Concerns about HTDAAB being too "accessable"

[Canadiens1131]

I know some people are worried about how HTDAAB didn't take too much listening time to "get" many of the tracks on it. usually with an album, even a U2 one it takes me a while to get into it where Hot Dub was pretty instant.

But if I may offer this argument. The first time I heard Streets / Haven't Found / WOWY I was blown away. We sometimes forget the first 3 tracks of JT are perhaps the most accessable U2 songs of all time, yet they are also some of the greatest.

Thoughts on this?

 

[MatejU2]

I wasn't blown away when I first heard Streets / Haven't Found / WOWY

 

[rjhbonovox]

Yeah but listen to the rest of The Joshua Tree, singles aside the album is not an immediate album with songs like Bullet The Blue Sky, One Tree Hill, Mothers Of The Disappeared, Exit etc and these are not that immediate songs. But most of the new album is pretty immediate thats why they could probably release 10 top ten singles off the album. Only Love and Peace Or Else is not a single and also maybe Yahweh.

 

[Sleep Over Jack]

One Step Closer doesn't exactly have "single" written all over it either.

 

[Lemon&Lime]

I think accessibility is all about what people are expecting, for example I got into Radiohead's Kid A faster than I got into AB, because I knew Kid A was supposed to be very weird.

In other words, accessibility is all relative and I don't think it indicates the quality of an album.

 

[kakvox]

It took me a few listens to get into this record, unlike ATYCLB, which seemed pretty accesible to me at the time. However, I think the true test of an album, for me at least, is which songs from the U2 albums I put on my iPod. All HTDAAB songs are on, for I love them all. Only half of ATYCLB is on my iPod, kind of on the same plain as October. Time will surely tell, though.

 

[Lancemc]

I dont know. I liked EVERY U2 album at the first listen, so this one isn't very different.

 

[Another U2 nut!]

An album needs to be accessible to be popular. For if it appeals to a wide range of people, that is, many different types of people 'get it' then they are going to buy it. Good songs are like classic literature: they withstand the test of time and have universal appeal because they deal with themes common to all people, such as in the case of HTDAAB, love, loss and faith.

People take lyrics by Bono and map their own experiences onto them, thus the songs take on subtly varied meanings from person to person within the framework of Bono's chosen theme. People can't do this if the lyrics don't have a certain degree of accessibility.

 

[bcrt2000]

One Tree Hill, In God's Country were very immediate to me

 

[Dr_Macphisto]

I think I am alone on this one, but I found POP to be easily accessable. I don't care what anyone says, basically every song on there goes for (and has) a sing-along chorus. Granted, Miami is a little off, but the rest sure has a "gimmick"... and I applaud them for that