MERGED-->Fan Reviews of HTDAAB Here

[RademR]

oh, I see it. It's still getting 4/5 stars, and the 1 stars are simply from people that don't like u2 and probably havent even heard the album. that or they heard it once and hasnt grown on them.

 

[Sleep Over Jack]

Have you read the HTDAAB's reviews on Amazon.com (collector's edition)?? Some people really hates U2...

This site's very own ray of light, "ponkine" posted on there..very pompous review I might add.

 

[yimou]

I think people spend too much time comparing albums with albums. People want the old albums back, but maybe the reason why Jushua tree and Achtung baby made such a big impact, is that they didn´t sound like anything else at that time.

Who can say that - Pride - sounds like anything else released at that time ??? .. There will never be another Jushua Tree or Achtung baby, because they have already done that.

I love Zooropa,, But so many people didn´t. In some ways the fans stop the creativity of the band. . U2 has stopped growing, because it seems we wont allow them too.. Well i would..

About HTDAAB, then i love it.. Its a 2004 U2 album. Not an 1987 album,, Lets remember that,,

My favorites
1.) Achtung baby
3.) Jushua tree / HTDAAB / Zooropa

 

[diamond]

As a fan of nearly 25 years-

The only song I loved on the new album was:

"Crumbs
From
Your
Table"

The rest I liked fair to semi warm.
Maybe it will grow on me before the tour starts.
I hope.

db9

 

[LiveFire]

First of all, and before there is any question about this, I think it is a really good album. It's not as good as the big three of Achtung Baby, Rattle and Hum or Joshua Tree, but it is a solid CD with a lot of good tracks that I have enjoyed the first couple of times through (and, generally speaking, I'm likely to end up enjoying the album more on each successive time listening to it).

However, at the same time, the album has crystalized for me some of the ambiguous feelings I had about All That You Can't Leave Behind. Like that album, Dismantle is so melodic and sweet and... nice. Really nice. And therein lies the problem.

I tend to think ATYCLB was a much better album than HTDAAB and I honestly can't see some people liking HTDAAB and not liking ATYCLB. So your critique of ATYCLB I don't agree with. ATYCLB was the album that thematically fits with AB and Zooropa. It's basically POP without U2 thinking they need to have techno in there.

And ATYCLB has bite to it. There's not anger but there is a tremendous amount of saddness and desperation in a song like Walk On. It's not R&H Silve and Gold but it is certainly there.

HTDAAB just doesn't have that. To me it's like a watered down version of ATYCLB. Hopefully U2 will reverse course and reinvent the wheel with the next album or I can see this being the first album where they simply start the aged rock retreading their greatest hits phase of their career.

There are parts on this album that are great. LAPOE is a great song. It's interesting to listen to because there's a lot of variety in it. It's a blues song with this scary bass and while it's about love it's not exactly the most lovey dovey song. It's a nice set of contradictions.

Take a song like SYCMIOYO. It's a good song because it has parts like "Can you hear me when I sing?" but other than that little part it pretty much is a song that doesn't rock the audio boat. It's a solid foundation but doesn't have much built up on it. After that verse the song quiets back down into what the rest of the song was like. The climax of the song is "You are the reason the opera is in me." and that's wow fuck powerful but then it's followed up with a cliche of "Still gotta let you know a house does not make a home. Don't leave me here alone." Couldn't Bono have thought of something better to go there instead of "a house doesn't make a home."

I probably lack the musical terminology to describe what I am hearing on the album really. It just seems very bland and then has these great parts on it. Taking iTunes and putting the selector in the middle of Crumbs From Your Table, One Step Closer and Original of the Species really doesn't give me anything different from driving guitar, laid back drums, and Bono singing like he's reciting a poem which all builds up into the part where Edge kicks in with the echoing guitar, and Bono does the soaring vocal thing.

