U2 peaked in Larry's kitchen. It's been all down hill ever since.
One is newer than the other so fans aren't ready to process its flaws yet. Happens with every new U2 album. NLOTH was treated like a brilliant, artistic return to form until SOI. SOI was a focused masterwork following the inconsistent mess of NLOTH until SOE.
U2 peaked in Larry's kitchen. It's been all down hill ever since.
SOI and SOE are both great albums. It's just that both have a few flaws that seemed obviously correctable, but the band didn't do it (track order, song selection, choice of singles, etc.)
Hindsight being 20-20, U2 leaves Song For Someone and Volcano off SOI since their superior versions (13, American Soul) ended up on the next album. Those two slots on SOI are filled by Crystal Ballroom and Invisible, and suddenly SOI is even better than it already is.
Double like
SOI and SOE are both great albums. It's just that both have a few flaws that seemed obviously correctable, but the band didn't do it (track order, song selection, choice of singles, etc.)
Hindsight being 20-20, U2 leaves Song For Someone and Volcano off SOI since their superior versions (13, American Soul) ended up on the next album. Those two slots on SOI are filled by Crystal Ballroom and Invisible, and suddenly SOI is even better than it already is.
American Soul is in no way better than Volcano.
Double dislike.
The only reason Bono turned up was that the meeting was in a kitchen
--does it really make sense to put out a companion album to a story 3 years after the fact? No.
Rick Rubin (the most overrated producer of all time who has never produced a genuinely great album in his life) .
Also, tell Rick Rubin (the most overrated producer of all time who has never produced a genuinely great album in his life) to fuck off with his ‘advice’ that U2 hid behind intriguing sounds to make their songs sound interesting. Pop is a better record than any shite that Rubin has produced, but unfortunately, they seem to have taken this grizzled bores advice over real auteurs like Eno.
I just think they operate in a musical straitjacket these days - they seem to have forgotten about the sonic and loose structural qualities their songs used to have, now resorting to generic rigid pop song structures that sound uninspired. The Edge has forgotten all about the ethereal mysticism that makes him a unique guitarist (whatever happened to the orchestrated multilayered beauty of songs like Unforgettable Fire?) and turned into a middle aged pub rawk bore for the most part with an extremely dull stripped down approach. Meanwhile, Bono thinks he’s in direct competition with Chris Martin for generic cut and paste choruses and ends up sounding like all those U2 imitator bands from the mid 2000s.
Turn the studio into an instrument, begin building songs from the ground up
That may be overstating just a tad for the guy who produced the likes of Licensed to Ill, Reign in Blood, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Californication, Wildflowers and countless others
That may be overstating just a tad for the guy who produced the likes of Licensed to Ill, Reign in Blood, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Californication, Wildflowers and countless others
I’ll give him fair dues for the Beastie Boys, but Pettys album doesn’t rest on the producer, more so his god given songwriting talent.
But Red Hot Chili Peppers? Absolutely putrid band.
Frederick Jay Rubin (/ˈruːbɪn/; born March 10, 1963) is an American record producer and former co-president of Columbia Records. Along with Russell Simmons, he is the co-founder of Def Jam Recordings and also established American Recordings. With the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Geto Boys, and Run-DMC, Rubin helped popularize hip hop music.
Rubin has also worked with artists such as AC/DC, Adele, Aerosmith, At The Drive-In, Audioslave, Black Sabbath, Coheed And Cambria, Damien Rice, Danzig, Dixie Chicks, Ed Sheeran, Eminem, Frank Ocean, Gogol Bordello, Jakob Dylan, Jay Z, Jake Bugg, James Blake, Joe Strummer, Johnny Cash, Jovanotti, Justin Timberlake, Kanye West, Kid Rock, Lady Gaga, Lana Del Rey, Led Zeppelin, Linkin Park, Melanie C, Metallica, Mick Jagger, Neil Diamond, Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Shakira, Sheryl Crow, Slayer, Slipknot, Suitors of Penelope, System of a Down, The Avett Brothers, The Black Crowes, The Cult, The Four Horsemen, The Mars Volta, The Smashing Pumpkins, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Trouble, Type O Negative, Weezer, Dan Auerbach, The Black Keys and ZZ Top.
In 2007, MTV called him "the most important producer of the last 20 years", and the same year Rubin appeared on Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rubin