New Album Discussion 1 - Songs of..... - Unreasonable guitar album

[dan_smee]

I’ve said this before, but SOE’s problem is that it’s the most polar album - it has the best and worst music from the last 20 years.

Little Things, Love is Bigger, Landlady, Love is all, Lights of Home, Red Flag Day, Book of Your Heart, 13. Crackers. An album full of tunes like this could be considered a surprisingly high quality late career release.

This is killed by Best Thing (though I am convinced there is a good song in there murdered by late production changes and under-writing), AS, GOOYOW (which isn’t as bad as people say), and Showman (which, again, in the right context is fine. It does not suit this album). Summer of Love is… nothing? Blackout was ok, but probably hasn’t aged well and lacked oomph.

 

[ascender_RS]

I still can't quite work out what is wrong with the mix or production on The Blackout. It should be an absolute barn stormer but just seems a bit flat.

 

[dan_smee]

This will sound weird, but I think the wrong band played it. By that I mean, they aren’t a “strap yourself in” “**** for leather” type of rock band, and there is some guts missing from it. It needed less of the popping, rolling bass sound from Boomerang II. There’s distortion, but it isn’t powerful. It needed dirtier guitar. It needed something much stronger than the tom rolls Larry plays during the riff at the end of each bar. I don’t even think it needed a hard rock band, just one more comfortable making some dirtier noise. Even if the song was played by 2007ish Arctic Monkeys. I can imagine the noise of Brianstorm, the syncopation of songs like Old Yellow Bricks or Fluorescent Adolescent, but mixed with the crooner style delivery of Tranquility Base being a fascinating sound for that song. I think they wrote a song that didn’t suit them at all, and for a few years I didn’t notice. But I do now and it just feels a bit dated and off.

 

[Salome]

This will sound weird, but I think the wrong band played it.

Would make the same argument for American Soul. Could and probably would work for a different band.

What frustrates me about SOE is the handful of songs where they should sound unapologetically like vintage U2 (to be able to convincingly pull off the songs). Instead of sounding like vintage U2 or a slightly 'different' U2, it just sounds like watered down U2. To me.

 

[MattD]

Problem with The Blackout is that damn chorus.

'When the lights go out, throw yourself about'.... such a generic, cliched cut and paste wannabe chant. Turns the song into Zoo TV meets The Wiggles.

 

[2861U2]

My wife is funny. Yesterday was my birthday, and in addition to giving me the new Until The End Of The World book, she presented me with this awesome (and seemingly legally-binding) document.

 

[AndrewCowley]

Both SOI and SOE suffer from sounding piss weak. Raised By Wolves is another song that should kick arse.

The band must have wanted it this way. Pity.

 

[MattD]

Both SOI and SOE suffer from sounding piss weak. Raised By Wolves is another song that should kick arse.

The band must have wanted it this way. Pity.

This confuses me as one is produced by Steve Lillywhite - or rather re-recorded throughout 2017. Wasn't this to apparently capture a more spontaneous live sound? And yet it sounds nothing like the first three albums that he produced, if we're to use them as an example of great sounding albums with a raw spontaneous feel.

Produced to ensure it blends in well with all the other bland sounds in the charts? Probably.

 

[Hewson]

My wife is funny. Yesterday was my birthday, and in addition to giving me the new Until The End Of The World book, she presented me with this awesome (and seemingly legally-binding) document.


View attachment 24370

Sorry man, 2 issues.

1. It's not notarized.
B. It says it covers purchases made over the next 2 years, so you're SOL on tour tickets and new album purchases.

 

[TinKnight]

I mean a common link here is the weakness of Bono's lyrics and the autobiography was very illuminating in that regard. He truly believes that American Soul is just as lyrically meaningful as Bad.

 

[Registered Dude]

Problem with The Blackout is that damn chorus.

'When the lights go out, throw yourself about'.... such a generic, cliched cut and paste wannabe chant. Turns the song into Zoo TV meets The Wiggles.

