Snowlock
Refugee
Okay, I know there's been like a million tracklist reordering threads for Atomic Bomb, especially when it just came out. But, after a year, I think I finally hit the nail on the head with something that sounds right to me.
From the first day I listed to it, I never thought the album flowed correctly and it's lack of flow in turn hindered it's identity for me. Was this album "punk rock from Venus" as Bono said? Or was it just a rehash from the ATYCLB sessions? By playing around with the track list order and some adding and subtracting, I've found an album I think flows correctly and also recaptures some of that punk rock that the boys were going for early on... Before the producer change and Jacknife Lee got more involved. But it still caputers the strongest of the most poppy songs.
1. LPOE. I started with this because I wanted a heavier intro and even more than Vertigo, the theme of LPOE better conveys the albums message.
2. Vertigo. Hey, it's the major single so it gets a prominent position. Plus thematically and tonally it flows well from LPOE.
3. ABOY. Since this is supposed to be a rock record, I wanted to keep things moving. I never liked how the original tracklist slowed down immediately from Vertigo into MD and Sometimes.
4. Now after the strong start, I've started to slow things down with MD; a huge pop song with some rock tendancies that makes a nice bridge between the opening three and Sometimes.
5. Sometimes (103bpm). This is the fastest version of Sometimes; available on the US radio promo. It's not FAST, but it's a little more up-tempo than the other versions. So while the MD-Somtimes couplet brings the album down a bit from the quick opening, it doesn't come across as a massive sink hole in the A-Side.
6. COBL. Moving things along a bit again as the A-Side closes. COBL's slow intro flows well from Sometimes and kind of does two things at once here: It keeps the pop feel of the previous two tracks but COBL also has a nice harsher undertone with Adams driving bass and Edge's slide work that restores the edge (not, The Edge) to the album's opening tracks.
7. Crumbs. Crumbs builds on that edgey riff from COBL and sets the pace for the B-Side.
8. Are You Gonna Wait Forever. AYGWF from the Vertigo Single keeps things chugging along with another power rock song. It's riffy and guitar driven like Crumbs, but it also has a glossy production which makes it a nice transition song between Crumbs and the next track.
9. OOTS. OOTS is a major pop song that fit more on ATYCLB than on HTDAAB, but it's just too damn good to leave off. To make it fit best, I could have put it after Sometimes, but then MD, Sometimes & OOTS brings the album too far down. I could've gone MD, OOTS and left Sometimes for the back half, but Sometimes is too good of a song and was also a major single. So in keeping with the boys album philosphy, I wanted to keep Sometimes on the A-Side. Having OOTS follow AYGWF at least allows it to continue that high polished production value that the prior song has.
10. Xanax & Wine. There isn't much of a transition here. It's more of a dicotomy but I'm alright with that. X&W is practically a demo and Edge's guitars are very rough, but its so innovative that this song to me best recalls Bono's "Punk rock from Venus" line; so to me it's essential to this album.
11. Mercy. Mercy's as rough around the edges as X&W so the transition is perfect. It's also a perfect album closer with a beautiful message and with the albums coda, offsets the dark opening tracks perfectly.
12. Yahweh. As good a closer as Mercy is, Yahweh is better. All throughout the album there are songs filled with faith and hope and Yahweh condences these various messages into a single song and finishes the album's journey. I considered using the alt version to continue the low production values trend that began with X&W, but the prominent piano in the album cut really adds to the epic feeling of the song.
Leaving out A Man & A Woman was tough, but I just couldn't find a place for it without making the album too pop-y. Plus, again going back to the band's album philosophy, they've never released a 13 track album so I didn't want to do it either.
On the other hand, leaving off One Step Closer was easy. I am NOT a fan of Jacknife Lee as a producer and wished he hadn't touched this track. I heard that originally it was supposed to be a country-ish song and wish they had left it that way. As it is, it strikes me as a song with a nice theme, but musically boring and no more than a single's b-side.
Fast Cars... Jacknife Lee again. Gah. Xanax is so far superior in my opinion. I like the callisto themed music, but the guitars of Xanax are brilliant.
