Isn't it funny how things change??? Hutdab.

[U2girl]

Here's the thing. With HTDAAB, I don't have any issues with the subjects U2 has decided to tackle with their songs... be it loss of family, science vs. spirituality, war, war between the sexes, death, celebrity, God, the government.....the subject matter really is irrelevent when discussing actual songwriting. Unfortunately, this time around, i feel U2 were relying too much on their songwriting topics to carry the songs and album thru..and as a result the songs and album suffered. SYCMIOYO...could have been a heartwrenching masterpiece, and i'm sure Bono does miss his father a great deal...but i feel that this time around Bono was thinking too much about creating the next "One", with the story of his father as background, instead of actually creating a piece of music carved out of his artistic soul. I think the stories and songs Bono created out of friends that were drug addicts (Bad, Running to stand still) and enemies (Please) and random sluts (An Cat Dubh) were much more inspired and creative VS a song about his own father. Let us not forget the songs about his mother (I Will Follow...Tommorrow...Mofo). This time around, instead of creating an original masterpiece..I think ONE part 2 was the motivation instead...and that's what i feel is the problem with most of the album. COBL is Streets Part 2, no matter how you look at it. U2 can write great songs about nothing, with no reference point...i just think this time they had all the right reference points with no songs to back up the inspiration.

You forgot: Sometimes wasn't a father and son song, it was a "Bono wants a Grammy!" song.

There were always going to be comparisons to One and Sometimes. But not because of the subject matter but the arrangement. Same goes for COBL and Streets. If you think they are nothing but "One part II" and "Streets part II" that's fine - don't assume the band does/did.

Using the same logic, AIWIY, Who's gonna ride your wild horses, Stay, If god will send his angels, Ground beneath her feet all are nothing but WOWY part 2.

 

[cobl04]

I think this hits the nail on the head. They are good albums, with good songs, and some really good songs, but (moreso with HTDAAB) very few that I get that timeless feeling from, where I can hear it again and again and hear something new. So while they have a lot of good songs...they don't hold up to the standard U2 set for themselves, or the standard I personally hold U2 to, which is way higher than I hold other bands to. I think it's fair to criticize on this basis, as it's the reason U2 is my favorite band.

I too was sucked into my deep U2 fandom by HTDAAB and the Vertigo tour, having been more than a casual fan since ATYCLB-ish (but brought in by the music of War and JT). I loved all the HTDAAB songs, but now a lot of what I loved seems just a little too trite or simple or catchy without substance or resonance. There was a while in 2005 where I stuck it on repeat, which I think I could still do with almost every other U2 album, but I'd go crazy with HTDAAB on repeat and maybe with ATYCLB on repeat.

and this from last unicorn

don't know maybe it has to do with the fact that the live versions of these songs are so much better than the album versions. Though I openly admit that I love HTDAAB and listen to it once in a while, I'd probably take the live versions over the album versions any day, especially with songs like Vertigo and COBL. Sometimes is still one of my favourite U2 songs and means an awful lot to me, but even with that, I must say that I'm mostly hooked on the live version with Bono's emotional operatic singing. I experience this a lot. Recently, I heard Beautiful Day on the radio and was so disappointed in the radio version because the song sounds so much better live and Bono's vocals are so much stronger today than they were back then when they recorded this song.
[/b]

Perfectly sums up what I was trying to say. For me, while I think this is still a great album - let me make that perfectly for all y'all - I don't think it has many of the timeless songs that other albums have. I prefer Attyclub to it, and I would say that it is down the bottom in terms of U2 albums - but I still enjoy it.

I think the thing with it as well is that for me it's the first U2 album where many of the songs were eclipsed by live versions (COBL, Vertigo, Yahweh, LAPOE, well most of the album) or better alternate versions (ABOY, Native Son, etc etc).

All I'm saying is that the original poster COBL_04 did not deserve this post...



He even linked us to his own thread praising the album to the heavens! And he explained pretty well why he doesn't like it much anymore. It seems that according to posters like you, nobody is even allowed to dislike the Bomb.

Zoots i had you in mind when i posted this thread... thinking to myself maybe he was right after all

And it's true that the original poster wasn't bashing, I apologize to COBL_04. My response really wasn't meant this way. It's just an open invitation for the usual suspects to come in and continue the bashing of this album that has been going on since its release.

No worries last unicorn no need to apologise, this is only a website hey i see were youre coming from though.

 

[DevilsShoes]

Maybe I'm naive, but I've never felt that Bono had cynical motivations when writing SYCMIOYO, in fact I've always found it as one of the few songs on the album that seemed to come from a genuine place within him.