There's differences in parts of the song but the vast majority of it is just the same sort of filler rock with little variation. Sonically the songs sound so similar. Even on ATYCLB where the songs aren't very edgy and angry they still have very different sonic charachteristics to them. On HTDAAB the sonic characteristics are just so bland other than LAPOE, Vertigo, COBL and Yahweh. And four out of eleven ain't bad but it's hardly good considering what U2 has previously put out.


Also this is the opening three lines of ABOY:

I was born a child of grace
Nothing else about the place
Everything was ugly but your beautiful face

I can give you the grace and face line but the ONLY reason Nothing else about the place is even in there is because it rhymes with grace and face. It's such a cliched thing to say to start off with and then it doesn't even fit with the lyrics. "I was born a child of grace, nothing else about the place." The place where he was born? That's all he has to say about the place where he was born was that when he was born there he was born a child of grace? But that wasn't the only thing about the place. There he was an ugly child of grace and there was a beautiful face. I mean it fits with the melody and it works alright when you sing it but if you listen to it more than twice you sort of go "Wow that was a pretty lazy throw away line." It reminds me of a b-side lyric where you say "Well that lyric should have been different but since it's only a b-side they didn't put a lot more effort into it since the rest of the song was kind of so-so."

Not just picking on ABOY and saying one little part makes the album not that great but there's just too many times where I'm listening and going "Eh I could take this or leave it."

I got this album sometime Monday I believe and listened to it that week and all this weekend. This Monday came though and I'm just bored with it. When I first listened to it I sort of felt this but then I'd get caught up in it and think it was great for a couple of listen throughs. And the songs aren't bad but it reminds me of that album by whatever band that you buy and it's great in a few parts and you can listen the hell out of it for a week and then after that you realize there isn't much else there.

Well sadly I'm realizing that there isn't much else there. It's just a much weaker version of ATYCLB. I don't see where 4 years of work is on this thing. I love U2 and I'm going to see them in concert more than once time and money permiting but this just doesn't seem like a U2 album. It seems like their first real misfire to me. Hopefully they'll pull a Zooropa and release a very raw different sounding album between legs of the tour. The worst that could happen is they simply release TTWHT in a few years and it's the same recycled songs.

And don't get me wrong I could listen to songs talking about love being the only thing important in this world all day as long as they're fundamentally good songs.

Also 90% of bands out there will never make an album as good as HTDAAB. And I do think Yahweh, and LAPOE are great songs and that SYCMITO and COBL are good simply for SYCMITO's opera part and COBL is just a solid song. Vertigo is a good song but there should be a song at about track 6 that is more of a hard rocker that is even better than it. As it is Vertigo just seems tacked onto the front of this adult contemporary album.

 

[dobro815]

A review of the album : EXCELENT.

What more can you say?

 

[stray dog]

THIS ALBUM SPEAKS TO ME. WHETHER IT'S A CLASSIC OR NOT I DO NOT KNOW, BUT IT HAS GROWN ON ME EVERYTIME I LISTEN

 

[diamond]

"I tend to think ATYCLB was a much better album than HTDAAB"

I agree w Live Fire.

db9

 

[LiveFire]

"I tend to think ATYCLB was a much better album than HTDAAB"

I agree w Live Fire.

There's just not much going on sonically in HTDAAB. It's the same idea just executed so much better with ATYCLB.

And to be honest I just don't see why everyone is saying it's the greatest album U2 has ever made. I simply cannot understand it. I can't see someone coming up with a six paragraph post detailing why the album is the best they've ever done. It's got embarassing lyrics at parts, and the music is very repetitve from track to track. I simply can't see someone writing a point by point critique of the album saying "This part right here along with those parts over there are what makes the album the greatest ever."

 

[dARKSTAr64]

I wrote a pretty comprehensive review a few pages back but I just wanted to add one thing now that I've had a chance to listen to HTDAAB 3-4 times a day everyday since. This recording has now moved past AB into second place all-time behind only JT for me.

This is just a stunning album.

