super fly guy
New Yorker
I still have my old iPod,will fire it up over the weekend.
New Album Discussion 1 - Songs of..... - Unreasonable guitar album
- Thread starter dan_smee
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I write an initial reaction review every time a new U2 album comes out and I recall for a good half the songs on NLOTH writing something to the effect of "Oh, and on this so-called experimental album here's Edge doing exactly what you'd expect Edge to do". I really enjoy Breathe by the way and think the chorus is probably the best one on the album, possibly second to Magnificent; but yeah, it was just like here's more jangly/chimey/delay guitar on virtually every other song and we're supposed to believe this is a departure...okay. Just more of that "One foot in (the other on my delay pedal)" mentality of that era.
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
Interesting experiment, I'll check it out!
zoopop
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Pretty awesome. NLOTH, UC, & Breathe sound great. Especially Breathe. Sounds way more rocking!!
I do think they should bring back Breathe live. Great encore opener
MrsSpringsteen
Blue Crack Supplier
AndrewCowley
Refugee
NLOTH was the last album where they sought out an expansive sound. It’s not perfect but in comparison my problem with SOI (in particular) and SOE is that they are musically boring and unadventurous. The heralded (by some) ‘narrative’ of those albums isn’t enough to carry them. U2 is sound and lyrics. Bring back the sound. Dare I say, let me in the sound.
PookaMacP
War Child
I agree. What I think is interesting about the conversation in this thread, however, are the different opinions about that sound.
It makes we wonder. Even if there was no sagging middle (ie *those* three songs) and they'd managed to make a whole album in the vein of the opening four tracks, it might still be one of the more divisive albums in their catalogue. Unlike Unforgettable Fire, for example, there would be no Pride or Bad for us all to agree on.
OP
OP
dan_smee
ONE love, blood, life
15 years removed from having a mini breakdown about my frustrations with that album, a little older and wiser, listening back to these mixes (rough though they are) for the first time in over a decade I feel like the issue with the album is clear:
The songs they ended up with were fine. MOS and Magnificent are nearly great. When they shat the bed on the single concept (the cop going on an Odyssey through Southern France and North Africa) it’s almost like the brief to fix it up was “just don’t throw away everything Danny and Brian did. They are gunna be pissed enough”.
SUC, Breathe, Crazy Tonight, Unknown Caller - all of these are schizophrenic. They all would be better full on weird and atmospheric. But when they decided to water them down and throw out anything that felt unsafe, they should have just done that. The primary colours songs underneath these (as my rudimentary mixes with VERY limited resources show) are much better for the space than the mushed together thing they ended up settling on.
The songs they ended up with were fine. MOS and Magnificent are nearly great. When they shat the bed on the single concept (the cop going on an Odyssey through Southern France and North Africa) it’s almost like the brief to fix it up was “just don’t throw away everything Danny and Brian did. They are gunna be pissed enough”.
SUC, Breathe, Crazy Tonight, Unknown Caller - all of these are schizophrenic. They all would be better full on weird and atmospheric. But when they decided to water them down and throw out anything that felt unsafe, they should have just done that. The primary colours songs underneath these (as my rudimentary mixes with VERY limited resources show) are much better for the space than the mushed together thing they ended up settling on.
No Line isn't great, bordering on dull and generic in places (e.g. them 'rawking' things up like the recording of Breathe) but it sounds like sonic wizardry in comparison to what followed.
Innocence is the absolute nadir of U2. Flat production, uninspired instrumentation, generic 'reach the sky" melodies courtesy of Tedder, and literal 'what I did on my holidays' style depth to Bono's lyrics. Desperate stuff.
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It's coming out on Songs of Irrelevance
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No lie, I had a dream last night that I reworked SBS into a dance song and personally handed it to Bono and Ali
namkcuR
ONE love, blood, life
NLOTH is the most compromised record of their career. It has great tracks - the usual suspects of the title track, MOS, Fez-BB, WAS, Cedars, Winter(if you want to count that) - but on the whole it's an album that can't decide whether it wants to be Original Soundtracks Vol. 2 or ATYCLB/HTDAAB Pt. 3, and that makes it difficult to listen to front-to-back.
