Reasons for HTDAAB being a masterpiece!

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boosterjuice

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To me, this album is right up there with AB and JT. Let's examine some reasons why.

Here is my case for HTDAAB being a masterpiece.


Let's take a look at the songs in a few of their albums and rate organize the songs into three catagories; strong, medium, and weak songs.

Let's Start with HTDAAB:

STRONG:
Vertigo
MD
SYCMIOYO
COBL
ABOY
OOTS

Medium:
LAPOE
AMAAW
CRUMBS
YAHWEH

Weak:
One Step


Compare that with ATYCLB:

Strong:
BD
Kite

Medium:
Walk on
Elevation
When I look at the world
New York
In a little while

Weak:
Stuck in a moment (personal taste here)
Wild honey
Grace


Now let's look at one of the official masterpieces: JT

Strong:
Streets
Still haven't found
With or without
Bullet the blue sky
In God's country


Medium:
One tree hill
Exit
Running to stand still

Weak:
Mothers of the dissap
Trip thru your wires


Do you see what I'm getting at here?
The ratio of quality songs is very good. Comparable to JT. Some may argue but this is personal viewpoint.

What case do you have for HTDAAB being a masterpiece?
 
What case do you have for HTDAAB being a masterpiece?

The return of The Edge. :yes: And the fact that I love most of the songs on this album, and strongly like the rest! There's not one that I feel the need to skip over.
 
those are all just your opinions.

to me, every song on HTDAAB is strong.

I've been waiting since 1991 for them to make this album.

3rd masterpiece for sure.
 
well, i didn't hear HTDAAB, so I'll only say that One tree hill, Exit and Running to stand still are no way medium songs on JT!

P.S. You forgot POE in ATYCLB...
 
JOFO said:
those are all just your opinions.

to me, every song on HTDAAB is strong.

I've been waiting since 1991 for them to make this album.

3rd masterpiece for sure.


i agree on all counts, but ive only been waiting since 01 since im only 17
 
yes. this is the third masterpiece. Nothing touches the Joshua Tree, but this album holds hands with AB. excellent album. no skip-overs, no fillers, no matter what anyone says. it's just beautiful. they don't even have to make another album, they could rest in peace with this!







i still hope they make one more, though :wink:
 
Flying FuManchu said:
I dunno... I think the return of the Edge thing is a little overrated... LOL.

What are you talking about? He's amazing on this album! Compare his work on this to albums like ATYCLB and Zooropa. There is no comparison!
 
Well, I wouldn't put things so black-and-white...
But I like it better than Joshua Tree.
I never found Where The Streets Have No Name THAT good, to me City Of Blinding Lights (which is some sort of relation) is better. All in all, I couldn't be much happier. I love all songs except for Yahweh and One Step Closer.
 
i agree that all songs on JT are great.
there are songs on AB you'd like to skip over, wild horses? arms around the world? but its still a great album, so is it great or not does not depend on are there songs you skip(but how many you skip).
its funny to compare atomic bomb to zooropa, which edge is absent, so he was credited as producer.
hey, no one mentioned how good or bad bono is on this album, as strong as JT? or as weak as ATYCLB? any crack?
i haven't listened to the album, so i have many questions.
 
discothequeLP said:
yes. this is the third masterpiece. Nothing touches the Joshua Tree, but this album holds hands with AB. excellent album. no skip-overs, no fillers, no matter what anyone says. it's just beautiful. they don't even have to make another album, they could rest in peace with this!







i still hope they make one more, though :wink:

exactly. I remember Bono said something around the time of atyclb like "I don't want this to be our last album, be it feels like if it was, that's ok." well, I feel that way about this one.

man, I was listening to COBL on the way to work today, and started thinking about the theme of the song and it's inspiration, and actually started to cry....no band on this planet has the ability to do that to me except this one. no one.
 
JOFO said:


man, I was listening to COBL on the way to work today, and started thinking about the theme of the song and it's inspiration, and actually started to cry....no band on this planet has the ability to do that to me except this one. no one.

I was listening to COBL as I was reading this and a lump came to my throat. I love this song, this album.
 
I'll admit it....I bawled like a baby to COBL. There I said it.

I love this album. I really do. I love being right about my predictions...and I hit this one on the head! It's a further exploration of AB in the spiritual sense. :up:

Can't say much else right now, I'm overklempt at the moment.
 
starsgoblue said:
I'll admit it....I bawled like a baby to COBL. There I said it.

I love this album. I really do. I love being right about my predictions...and I hit this one on the head! It's a further exploration of AB in the spiritual sense. :up:

Can't say much else right now, I'm overklempt at the moment.

I cried too. Miracle Drug - because hearing new U2 as great as that was very emotional - and Original of The Species - so emotional.
 
My favourite of the whole album. Dare I say it?
OK, I will. I like it better than With Or Without You.
Might be because it's new, but when he goes "sugar come on, show your soul" I can't contain myself.
 