A friend came by the other day and I played him the whole thing, and during each song he's saying, "Man, I'm really feeling this song!" By the time we get to OOTS, he says (1) We have to see them when they come out here in concert, and (2) This is like a greatest hits album. This comes from a person who listens to nothing but Rap, but made me burn him the CD before he left and has told me ever since that he can't stop playing it.

I love rock, and I love U2, but I feel the same way. I can't stop listening to it. This is a complete and utter MONSTER of an album!!!

 

[pmickey]

Come On people!!!

With Bush re-elected, idealistic people concerned about social injustice can't weep empty homilies. Now more than ever what we need is War. Now, more than ever, what we need is an artist willing to say this:

They ain’t gon’ stop us - they can't
We're stronger now, more then ever
They tell us "No", we say "Yeah"
They tell us "Stop", we say "Go"
Rebel with a rebel yell
Raise hell - we gon’ let em know
Stomp, push, shove, mush..
Fuck Bush
Until they bring our troops home

Of course, the artist who sang that also sang this:

Don't put out, i'll put you out, won't get out, i'll push you out
Puss blew out, poppin' shit, wouldn't piss on fire to put you out

- - - - - - - - -

Come on! Listen here bitter defeated Liberal, how you can put the lyric of Eminem above anything that Bono has ever written is so far out of bounds it makes me want to scream. Marshall Mathers does nothing more than rap about wanton sex, murdering his own wife and living a life of belitting women, violence and social upheaval.

One reason I like U2 is because they resemble MY Values. I listen to their music and I feel uplifted, never downtrodden and angry. We do not need War in a time like this...we already have it. And I'm terribly sorry you hate the political climate we are in, but it's about time that a moral minority in America stood up and made a stand. The only thing that is bad about a Bush victory is now I have to listen to actors, musicians and fat-ass film makers whine about it for four more years!

So, as far as U2 and politics go, let's you and I agree to disagree.

The only other message I have to leave you with is two-fold.

1) Loved the album (I wrote a "newbie" review a few pages back) and, in fact, the more I listen to it the more I like it!

2)"Take these hands, teach them what to carry. Take these hands, don't make a fist. Take this mouth, so quick to criticize. Take this mouth, give it a kiss."

 

[ultraviolet7]

U2 has stopped growing, because it seems we wont allow them too.. Well i would..

Well they certainly called experimentation off after Pop (a shame really) - but I frankly don't think they have veered off that line because "we won't allow them to". In fact it would be rather annoying to find out that U2 adapted their artistic choices to what fans are expecting instead of coming up with their own idea of what their new releases should be. As I believe in U2's good faith I'm inclined to think that the albums we got after Pop were the product of their own artistic choice, trying to make a balance in acceptable terms with the sort of pressure they more than probably got from from the company after Pop to make more sellable albums.

 

[ultraviolet7]

the music is very repetitve from track to track.

I beg to differ - this album is in my opinion so eclectic musically that I almost can't call it an album but rather a bunch of songs (some very good - others not so much) thrown into a pack called HTDAAB. This doesn't make the album good or bad in itself but it is difficult for me to see a musical coherence in the whole thing unless I interpret it as a tribute since many of the songs remind of music I have already heard before by other artists.

 

[super fly guy]

Just heard the full album for the first time and i must say that i am impressed, definetly there best album since achtung baby! I cant beleive some of the criticism leveled at it here, there is only one bad song on the album ''one step closer'' apart from that its flawless.

 

[barrett]

I just love this album and would give it a 10/10 on a general music scale and 9/10 on a U2 album scale. It is not the rock and roll record that Bono, Edge and McGuinness had us believe. That aside, this album is so emotional, subtle and appeals really to the heart. The lyrics as always are tremendous. Bono's voice is soft and spiritual. I think it really flows well. If you stack it up to other albums, I think it lacks the anthemic songs of other albums (War, JT, AB, ATYCLB all have at least 2 songs that I can argue belong in the top 100 of all time, none for this album). Time will tell, but I have a feeling that five years from now U2 fans will have this album in their top 5 and critics and the general public will have forgotten this album.

