The Bomb that could've been + New album

[onyourkneesboy]

IMO, IMO, IMO this would be the ideal tracklist when it comes to the right order and the choice of the songs... IMO by this collection of songs one could really call the album a BOMB! Especially now we know what beauty's of songs (gems) they didn't further work on and/or and deliberately left of the album!!
With the current choice of songs it turns out the album is no more than a light handgranate.. An album with good songs, but NOT a majistic huge U2 album that one can call a BOMB... Reading a lot of some fans comments here I think they will agree.

1. Vertigo
2. Crumbs From Your Table
3. Miracle Drug
4. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
5. Mercy
6. Levitate
7. Smile
8. Love Peace Or Else
9. A Man And A Woman
10. Original Of The Species
11. Yahweh

1,2,3- rocking raw opening (Miracle Drug, o.k. doubtful..)
4- the big (commercial) ballad
5,6- the "heart" of the album with classic U2 drive and passion
7- a beautiful sensitive take-a-breath moment
8- let's get stompin' again!
9,10,11- melodramatic, romantic, passionate, spiritual climax!

Yes, City Of Blinding Lights will become a B-side! But only in a remixed rewritten version! Without the thin (lets-keep-the-lid-on-and-not-burst-out) intro, the slow boring piano-tingle, the whining slide guitar, and WITH a real chorus instead of a stupid yell: "oh, you-look-so-biejoedifohohol-tooena-haaaaait" YES, YES, YES, LIVE it's sound a little better so all you COBL lovers don't have to post this cause I already agree!
Along with "All Because Of You" and "One Step Closer" who will also become B-sides. Miracle Drug was a candidate too but I left it on...

Albums like The Unforgettabele Fire, The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby can be called BOMBS! One can really have a NEED to wanting to here these albums over and over... Like eating drinking, sleeping, sex, after a while you really crave these songs again and you really fullfill a need when you hear the songs again. They keep giving you goosebumps, a big chest, emotion. In a sencere way! Multi-layered, original, but most of all a spontanous U2 feeling. Atomic Bomb in it's current form doesn't have this character.. The songs are really thought-up and some of them are even cliché and/or one-dimensional.. City Of Blinding Lights (U2's worst ever!), All Because Of You.. Or the songs suffer from the lack of subtlety like a "brick in the face" effect in songs like Sometimes You Can't, Original Of The Species.. Some of these lyrics are so excessively emotional and flat out that they tend to get annoying and make you crinche instead of giving you goosebumps... But that's probably because Bono doesn't have the time anymore to be subtile or poetic again, due to all his other activity's... I think he's just not so "in the music" anymore like he once was in the early days (man what a passionate musician, singer, poet he was!) Look at him struggling with the teleprompter in the live performance of "Don't give up" with Alicia Keys! When he's reading one sentence, he has already forgotten the other one! Even on his own songs/lyrics he needs a teleprompter during concerts!

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=PuscBfYnSrA

Bono get your focus a little more on the music again! Don't forget it's the music who put you where you are now and makes you able to do all these good things for the good cause wich we all very much support in itself, I think. One can simply hear and see that being a passionate, original, dedicated musician has become a part-time job nowadays unfortunately... Atomic Bomb is a big example of that! (Next to Larry's bad decision to leave "Mercy" of the album..!)

Hope the new album really blows us out of our socks! Not a so-so album with a big monstrous, pompous, pretencious title like HTDAAB.

 

[U2girl]

Yes, let's leave the best U2 song of the new decade off the album.

And uh, I'm pretty sure he forgot his lyrics before 2004 live. Perhaps you need to listen to the very first live version of When love comes to town on Zoo TV.

Levitate is good but it should be on ATYCLB.

Leaving Mercy was good, it would be completely out of place, musically and lyrically (same with Fast cars, entertaining live but not really belonging on that album. Now there's a B-side, same goes for Smile). I'm expecting it on LP 12. It was odd enough that acoustic AMAAW made it on the otherwise guitar album.

U2 is really no stranger to big pretentious titles. And gotta love posters stuck in a moment.

"Same shit, different decade" - How true...