This made me laugh out loud

I like where they were going with the verse, but the chorus doesnt pay off, I agree. It's a pop hook chorus and not a rock n roller

 

[phanan]

Hopefully we get something new soon. I've lost count how many times the conversation in this thread keeps circling back to SOI and SOE.

 

[Registered Dude]

sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon

soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon

 

[mikal]

sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon

soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon

ch ch ch ah ah ah

 

[DeVaul]

I mean a common link here is the weakness of Bono's lyrics and the autobiography was very illuminating in that regard. He truly believes that American Soul is just as lyrically meaningful as Bad.

They’re He’s Dumb.

 

[david]

ch ch ch ah ah ah

I laughed out loud because I read this while also happening to be listening to a nostalgia podcast discussing the television premier of Friday the 13th Part 2 haha.

 

[Registered Dude]

let's try some nice Rattle n Hum talk? How about that Freedom for My People?

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

I like The Blackout, make no apologies for liking The Blackout, and have zero issues with the chorus.

If we're being that nitpicky over it being a "pop" chorus vs a "rock" chorus than we've completelykst the plot. There are hundreds of killer songs over the years where the lyrics aren't exactly Shakespeare.

 

[JamietheEdgefan]

I remember enjoying the Blackout when I first heard the album version. I didn’t think much of the pre-album live performance, but the album version had this extra gravitas with the bass synths (particularly in the intro and bridge), and the overall production gave it a very cool, sleek electronic dance feel which I loved.

Then I heard the version they did on the E&I tour, which I thought absolutely kicked ass. Edge’s distorted guitar and Larry’s tom drums were way more aggressive, and turned the song into a completely different beast - to the point it almost ruined the album version for me, which now felt subdued in comparison.

I’m not sure I agree that U2 were the wrong band for this song. One of my favourite things about U2 is just how much they can evolve when they really want to, and I do believe they could have done justice to the Blackout if they’d pushed themselves harder, and really delved into a ‘heavy rock’ production sound.

I think it’s a recurring issue with them, where their live performances can have much more power, and their recordings by comparison can feel quite restrained, polished, and held back by comparison.

Bono has been emphasising the ‘four musicians in a room’ sound for this upcoming album. I feel like he does that for every album, but if they did finally accomplish that sound, I think it would do wonders for their music. Good production is almost a musical instrument in itself, and you can really tell when it’s missing, to the point it can really make or break a song.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

i think bono has emphasized every single possible style under the sun for this next one.

i'm not sure how eno led sci fi irish folk jives with four guys in a room. hopefully we'll find out soon enough.

 

[JamietheEdgefan]

Another thing about the Blackout: it didn’t help them that it had to sit and sound sonically cohesive alongside songs like ‘The Best Thing’ or ‘GOOYOW’, which I imagine prevented them from going all-out with a heavier sound. Every track seemed to be tempered to fit on the radio, and exist in harmony with the popular production sounds of 2017, which inevitably compromised any deviating sounds and styles to an extent.

I wonder how SoE might’ve sounded if the whole album had been more devoted to a heavy rock production, and tracks like The Best Thing were shaped to fit that approach.

Kind of like how ‘Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World’ initially sounded much more acoustic and country, as if it belonged on the Joshua Tree or Rattle and Hum (which is obviously the sonic space the band had just come from, and probably gravitated to out of instinct), but was then moulded into a more industrial 90’s Berlin sound to fit Achtung Baby.

Again, something that would benefit the next album - sonic cohesion, and dedication to a particular sound, so that the work is less compromised by trying to be a bit of everything, and can instead lean fully in one direction and really come to life. Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, ATYCLB (****, even SoI) know what they want to be - but I feel like SoE didn’t.

 

[JamietheEdgefan]

i think bono has emphasized every single possible style under the sun for this next one.

i'm not sure how eno led sci fi irish folk jives with four guys in a room. hopefully we'll find out soon enough.

It’s not too far off from every other album cycle in that regard, is it!

