What's standing out on this listen?
It's Bono's singing. On many songs it's SO weak it ruins it for me. When I say weak I don't mean "In a Little While." The voice is perfect for that song. It's one of the strongest songs on the album. It's songs like "When I Look at the World." A potentially great song but it falls flat because Bono can't sing the song for the life of him. And then there is the occasional lyric. Like in "Kite." The song is amazing... good lyrics, amazing musically, the vocals aren't even bad. Everything is going great until we get to...
"Did I waste it?
Not so much I couldn't taste it
Life should be fragrant
Rooftop to the basement
The last of the rock stars
When hip hop drove the big cars
In the time when new media
Was the big idea
That was the big idea"
It's so bad it makes me wince in pain. It's like they built up a great house and then burned it down at the end. It makes me feel taken.
The Ground Beneath Her Feet is my fav on that album.
Haha! I remember this happening to me sometime in the past. I still prefer my alternate version though, to what we ended up getting.
Very glad to hear you've been enjoying the album !Alright, I'm hooked. I started listening to ATYCLB a few minutes ago... I think I am converted. It is not my least-favorite album anymore.
It is amazing.
What's the listing?
It's a shame since they could have either improved on it by swapping POE, WILATW and Grace for the MDH soundtrack U2 songs and Levitate.
Big Girls Are Best as insane as it may sound is probably the best song from the ATYCLB era. I used to hate it but listening to it again last week changed my mind.
I agree with you that the MDH sountrack songs are better than 'Grace' and 'Peace on Earth', but I cannot understand why so many dislike 'Wild Honey'. It's the most effortless sounding pop gem U2 have ever written. In structure, it is as golden as 'Stuck in a Moment'...and when played next to 'Stuck', it sounds amazing to my ears.Starts off strongly but after Kite and IALW the quality goes downhill and POE combined with WILATW after Wild honey is a big no-no. I liked how BD gave them a push into the 3rd decade, and they wisely chose a new raison'd etre for the new era in writing the perfect pop song/single.
It's a shame since they could have either improved on it by swapping POE, WILATW and Grace for the MDH soundtrack U2 songs and Levitate.
I agree with you on the 2nd half of ATYCLB. I actually prefer the original trackorder that got leaked prior to the official album release back in 2000. If I rememer, that one had 'Wild Honey' right before or after 'Stuck', and it flowed really well.I like Wild honey (the joint Bono and Edge vocals - evoking Lennon/McCartney perhaps? - and Simon and Garfunkel-ish acoustic/electric guitar interplay for the win) as the bittersweet mature love song-type of song that nicely accompanies In a little while. Nice cover, it's interesting to hear a female covering U2, sweet voice.
It's just that after building up that joy/pop record up to that point, it feels like someone pulled the brake and in comes POE and WILATW duo and the whole intent fails, even with NY picking up the pace. And Grace would fit in better on MDH soundtrack IMO.