MERGED ----> Q Review of HTDAAB + Q Magazine, what a joke

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Rastat said:
Mmmm... translation of the croatian review, please?

Thank you...
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I'll do it, but it's really late here, so after sleeping a few hours (or more:wink: )!
BTW, it's a short review, not every song is mentioned. Just the last sentence says that he [the reviewe] would give it an 11 out of 10! :wink:
 
first.. you guys are foolish for getting all upset about a 4 star review. Just be glad you aren't R.E.M. fans.
 
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yeah, Around the sun isn't being recieved too well. Alot of people on murmurs.com seem to be taking it better than some people here though, and ATS is getting like 2 and 3 star reviews. :(
 
Basically, a lot of people here are acting in very ridiculous ways. It's this whole need for validation, and if they don't get it they'll just say 'well critics are all wrong no matter what, anways' when it comes down to it nothing really matters at this point. you'll love listening to a new u2 album for the first time. you might be disappointed, i project the majority of us won't. and we won't really be able to say anything conclusive till a year from now. I still find it difficult to judge atyclb on musical merits alone because of all the hype and speculation and argumentation i've been involved in.

edit: but don't get me wrong i understand how exciting it is to have the press acting all excited over the awesomeness of the upcoming album. but you gotta stop taking all the external things so personally, and just take yourself personally instead ;).
 
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The idea of album reviews when an album is released is inherently flawed I say!

They need to start waiting about a year before doing a review, then they'll know how good an album really is.
 
Why do so many seem to lost so much sleep over the 4-star Q review?

U2 peaked musically and artistically with the Joshua Tree and that was waaaaay back in 1987. To still be relevant some 17 years after - and only lose "one star" from the harshest music critics in 17 years is a tribute to the staying power of U2. If they followed the normal trajectory of most musical groups, the should have been toast by now. But they're not.

Besides, I don't expect this album to be a perfect masterpiece in the same vein as the Joshua Tree. It will be a good album for sure, but not a legendary U2 album that U2 will be remembered for long after they're gone.

Cheers,

J
 
Just so you know, I'm a small-time record critic, so I know what I'm talking about I say critics are not infallible, and it's unfair to expect them to be.
 
SkeeK said:
Basically, a lot of people here are acting in very ridiculous ways. It's this whole need for validation, and if they don't get it they'll just say 'well critics are all wrong no matter what, anways' when it comes down to it nothing really matters at this point. you'll love listening to a new u2 album for the first time. you might be disappointed, i project the majority of us won't. and we won't really be able to say anything conclusive till a year from now. I still find it difficult to judge atyclb on musical merits alone because of all the hype and speculation and argumentation i've been involved in.

edit: but don't get me wrong i understand how exciting it is to have the press acting all excited over the awesomeness of the upcoming album. but you gotta stop taking all the external things so personally, and just take yourself personally instead ;).
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Skeek, I agree with your point of people simply looking for validation, as there seems to be a bit of a double standard - ie, if the critic praises the album, then it's a great review because they must somehow "get" U2, where as if it's a bad review, then somehow the critic is out to lunch because they just don't "get" U2....that type of thing....which sorry to say is just ridiculous, I agree.

As for waiting an entire year to know how good an album is, I don't necessarily agree that this has to be the case. There have been some albums I liked after a year, but got bored with a few years later. There are some albums that never truly turned me on to the max, but began to grow on me in a rather limited capacity and ended up having some merit that I grew to become quite attached to. This was ATYCLB for me, but it never really hit me too hard to begin with in any case....and always had a kind of a ceiling, a limitation, to begin with. Zooropa blew me away at first, more so because it wasn't at all what I wanted from U2 yet I loved it anyway for its wild colours...and that ceiling (or growth potential) was much higher and was apparent from the very beginning. Same with Achtung Baby.

Anyway, interesting stuff.... :up:
 
I should also add - just because HTDAAB and ATYCLB are both 4 star albums (according to the same magazine), doesn't mean they're both equally as good or bad. They might be 4 star albums each for totally different reasons. It all comes down to one person's opinion of a record on a particular day or week. Opinions, even our own, change with the tides of our moods and perceptions...and, sadly, often with commercial taste.

I'm guessing we'll all enjoy at least parts of the album, and many of us will enjoy all of it to varying degrees. I personally expect to like the album more than ATYCLB, but not as much as UF, TJT or AB. So it'll be a near classic album if things go according to my expectations. (As a barometer: I believe ATYCLB is about two or three songs from being a "near classic" - 'Stateless' and 'Ground...' would have helped, minus 'Peace on Earth'). So if HTDAAB is a near classic, it is hardly a bad thing.
 
Michael Griffiths said:
I'm guessing we'll all enjoy at least parts of the album, and many of us will enjoy all of it to varying degrees. I personally expect to like the album more than ATYCLB, but not as much as UF, TJT or AB. So it'll be a near classic album if things go according to my expectations. (As a barometer: I believe ATYCLB is about two or three songs from being a "near classic" - 'Stateless' and 'Ground...' would have helped, minus 'Peace on Earth'). So if HTDAAB is a near classic, it is hardly a bad thing.
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I almost see it the same way. Replace Wild Honey with Summer Rain and Peace on Earth with Stateless and All That... would of been top 3 easy.
 
when I first heard Around the Sun I thought it was a bomb but I gave it a chance (partly because I was stuck in a hotel room in california, attending my brother's wedding, yet i was stuck doing homework, and the album was put up on the net for free by the band, so i was listening to it from my laptop) and afterwards i just started to connect with the songs and i like almost the whole album.. it reminds me of how i hated Automatic for the People but it grew
 
OMG!!! Only 4 stars!!! I will sell all my U2 stock!!!