Lyrically Bono tends to quite an obscure song writer, always leaving the precise meaning of his songs for the listener to intepret however they wish, but for SYCMIOYO his lyrics are some of the most incisive and penetrating he's ever written IMO anyway, and this of course stems from the fact that the subject matter is so personal to him.

He's actually trying to comment of one of the most complex and powerful relationships in his life and this comes through clearly in his writing. Perhaps moments of it are a little calculated, but more than any other song on HTDAAB, SYCMIOYO actually feels like an organic process to me, much less contrived that some of the other big hitters on the album.

Just like WOWY, ISHFWILF, Bad, AIWIY, Kite or Please, to me Bono actually believes 110% in what he's singing about.

U2 have always tried tried to re-write their best songs and I don't blame them for doing that, after all a successful formula is a successful formula, but in the past I've felt that whilst taking from the old they have always managed to find something new as well, which has given the song a fresh perspective and taken it to new places. Plus any re-writing has always been relatively subtle, whereas for me on the last album it was a little too obvious at times where the inspiration for a particular track had come from.

 

[last unicorn]

I agree about Sometimes being totally sincere, I've never doubted that. The song has had quite an interesting evolution over all these years and has found its ultimate form in the live performances. I understand why Bono felt he had to be direct in these lyrics. Sometimes thinks work that way if you just want to speak - in this case: sing - from your heart. It also makes you more vulnerable because you cannot hide behind a bunch of poetic metaphors.

 

[Varitek]

Not evaluate the album, but discuss it's potential.

Who knows, I'm no Nickelback fan but maybe the b-sides from the All The Right Reasons studio sessions were the greatest songs ever written. If this is the case, All The Right Reasons with an alternative tracklisting, might have made Dark Side Of The Moon, The Joshua Tree & OK Computer seem like piles of crap.

Fair, to discuss its potential. But in hearing its potential, for me, it diluted songs I was a little disappointed with anyway, knowing they could have gone in a slightly different direction and made them better for it. I don't think the b-sides had the potential to beat out TUF or JT, nor (and this goes to U2girl) do I think the songs were necessarily better than their HTDAAB counterparts. I think they are all unfinished, just as Mercy is, or weren't as finished as an album version would have been vs a b-side or special itunes release. So obviously they are going to have some big weaknesses, and lack some of the innovation of their later versions. What upsets me and makes me grade Bomb down a little is that their later versions lack some of the innovation of the Unreleased/Alt songs. U2 played it safe and took out some of the best stuff.

On a different note, I appreciate "hutdab/hutdub" because I always want to type the acronym HTDMAAB - anyone else do this?

 

[Addicted To Bad]

I liked Hutdab the first time I heard it but it was completely different about POP - It took me a time to like it and accept it.... now it´s one of my favorite... Yeah... things reaaaallllly change !!!

 

[zoopop]

THIS is another reason some of us have grown to dislike it more than we used to. Once I heard what HTDAAB could have been with some of the unreleased songs, and b-sides better than the album songs, I got angry at the band for the "creative decisions" they'd made to emasculate the lyrics of Native Son into Vertigo, leave Smile off or stop working on it, and overwork other songs like ABOY and Yahweh (though I probably would have disliked Yahweh no matter what).

Is it fair to evaluate the album on what it could have been? Maybe not, but oh well.

Varitek, I'm sorry, what I met by B-side was the actual second half of the album. Tracks 7 thru 11. Sorry for the confusion,

 

[cobl04]

I love how this thread has turned into "Yeah, that's how I feel about Pop." This forum will never stop talking about that album. For what it's worth, I loved it when I first heard it and still do now, one of my more listened to albums actually.

 

[An Cat Gav]

I love how this thread has turned into "Yeah, that's how I feel about Pop." This forum will never stop talking about that album. For what it's worth, I loved it when I first heard it and still do now, one of my more listened to albums actually.

When I first heard Pop I was very disappointed but grew to love it, I feel the complete opposite about HTDAAB.

 

[Earnie Shavers]

There is no doubt Pop and HTDAAB are equally the bands most divisive, love/hate albums.

 

[ozeeko]

I've never understood what U2 means when they say that HTDAAB is their "best collection of songs". What do they mean by that? Do they mean that "technically" they are the best, because they qualify as songs due to a traditional verse-chorus-verse-chorus-middle 8-chorus outtro format? Do they mean that "Vertigo" and "Original Of The Species" crushes most of the songs off Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby? In my opinion, ATYCLB is where U2 started to utilize a predictable songwriting formula..but i think that "In A Little While" is head and shoulders above anything off the BOMB when looking at a traditional song. The songs off BOMB don't even feel like natural songs to me..they sound manipulated and second-guessed the whole way thru. I think "Grace" tops any number off that album..."Grace"..a song that married lyric, melody and instrumentation and came off as a totally inspired and soothing way to end an album. Is Achtung Baby or Joshua Tree a better album, but not a better collection of "songs"? Songs meaning once again...a traditional verse-chorus structure. How is Even Better Than The Real Thing, UTEOTW, So Cruel, Myseterious Ways or Love Is Blindness any less of a song compared to the songs off Bomb. I just don't understand it. Maybe I'm not supposed to. Maybe they have all just lost their minds.

