super fly guy
New Yorker
That first review is something I would expect NME to post.
Only in Disc 2 but I’m just really refreshed by how it feels much more like listening to them play music than the recent records… not even so much in terms of ‘intimacy’ but like people (mostly edge, but also Bono’s singing) are making semi-spontaneous choices based on what feels right, rather than focus-grouping the fifth version of a rewritten song so much it’s hard to feel the human/U2 DNA on the other side. I’m realizing how much I missed that. Makes SOI/SOE feel a little like Disney Star Wars. And yes I know they’ve often worked very closely with producers, but the recent stuff tends to feel like we’re several layers of self doubt and reworking from any original musical impulse. EBW is a great example of this to me (I realize this is controversial)—original guitar performances feel hearbreaking, sad, genuinely depressed… the later rewrite feels like somebody had to write a pop chorus.
40 Songs, 40 Cities just announced...
I would like a PM link, please and thank you.
40 Songs, 40 Cities just announced...
Disc 1 down. Highlights so far:
- Stories For Boys is sublime. Expected from the clips, but I just love it’s atmosphere.
- 11 O’Clock solo is wonderful. It fades out a bit soon, but not as jarring as the Troubles.
- Bad is better than the TUF version. There, I said it. It’s always been an epic song, but it was a live song. The album version was a bit of an odd one until it blew up live. The added lyrics did complete the sketch, and it worked. We give Bono lots of shit for making stuff worse, so credit where it’s due.
- EBW - yeah we’ve heard this before, but it is much better than the radio or acoustic versions from 2014. Well recorded - captures the spontaneity as well as not sounding rushed.
- Walk On - same as bad re lyrics - credit where it’s due. The original production and instrumentation is special to me, but it’s a lovely companion.
I had high expectations. I was one of the strongest advocates for waiting until hearing the whole before jumping off cliffs. I got shit for it. They’ve exceeded the expectations and then some. I hope they use some of the decision making that went into this on the new record.
I had high expectations. I was one of the strongest advocates for waiting until hearing the whole before jumping off cliffs. I got shit for it. They’ve exceeded the expectations and then some. I hope they use some of the decision making that went into this on the new record.
the best part of getting the leak today is that now i don't have to decide between the Letterman thing and the album on my train ride tomorrow.
The members of U2 may be Dublin’s favorite musical sons, but Glen Hansard isn’t far behind, thanks to his work as a solo artist and with the Frames and Once cohort Marketa Irglova. As such, it’s fitting the veteran troubadour appears in U2’s David Letterman-hosted Disney+ special A Sort of Homecoming, which will be released tomorrow (March 17).
Hansard tells SPIN the invitation to be involved came from Bono himself. “He had a nice idea to have some music in a bar, and he wanted me there, and a couple other musicians we know,” he says, referencing the participation of himself, Irglova, Imelda May, Saint Sister, Fontaines DC’s Grian Chatten, and Dermot Kennedy during two nights of music at the tiny McDaid’s Pub in mid-December. Among the songs performed was U2’s “Desire” by Bono and Hansard.
Afterward, Hansard thought his on-camera duties were complete, but then Bono asked if he’d talk with Letterman, who serves as a kind of spirit guide to U2’s Dublin in the special. Hansard told Bono he was game, but that he’d actually never spoken to Letterman before despite performing on his CBS late night show on several occasions.
“We have a local train in Ireland called the DART, and he wanted me to ride the train from terminus to terminus, which is about an hour,” Hansard recalls. “I’ve never met this guy, and suddenly I’m sitting on the train with him for an hour. He was an absolute sweetheart. We did talk about U2, but almost the whole conversation was about our sons, which was just a lovely, lovely way to meet him. The first thing I said was, ‘I’ve done your show, but I’ve never spoken to you.’ He said, ‘you were probably told don’t look me in the eye, right?’ I said, ‘yeah.’ He said, ‘yeah, that’s how I like it’ (laughs). He was really, really sweet. We rode the train for an hour and then we went to a bar. David really surprised me. Not that I was expecting a cold fish, but he was an absolute gent.”
40 Songs, 40 Cities just announced...
while i'll agree that this Bad is good, and that live Bad is the best Bad... saying it's better than the original studio version is a bridge too far for this guy, but to each their own.
Fuck it just listened to a couple. And little things blew me away,just cemented itself as top tier U2. And that's a hill I'm willing to die on.