Is it unfair to expect another truly great U2 album?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
coolian2 said:


How about the kick drum at the start of I Still Haven't Found
Click to expand...

I read somewhere a long time ago that drum at the beginning was from U2 listening to Aerosmith/RunDMC "Walk This Way."
 
i don't get it though, can't you practically eliminate those sounds in the studio?

wait, tourist, what do you mean exactly??
 
ozeeko said:


If Vertigo was some latin-flavored pop song, intentionally silly and full of summer fun, then maybe an "uno, dos, tres, catorce" would have worked. In Vertigo it does not work, it just sounds stupid and juvenile. That's Bono's biggest problem these days, his sheer lack of judgement. And "yea yea yea yea yea yea yea yea yea yea yea yea yea yea yea yea" is in my opinion U2's lowest moment on any of their records. It's not that he used the word "yea", it's that he used it 17 times (diece-siete), and he screams the word the exact same way over and over, the same rhythm the same volume, in a nagging emopunk style, so any attempt at sounding carefree, young, rocking, spontaneous, throwaway, whatever, ends up sounding more like a burntout out-of-touch-with-reality rock star who is trying to sound hip. I wonder how many takes of "yea yea yea yea yea yea yea yea yea yea yea" were recorded before settling on the one they used. Vertigo is rife with flaws, I find it to be one of the weakest songs, if not the weakest, they have ever written, made even worse by the fact that this was supposed to be U2's big rocking fuck-all comeback (as if they ever went away) song. I'm sorry, but "Uno, dos, tres, catorce", "twinkle", "hello hello ....hola" is the wrong way to go about kicking in the door and announcing your arrival. Put this song next to "Desire", and you'll see how immature and juvenile it really is. People like to think Bono has matured in his old age. Maybe he has, but his lyrics haven't. How can anyone point the finger at "Numb" or "Discoteque" or even "Beautiful Day" and accuse U2 of trying to stay hip, when their clearest example of self-consciousness and second-guessing is right here in VERTIGO.
Click to expand...

:huh: Only Latin flavored pop songs are allowed to use Spanish ?

It IS intentionally silly, that's the point why the lyrics, in that particular case, work. As if it would make a difference if he'd say 1, 2, 3, 14 in English instead. I didn't count the "yea yea"s but I doubt it's 17 times. And are you kidding ? Rock songs use "yeah" by the truckloads. U2's comeback song was BD, btw and it was just as much U2 being hip as Vertigo or Discotheque are.

You said it's dull and repetitive yet you don't have a problem with the dullest and most repetitive song in their catalogue, Numb. (the fact it's about feeling numb due to media/sensory overload isn't an excuse)
 
Rob33 said:
i don't get it though, can't you practically eliminate those sounds in the studio?

wait, tourist, what do you mean exactly??
Click to expand...

I don't remember where, and maybe I'm going nuts, but I heard that when they were tracking the album somehow the drum beat from "Walk This Way," which they'd been listening to, got into the beginning of I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For very quietly (nearly unnoticeable) and they decided to keep it there.
 
coolian2 said:
Odd, to me it simply sounds like a kick drum being....kicked, like Larry getting set up to play the song
Click to expand...

yeah but Larry wouldn't do that though, to get set up for the song...but it does sound like Larry...i don't know :sigh:
 
coolian2 said:
Odd, to me it simply sounds like a kick drum being....kicked, like Larry getting set up to play the song
Click to expand...

Since I don't have a source on that, go ahead and assume what you will about it. I'm flexible. But if you really crank it, I think you can hear it. It's been a long time since I tried that.
 
ozeeko said:


If Vertigo was some latin-flavored pop song, intentionally silly and full of summer fun, then maybe an "uno, dos, tres, catorce" would have worked. In Vertigo it does not work, it just sounds stupid and juvenile. That's Bono's biggest problem these days, his sheer lack of judgement.