If you try my mix, I hope you like it.
From the first day I listed to it, I never thought the album flowed correctly and it's lack of flow in turn hindered it's identity for me. Was this album "punk rock from Venus" as Bono said? Or was it just a rehash from the ATYCLB sessions? By playing around with the track list order and some adding and subtracting, I've found an album I think flows correctly and also recaptures some of that punk rock that the boys were going for early on... Before the producer change and Jacknife Lee got more involved. But it still caputers the strongest of the most poppy songs.
1. LPOE. I started with this because I wanted a heavier intro and even more than Vertigo, the theme of LPOE better conveys the albums message.
2. Vertigo. Hey, it's the major single so it gets a prominent position. Plus thematically and tonally it flows well from LPOE.
3. ABOY. Since this is supposed to be a rock record, I wanted to keep things moving. I never liked how the original tracklist slowed down immediately from Vertigo into MD and Sometimes.
4. Now after the strong start, I've started to slow things down with MD; a huge pop song with some rock tendancies that makes a nice bridge between the opening three and Sometimes.
5. Sometimes (103bpm). This is the fastest version of Sometimes; available on the US radio promo. It's not FAST, but it's a little more up-tempo than the other versions. So while the MD-Somtimes couplet brings the album down a bit from the quick opening, it doesn't come across as a massive sink hole in the A-Side.
6. COBL. Moving things along a bit again as the A-Side closes. COBL's slow intro flows well from Sometimes and kind of does two things at once here: It keeps the pop feel of the previous two tracks but COBL also has a nice harsher undertone with Adams driving bass and Edge's slide work that restores the edge (not, The Edge) to the album's opening tracks.
7. Crumbs. Crumbs builds on that edgey riff from COBL and sets the pace for the B-Side.
8. Are You Gonna Wait Forever. AYGWF from the Vertigo Single keeps things chugging along with another power rock song. It's riffy and guitar driven like Crumbs, but it also has a glossy production which makes it a nice transition song between Crumbs and the next track.
9. OOTS. OOTS is a major pop song that fit more on ATYCLB than on HTDAAB, but it's just too damn good to leave off. To make it fit best, I could have put it after Sometimes, but then MD, Sometimes & OOTS brings the album too far down. I could've gone MD, OOTS and left Sometimes for the back half, but Sometimes is too good of a song and was also a major single. So in keeping with the boys album philosphy, I wanted to keep Sometimes on the A-Side. Having OOTS follow AYGWF at least allows it to continue that high polished production value that the prior song has.
10. Xanax & Wine. There isn't much of a transition here. It's more of a dicotomy but I'm alright with that. X&W is practically a demo and Edge's guitars are very rough, but its so innovative that this song to me best recalls Bono's "Punk rock from Venus" line; so to me it's essential to this album.
11. Mercy. Mercy's as rough around the edges as X&W so the transition is perfect. It's also a perfect album closer with a beautiful message and with the albums coda, offsets the dark opening tracks perfectly.
12. Yahweh. As good a closer as Mercy is, Yahweh is better. All throughout the album there are songs filled with faith and hope and Yahweh condences these various messages into a single song and finishes the album's journey. I considered using the alt version to continue the low production values trend that began with X&W, but the prominent piano in the album cut really adds to the epic feeling of the song.
Leaving out A Man & A Woman was tough, but I just couldn't find a place for it without making the album too pop-y. Plus, again going back to the band's album philosophy, they've never released a 13 track album so I didn't want to do it either.
On the other hand, leaving off One Step Closer was easy. I am NOT a fan of Jacknife Lee as a producer and wished he hadn't touched this track. I heard that originally it was supposed to be a country-ish song and wish they had left it that way. As it is, it strikes me as a song with a nice theme, but musically boring and no more than a single's b-side.
Fast Cars... Jacknife Lee again. Gah. Xanax is so far superior in my opinion. I like the callisto themed music, but the guitars of Xanax are brilliant.
If you try my mix, I hope you like it.
Damn straight. You can change the order but I love all the songs on it. The others weren't put on for a reason.