Every single review is just pure entertainment -- someone's opinion, which is no more valid than anyone else's. They just happen to love music and write well and/or were opportunistic and got a nice job writing reviews. That's it. Period.

The only reason we are really reading these reviews so carefully is to somehow try to "hear" the album before we can actually hear it. It's the closest we can get right now. So when someone doesn't say it's perfect, we personalize it as if we just heard it and were a bit disappointed.

4 means nothing.

11 out of 10 means nothing.

2 out of 5 means nothing.

And 5 out of 5 means nothing -- if anything, it means we can imagine that we just "heard" an awesome album. And it would hold us over a bit in anticipation of actually hearing it.

We are all so human, it's sickening :coocoo: :crazy: :laugh:
 
Just want to say that "Around the Sun" is a rather good album, which explains why critics don't like it.
 
Roland of Gilead said:


I almost see it the same way. Replace Wild Honey with Summer Rain and Peace on Earth with Stateless and All That... would of been top 3 easy.
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WOW, that would have been great!! And I wish TGBHF was released on all versions, easily top 3.
 
Flying FuManchu said:
Summer Rain soncially sucked compared to Wild Honey. People might hate the lyrics of Wild Honey (I think its alright) but sonically it was good stuff IMO.
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True. The acoustic guitar and the drums sound great on Wild Honey.
 
MrBrau1 said:


True. The acoustic guitar and the drums sound great on Wild Honey.
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I see your point, it would have been interesting to see "Peace on Earth" replaced for me rather that "Wild Honey." I sometimes listen to WH, POE is a skip over everytime for me, unfortunetly.
 
RademR said:


I see your point, it would have been interesting to see "Peace on Earth" replaced for me rather that "Wild Honey." I sometimes listen to WH, POE is a skip over everytime for me, unfortunetly.
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POE is a nice song. If you listen to the left channel Edge plays some amazing guitar in the chorus.The performance or arrangement is what's lacking on it. And the production sucks. It would be hauntingly beautiful slower and acoustic.. No, wait, voice and PIANO! That would rule.
 
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One phrase: Fuck the critics!!

Anyone here every seen a movie and liked it even though the critics thought it was crap, or a song, or a book, or . . . .

Nothing different here. What is a critic anyway, answer: an opinion with a publisher. So, don't take someones words as religious doctrine. Pop in the tunes and see if you connect with them (and if you don't play then until you do ;) ).

'Nough said.


RobVox
 
Am I the only one who very much enjoys Peace on Earth?

There was nothing wrong with ATYCLB, and in fact, always reminds me of christmas time around the year it came out. Nice memories and a nice flavor to it in fact.

But past the good singles, most of the songs are just good little ditties...not amazing classic U2 songs to tell your grandchildren about. But is that so bad?

But seriously...what was so bad with Peace on Earth?
 
ZigZag said:
Am I the only one who very much enjoys Peace on Earth?

There was nothing wrong with ATYCLB, and in fact, always reminds me of christmas time around the year it came out. Nice memories and a nice flavor to it in fact.

But past the good singles, most of the songs are just good little ditties...not amazing classic U2 songs to tell your grandchildren about. But is that so bad?

But seriously...what was so bad with Peace on Earth?
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The only U2 song I don't really like is Miami, so I am with ya, all good tunes for me.


RobVox
 
ZigZag said:
Am I the only one who very much enjoys Peace on Earth?

There was nothing wrong with ATYCLB, and in fact, always reminds me of christmas time around the year it came out. Nice memories and a nice flavor to it in fact.

But past the good singles, most of the songs are just good little ditties...not amazing classic U2 songs to tell your grandchildren about. But is that so bad?

But seriously...what was so bad with Peace on Earth?
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Nothing's wrong with 'Peace on Earth'. It's a good song....for me to poop on! :ohmy:

haha, sorry, need more sleep. Seriously, it's a song that comes off a little too sentimental. The subject matter almost begs for it, though. Within context, it makes sense. But without context, it doesn't quite work. It needed to get around this, which it didn't quite do. It could have been a classic with a little drunk piano tossed in...but after that terrific intro, it kind of falls a bit flat...at least for me. The first time I heard it, though, it did make me cry. That must count for something.
 
Man, I'm sorry, I don't usually get upset on these boards, but I just don't get the whole 4/5 is crap mentality at all. I'm happy to see U2 who really should have their best work behind them at this stage in their carreer making a 4 star record.

Personally, I've got a feelin' there will be some 3 star reviews to come because it'll sound 'too U2' for some tastes, that they're not pushing the envelope enough for them, if you know what I mean.

Sometimes people round here want far too much from U2. So what, one review, just one, doesn't view it as a 5 star record. Some round here thought this record would automatically get the 5 star treatment because the band say it's so wonderful. Big deal, it's gonna be a great record. Some of us will love it and view it as a classic. Others will think it's weak, it's the nature of the beast. So please, please be happy for a great review. Don't aim so high with stuff on this record becuase all you'll do is end up disappointed.

Moan over.
 
RademR said:
Makes sense, Radiohead and Colplay are both from the UK
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they wouldn't give a band 5 star just if it came from the uk and the band were from the UK...the music press (press in general) in UK is very cynical, success is not something usually praised by them i'm afraid...it is not cool to like u2 so they won't five star it
 
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