I think the most realistic outcome is we get little fragments of all of these things, but inevitably (and because of the last minute changes they’re prone to making), the end result will be something else.

I’m preparing myself for disappointment, because Eno-produced sci-fi Irish folk sounds absolutely amazing to me, as in I couldn’t imagine anything else I’d want them to do more than that, but I suspect the reason those descriptions have stuck around is only because they just so happened to be in that headspace when they did a few prominent and unrelated interviews, and since then have gone quiet - whilst likely developing the album beyond and, sadly, away from that concept.

But we’ll see!

 

[mikal]

The Blackout is good but if anything it just kind of highlights everything that's wrong with SOE. The album had no clue what it wanted to be. One moment you have Summer Of Love, which sounds like a pop group, and then they sounded really old on a couple of songs, followed by something that sounds like it came from their '90s era.

 

[david]

I agree. It starts of with Love Is All We Have Left which is a nice ambient peculiar track then just goes into Lights of Home.. but shouldn’t have been track 1. Yeah, the sequencing order of tracks was so weird.

 

[AndrewCowley]

The Blackout is good but if anything it just kind of highlights everything that's wrong with SOE. The album had no clue what it wanted to be. One moment you have Summer Of Love, which sounds like a pop group, and then they sounded really old on a couple of songs, followed by something that sounds like it came from their '90s era.

I don’t mind this at all. 12 good songs that take from different eras of their past is fine if the songs are good enough. Not necessarily worse than 12 songs forced to fit into one genre or style.

 

[dan_smee]

I agree. It starts of with Love Is All We Have Left which is a nice ambient peculiar track then just goes into Lights of Home.. but shouldn’t have been track 1. Yeah, the sequencing order of tracks was so weird.

See, I love the start. I think LIAWHL was a perfect curve ball after the last album and the build up. It’s eerie, lyrically short but strong, the vocoder was actually a nice touch. There were odd and interesting sounds, and then it melts away and U2 arrive. Lights of Home is a good example of a big U2 chorus. I know some people don’t like them using a Haim riff - I have no opinion. It fits.

 

[ChurchBay]

I really like SOE and feel i could write a bigger piece defending it (when i have the time). Like HTDAAB I think you could argue that the sum of it's parts is greater than the whole. But for me the positives for me really do outweigh the poorer moments on the album (the less said about the American commentary songs the better) because the positives are so so strong. Bono confronting death on Lights of Home with a gut busting chorus is one of my favourite U2 moments (it really is peculiar why the strings version wasn't the original track 2). Little Things is a pearl of a song and maybe the best thing U2 have but sadly don't know about. And 13 is a gorgeous closer. Those are the 3 standouts for me and they are amongst the most genuine, heartfelt and sincere songs put to record by U2.

 

[Irvine511]

My issue with SOE is that it’s too tight for any sort of magic. The better songs need to breathe. LIB? Why didn’t they “Hey Jude” that shĩt? Same with Landlady, that’s a gorgeous, meditative groove they could have ridden for another 45 second, like a more tender but less magesterial “one.”

My worry is that if they were to write and release One or WOWY today they’d cut off the end of the songs (which they did on SOS) out of fear people would lose interest if Bono stops singing for more than 15 seconds.

IIRC — and I may not RC — someone on here did a mix of Little Things from Kimmel? Fallon? where they added the chorus back in at the end after “can’t see you through the tears” and it worked so, so well for me.

 

[Registered Dude]

My issue with SOE is that it’s too tight for any sort of magic. The better songs need to breathe. LIB? Why didn’t they “Hey Jude” that shĩt? Same with Landlady, that’s a gorgeous, meditative groove they could have ridden for another 45 second, like a more tender but less magesterial “one.”

Great point about Landlady. It’s a fantastic song, but you’re bang on.

It’s like if they cut off Heartland immediately following the end of the final chorus

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Why? They hired Ryan Tedder to produce it. That's why.

Hire a pop producer. Get a pop record.