 

[Pero]

Yes, let's leave the best U2 song of the new decade off the album.

agree. on topic:
why chaniging anything?bomb is ok as it is. mery was left out with a reason. the reason is that is not good enough. period.

as for levitate and smile or whatever, read the first part of my post

 

[Bean Skidds]

I like your revised tracklist, the inclusion of Mercy and Smile is brilliant. Both are excellent and very close to being finished songs imo. I would go one step further and replace Vertigo with Native Son. Native Son isnt as commercial as Vertigo, but I like the flow better, and Edge's vocal part is Sweet, yes with a capital S. I would also dump Miracle Drug, which is imo a clunking stinker of a track, and put COBL in that spot. I like Levitate, I would include it if they put a bit more work into it as it feels a little unfinished. Also I enjoy ABOY much more than LAPOE, so I swapped the two. Heres my tracklist for the new and improved Bomb

1. Native Son
2. Crumbs From Your Table
3. City Of Blinding Lights
4. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
5. Mercy
6. Levitate (refined a little more)
7. Smile
8. All Because Of You
9. A Man And A Woman
10. Original Of The Species
11. Yahweh

Man I might have to burn one of these for myself, Im liking this. I just wish we had a better recording of Mercy

 

[Bean Skidds]

agree. on topic:
why chaniging anything?bomb is ok as it is. mercy was left out with a reason. the reason is that is not good enough. period.

as for levitate and smile or whatever, read the first part of my post

Totally disagree about Mercy and Smile, but everyone is entitled to opinion I guess.

 

[LemonMelon]

agree. on topic:
why chaniging anything?bomb is ok as it is. mery was left out with a reason. the reason is that is not good enough. period.

It didn't really fit. It was a poorly-produced demo. There are many reasons for it being left off besides quality; it certainly beats OOTS.

And Native Son is incredibly overrated.

 

[Bean Skidds]

It didn't really fit. It was a poorly-produced demo. There are many reasons for it being left off besides quality; it certainly beats OOTS.

And Native Son is incredibly overrated.

Overrated to you perhaps. To me its light years better than Vertigo.

 

[Zoots]

See, the thing is Native Son has the better chorus and middle 8. Vertigo has the better verses. That's why I go for Native Son [The Vertigo Mix] on my playlists.

I'm not sure about the list in the original post here. COBL may have a somewhat ordinary chorus but it's still the best song here I think.

 

[LemonMelon]

See, the thing is Native Son has the better chorus and middle 8. Vertigo has the better verses. That's why I go for Native Son [The Vertigo Mix] on my playlists.

I'm not sure about the list in the original post here. COBL may have a somewhat ordinary chorus but it's still the best song here I think.

Agree with you all across the board. Vertigo's verses are very strong, while NS is a bit clunky there. The "pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaase" thing blows Vertigo out of the water though. Choruses are tied; NS has the better lyrics, but I'm more used to Vertigo.

And though I'm a huge Crumbs From Your Table/Man And A Woman fan, COBL is the best song on the album, bar none. There's no excuse to leave that one off. It's vintage U2, and transcendent live.

 

[Reggie Thee Dog]

A couple of things here:

1. Was it 'only' Larry who kept "Mercy" off of Bomb? I thought it was a band decision

2. Native Son is a good song, but Vertigo is tighter and more fun. I enjoy NS, but I rock to Vertigo...

 

[BVS]

 

[onyourkneesboy]

Could we please keep it to my original post?
This thread seems to turn out debating whether Native Son is better than Vertigo, COBL is one of the best songs ever, etc...

And of course I know that Mercy and Levitate are unfinished demo's... And already they sound good, or display enormous potential for being super-U2 songs when fully developed.. Any of these songs could blow this cliché, U2-imitating-U2 COBL right out of the water, easily..!

 

[LemonMelon]

Did you wander in here by accident? PLEBA is four doors down.

 

[dr. zooeuss]

I don't often go for these sorts of threads, but there are some interesting and good ideas here, I got inspired...

Onyourknees- i like the way you broke things down to explain the sections of your tracklisting.