I'm worried about the prematurity of posting this, seeing we haven't had this album long, but I'm going to anyway.

I believe UF and JT are U2's two masterpieces. I guess I count AB too, but as most of you know, I particularly love eighties U2. Now I feel JT is a masterpiece to me because besides Trip Through Your Wires, every song is absolutely outstanding, and TTYW is very good in its position on the album (by itself I don't really like it, but in its context either studio or live, I really enjoy it). UF, on the other hand, may have some individual songs that aren't stand-outs, but to me, it's a masterpiece because in a thematic and atmospheric sense, it flows together perfectly and culminates as what really is a musical journey.

Hut Dab has BOTH of those elements and more. It has no weak songs AT ALL. Thus it is a masterpiece of the level of JT. Furthermore, kneeling is continually mentioned, leading me to believe there is a very strong theme tying this album together. Thus, without even doing any analysis, I think it's on the level of UF and AB.

This album is definitely a masterpiece. Time will tell if it stays in my top three with UF and JT.
 
Since were all confessing to the fact that we cried, I'll admit it too. I cried for Miracle Drug. When the first chorus came on, it was everything that I hoped for. The tears flowed. I'm not an overly emotional man, the song was just really moving to me.
 
Ok I wrote this about people questioning if this album has a central plot and structure as Achtung Baby did. This is my response and my feelings on why this album is as good as it is:


In all honesty, I still see the same central character that was present in Achtung Baby. He is still here and he's still fumbling around and trying to answer the questions of life and love that nag at him when he lies awake in bed at night staring at the ceiling cracks. Only this time he's looking inwardly for the answers rather than the glitter and glitz the world holds open in an empty promise. He's turning to himself and the asking about the nature of his own humanity and it's presence in the grand scheme of the eternal.

:heart:


I've only listened once but this is going to germinate into something much more profound now that it's swirling around in my head.
 
I love this album alot more than Joshua Tree.

Achtung Baby, ATYCLB and HTDAAB are interchangeable as my three favorite U2 albums.
 
The thing I like most about this album is that it doesn't seem to seem as immediate as ATYCLB. You kind of have to listen to the tunes, not just hear them. I think I knew what songs were my favorites on ATYCLB in a couple days. This won't be the case now. For the most part, these songs are "growers". This sounds more like U2 being U2, not U2 "biting the arse of the pop charts". There's no mission statement, just meaningful, emotional music. That is what we got with Achtung Baby. Maybe not as dark as that album, but definitely in the same league.
 
boosterjuice said:
Since were all confessing to the fact that we cried, I'll admit it too. I cried for Miracle Drug. When the first chorus came on, it was everything that I hoped for. The tears flowed. I'm not an overly emotional man, the song was just really moving to me.

No need for the caveat boosterjuice. :hug: The fact that you did have an emotional response to something as beautiful as that song gives me an immense amount of respect for you.
 
GibsonGirl said:


The return of The Edge. :yes: And the fact that I love most of the songs on this album, and strongly like the rest! There's not one that I feel the need to skip over.


Exactly! The entire U2 catalog is good. Most of it is great. But the reason why JT is the greatest album of all time is Edge. And HE'S BACK!

-Mike
 
Nate Dogg said:
The thing I like most about this album is that it doesn't seem to seem as immediate as ATYCLB. You kind of have to listen to the tunes, not just hear them. I think I knew what songs were my favorites on ATYCLB in a couple days. This won't be the case now. For the most part, these songs are "growers". This sounds more like U2 being U2, not U2 "biting the arse of the pop charts". There's no mission statement, just meaningful, emotional music. That is what we got with Achtung Baby. Maybe not as dark as that album, but definitely in the same league.


I agree about the grower part.

Except, I think that this album IS dark...just not as overtly dark as AB is and there is a mission statement.

For example, Crumb From Your Table....I was stricken with such a sense of conviction/self-incrimination at hearing the lyric about where you are born shouldn't determine whether or not you live or die. I am so lucky to have been born where I am and live in comfort, and yet the fact I was born where I am HAS NOTHING to do with me, I couldn't control that fact. And there are so many who could benefit from some compassion and love and so many people see that as being needy and a burden---I'm not doing enough and I need to be the change I wish to see in the world.

There is a lot of darkness in this album....death, despair, disease. But there is a ray of light and hope in the core of it all. The more I listen the more I can see the contrast between the two.
 
I was too stunned to cry while listening to this album the first time... until the last track Yahweh . More specifically, when Bono wails before "Take this city..". I cracked right about then, and shed a few tears. Pardon me for saying this, but I sort of felt purified as if God was in the room. This might end up being the greatest album closer ever.
 
I love this album. I feel like a giddy little kid. And I'm a 43 year-old man.

U2 is U2. They have never left the building.
 
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