Rate the Song: Electrical Storm

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Heavy as a truck

  • Total voters
    65
  • Poll closed .
I voted 9 before I knew that 8 and 10 were going to be the popular choices... :sigh:
 
.... hive, you say?

beads.gif
 
Nick66 said:
It's a good point...I'm just merely making an observation that certain songs...this one, Acrobat, and a few others, for whatever reason are held in much higher esteem than the "outside" world does. I'm not calling out the specific opinion of anyone...never have. Nor have I ever said someone had bad taste for liking X song, etc. Though MANY others have here. You only need look look through the threads to find them...variations of "you are all idiots" "you all suck", "you all are stupid", etc. Most from very long time posters...who I guess have immunity.

But perhaps "hive mentality" was not the best way to express what I was trying to say. I apologise if you were insulted by it. But really, don't take it personally, it's not meant as such.
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First, I totally agree that the sort of rude "you are all stupid" attacks that some long-time posters here participate in are uncalled for, and I do not at all mean to give them immunity. I apologize for giving that impression if I did.

Second of all, I don't want to sound to mean to you, because I happen to like you. However, I really just would like you to understand how a sort of persistent attack on the "hive mind of Interference" can peeve people (sometimes myself included). It is obvious that Interference tends to hold some songs in higher regard than the rest of the world, and Acrobat and Electrical Storm are indeed prime examples. Sometimes, I agree with this (I love Electrical Storm), sometimes I don't (I like Acrobat, but don't find it tremendously special, especially within Achtung Baby), and I think this is the case for pretty much everyone here. Part of the reason why some less-known songs tend to perform well on Interference polls is just because everyone is so well informed about U2 songs, and they do not tend to try to put the greatest hits on a higher plane than everything else just because they are the greatest hits. Probably the greatest casualty of this is poor One, whose zeros I will never understand. But heavy exposure to U2's whole catalog doesn't really explain it all. I fully agree with you that discussion on Interference probably has some connection to peoples' opinions of songs. And in this sense, I suppose there is a bit of a "hive mind". I think the problem comes from any statements that sound dismissive towards songs, and that imply that those songs are only rated highly because of the "hive mind". I think Zooropa is a good example of a song that was probably impacted by the "hive mind" dynamic. It is currently in second place in this contest, which is (I'm almost certain) a fairly drastic leap up over last time this was run. I have no doubt whatsoever that Interference hype surrounding its return on the 360 Tour impacted this. However, it's not like it's J.Swallo or something; Zooropa was always loved on this site. It just happens that the tour gave it a bit of a boost, so it would be inaccurate to dismiss Interference's love for Zooropa as just a component of its "hive mind", but probably accurate to state that Interference hype has driven up passions for the song a bit, along with the natural effect of the tour itself. A lot of people really love songs that you seem say are loved because of this "hive mind". Even if Interference hype does have an impact on songs, though, I don't think it generally causes people to like or love songs, even if it has some impact on the degree. And I think this is an important distinction. A lot of people feel upset when they hear that their opinions exist because of a "hive mind" dynamic, because other people have those opinions and the opinions spread, not because they happen to really love a song and feel a potentially strong connection to it. Hype may enhance this; I doubt anyone on this site would (seriously) deny that. But I really don't think that it is the determining factor, and I think it's somewhat natural for people to be upset by a suggestion of that. However, dismissing that Interference hype has some influence on the popularity of songs, especially in the form of temporary waxes and wanes, is probably a bit ridiculous too.

Sorry if this contradicts the tone of earlier messages... I just had to think about it a bit.
 
At the end of the day, it's good to remember that the world doesn't give a flying f*** about whether Interference people like certain songs or not (nor does U2, obviously).
 
digitize said:
First, I totally agree that the sort of rude "you are all stupid" attacks that some long-time posters here participate in are uncalled for, and I do not at all mean to give them immunity. I apologize for giving that impression if I did.

Second of all, I don't want to sound to mean to you, because I happen to like you. However, I really just would like you to understand how a sort of persistent attack on the "hive mind of Interference" can peeve people (sometimes myself included). It is obvious that Interference tends to hold some songs in higher regard than the rest of the world, and Acrobat and Electrical Storm are indeed prime examples. Sometimes, I agree with this (I love Electrical Storm), sometimes I don't (I like Acrobat, but don't find it tremendously special, especially within Achtung Baby), and I think this is the case for pretty much everyone here. Part of the reason why some less-known songs tend to perform well on Interference polls is just because everyone is so well informed about U2 songs, and they do not tend to try to put the greatest hits on a higher plane than everything else just because they are the greatest hits. Probably the greatest casualty of this is poor One, whose zeros I will never understand. But heavy exposure to U2's whole catalog doesn't really explain it all. I fully agree with you that discussion on Interference probably has some connection to peoples' opinions of songs. And in this sense, I suppose there is a bit of a "hive mind". I think the problem comes from any statements that sound dismissive towards songs, and that imply that those songs are only rated highly because of the "hive mind". I think Zooropa is a good example of a song that was probably impacted by the "hive mind" dynamic. It is currently in second place in this contest, which is (I'm almost certain) a fairly drastic leap up over last time this was run. I have no doubt whatsoever that Interference hype surrounding its return on the 360 Tour impacted this. However, it's not like it's J.Swallo or something; Zooropa was always loved on this site. It just happens that the tour gave it a bit of a boost, so it would be inaccurate to dismiss Interference's love for Zooropa as just a component of its "hive mind", but probably accurate to state that Interference hype has driven up passions for the song a bit, along with the natural effect of the tour itself. A lot of people really love songs that you seem say are loved because of this "hive mind". Even if Interference hype does have an impact on songs, though, I don't think it generally causes people to like or love songs, even if it has some impact on the degree. And I think this is an important distinction. A lot of people feel upset when they hear that their opinions exist because of a "hive mind" dynamic, because other people have those opinions and the opinions spread, not because they happen to really love a song and feel a potentially strong connection to it. Hype may enhance this; I doubt anyone on this site would (seriously) deny that. But I really don't think that it is the determining factor, and I think it's somewhat natural for people to be upset by a suggestion of that. However, dismissing that Interference hype has some influence on the popularity of songs, especially in the form of temporary waxes and wanes, is probably a bit ridiculous too.

Sorry if this contradicts the tone of earlier messages... I just had to think about it a bit.
Click to expand...

Dig, thanks for taking the time to write a thoughtful response, and I don't take issue with most of what you wrote. But more importantly, even if I disagreed with all of it (and I don't), I appreciate you engaging thoughtfully.

Again, it's hard to disagree with what you've written here. I'll just add my observing that there has been a "hive" mentality about some of these songs was never meant to a comment on any individuals opinion on a song. I'm sure everyone has their own reasons for voting a particular song well, or poorly. I certainly do. I also never said people didn't have a "right" to their opinion, or that any one person's opinion was "wrong" or "sucked" or was "stupid", etc. Others have, but not me.

So I was not questioning any individual's taste. Rather, in the aggregate, when I see certain songs that are praised in particular around here, that you don't see singled out for such praise elsewhere, and when comments about those songs can sometimes sound more than um, similar, it does lead me to believe that there is at least some "hive" dynamic going on. For example, I always thought "Acrobat" was just another U2 song (that I always kind of liked), until I came here and learned it was among the greatest rock songs of all time. And I always naively assumed "One" was universally loved among U2 fans, again, until I came here.

Yeah, so this leads me to believe there's some kind of group dynamic going on. So if someone looks at my comment, and thinks "I have my own reasons for voting for a song, he's wrong"…great, then there's no need to see themselves in my comment. Again, this isn't about individual taste...we are talking about poll results here, which by definition is supposed to represent the views of a group, right? You don't see me saying to anyone here they have crap taste in U2 (as has been said to me), do you? If some people choose to take it personally, or make it personal, that's their issue, not mine. For good or bad, I don't take people liking, or not liking, a song that I like or don't like personally...and certainly I'm not celebrating, or mourning, any of these poll results. And certainly don't regard my own preferences being reflected in poll results as some kind of individual victory (again, though others do, see recent comments in the poll results thread).

My personal feeling is that people on here are just so familiar with certain U2 songs that they've essentially become sick and bored with them…and, like in all fan subcultures, there's a certain cache in showing what a "knowledgable" fan you are by extolling the virtues of more obscure work over that favoured by the masses. In fact, this is particularly true of hard core music fans (e.g. Championship Vinyl). The same people will lament why U2 insists on continuing to play Mysterious Ways instead of Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car. Never mind that the overwhelming majority of people who buy tickets to U2 shows don't follow the set list night to night and would feel cheated, and at a minimum, disappointed, if they didn't hear that and certain other songs at a U2 show.

Of course, plenty of people will insist that they are somehow immune to this kind of...use whatever word you wish, elitism, snobbery, etc... but to say that those on Interference, alone, are somehow immune to this, or other group dynamics, is facile. In fact, it would be unusual if some amount of group-think wasn't going on.

But really, this isn't a discussion about social dynamics here. Again, perhaps "hive" (which, incidentally, I've seen on here many, many times) was not the best word to use. I was merely making an observation; I wasn't necessarily placing a value judgement on that observation.

Again, thanks for the thoughtful reply.
 
love this song! William Orbit mix is probably my preferred version but any version of that song is a winner to me :up: sad they ditched it live so early on last tour
 
mikal said:
I know you have a little fling going here, but just a warning, Nick doesn't like people with a lot of posts so don't be surprised if he doesn't call you afterwards.
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The more he posts, the more he turns into one of these people he hates with high post counts. Better be careful, Nick!

Nick66 said:
My personal feeling is that people on here are just so familiar with certain U2 songs that they've essentially become sick and bored with them
Click to expand...

Or maybe it's just that people here are likely to dig deeper than the stereotypical U2 cuts and find that U2's got a shitload of incredible songs in their back catalogue that are just as good or better than the usual suspects. I mean, when I just had the Best Of 1980-1990, I thought those were pretty great tracks ... then I got albums like Boy and discovered U2 had even better songs than most of those well-known tracks on the Best Of. Not boredom; not over-familiarity. And hell, three tracks from said Best Of are still in my top ten - if becoming sick and bored with songs due to familiarity was a problem, I'd hate New Year's Day (a top five song for me to this day) much more than I Still Haven't Found (a song I haven't chosen to put on in years and years and rate as one of JT's weakest).

And I wish Interference had a hive mind. If it did, you better believe Treasure would be one of the most highly rated songs.
 
I long suspected this was one of the most overrated songs in the U2 catalog, and the results here prove it.

I'm guessing that people were so lulled into somnambulance by ATYCLC, that anything with a burst of energy was going to be received fondly. This ain't fucking Vertigo, folks.

I was MEH on this song from the beginning, and am glad that it wasn't held for The Bomb because it's worse than anything on there.

The bridge (El Mel referred to it as the chorus, but I believe that would be that weak-ass part where the title is song in Boner's failing falsetto) is good, but that just isn't enough. The lyrics in the verses...just no.

It only looks great when held up next to the boring sludge that is Hands That Built America.

5
 
No, I like the weak-ass part.

And the bridge.

The only time I ever thought this song outright sucked was when the band attempted it on the first leg of 360. Holy mother of God that was awful. Edge sounded like he was playing to the tablature, every night.
 
LemonMelon said:
No, I like the weak-ass part.

And the bridge.

The only time I ever thought this song outright sucked was when the band attempted it on the first leg of 360. Holy mother of God that was awful. Edge sounded like he was playing to the tablature, every night.
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early performances sucked, but I actually that the last one was alright. And then they never played it again. of course.
 
lazarus said:
I long suspected this was one of the most overrated songs in the U2 catalog, and the results here prove it.

I'm guessing that people were so lulled into somnambulance by ATYCLC, that anything with a burst of energy was going to be received fondly. This ain't fucking Vertigo, folks.
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Or, y'know, they just like it on its own merits.

But don't let me stop you trying to outdo Nick66 at his own game.
 
lazarus said:
ATYCLC
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oh good lord.

and you're right it isn't vertigo, it's better. i'll never understand why anyone feels the need to compare one u2 song to another though, especially when nine times out of ten, they're vastly different. how dare people not rate sixty seconds in kingdom come the same as mofo! honestly.
 
i loved electrical storm at the same time as i realised i thought one wasn't so great. (imo, so no arguments). before i knew the u2 context.

let people be allowed to like or dislike stuff as they so. i haven't been sooky about people hating stuff i like (unless they comment and give the impression their view is the empirical view).

everyone (even people who have a completely different opinion from me) can dislike stuff, but don't tell me i'm wrong to think otherwise. that's what has wound me up with these threads.
 
lemonfly said:
Marked the beginning of their truly bland, unremarkable era which led onto Bomb, and the equally snoozefest one-off single WITS. The lyrics range from being totally cliche ("Dreaming someone else's dream" - oh c'mon Bono, at least make an attempt to seem interested), to clunkers that would make even Chris Martin snigger ("The air is heavy, heavy as a truck"). I am more forgiving of experimental disasters like Miami, but there's no excuse for this lazy dreck. Zero
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I don't know that I'd go so far as lemonfly did here. But there is certainly nothing special about this song to me. Mediocre, at best.

I think lemonfly hit it right on the head with " . . . truly bland, unremarkable."
 
Some pretty bad lyrics, and the howl is absurd, but the Orbit version is pretty good musically. I find the rock version boring.
 
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