1. Native Son//Vertigo
2. Fast Cars//Xanax & Wine
3. Crumbs From your Table
4. City of Blinding Lights
5. Sometimes YCMIOYO
6. One Step Closer
7. Miracle Drug
8. Lay it down (Love and Peace or Else)
9. All Because of You
10. A Man and a Woman
11. Mercy
12. Somewhere in your Heart (Original of the Species)
13. Yahweh


1-3. Punk Rock from Venus
4. Anthemic echo of Joshua Tree,
updated for the 00s
5-6. Slower heartfelt ballads
7. Regaining speed
8. Punk rock from Venus, Act II
9-10. Mid-to-faster tempo (spiritual//romantic lyrics)
11. Anthemic Punk rock from Venus
12-13. Mid-tempo heartfelt close


title suggestions-

Working Title: "Punk Rock from Venus" (which could've been a great indirectly quoted lyric in "A Man and A Woman" or "Xanax and Wine//Fast Cars")

Final titles:

"How to Defuse and Atomic Heart"
"Atomic Heart"
"How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb"
"Between your Heart and a Bomb"
"Between your Bomb and a Heart"
"Between a Heart and a Bomb"




1. Native Son [Vertigo Mix] (haven't heard it but I'll take your word for it, Zootlesque - i agree the two "songs" have different respective strengths and could be combined for a better finished track.

2. Fast Cars [Xanax & Wine mix] (no such mix exists, that I'm aware of, but I think it'd be great) keep the music, tempo and attitude of X & W, combine the best lyrics of X & W with the best from Fast Cars, and maybe some new lines as well...

3. Crumbs from your table (louder and more raw- sounding more like "Wire" or "Like a song" or "Two Hearts beat as one")

4. City of Blinding Lights - (!!!)

5. Sometimes you can't make it on your own (keep the tempo, but replace the acoustic guitar with some signature Edge coarser electric texture, a la "Love is Blindness" "One" or "Wake up Dead Man")

6. One Step Closer - I have yet to really get into this song, but I've learned to appreciate it through the ears and hearts and eyes of other people here. For me, some REAL sort of drum beat (similar to either version of Yahweh), the bass higher in the mix, and a little more guitar creativity would catapault it to something incredible. Also, Bono could build the vocals to a real climax a la "One" or "With or Without You." Personally I'd love to see something in the vein of "In a Little While" on this album, and maybe "One Step Closer" could've been it.

7. Miracle Drug (again go for a much coarser guitar texture, get rid of the whiny slide bits, that's the worst part of it to me. Bono could re-write some of the lyrics ie: "science and the human heart" is a good concept, but he is capable of penning it in any number of more compelling and enduring ways)

8. Lay it Down (alt title for "Love and Peace or Else") - have Larry and Adam speed the tempo way up to something on par with the Fly, lose the Zeppelinesque sound and the fuzzed out whining at the beginning... Bono is capable of much better lyrical structure and content- this song would be much more powerful if he wrote non-verse lyrics that built at the end (ie: Bad) rather than repeating "Love and Peace" and "Where is the Love" over and over and over again. It's a great foundation, but they could've developed it so much better.

9. All Because of You- pretty good as is, just get Bono to deliver it less like "classic rock" and more like the end of "God Part II"

10. A Man and A Woman - (!!!)

11. Mercy - give it a real intro- i'm thinking faster tempo, heavier bass, louder guitar, something punched-up and less conformed to the rest of the song... so that by the time Bono comes in with the first verse, we're on to a second distinct sound. Bono, move all the "rambling lyrics" to one part at the end for a dramatic bridge (ie Bad, a sort of homecoming, etc) and anything that doesn't fit there musically or lyrically, please cut. Keep the verse-chorus-verse format tighter so that it sounds more punkrock until we get to the bridge, which will sound more progressive and poetic, then back to a punk-rock ending.

12. (Somewhere in your heart (alt title for Original of the Species" - I love this song as it is. However, if they were serious about it succeeding as a single, i think Bono needed not to mix the subject of the lyrics between romance and paternalism, and it needed a more concise title based on a memorable lyric (for the casually listening masses)

13. Yahweh - also love this as it is. And I love the alternate take just as much.
Put the final vocals and guitar over the alternate beat and bass, and I'd say it's the best U2 album closer ever.

 

[gman]

I vote for leaving things as they are. Mercy and Levitate are (IMHO) sub standard songs that never take off. I think people like them because they are "rare"

 

[dr. zooeuss]

I vote for leaving things as they are. Mercy and Levitate are (IMHO) sub standard songs that never take off. I think people like them because they are "rare"

haha, i think your side is going to win.

I agree with you somewhat, though I think Mercy is much better than Levitate.

With more work they both could be album-worthy, but Mercy is much closer to that stage, and I think inherently stronger, wouldn't take that much more work to be a great song.

 

[BVS]

Did you wander in here by accident? PLEBA is four doors down.

