All Critical Reviews of the New album here

[Vlad n U 2]

Yes. Apparently U2 should be leading the socialist revolution or something. That article is just an poorly written rant based on straw men and stretching to make a point that doesn't need to be paid. The Quietus and John Doran in particular (he founded it) are very, very bitter. Fuck them.

It's a real shame, because The Quietus is for the most part a high quality music publication, they've written lots of good reviews and features on different artists - so it's a massive downer that they'd resort to rehashing the NME albeit more pretentiously.

 

[AEON]

This is a interesting review

U2’s “Songs of Innocence” Is It Their Best Work Yet? | Rocking Gods House

Excellent find. Terrific article. And he doesn't come across as a mere fanboy...

“The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)“: In the chorus, where Bono sings, “I woke up at the moment when the miracle occurred,” the interval relationship between the bottom note (Edge’s guitar) and the top note (Bono’s voice) has no parallel 8ths or parallel 5ths. Bach would commend them for obeying that rule of counterpoint — although it does go from a perfect 8th to a perfect 5th, which is a voice leading no-no, but The Edge instinctively feels it and changes the note almost as soon as he hits it.

 

[purpleoscar]

That was a good review. It would be nice if more music critics could do that.

 

[ktrivedi]

This is a interesting review

U2’s “Songs of Innocence” Is It Their Best Work Yet? | Rocking Gods House

Fantastic article. This should be read be all U2 music geeks. It's not so much a review as it is a music theory lesson. But a very approachable lesson for non technical folk.

 

[purpleblackeye]

Would be great if U2.com would tweet romanek comment




Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[purpleoscar]

Oops made the same mistake.

 

[AEON]

(4/5)

Watch out Coldplay, U2 want their old job back: Songs of Innocence album review | Mail Online

 

[youarenotimmune]

(3/5)

U2: Songs of Innocence review – listenable, but not the grand return they clearly crave | Alexis Petridis | Music | The Guardian

 

[youarenotimmune]

Positive review....

U2 treats a half-billion iTunes users to its new LP, free of charge - Music - The Boston Globe

 

[Greedo]

A little off topic, but I can't figure out why press is making a big deal about "so many" producers. It was DM, Epworth and Tedder. Just like Eno, Lanios and Lillywhite.

Offhand, I think Lillywhite completed WOWY, which was the big hit. It's nothing new for them at all.

 

[Nick66]

A little off topic, but I can't figure out why press is making a big deal about "so many" producers. It was DM, Epworth and Tedder. Just like Eno, Lanios and Lillywhite.

Offhand, I think Lillywhite completed WOWY, which was the big hit. It's nothing new for them at all.

I think it's that they went through a rotating sequence of producers during different sessions, as contrasted to multiple producers working together during the same sessions (ala Eno, Lanois & Lillywhite).

BTW, a warm welcome back to boards. Watch your step though, this place can be a little rough. Just remember to never shoot first.

 

[U2freakboy]

Hugely positive review from ROLLING STONE. Five stars and some very high praise here. The reviewer seems to be putting it on the same level as Joshua Tree (!) and Achtung Baby (!).



U2's New Album: Songs of Innocence | Rolling Stone

Great to see it getting such a high praise. I truly believe it will ultimately rank as their best 2000's album.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[stray dog]

Click on a pompous ass who wants to tell me what they think ...or click on a free album and decide for myself...hmmm which will it be?

 

[Gilead12]

This isn't really a review, but is a really interesting response to some of those knee-jerk anti-U2 reactions, from one of my best friends. Typically a very 'viral' site, but this is a really thoughtful piece re: both Apple and U2.

Apple and U2 Are at the Center of a Much Bigger Conversation We Aren't Having - Mic

 

[birdman]

So far, I've like RSs review.

 

[boorock74]

Just want to delurk here, and offer my two cents. I'm noticing a trend in the reviews of SoI that seems to hold true with both professional and amateur reviews. People who actually listen to the record, and don't have an axe to grind, generally and genuinely like it. For example, there seem to be three types of responses on twitter, either the "WTF, U2 on my computer? I feel violated! How do I delete it before it accidentally plays?" of a person who hates the band and wouldn't like the record if it cured cancer and gave out unicorns, or "I love U2, I love free things!" of commited fans, or, most importantly the "I tried out this new U2 record, it's pretty good," of people who listen with an open mind. The pro reviews seem to break on those lines too, about 60% positive across the board. Like I said, people who listen with open minds like the music. If the mantra is "the songs have to be there" it seems pretty clear to me that the songs are there. That wasn't the case with NLOTH. On that one, people who were legit fans often listened to the record and responded with shrugs. The band polarizes people, this album tends to win over open minds.

And at the end of the day, that's a big win. Who cares if people who hate Bono have their gripes. At the end of the day, music news this week is dominated by "U2 boldly gives away album for free." Released conventionally, the conversation would have been "U2 sells the fewest copies ever in it's opening week."

What it means going forward, is a big tour, that will do for the band, and this record what the last tour did: Win hearts. Remember that before the 360 tour, the reveiws were mixed, and the haters were out in force. But by the midpoint of the tour, a concensus developed that U2 was still the biggest and arguably the best rock ban in the world, if not of all time. Now imagine that, but backing an album of catchier, more immediate songs.

So take heart everyone, 2014 and 2015 are going to be good times for us, and I can't wait to see all of you waiting in the GA line.

Anyway, like I said, just my 2 cents. You mileage may vary.

Oh, and for the record, I love the album, but I'm not sure exactly where I put it in the canon. I liked NLOTH quite a bit as well. And that writer from the New Yorker can die in a fiery plane crash. What an a-hole.

 

[birdman]

SOI, the album that even the dickbaggiest of dickbag critics secretly enjoy. And if not, they're worse off for it.