I think SOI is a more consistent album, and I very much disagree with the criticism above. I loved it from day one. The back half is some of their strongest material of the 21st century. The Troubles and Sleep Like A Baby Tonight are genuinely great tracks that can hang with the best of their 90s material. This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now is very good as well. Raised By Wolves and Cedarwood Road might be the best rockers they've written in the 21st century. As for the singles, I think the slow version of Every Breaking Wave is their best single of the 21st century. I hardly listen to the album cut anymore. I'm also a big fan of California.
I think SOE has some great tracks too, but it's got lower lows imo so, for me, SOI is superior.
The biggest problem with SOI/SOE isn't the music, it's the way they were packaged and marketed. It feels like everything they could've done wrong, they did wrong. It kills me that SOI will never, ever, ever get a fair shake with the general public because of the iPhone debacle. It kills me that Crystal Ballroom(a top 5 track from the sessions that could've been a single) and Invisible were left off the album. It kills me that California and Volcano(far superior to American Soul btw) weren't released as singles(and accordingly played every night on the tour) when they feel like they were engineered in a lab to be singles.
With SOE, watching them push Get Out Of Your Own Way and American Soul(the two worst songs on the album) so hard, along with The Blackout, while not pushing Lights Of Home or Summer Of Love or even Red Flag Day near as hard, and while ignoring Little Things(the best song on the album, completely omitted from the tour when it should've been the leadoff single and played every night) altogether was painful. Not to mention leaving Book Of Your Heart off the album.
I sometimes think if they'd set out to intentionally sabotage these albums, they could hardly have done a better job.
I think SOI is a more consistent album, and I very much disagree with the criticism above. I loved it from day one. The back half is some of their strongest material of the 21st century. The Troubles and Sleep Like A Baby Tonight are genuinely great tracks that can hang with the best of their 90s material. This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now is very good as well. Raised By Wolves and Cedarwood Road might be the best rockers they've written in the 21st century. As for the singles, I think the slow version of Every Breaking Wave is their best single of the 21st century. I hardly listen to the album cut anymore. I'm also a big fan of California.
I think SOE has some great tracks too, but it's got lower lows imo so, for me, SOI is superior.
The biggest problem with SOI/SOE isn't the music, it's the way they were packaged and marketed. It feels like everything they could've done wrong, they did wrong. It kills me that SOI will never, ever, ever get a fair shake with the general public because of the iPhone debacle. It kills me that Crystal Ballroom(a top 5 track from the sessions that could've been a single) and Invisible were left off the album. It kills me that California and Volcano(far superior to American Soul btw) weren't released as singles(and accordingly played every night on the tour) when they feel like they were engineered in a lab to be singles.
With SOE, watching them push Get Out Of Your Own Way and American Soul(the two worst songs on the album) so hard, along with The Blackout, while not pushing Lights Of Home or Summer Of Love or even Red Flag Day near as hard, and while ignoring Little Things(the best song on the album, completely omitted from the tour when it should've been the leadoff single and played every night) altogether was painful. Not to mention leaving Book Of Your Heart off the album.
I sometimes think if they'd set out to intentionally sabotage these albums, they could hardly have done a better job.
Man, this is spot on! Great stuff here and I agree word-for-word!
SOI is really a great album! You could argue some of the production as a drawback in addition to the marketing you mentioned) and I'd say that's reasonable but I'd disagree! Nothing in the Miracle to Iris run of Tedder/Coldplay/whatever at the front of the album sounds compromised to me. Nor does it sound like it is out of place with the rest of the album.
Also, great call on California! Loved it from first listen.
OP
OP
dan_smee
ONE love, blood, life
I think SOI is a better record than NLOTH and SOE. I agree it is more consistent thematically and quality wise. But I also think the highs aren’t as high as the highs on the other two. The lows of NLOTH (Boots, Crazy, SUC) are the lowest of the three (though American Soul is pretty damn low). The highs of SOE are the highest of the three (Little Things, LIAWHL, LOH, RFD, Blackout, LIBTAIIW). Maybe MOS is the best song of the lot but there’s safety in numbers for SOE. Legit for anyone to rank any of them in any order depending on their own perspectives. Quality of album and favourite album are very different things though. If asked 5 times out of 10 I’d prefer to listen to SOE. 3 times out of I’d prefer SOI and 2 times out of 10 I’d prefer NLOTH.
Prioritise the most and highest highs, then the most consistent album.
Prioritise the most and highest highs, then the most consistent album.
So what you're saying is that on SOI and SOE the band couldn't get out of their own way?
