Shuttlecock XIX - send $40 now for your opportunity to not get a presale code

[elevated_u2_fan]

thank you good sir!

 

[gvox]

Just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
Don't need to be coy, Roy,
just listen to me
Hop on the bus, Gus,
don't need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee..
and get yourself free

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Personal's great, but I'm not terribly interested in hearing a rich white man writing a love song about his wife and proclaiming it to be some inspiring piece of activism.

I mean, that's kinda sad. You'd be pretty much unable to appreciate the personal work about anyone beyond starving artists with that kind of thought process.

 

[PhilsFan]

I think the point is that "it's personal" isn't an excuse for bad writing.

 

[nielsgov]

Personal's great, but I'm not terribly interested in hearing a rich white man writing a love song about his wife and proclaiming it to be some inspiring piece of activism.

So love is only interesting if you're poor and/or not white? Enlightening stuff.

 

[Kieran McConville]

I think - I hope - the point is that love's only interesting if you can write interestingly about it. Bono, God love him, does lean far too heavily on platitudes a lot of the time, in latter years anyhow. It's a problem. It's really a problem because when you criticise it you get to be the person who Doesn't Like Songs About Love (which isn't true, with rare exceptions).

 

[gvox]

Is there a song we’re referring to off SOE in particular here?

 

[PhilsFan]

I have not listened to the leak, I'm speaking to both the points raised earlier in the thread as well as the general trend in Bono's lyrics on the whole since 2000, including some of the SOE singles.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

I'm not sure how much I like this album yet... I don't hate it and yes, the singles released beforehand did not do it justice but I'm still not 100% how I feel about it.

I will say that I am pleasantly surprised how they took the best part from Song For Someone and made a way better song out of it.

 

[youarenotimmune]

But most of all, THE LYRICS ARE FUCKING AWFUL. I cannot stand Bono any more. He is easily the worst thing about this band, and almost every failing of post-Pop U2 traces straight back to how dumb his lyrics are, how he peddles trite cliches and vague self-help nonsense in lieu of letting the words breathe, leaving room within the song for the listener to create their own meaning and their own mental or emotional landscapes. Hell, the last two albums have just been fucking about him. Not even the rest of the band, just Bono shitting on about himself and writing letters to his family. Why the hell should I give a damn about his self-centred little world? He could at least try to make it seem interesting, but as far as I can tell it has about as much depth as an ad for Oprah's Book Club. Would we hate Peace on Earth if it had the lyrical sophistication of Running to Stand Still? Get on Your Boots if it had the darkness of Wire? Yahweh if it were written as well as A Sort of Homecoming? Hell no. Likewise, Love Is Bigger - even though it's a highlight - is a lyrical piece of shit unbecoming of the man who wrote Bad or Please.

I used to think Larry was the dead weight in this band. It's now very much Bono. He sings well here but almost everything that comes out of his mouth ranges between vapid and mind-numbingly stupid. You don't need to quote the decent lyrics at me, I know they're there; they're just the exception, rather than the norm. Maybe I don't hold other bands to this high level, but then other bands didn't write One Tree Hill.

There are a couple of quotes by Bono which provide some insight into why he's fundamentally changed (for the worse, for some) as a lyricist:

Circa 1987 - Bono during the Wild Irish Rose video, "Wild Irish Rose is an attempt to tell a story in a song. Normally we paint pictures, I think, more than tell stories. You know, just image from image..."

2000s (Post ATYCLB) - Bono during some interview I can't recall, "My favorite writers are usually the ones who are good with words. But the ones I really connect with are the ones who are good with ideas."

And he's obviously infamously criticized Bad's lyrics as being unfinished/incoherent/too abstract or whatever recently.

Bono is no longer interested in painting pictures with his words. It's no surprise we don't get any of the abstract, impressionistic lyricism from him anymore. And I actually feel that this structural change in his approach to songwriting is a bold, and might I say, refreshing change. It indicates his evolution as an artist.

The problem? Bono the storyteller is, for the most part, not nearly as good as Bono the poet. Some of the great U2 songs of yore were fuck knows about what, but the imagery created by Bono's lyrics actually played a pivotal role in elevating them to greatness. A lot of post 2000s songs have great themes - great ideas - but suffer greatly in execution due to Bono's clunky lyrics (cramming in too many syllables, using trite phrases etc).

And although I've only listened to Songs of Experience a couple of times, I get the feeling that this is exactly the problem with his lyrics here as well. Seems like a lot of the songs on this album have really interesting themes, but some of the lyrics sounded abhorrently cliched. I did however enjoy Bono's vocals for the most part.

As for the rest of the album, don't really have a strong opinion yet, except for The Little Things, which sounds fantastic (and has pretty good lyrics as well).