So, in your opinion, only Latin-flavoured pop songs, intentionally silly and full of summer fun may use Spanish. Well, there are some news for you then, apart from Chinese which is only spoken in both China and Taiwan, but it is not a really single language, but some sort of close related languages, Spanish is the second spoken language in the world, just behind English and growing in native speakers very quickly, much quicklier in fact than English. Artists creating their works in Spanish are not all of them silly, nor are they all from Latin America (and being from Latin America isn't anything bad, by the way), we, of course, like a bit of summer fun, but we also talk about other subjects and, believe it or not, there have been some great philosophers, doctors of the Church, poets and musicians whose language was/is Spanish.
Vertigo had, at a time, its lyrics in Spanish, Bono told so in a Spanish Tv programme, but he found it difficult to remember them and they turned to English again, they kept the intro and the chorus due to the sense of mixing cultures adding to the vertigo feeling (or maybe they wanted to get a hit in the Spanish speaking world, who knows...), you can hate the song if you like, that's up to you, but please don't hurt the feelings of people, not only the Spanish speaking community, that thing you said about Bono...
When U2 performed in Spain in 2005, he surprised us in Barcelona introducing the song with "uno, dos, tres...quince" (1,2,3...15) and it was great fun for fans all over the country for some days, we love his sense of humour so close to ours, but jokes ca't be explained you get them or not.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
I know the kick drum sound you're on about. I like when producers leave a bit of unpolished studio chatter or random sounds in tracks. Gives them some personality...
 
the tourist said:


Well I'm glad I'm not completely insane. :wink:
Click to expand...

At about what second mark are you hearing this?

As for the Vertigo stuff, it's supposed to be a fun, disposable almost-garage rock thing. When I first heard it, I imagined that they had been listening to the Hives a bit.

But assuring that everyone heard the song a billion times through the ipod ads takes a fun little quirk and blows it up to global proportions. Regardless, I appreciate the effort.
 
coolian2 said:


It sounds like there was a bassline involved as well. You really need to turn it up or else it does just sound like a kickdrum.
Click to expand...

Or maybe a low guitar riff.
 
Marien said:
ozeeko said:


If Vertigo was some latin-flavored pop song, intentionally silly and full of summer fun, then maybe an "uno, dos, tres, catorce" would have worked. In Vertigo it does not work, it just sounds stupid and juvenile. That's Bono's biggest problem these days, his sheer lack of judgement.




So, in your opinion, only Latin-flavoured pop songs, intentionally silly and full of summer fun may use Spanish. Well, there are some news for you then, apart from Chinese which is only spoken in both China and Taiwan, but it is not a really single language, but some sort of close related languages, Spanish is the second spoken language in the world, just behind English and growing in native speakers very quickly, much quicklier in fact than English. Artists creating their works in Spanish are not all of them silly, nor are they all from Latin America (and being from Latin America isn't anything bad, by the way), we, of course, like a bit of summer fun, but we also talk about other subjects and, believe it or not, there have been some great philosophers, doctors of the Church, poets and musicians whose language was/is Spanish.
Vertigo had, at a time, its lyrics in Spanish, Bono told so in a Spanish Tv programme, but he found it difficult to remember them and they turned to English again, they kept the intro and the chorus due to the sense of mixing cultures adding to the vertigo feeling (or maybe they wanted to get a hit in the Spanish speaking world, who knows...), you can hate the song if you like, that's up to you, but please don't hurt the feelings of people, not only the Spanish speaking community, that thing you said about Bono...
When U2 performed in Spain in 2005, he surprised us in Barcelona introducing the song with "uno, dos, tres...quince" (1,2,3...15) and it was great fun for fans all over the country for some days, we love his sense of humour so close to ours, but jokes ca't be explained you get them or not.
Click to expand...

Alright, thanks for the Spanish lesson...but really what it all boils down to is this: "Uno, Dos, Tres, Catorce" sounds fucking stupid in that stupid ass song. I'm sure Bono's quite capable of injecting Spanish into his lyrics, heck...Frank Black did it all the time in his Pixies songs. The only difference is, when Frank Black did it, it sounded cool, where as Bono just sounds like a fucking moron.