DancingBrft
Babyface
It’s weird for me. I’m an “oldie”, and IMHO Pop was the last great U2 album. I tried really hard to get into ATYCLB and HTDAAB, and I liked some of the songs, but they never landed with me as whole albums. That was the first time ever in my U2 fandom.
Now some of that may be me personally…..a lot of big changes were happening in my life, and I didn’t have the same amount of time and energy to put into my music passions.
However, despite their flaws, my favorite tracks on NLOTH and SOI I like better than anything on ATYCLB or HTDAAB. And I feel like SOI is their finest album of the 21st century, but absolutely criminal that Invisble was not the lead single.
Now some of that may be me personally…..a lot of big changes were happening in my life, and I didn’t have the same amount of time and energy to put into my music passions.
However, despite their flaws, my favorite tracks on NLOTH and SOI I like better than anything on ATYCLB or HTDAAB. And I feel like SOI is their finest album of the 21st century, but absolutely criminal that Invisble was not the lead single.
DancingBrft
Babyface
Also I should add…and this could be part of it for me too…..I’ve seen U2 only six times, and the last time was the PopMart tour. So I know that seeing the shows from 2000 on can be a powerful way for the songs to “unlock” at times, especially with how good live U2 is.
namkcuR
ONE love, blood, life
Interesting how different perspectives can be. I don't think I agree with any of this.
In terms of lows, I think American Soul and GOOYOW are clearly below the NLOTH middle 3.
In terms of highs, I'd take The Troubles, Sleep Like A Baby, slow EBW, Crystal Ballroom, Raised By Wolves, and maybe Cedarwood and Reach over anything on SOE except for maybe Little Things and Book Of Your Heart.
I'm also particularly surprised to see Blackout cited as a high. It's one of the SOE tracks I go back to least. It always came off to me like an overcooked attempt to rock that ended up sounding too generic for its own good. To me, Raised By Wolves is a much more exciting, original, creative rock song. Cedarwood too.
Also, as an aside...for a long time I was never as high on Love Is Bigger than a lot of people - I always liked the verses and the bridge, but the chorus always felt too big and try-hard to me - but the acoustic version finally made it click for me. The chorus works much better with acoustic strumming underneath it instead of electronic-sounding keyboards, imo.
Anyway, different strokes for different folks.
namkcuR
ONE love, blood, life
Building on what I said about Love Is Bigger above, I've felt for awhile now that SOE is more enjoyable if taken as a more streamlined, stripped down affair. I do it like this:
1. Love Is All We Have Left
2. Book Of Your Heart
3. Landlady
4. Summer Of Love
5. The Showman
6. You're The Best Thing About Me(Acoustic)
7. Love Is Bigger Than Anything In It's Way(Acoustic)
8. Lights Of Home(Songs Of Surrender version)
9. Little Things(Songs Of Surrender version)
10. 13
I expect I'm in the minority there, but whatever. The production on SOE is all over the place, and when you strip it away it becomes a more cohesive whole.
1. Love Is All We Have Left
2. Book Of Your Heart
3. Landlady
4. Summer Of Love
5. The Showman
6. You're The Best Thing About Me(Acoustic)
7. Love Is Bigger Than Anything In It's Way(Acoustic)
8. Lights Of Home(Songs Of Surrender version)
9. Little Things(Songs Of Surrender version)
10. 13
I expect I'm in the minority there, but whatever. The production on SOE is all over the place, and when you strip it away it becomes a more cohesive whole.
Who said we all agree on Pride?
vertigo2024
The Fly
So what about U2's next album? Anyone have an idea on when it will be released?
zoopop
Rock n' Roll Doggie
I do think SOI is the most cohesive album since ATYCLB. Its the only U2 album from the 2000s (minus ATYLCB) that I enjoy listening all the way thru. It flows very nicely & every song is fine on it. It just doesn't have the high point like other U2 albums.
Bomb, NLOTH, & SOE are a mess on the sequencing/tracklist side of things. But do have some high points compared to SOI (and some major low points).
Bomb, NLOTH, & SOE are a mess on the sequencing/tracklist side of things. But do have some high points compared to SOI (and some major low points).
I’d say between late 2025 and early 2031.
Hewson
Blue Crack Supplier
Not today.
vertigo2024
The Fly
It's been 7 years and four months since the last U2 album. I think we need an update.
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