I wouldn't have taken you for the PLEBA type...

No, I yawn because onyourkneesboy writes practically the same exact thread every 3 or 4 months since he's joined, in fact he's even been caught using exact lines from previous posts... and how long has this album been out? Give it a rest already...

Plus the whole teleprompter thing had nothing, I repeat ABSOUTELY NOTHING to do with anything.

It's just a big joke.

 

[rihannsu]

Musicians have fought for years and years to be truly considered artists, and in many ways they are now. However, music fans seem to have no respect whatsoever for the artist's vision. U2 put out the album that they wanted to put out. It is their artistic statement. If you don't like it, that is of course your perogative, but to sit here and debate how the album should have been arranged and what songs should have gone on it denies the artist's own creation. I don't think I've ever heard people do this to master painters or novelists. Maybe I'm wrong but for U2 the choice of songs and the order they are in is as much a creative statement as the individual songs themselves. I don't think there is such a thing as right or wrong in art because it is the creation of the person or persons involved. Like or dislike, yes that is pretty valid, because it either gets you or doesn't get you. Every single one of us could post our opinions on what should or should not have been on the album, but none would be any more right or wrong than the choices the band made. They would simply be our remix of someone else's creation. Would you go into a museum and repaint some master painter's work because you thought he should have added this or left that off? Why does music not get the same respect as other art forms? By all means, if you want to say that you would prefer another arrangement go ahead, but don't try to make that some kind of definitive answer for everybody. Personally, I like Bomb just the way it is, and find Native Son and Mercy while great songs in their own right are not better than the songs on the album and wouldn't fit. But I am no more right or wrong than anyone else here. Why can't people accept that Bomb is the bands creation just as it is?

Dana

 

[AtomicBono]

IMO

 

[Mr. V]

aren't they still working on Mercy?

 

[rihannsu]

IMO

Ok, I take your point. I totally missed the IMO's but there are a lot of times on this board that people come in and make definitive statements as if they are the final authority on what's good and what's not. And I still think that redesigning the albums is a sign that music is still not truly considered art in the same way that other mediums are because there seems to be in general an attitude that it's okay to chop up someone else's creative work in any way we see fit. There was an interview where Bono mentioned that the band was talking to Sega about a game where you could take the songs and remix them however you wanted but he was very conflicted about it because on the one hand he knew the fans would like it but on the other hand it was difficult to let just anyone mess with the songs that way. I can imagine that it must be very difficult for a creative person to put their work out there and have it be savaged. Because even if someone else does a good job with a remix there is probably still a bit of hurt there for the original creator. Especially when those revisions are accompanied by hurtful comments about the original. I guess I'm just feeling a strong empathy towards the artist's whose work is being dissected. Of course it might also be because I watched the Music Express interview again last night where Fanning said something about people always telling them how great they are and Bono was talking about how many people give them shit and how even the U2 fansites on the internet are murder on the band.

Dana

 

[coolian2]

Tbh i stopped reading once i saw the suggestion of getting rid of City of Blinding Lights.

It's an amazing song. Call it a Streets ripoff if you will, but go fuck yourself.

 

[coolian2]

Also, i said it before and i'll say it again.

People are clamoring for Native Son because it wasn't released. If they had released Native Son and kept Vertigo quiet you would all be calling Native Son preachy bullshit and be drooling over Vertigo.

It's fact.

 

[BVS]

Also, i said it before and i'll say it again.

People are clamoring for Native Son because it wasn't released. If they had released Native Son and kept Vertigo quiet you would all be calling Native Son preachy bullshit and be drooling over Vertigo.

It's fact.

This made me laugh, because it's so true. I think the problem with Native Son is not everyone knows the story, and it's a very convaluted story to begin with...

And a lot of conservatives apparently got their feathers ruffled over this song, don't ask me why... So of course some people called this move 'pandering'.

But at the end of the day, NS had a better bridge but that's it... and if it were the other way around people would still be bitching.