 

[Zoots]

I've never understood what U2 means when they say that HTDAAB is their "best collection of songs". What do they mean by that? Do they mean that "technically" they are the best, because they qualify as songs due to a traditional verse-chorus-verse-chorus-middle 8-chorus outtro format? Do they mean that "Vertigo" and "Original Of The Species" crushes most of the songs off Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby? In my opinion, ATYCLB is where U2 started to utilize a predictable songwriting formula..but i think that "In A Little While" is head and shoulders above anything off the BOMB when looking at a traditional song. The songs off BOMB don't even feel like natural songs to me..they sound manipulated and second-guessed the whole way thru. I think "Grace" tops any number off that album..."Grace"..a song that married lyric, melody and instrumentation and came off as a totally inspired and soothing way to end an album. Is Achtung Baby or Joshua Tree a better album, but not a better collection of "songs"? Songs meaning once again...a traditional verse-chorus structure. How is Even Better Than The Real Thing, UTEOTW, So Cruel, Myseterious Ways or Love Is Blindness any less of a song compared to the songs off Bomb. I just don't understand it. Maybe I'm not supposed to. Maybe they have all just lost their minds.

They were just trying to promote their latest album! That's all it is.

It will be a cold day in hell before songs from the Bomb are even compared to JT or AB... just kidding... sorta

 

[ozeeko]

They were just trying to promote their latest album! That's all it is.

It will be a cold day in hell before songs from the Bomb are even compared to JT or AB... just kidding... sorta

Well that i can buy at least. But if they actually believe this i got nothing else to assume other than Bono's gone absolutley senile.

I think comparing BOMB to October is blasphemy.

btw...OCTOBER rules

 

[Zoots]

I like Bomb but I agree that October is musically a million miles superior!

 

[ozeeko]

What songs do u like off Bomb..I'm curious

 

[Moser]

What the fuck is wrong with this album anyway?

Listen to this album with open arms. It's really good. REALLY! Why do you have to compare the album with others? Love it for what it brings...not hate it for what it didn't bring.

Anyway.....I like:

Vertigo
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
Love and Peace or Else
City of Blinding Lights
All Because of You
One Step Closer
Original of the Species

Fast Cars...I love you....so very much.

A Man and a Woman, Crumbs from Your Table and Yahweh still have to grow on me.

 

[Zoots]

What songs do u like off Bomb..I'm curious

I like listening to the whole album. It's got it's flaws like bad production, unnecessarily loud intros, cheesy lyrics etc. but I still like listening to it every now and then. I even like Vertigo, as silly as it is! But my favorite songs are probably...

COBL
Crumbs
Sometimes
A Man & A Woman
One Step Closer
Yahweh (alternate)
and Vertigo just for that punch it delivers! Not for the goofy intro, outro and bridge.

ETA: Oh and MD too, to an extent.

 

[ozeeko]

I enjoy Miracle Drug..because i think they somewhat married the lyric with the music...it's got that otherwordly, dreamy sound that they lyric demanded...although i do totally want to vomit everytime i hear the baby's head line..but beyond that it's a decent song..i like the soaring choruses and Edge's guitar solo is inspired. I also like Crumbs because it just flows...not outstanding...but it flows..it's an easygoing tune...lyrically it is a mess(and a bad one at that) but i can forgive shitty lyrics when a song is good enough. Fast Cars is the best song on the album...why it was left off is a mystery...to me it is the best of the lot. I don't like any of the singles...Vertigo is somewhat tolerable when ure drunk, but beyond that Sometimes is too sappy and sentimental, COBL is a failed attempt at an anthem...and OOTS has the best melodic moment on the album "You are the first one of your kind" but i can't like a song because it happens to have 10 seconds total that i like when the rest is throwaway garbage. I think AMAAW had potential to be the best song off the album..but the chorus ruins it for me...it's extremely corny.

Fast Cars should have been the hit off this album. It's the only flawless moment on the whole album.

 

[Zoots]

I agree that Fast Cars is the best song and it wasn't even included! And it's something they threw together in the last minute. Whereas the songs that made the album they spent a lot of time on and revised till the last minute. What does that tell you?