 

[whasjoewahn]

"I tend to think ATYCLB was a much better album than HTDAAB"

I agree w Live Fire.

db9

Hmmm... Please listen again to Grace, New York, Peace on Earth and Wild Honey... Of course everyone has their own music taste, but these songs are actually really really weak. And a song like Elevation is also not U2 at their top! Nobody mentions this song, because the live-version made the song.
To be honest, I only count 3 good songs (B-DAY, Walk On and Kite) and 3 songs with (as proven) live-potential (Stuck, Elevation an In a little While) on ATYCLB...

And then I listen to Vertigo, Miracle Drug, OOTS, SYCMIOYO, COBL and even a song like One Step Closer (which most of you think it´s the weakest), and I know this is much better and much more promising than 4 years ago...

 

[atikicat]

Well they certainly called experimentation off after Pop (a shame really) - but I frankly don't think they have veered off that line because "we won't allow them to". In fact it would be rather annoying to find out that U2 adapted their artistic choices to what fans are expecting instead of coming up with their own idea of what their new releases should be.

This seems to be the tone of the recent Time magazine article. Supposedly they had the album ready a year ago, but Adam and Larry didn't think it was commercial enough...so they brought in Lillywhite to help create 3-4 hits...including Vertigo, that started out as a song about gun control. If this is true...it makes you wonder what the first version of the album sounded like. It's a valid question though...is artistic integrity compromised by U2's quest to remain at the top of the charts...the biggest band in the world? It's a fine line to walk... I think they've done a better job than any other band.

 

[RademR]

People are mad its not a hard guitar record, people are mad they are doing i-tunes commerical, people are mad its not experimental enough, people are mad it has too many choruses. Who cares? It's fuckin great music and its u2, it's the best album I've heard all year. Their the only band that hits me emotionally, from my heartbreaks to my hangovers.

 

[jay canseco]

I enjoy strong opinions pro or con about the new album, but people should show a little respect toward other listeners opinions and stop announcing opinions as fact. Some people have way too much confidence, baby.

 

[stray dog]

* * * * *

 

[stagman]

The Album is just awesome....

Vertigo - Damn that guitar is soooo sick!! Love it. The lyrics are very vool...takes some people a while to understand what it's about though. No.1 everywhere...should hang around top 40 for awhile especially since it has a way cool video(first time for a u2 video in quit a while).

Miracle Drug - A slow one with strange lyrics....took me a while to be a fan of this song apart from the Edge's effort later on in the song. However now that I've heard the live rendition that was broadcast on Radio 1...now I understand what the song is really about. Now I believe it is an amazing song.... could be a single, but aside from that a great U2 effort.

Sometimes You can't Make it.. - Beautiful song.. the band does a great job all the way through. Bono's singing is great and so are his lyrics...The Edge does a great job both in the heavier and lighter guitar sections....The slide Guitar is awesome. Could be a single....another great U2 song...better that Stuck or Walk On.

Love An Peace Or Else - Very Cool beginning....certainly has some kick ass guitar once the song gets going... probably an early favorite for most, but after numerous listens the other songs catchup. Who cares if the lyric of 'we need love n peace' is'nt liked by some reviewer's out there... The Edge has found a new Guitar Riff and Solo to blow our minds with!! Wow can you imagine how this will go live...hopefully he will extend the solo tenfold during the tour. However i hope this song does'nt become another Acrobat and never get played live.

City Of Blinding Lights - They obviously put a lot of time into this one...and it's paid off too. Very creative sound if if some of it has been borrowed from Streets. A very typical u2 creation...which will turn out to be very popular with almost everyone. Great radio tune with beautiful lyrics. Will be played live to great effect.
Could be a single. oh and Edge does some great work here too, he makes plenty of different sounds here, can't wait to see this one live. From around the 3min 55 mark the song really kicks into 5th then 6th gear !!