 

[pepokiss]

IMHO

 

[dr. zooeuss]

Musicians have fought for years and years to be truly considered artists, and in many ways they are now. However, music fans seem to have no respect whatsoever for the artist's vision. U2 put out the album that they wanted to put out. It is their artistic statement. If you don't like it, that is of course your perogative, but to sit here and debate how the album should have been arranged and what songs should have gone on it denies the artist's own creation. I don't think I've ever heard people do this to master painters or novelists. Maybe I'm wrong but for U2 the choice of songs and the order they are in is as much a creative statement as the individual songs themselves. I don't think there is such a thing as right or wrong in art because it is the creation of the person or persons involved. Like or dislike, yes that is pretty valid, because it either gets you or doesn't get you. Every single one of us could post our opinions on what should or should not have been on the album, but none would be any more right or wrong than the choices the band made. They would simply be our remix of someone else's creation. Would you go into a museum and repaint some master painter's work because you thought he should have added this or left that off? Why does music not get the same respect as other art forms? By all means, if you want to say that you would prefer another arrangement go ahead, but don't try to make that some kind of definitive answer for everybody. Personally, I like Bomb just the way it is, and find Native Son and Mercy while great songs in their own right are not better than the songs on the album and wouldn't fit. But I am no more right or wrong than anyone else here. Why can't people accept that Bomb is the bands creation just as it is?

Dana

Hey Dana,

You make some good points. I meant to have "IMO" in my post- think it had it as I wrote, but it was even wordier originally, and i inadvertantly cut it out with some other extra verbiage.

Glad to see you sticking up for the band- i often wish there were more of that here.

speaking personally... i'm not trying to slight the band at all. it's all said in the spirit of "in my opinion"- i doubt many would take it more seriously than that anyway.

if we're not going to discuss things like that here, what do you suggest we discuss instead?

i try to make balanced posts. it does bug me a bit if Bono thinks the boards are "murder on the band." I don't keep up with those remarks so much, and i think of him as having pretty tough skin, but i don't want to contribute to that. on the flip side though, if they do read the boards once in awhile, isn't it because they're interested in our opinions?

i am a visual artist, and i can say that accepting some criticism goes along with any art form. i think i understand the point you're making, but i don't think that music gets it necessarily "worse" than other art forms. there is definitely criticism and mudslinging in other creative arenas.

people like picasso, o'keeffe, michelangelo, etc do have their work appropriated and re-designed for other people's purposes all of the time.. greeting cards, advertisements, museum brouchures... some of it's done the right way for the right reasons, and some of it is not.

U2 are at the pinnacle of rock music- ...getting criticism is inherent for people in their position. if we, their fans, make suggestions about how we wish they'd done a certain song or album, the IMO is a given, and if we're true fans, it's meant in a supportive way.

that's how everything i've written was meant. personally what i wrote was a riff on the "punk rock from venus" quote that preceded the release of the album.
i like bomb as it is, but there's nothing wrong with me imagining what else it might have been.

i think it's part of what Bono means when he says "U2 and our fans- that's a culture."

he's right, and we're not a passive bunch either.

cheers.

 

[Aygo]

Love And Peace Or Else (4:48)
Vertigo (3:13)
Miracle Drug (3:54)
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own (5:05)
Crumbs From Your Table (4:59)
All Because Of You (3:34)
Fast Cars (3:43)
Mercy (6:49)
One Step Closer (3:57)
City Of Blinding Lights (5:46)
Original Of The Species (4:29)
Yahweh (4:22)

* A Man And A Woman; Are You Gonna Wait Forever; Smile; Flower Child are kept as (real) b-sides
* The alternate versions were used in a digital-releasement EP
* Levitate and Love You Like Mad were (for me) already used in ATYCLB album/singles

* Mercy has extended intro and outro (with the loops), that makes the transition to One Step Closer.
* Crumbs is an "alternate" take, more similar to the "DVD version" and it doesn't that midifile-like end.

 

[Bean Skidds]

Wow talk about taking a thread too seriously. People are just expresing their opinions about the Bomb that *they* would have created.

And yes I know the story of Native Son. Its still a better song than Vertigo imo. And of course lots of people will disagree, thats why there are discussion boards. If everybody agreed on everything it would be kind of boring wouldnt it?

I'm not tearing down the band in some way by posting an alternative tracklist, thats absurd.

The tracklist I posted is my preferred order and preferred tracks. I dont expect anyone else to like. Its mine

And for me, Mercy is one of the best songs since Pop. And its not because its rare or exotic. Its because its a f*^&ing good tune!

 

[The Disciple]

U lost me when U lost COBL.

 

[gvox]

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=PuscBfYnSrA

this thread's redeeming factor, hands down

god she is so beautiful