live and listening to this song for a couple of weeks now, I'm still of the opinion this is one of the top 5 live songs U2 will play. I don't think I had the same emotional reaction to anything since AB. Bono's honesty in the lyrics really strikes a chord with me..

New York is in for one bloody amazing gig!

 

[James U2]

Irvine511 -

Beautiful words. Thank you. I think I just might print that out and give it to all of my friends who think that I'm strange to love a band so much. And, ehem, there are quite a few.

james

 

[popmars]

The simple fact is COBL = Album track from AB [i.e Ultraviolet or WGRYWH]

Good tune though.