All Because of You - Rippin guitar..totally awesome. Larry does some great work here too. Sounds as refreshing as the Fly used too(still does). Similar guitar riffs to Vertigo but this time Edge does some great solo stuff. Multi-layered guitar all around makes for something totally crankable. No shame in going deaf to this one. Should be awesome live...however it seems that The top end guitar might turn out like Gone and be pre-recorded...with edge only playing the heavier riff.... This would be very dissapointing....I hope Bono can learn how to play guitar properly in the next few months. Gotta be a Single.

 

[stagman]

A Man and A Woman - A beautiful song once again...Adam does some great work here... Edge adds a nice touch throughout. Seems strange for U2 to do love songs like this, but it's wonderful effort... should become very popular on many radio stations. Possible singe, and will be a nice one played live so long as it's not all acoustic. Much better than Wild Honey or In A Little While.

Crumbs From Your Table - A very 'Edgy' song. All round a very good piece of work by all..... What's with the 'Cool down mamma' lyric?? The song really kicks on well in parts.... probably the most easily identifiable U2 song on the Album.... Should be a good one live. The Edge is great here.

One Step Closer - I have to be in a different mood to enjoy this one.... Bono sang this very well. The lyrics are quite wonderful and Larry does some great work.

Original Of The Species - A brilliant work of art. A lot of time and effort went into this and it tells. An emotion filled song with great feeling. The Edge is great whenever he kicks in. Bono Sings fantasticly well and should be a great live piece....similar to One.
However Bono will have problems singing this as he will straining at his limit.... not that that's a bad thing. I've listened to this song more than any of the others so far and I'm sure it will be big on the radio. Should be a single... just a great work of art by all concerned.

Yaweh - A great closing song...Only Love Is Blindness does a better job at closing an album..... This is a great contrast to Vertigo... where it's about being tempted away from what you believe... Yahweh kinda confirms that you've come back what you set out to achieve/believe. Submitting to what ever it is that you believe in, and letting that belief take more control over your will.


Fast Cars - Wow, Spanish dancing Indian style....love it. The lyrics are so creative and cool. This is soooo different to anything that is out there....hope it gets some airtime on the radio.

 

[tommywaddle]

The album is the best since Achtung babey. Miracle drug is my favorite song on the album. 2nd best song is City of Blinding Nights. Which song is "Full metal Jacket"? Bono said this would be the mother of rock n roll songs.

 

[RademR]

The album is the best since Achtung babey. Miracle drug is my favorite song on the album. 2nd best song is City of Blinding Nights. Which song is "Full metal Jacket"? Bono said this would be the mother of rock n roll songs.

full metal jacket was a rough early version which we just found out (i believe adam said in a recent interview) had very political lyrics, which explains the song title. It then got changed over the Native son, and the final product was Vertigo when Lillywhite came onboard.

 

[mr mc sarcasm]

WOW...WOW...WOW!!!!

That's my short opinion about the album....this is my long one:

Vertigo:
Pure rock, sounds great...and has something uplifting...
Guitar is great but simple...

Miracle drug:
Has to grow on you...but for me it's still getting better and better.
I love the slow soft part in the middle...great song

Sometimes you can't make it on your own:
Right now, probably my favorite...the lyrics are very personal and the song just gets better and better till the last second....I love the high voices singing: It's you when I look in the mirror

Love and peace or else:
Don't know yet....it's a strange song, with a metal guitar sound, but I haven't gotten used to it yet

City of blinding lights:
The second new year's day with more power than the original.
Amazing song....everything just comes together and it FITS!!!
Really like the guitar on this one

All because of you:
Rock & Roll in its purest form.....cool song, the acoustic guitar sounds like it's gonna be broke at the end of the song...

