mikal
Blue Crack Addict
Yep. That is the only way I’ve listened to ATYCLB in well over 15 years.
Wow I never knew this. I'm a fan of ATYCLB, but that tracklisting makes much more sense, great flow.
Ground beneath her feet should have been a true atyclb track, instead of being a bonus track
Peace on earth wasn’t track 5 was it? Wasn’t it towards the back end of the album ?
Both tracklists load the four singles at the front, which is one of the album's problems, so I'm not sure why everyone is high on the alternate version as a radical change.
Both tracklists load the four singles at the front, which is one of the album's problems, so I'm not sure why everyone is high on the alternate version as a radical change.
The Ground Beneath Her Feet does not belong on ATYCLB. At all. It makes no sense in that context. Everything about it screams 'select markets bonus track'.
I love The Ground Beneath Her Feet, but it is, as someone noted, the last gasp of 1990s U2.
As far as I'm concerned, TGBHF is the final track on ATYCLB. I've always considered it part of the album, ever since I found out it was on some versions of it.
Well, I also bought ATYCLB in 2000, and I was well aware of The Ground Beneath Her Feet's provenance at the time. So it just sat on the end like a sore thumb. It did not help that it was obviously superior to most of the album it had been appended to (except for Beautiful Day).
I guess I could squint and see how it might work after Grace as a closer, but it's got nothing to do with the rest of the album, essentially. Apart from that, and this is the weird part considering the recording sessions were all of a year apart - Bono's voice is palpably different on most of that ATYCLB stuff than it is on most of that Million Dollar Hotel stuff. I think the latter might have been the last time he convincingly pulled off the falsetto.
Well, I also bought ATYCLB in 2000, and I was well aware of The Ground Beneath Her Feet's provenance at the time. So it just sat on the end like a sore thumb. It did not help that it was obviously superior to most of the album it had been appended to (except for Beautiful Day).
Well, yes, you were how much older and more aware than me. My point is that if you don't go in primed with the knowledge that TGBHF is an outlier, it works perfectly well. I mean, hell, this is the album that lurches from Stuck to Elevation to Walk On; Grace to TGBHF is positively seamless by comparison.
I'd suggest there are a number of other, shall we say, canonical album songs that sound much more out of place on their respective records.
Well, yes, you were how much older and more aware than me. My point is that if you don't go in primed with the knowledge that TGBHF is an outlier, it works perfectly well. I mean, hell, this is the album that lurches from Stuck to Elevation to Walk On; Grace to TGBHF is positively seamless by comparison.
I'd suggest there are a number of other, shall we say, canonical album songs that sound much more out of place on their respective records.
Sure, that's fair enough. I can think of examples of just what you describe, for me, with other stuff, other artists.
Subjective as always.
Again, I have to agree with Kieran. The difference in instrumentation and style is much greater between TGBHF and the rest of ATYCLC than it is between Stuck and Walk On. TGBHF has an exoticism and delicacy that just isn’t present in the directness of the other tracks. The lyrics (not by Bono), the guitar, the vocals. Cut from a totally different cloth. And I’d really like to see a source for the info about the recording, because if I had to guess I’d say that and Stateless were done much earlier in the production process than anything else.
they were recorded during the sessions and not used on the album because U2 had a "no salads" rule (what they call ballads). Clearly there were exceptions to that rule on ATYCLB...
U2 did have recording sessions immediately after PopMart ended... the only song to come out of these first sessions I believe was Kite.
The original release date was in 1999 but Bono spent too much time making videos with Wyclef and playing a half empty Giants Stadium, so recording stretched into early 2000s.
They did pause briefly to record the non U2 tracks for the Million Dollar Hotel soundtrack - which also heavily feature Eno and Lanois.
The book The Ground Beneath Her Feet wasn't released until April 1999. I believe at one point the band thought they'd have the album ready around the same time or shortly thereafter and could release the single at the same time Rushdie released the book.
I believe this is all spelled out in U2 By U2 but I'm not home till tomorrow evening so someone else will have to check
I can't even remember what I did yesterdayYeah that sounds right..
Love how we can remember all this random u2 lore, but I can't remember where I left my wallet each morning
I agree with all of this.
If TGBHF and Stateless were truly recorded during the same sessions as ATYCLB, I have to think they were the first two recorded and shipped knowing it would be a different feel from the rest of the new album. Those songs sound like a transition phase from POP to ATYCLB. They’re also awesome songs.