 

[BoMac]

Hi guys, I took a little break from this place because of how awful the pre-sale experience was. I was so fucking angry, I was going back and forth via email with U2.com. They just don't get it. Ticketmaster and Live Nation can go fuck themselves. I hate then with the fire of a thousand burning suns.

Anyway, what's new?

 

[DaveC]

laz's ban expires this afternoon. wonder if he's heard the leak yet.

 

[mikal]

Laz was banned?!?

 

[patternshirt170]

I tend to agree with the Ax(ver) man, and it looks to me, or rather imo, that I have another U2 album where I'll have to make a sort of hybrid curtailed playlist out of a 13 song album that one is I guess supposed to play in it's entirity due to it's, dunno... concept? because, once again three (close to four actually) of the songs are just annoyingly poor or frankly plain irritating within that tracklisting.

A few of my core favourite acts, ie. the artists that I've been into since well.. god knows when, have released new records in the last 12-16months, some of them after SOI - SOE gaps of three years and not one of them has released a record where I skip a sizeable chunk of it nor have they included the equivalent of songs as trite and bad as American Soul and Best Thing or as seriously derivative as ..Own Way. Well anyway... so.. next up, Songs of Ascent eh? or perhaps we can have "Songs of listen, can we not call this Songs of Something for once?" Ach, fiddlesticks....

 

[gump]

Oh good, pressure's off: someone in the group doesn't think the album is great.

I have the album downloaded, but I'm going to listen to it with Ashley tomorrow night. We'll pass along thoughts then.

For the record I was not on the this album is great camp. Still on the fence, really. But I can’t disagree with Ax’s points about the Bono-centrism. It gets really grating - and he occupies space that should have been reserved for the instruments only.

 

[iron yuppie]

So for those of you who have heard it, is it as musically distinctive as people in EYKIW are claiming? Particularly in the stretch with Summer of Love?

 

[gvox]

laz's ban expires this afternoon. wonder if he's heard the leak yet.

Wait. What?

 

[Diemen]

Laz's ban expired several days ago.

 

[Hewson]

Cobbler implied Laz may not come back.

 

[Hewson]

Hi guys, I took a little break from this place because of how awful the pre-sale experience was. I was so fucking angry, I was going back and forth via email with U2.com. They just don't get it. Ticketmaster and Live Nation can go fuck themselves. I hate then with the fire of a thousand burning suns.

Anyway, what's new?

That situation was a complete mess for those affected of which I assume you are one. Did they rectify things so you can participate in the presale for the 2nd Montreal show tomorrow instead?

 

[DaveC]

Cobbler implied Laz may not come back.

u2 is releasing a new album this week, he's one of the forum's most active posters and his name is lazarus. odds are pretty good he'll be back sooner or later.

 

[corianderstem]

I am not surprised that Axver isn't raving about the album, but I have to comment on the bit about the lyrics being bad.

Okay. You know me, I often say lyrics are the last thing I notice - not this time. Aside from a few songs (American Soul, Best Thing being the obvious examples), the lyrics are the best he's written in ages, I think.

Far be it from me to wish tragedy or illness on anyone, and I wouldn't be saying this if it hadn't been just a scare, but I think the health scare was the best thing that could have happened a boy for his songwriting.

 

[david]

Here’s some negative press:

https://consequenceofsound.net/2017...nes-no-3-album-of-2017-thanks-to-jann-wenner/

But it’s just a pebble of negativity dropped in an ocean of positivity.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

there's always room for negativity... I'm pretty sure that's Pitchfork's tag line.

 

[corianderstem]

"another dud"?

Way harsh, Tai.

 

[david]

Is Consequence of Sound considered a serious music news outlet anyway?

 

[namkcuR]

That barely said anything about the album. Read more like an advertisement for their own top 50 albums of the year list.

 

[martha]

Cobbler implied Laz may not come back.

I hope he does.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Here’s some negative press:

https://consequenceofsound.net/2017...nes-no-3-album-of-2017-thanks-to-jann-wenner/

But it’s just a pebble of negativity dropped in an ocean of positivity.

The irony is that they don't realize they're doing the same thing they're bashing Rolling Stone for, in reverse.

It's kinda pathetic, and I'm not a "ehrmagad how dur they basch oo-too" guy. The band deserves a lot of flack from the past few years. But this article and headline are a pandering pathetic mess and they should be as embarrassed as Rolling Stone should be with their mindless ass kissing.

 

[BoMac]

That situation was a complete mess for those affected of which I assume you are one. Did they rectify things so you can participate in the presale for the 2nd Montreal show tomorrow instead?

No, I didn’t even know it’s tomorrow. They offered me a refund, I said I would see how the second presale goes.