A Man and a woman:
ok, this is my least favorite song, it just hasn't got much...no spectaculair riffs...
sorry

Crumbs from your table:
Good song, with good lyrics...but, it just isn't it!!!...you know...

one step closer to knowing:
brrrrrrrrrr.......makes me wanna cry...WOW!!!
What a song, the drums are great and very much like "Exit"
But just the way the background sounds when bono sings One step closer to knowing.....it's amazing.....I'm in love with this one

Original of the species:
Great intro....and the lyrics are great to...
(haven't heard it that often yet)

Yahweh:
Good ending of a AMAZING album, put's some joy into your heart....makes you think of things...
it's a real U2 song, with good guitars and Bono being Bono

bonus: fast cars:
Makes me laugh...a weird song with the arabic sound...but I love it.

 

[mr mc sarcasm]

and even a song like One Step Closer (which most of you think it´s the weakest),

WHAT????
This is like the best song on the album (almost)....Have you listened to it with your amp set at MAX??
It's just such an amazing song, the atmosphere is so characteristic for U2..and the song is so emotional...
WOW, please reconsider your opinions...

 

[zoo tv mcg]

I brought the album yesterday and listened intently. A few scattered thoughts :

- The Chris Thomas influence does come thru on several tracks -very Beatles like for SYCMIOYO & OTS (though he does not get a credit for it)

- Every song has a wonderful melody that gets into your brain - even the last track

- I believe it is their most consistent album since AB and should age well - the issue I have with ATYCLB is that it has some great tracks, but the last 5 songs are quite heavy to get through. Put it this way - more neutral listensers will warm to HTDAAB

- The great thing about the new album is that it appeals to many tastes - rock, ballads, mid temp numbers etc... Sonically, it is a masterpiece and Bono's voice is excellent, but lyrically it does not match up to the dark complexity of AB, nor does it have the "mood" that permeates through JT. HTDAAB is their most complete & finished work and is it shows in the production - it should be though as they had 4 years.

- My fav tracks are SYCMIOYO, OOTS, MD, ABOY - these are immediatley accessible. The other tracks are real grows - COBL is going to take a new form live just like streets did. SYCMIOYO is wonderful track - I almost cried listening to it last night. It is up there in my humble opinion to One. Stuck was a very song, but was a little sterile - the emotion comes thru on this track.

- I was thinking that the album needed one more rocker at track 8 or 9 ala Vertigo, LPOE & ABOY, but now maybe not so sure. This is the band in the early 40's putting out a well crafted and contemporary album that both U2 fans and other listeners could play to their hearts content.

- My view on singles - SYCMIOYO has been pretty much confirmed as single number 2, I would add MD, ABOY and OOTS. The melody and vocal on OOTS is pure beauty and MD has the the nobleness of JT. ABOY harkens back to my love of The Who and I would be a great number to hear on the radio.

 

[WinnieThePoo]

it seems that u2 concentrate on the past , album where every song is a single , u2 now truly belong to FM format , congrats to all.

 

[WinnieThePoo]

i'll give it a try

maybe , let's try the headphones

 

[Mark Freedman]

And to be honest I just don't see why everyone is saying it's the greatest album U2 has ever made. I simply cannot understand it. I can't see someone coming up with a six paragraph post detailing why the album is the best they've ever done. It's got embarassing lyrics at parts, and the music is very repetitve from track to track. I simply can't see someone writing a point by point critique of the album saying "This part right here along with those parts over there are what makes the album the greatest ever."

And to be honest, I just don't see why you're saying it's not the greatest album U2 has ever made. I simply cannot understand it. I can't see someone coming up with a one paragraph post detailing why the album is not the best music they've ever done. It's got few embarrassing lyrics at parts, not unlike every album they've ever done, and the music is anything but repetitive from track to track. I simply cannot see someone writing a virtually zero point critique of the album, even saying "This part right here along with those parts over there are what doesn't make the album the greatest ever."



Only subjective opinions LiveFire. It is not for you, me, or anyone else to understand. It is all personal, and no one is right, and no one is wrong. Period.