 

[RobertWiscy]

Again the people bitching about getting a FREE album of 11 songs by the biggest band in the last 3 decades makes me laugh out loud. "Oh, so someone bought me lunch AND is offering me free coffee this morning too? Well f*** them and f*** you and f*** the entire world!!!!"

Sent from my SPH-L720T using U2 Interference mobile app

 

[bono_212]

Here it is, ladies and gents:

U2: Songs of Innocence | Album Reviews | Pitchfork

 

[birdman]

Mojos review is fantastic, when it says that Iris "humanises the man behind the shades", fucking yes. The album is now somewhere parallel or just before Zooropa and after AB, in my album list.

 

[purpleoscar]

Here it is, ladies and gents:

U2: Songs of Innocence | Album Reviews | Pitchfork

Oh Shit!

 

[birdman]

Here it is, ladies and gents:

U2: Songs of Innocence | Album Reviews | Pitchfork

Omg omg omg!

 

[birdman]

I prefer Mojos review.

 

[davmar]

Here it is, ladies and gents:

U2: Songs of Innocence | Album Reviews | Pitchfork

Must hurt looking at the current itune charts

 

[birdman]

Mojos review is much better, Pitchforks just sounds like one persons uninformed, isolated opinion. There is no sense of impartiality.
Because this one reviewer is a bigot, I'll take the real Pitchfork review as a 5, which is an excellent score!

 

[birdman]

The Under the Radar reviewer didn't give the album enough listens before reviewing it. "But it's five years of work" is a weak point.

 

[trevgreg]

Well, the score is a bit higher than I was expecting. About the same as NLOTH's for them, if I remember correctly.

 

[purpleoscar]

This review was pretty much what was expected. Wow!

That U2 would willingly play corporate house band at a watch announcement to achieve this rollout in 2014 surprises exactly nobody; the album release was even framed by Bono himself as the 10th-anniversary celebration of a commercial.

Bono's a corporate whore (though they gave the album for free).

So a song about Bono meeting his wife is given the non-committal title of “Song for Someone”, and a song called “The Troubles” isn’t a callback to the prolonged Northern Ireland conflict that inspired their first great song, but a bunch of self-pitying platitudes (which uses guest Lykke Li to mimic adult-contempo Duran Duran hit “Come Undone”).

Yeah fuck you!

Bono’s opening love letter to Joey Ramone is only given specificity by the title’s parenthetical, a generic “last night a [fill-in-the-blank] changed my life” tale that could be adapted to the idol of your choosing. It’s all emotional content left intentionally formless, vaingloriously hoping to fit around the experiences of millions.

Fuck you again!

Songs of Innocence also continues a decade-long trend of U2 showing little interest in re-examining themselves as a band or as pop stars, the approach that sustained them artistically throughout the '90s. Despite jettisoning their Eno/Lanois/Lillywhite comfort zone in favor of Danger Mouse, Paul Epworth, and a host of other moderately intriguing producers, Songs of Innocence is perhaps the album where U2 most self-consciously plays itself—or more distressingly, risk causing a temporal paradox by swiping moves from mantle-carriers Arcade Fire and Coldplay, akin to time traveling to the future and sleeping with your own grandchild.

ISIS needs to meet you soon.

A few promisingly weird moments, such as the eerily synthetic Beach Boys chant at the start of “California (There Is No End to Love)” or the breathy rhythms of “Raised By Wolves”, are quickly diluted by stock verse/chorus structures.

Yeah U2 need to make atonal music to give you a hard-on.

The watery disco-punk beats of “This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now” and “Volcano” are thin gruel for a band that once seemed aware of current pop trends, however ill-advised the attempts were to engage with them.

Oh I'm glad you feel this way.

That gravity has a name, and it’s four letters long, and at this point even those letters are wearing sunglasses. The two brief moments where Bono drops his global-rock-ambassador persona—the deranged, filtered first note of the “Raised by Wolves” chorus, the brief return of the “Lemon” falsetto on “Sleep Like a Baby Tonight”—are jarring enough to expose just how overblown his crooning is on Songs of Innocence.

While the album’s liner notes contain a moving, train-of-thought reflection on a childhood made up of witnessing car bombings and sneaking into Ramones shows, almost none of that insight makes it into the actual songs, which are a celebration of self-absorption: “You are rock and roll” quickly amended to “You and I are rock and roll.”

How much detail in the lyrics do you need that U2 saw the Ramones and The Clash? Plus Volcano is not Miracle, Raised by wolves, or The Troubles.

U2 have already squandered any remaining integrity to invent this needy, invasive breed of the Big Event Album, an Album that lacks any kind of artistic statement to deter from the overwhelming Brandiness. Where Beyoncé used her iTunes sneak attack late last year to make a bold pop proclamation of sexuality and feminism, U2 have used an even more audacious release platform to wave their arms and simply say, “Hey! Everybody! We’re still here!” Bono may have self-deprecatingly described Songs of Innocence as “the blood, sweat and tears of some Irish guys...in your junk mail,” but it’s not even that interesting—it’s just a blank message.

And I'm sure if U2 had a big "message" like Beyonce he could spin that in a negative way. Man I love to hate these guys!

 

[prbiker15]

All I needed to see was the 4.6, I was expecting lower.

 

[Gilead12]

lol 'The Troubles' = 'self-pitying platitudes' isn't music criticism, it's just failing a reading comprehension test. That is exactly the opposite of what that lyric is.

Similarly, 'where U2 most self-consciously plays itself--or, more distressingly, risk causing a temporal paradox...' is failing a grammar test, taking the age-old 'do we treat band names as singular or plural' question head on and answering, 'both, in the same sentence'.