 

[Salome]

even though I do like listening to How to dismantle ... now
it will always (in my head) be one of my least favourite U2 albums

that being said
I like all the songs on it (even the somewhat annoying All because of you) more than Fast Cars

 

[U2girl]

It's probably the "unreleased ergo better" syndrome.

 

[Zoots]

It's probably the "unreleased ergo better" syndrome.

I can only speak for myself when I say that is not true. Smile was unreleased. And I agree, it is not album worthy.

 

[U2girl]

I think the "unreleased!" hype is helping forming the overall forum opinion on those songs.

I like Fast cars, but I think it's out of place on a vintage/retro album like Bomb. It could have been a nice starting point for the next album, along with Mercy.

 

[LemonMelon]

The only alternate versions that deserve to have made the record is Yahweh's alternate, ABOY's alternate, and Xanax And Wine. Everything else is inferior or simply doesn't work. And yes, I include Native Son in the "doesn't work" pile.

 

[U2girl]

The thing I really miss is the alternative ABOY lyric. I hope Bono can use it in the future.

 

[Zoots]

The only alternate versions that deserve to have made the record is Yahweh's alternate, ABOY's alternate, and Xanax And Wine. Everything else is inferior or simply doesn't work. And yes, I include Native Son in the "doesn't work" pile.

Yahweh (alternate) is pretty much the only one for me. ABOY(alt) is good, esp. the intro but the verses are odd. It definitely sounds like a demo compared to the album version. If it weren't for the ear shattering bastard intro on the album version, I would say the song is perfectly album ready and doesn't need any alternate versions to replace it. Fast Cars is far superior to Xanax in my mind.

 

[LemonMelon]

Yahweh (alternate) is pretty much the only one for me. ABOY(alt) is good, esp. the intro but the verses are odd. It definitely sounds like a demo compared to the album version. If it weren't for the ear shattering bastard intro on the album version, I would say the song is perfectly album ready and doesn't need any alternate versions to replace it. Fast Cars is far superior to Xanax in my mind.

I fucking hate the double-tracked vocals on the album version of HTDAAB. They sound hilariously bad. Other than that, I love it. And, honestly, I don't see what's so bad about the intro. I listen to Sonic Youth; you get used to noise after a while.

And while Fast Cars and Xanax are roughly equal in my mind, which would fit better on HTDAAB, honestly?

 

[Reggie Thee Dog]

Here's the thing. With HTDAAB, I don't have any issues with the subjects U2 has decided to tackle with their songs... be it loss of family, science vs. spirituality, war, war between the sexes, death, celebrity, God, the government.....the subject matter really is irrelevent when discussing actual songwriting. Unfortunately, this time around, i feel U2 were relying too much on their songwriting topics to carry the songs and album thru..and as a result the songs and album suffered. SYCMIOYO...could have been a heartwrenching masterpiece, and i'm sure Bono does miss his father a great deal...but i feel that this time around Bono was thinking too much about creating the next "One", with the story of his father as background, instead of actually creating a piece of music carved out of his artistic soul. I think the stories and songs Bono created out of friends that were drug addicts (Bad, Running to stand still) and enemies (Please) and random sluts (An Cat Dubh) were much more inspired and creative VS a song about his own father. Let us not forget the songs about his mother (I Will Follow...Tommorrow...Mofo). This time around, instead of creating an original masterpiece..I think ONE part 2 was the motivation instead...and that's what i feel is the problem with most of the album. COBL is Streets Part 2, no matter how you look at it. U2 can write great songs about nothing, with no reference point...i just think this time they had all the right reference points with no songs to back up the inspiration.

Wow, great take on HTDAAB, and sadly I think you might be right on. Of course when I first heard the album and especially 'Vertigo' I was really excited, but I have to admit the first 'Vertigo' show I saw I was disappointed with the songs. 'Vertigo' was still pretty cool, but 'COBL', and 'SYCMIOYO' just didn't resonate with me the way the older songs did...and ABOY, as much as I like the song, didn't kick ass in concert the way I thought it would...weird.

I still listen to this album, but not like I do AB, War, JT or even ATYCLB...

 

[Zoots]

Wow never in a million years did I even dream that Reg would agree with ozeeko!

 

[ozeeko]

Wow never in a million years did I even dream that Reg would agree with ozeeko!

Well, I guess my work here is done.

But anyway, I don't mind that U2 wanted to create a radio-friendly album...i think ATYCLB is a great album, seriously sincerely i believe that. But that album also had that oldfashioned U2 sense of "mystery" injected into every track. I don't get that majestic aura from BOMB, all i get is a bunch of horribly recorded half-assed songs. It's like a bad demo, with potential, but unfortunately it's the end result. At least POP's mistakes were intriguing whereas BOMB's mistakes were catastrophic.