So, forget about everything else I might've said...I'm going with the new argument..."It Just Sounds Fucking Stupid!"

But it's nowhere near the stupidity of "Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea!!!!!!!!"
Click to expand...
 
ozeeko said:
Alright, thanks for the Spanish lesson...but really what it all boils down to is this: "Uno, Dos, Tres, Catorce" sounds fucking stupid in that stupid ass song. I'm sure Bono's quite capable of injecting Spanish into his lyrics, heck...Frank Black did it all the time in his Pixies songs. The only difference is, when Frank Black did it, it sounded cool, where as Bono just sounds like a fucking moron.

So, forget about everything else I might've said...I'm going with the new argument..."It Just Sounds Fucking Stupid!"

But it's nowhere near the stupidity of "Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea!!!!!!!!"
Click to expand...

I think you've been clear. You don't like Vertigo and you hate the Yea Yea Yea part......... How many times do you have to say though? It's just a song, not some country's constitution.
 
ozeeko said:


Alright, thanks for the Spanish lesson...but really what it all boils down to is this: "Uno, Dos, Tres, Catorce" sounds fucking stupid in that stupid ass song. I'm sure Bono's quite capable of injecting Spanish into his lyrics, heck...Frank Black did it all the time in his Pixies songs. The only difference is, when Frank Black did it, it sounded cool, where as Bono just sounds like a fucking moron.

So, forget about everything else I might've said...I'm going with the new argument..."It Just Sounds Fucking Stupid!"

But it's nowhere near the stupidity of "Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea!!!!!!!!"
Click to expand...

ozeeko, now it's just getting annoying...
 
U2girl said:
You said it's dull and repetitive yet you don't have a problem with the dullest and most repetitive song in their catalogue, Numb. (the fact it's about feeling numb due to media/sensory overload isn't an excuse)
Click to expand...

Okay, without even trying to bash Vertigo... that (^) is one of the dumbest things I've ever read on this forum! Numb is repetitive for a reason. Numb is not like other songs. It's not meant to be like other songs. The theme is exactly what you mentioned, feeling numb due to sensory overload and people shooting instructions at you, "don't do this, don't do that". How is that dull? It's making a statement, isn't it? To each their own I guess. I think Numb (along with the fantastic video) is one of the greatest things U2 ever did.
 
Never got numb, and never really liked the song in general.....

is it air to expect another tryly gtreay u2 album?

of course it is, these men have been musicians for over 25 years and have worked together for mre then 25 years, none of the other albums have really gone down the drain so why expect this one to?
 
ozeeko said:


I thought you'd be a fan of annoying shit, given your deep love of Vertigo.
Click to expand...

Wow. It's nice to read such a negative post. Makes me feel better about myself.
 
ozeeko said:


I thought you'd be a fan of annoying shit, given your deep love of Vertigo.
Click to expand...

hmmm :hmm:

when did i say i had a "deep love" for Vertigo?

just never listen to it again, it really doesn't have to ruin your life...
 
Rob33 said:

just never listen to it again, it really doesn't have to ruin your life...
Click to expand...

Yes it does. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to bitch about it on an internet message forum. :happy:
 
LemonMelon said:


Yes it does. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to bitch about it on an internet message forum. :happy:
Click to expand...

But something is wrong when a person is so belligerant as to insult you personally over a song he doesn't like.
 
What about returning to discuss the topic – and some peace on earth (especially in this forum), fellow 'U2-fans'?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

dan_smee
I listened to No Line on the Horizon right through tonight for the first time in about 10 years…
2 3
Replies
83
Views
2K
lazarus
lazarus
O
Better late than never “they” say…
Replies
1
Views
291
Headache in a Suitcase
Headache in a Suitcase
K
U2 Show Logistics Question/Theories
Replies
7
Views
753
lazarus
lazarus
H
Setlist Issue
Replies
3
Views
491
lazarus
lazarus
U
Hello, From Dallas, Texas
Replies
3
Views
543
TheFlyZooTV
T

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom