Rate the Song: One Step Closer

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digitize

ONE love, blood, life
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Now let's move onto the second round of voting for Hutdab.

Please rate One Step Closer on a scale from 0 to 10, using whatever criteria you feel allows you to best evaluate the song as a whole. I will not set criteria for people to based on, but if you feel like your best evaluation of the merits of a song comes from voting only based on, say, the studio version, go right ahead and vote that way. Full information on the Rate The Song series may be found in this thread.

Have fun! This poll will close in 96 hours.
 
For me, this one's a yawner. Nothing offensive about it, but it cries out for B-side status. Probably just thrown in as a respite from all the noise.
 
Very nice song, love the guitar strumming and drumming towards the end, but easily not a favorite of mine. 5.
 
Always liked this one. If you're talking about easy listening songs from the band and ones that aren't straight out rock n roll, this is how they should do it. The ambience, lyrics, everything. 8.
 
I don't think I have ever listened to this one all the way through. Boring. 5.
 
Probably in my bottom two most liked tracks off the album. that sed, its kinda easy to play on my bass....so it earns a few bonus points for that :)
 
Bono once said of HTDAAB, "there are no weak songs. But as an album, the whole isn't greater than the sum of its parts, and it fucking annoys me."

I tend to agree with this assessment. I'd modify it to say there are really not any bad songs on the album, it's just that most of them aren't particularly good, and with a couple exceptions (e.g. COBL is one), none of these tracks really soars. Even the songs I've rated poorly, its not that they're offensive, it's just that they're completely unremarkable. They are just sort of there.

This record is the very definition of mediocrity....not particularly good, not particularly bad. They didn't take any risks, or really push the envelope at all, and what they ended up with was a collection of safe, but ultimately boring and forgettable songs. It's hard to fault the record in some ways...Vertigo in particular won over a whole new generation of U2 fans...but it's hardly among their best in artistic acheivement.
 
I love the simplicity of this song and it's lyrics. After nearly hitting the wall with the more intense songs of the album, this atmospheric song gives you the chance to clear your head. 8.
 
Gives your ears a breather from the constant cacophony of this album, but is a textbook example of how NOT to do ambience. A weak melody and words Bono pulled out of his ass, coupled with a drowning synth backdrop and Edge plucking away at his guitar like he's pulling feathers from a chicken for supper. Hard to believe this was the same band that made ambience look easy with OS1. 3
 
Fail to see how this doesn't also apply to ATYCLB, which you think is a masterpiece.

You can have an album that pushes the envelope that nonetheless fails, and you can have a "safe" album that succeeds. While I agree that ATCLB was fairly safe and conservative for U2, the difference is that the many songs there were powerful, interesting, memorable, and most of all quintessentially U2. The band did what they needed to do after Pop...go back to their own sound and reconnect w/their fan base, and back to what they do best. They needed to sound like U2 again. And this isn't my opinion...this is reflected in the many comments they've made post-Pop.

Once they did that, however, rather than choose to spend some of that popularity they won back and create something different, they chose to stay on cruise control and attempt more of the same. From a commercial standpoint, it certainly worked. From a creative standpoint, I think the songs were for the most part boring and uninteresting. And of course, that's just my opinion, I know a lot of people love this record.

Each U2 album in one way or another is a reaction to the one before that. U2 finally did decide to stretch their wings a bit with the brilliant (but uneven) follow up to Bomb. I think the realised they were stagnating. But that doesn't change the fact that ATYCLB was a "safe" record that worked, and Bomb was a "safe" record that didn't. At least from a creative standpoint.

I'm sorry you "fail to see" the distinction, but to me ATYCLB and HTDAAB are very different records.
 
It's certainly different, interesting, nice lyrics, the image of the tail lights of the car in front growing faint, the drums rolling, but unfortunately it's still kind of forgettable.
7
 
This is actually my second favourite on the album now, after City of Blinding Lights. I hated it at first, but I think it's really gorgeous. Threatens to break open but it never does.

Just such a crying shame that the title was inspired by a Gallagher. 8

Since I can only think of that Linkin Park song when I see this title, I'm inclined to give it a 0.

:lmao: That was the first single I ever bought. Loved that song.
 
A lot of beauty and atmosphere on this song for me, i like it a lot-but it lacks what it could have been somehow 7.5
 
Terribly underrated. Great atmosphere, love both the lyrics and the relaxed vocal performance. Edge's guitar work isn't much to cheer about, but otherwise it works really well. Best song on HTDAAB (although that doesn't say all that much, really). 8.
 
i think this one is quite subtle and underrated... i like it a lot...
 
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