Honestly, I did not expect to like this. I'd read tons of stuff about it before I listened, mostly about how poppy it is, with a fair few dinging it for trying too hard. And I get it. I get that this is U2 consciously TRYING to be anthemic. I get that it's cheesy.
BUT.
Every time I listen, it...
I find the album very difficult to rank, because for me there are few absolute standouts,but also no real clunkers. It's of a very consistent, high quality. Still, my absolute first preliminary ranking, likely to change;
1. The Little Things That Give You Away
2. The Blackout
3. Red Flag Day
4...
Honestly the most surprising thing about Refu-Jesus to me at this point is that Bono hasn't been using it in a million interviews. Usually the trite 'Oh God Bono thinks this is clever, doesn't he?' attempted wordplay gets kicked around for a while before it finds its permanent home in a song.
I'm quite surprised by how much I enjoy this one. It isn't the sort of U2 I'm normally crazy about, but I think it just works really, really nice as a slightly dreamy, effortless pop song. It's not an all time classic or anything, but it's fun, light and isn't trying to be more than it is...
Honestly if one line in a classic song doesn't get the hate it deserves, it's 'More than a lot', which is just so transparently an effort to cram in something that works with the rhyme.
You probably need to be a song as good as 'One' to pull that off, and I do think that's one of the issues...
It remains hilarious to me that perhaps the most WTF moment of any of the New York shows - certainly up there - came on the first night with October. Only U2.
From an entirely selfish point of view, I want them to do nothing exciting at one of the U2 nights which I'm not at so I hope this was the surprise. :p
If any song rotated with Vertigo, it would be Elevation. (Though even that isn't likely!)
My main suggestion would just be to lengthen the second song slot into two to maximise those cool early days slots.
One question I have is what the general audience 'awareness' of the new song seems to be, in the opinion of fans who have seen it. More than the NLOTH songs on 360? Non-single HTDAAB songs on Vertigo?
I've seen a few people suggest Invisible's reaction has been flat because nobody knows it, but...
Latin America, Italy or Spain for the liveliest crowds. Since Latin America is next year and Turin is opening the leg when they'll be a tad rusty, that means they should go for Barca.
I feel like they'll definitely want to film it in the first two tour legs as they seem to like getting a good...
1. The Miracle
2. The Electric Co / 11 O'Clock Tick Tock
3. Vertigo / Elevation
4. Volcano / California
5. I Will Follow / Out of Control
6. Iris
7. Song For Someone
8. Cedarwood Road
9. Sunday Bloody Sunday
10. Raised By Wolves
11. Until The End Of The World
12. Please
13. Invisible
14...
Discotheque is one of my favourite songs but if it didn't come back on 360 despite such screamingly obvious oppurtunities and the extended snippet, I don't think it's coming back. Hilariously, the band may actually think they did it justice; U2.com claimed at least once that every single album...
Found the crappy justification from Willie Williams;
Why U2 Doesn't Play 3-Hour Concerts
"The biggest challenge we have now is that the show is as long as it can comfortably be – beyond 2hrs 15mins it starts to become a bit of a marathon for both band and audience"
Yeah the last two tours both had permanent places for *hugely* popular fan rarities and 360 was in stadiums, FGS. It's really not a case of fans demanding too much to ask that they have 1-2 fan favourite rarer songs in there. Even the closest thing so far, The Electric Co, was a regular just the...