Yeah, def worked live. Caught it on a show that included full band Stuck, October and Bad. Great great night
Songs of Surrender - New album discussion - 6
- Thread starter Registered Dude
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Yeah, def worked live. Caught it on a show that included full band Stuck, October and Bad. Great great night
The John Tree
War Child
I always thought "Raised By Wolves" was one of the very few post-ATYCLB songs that truly lived up to their 80s and 90s output. I'm always shocked when that one doesn't get more love.
pacemaker
Refugee
I love that song. It has a unique aggressiveness that they don’t ever really tap into.
womanfish
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
Absolutely. I think RBW, Volcano, Sleep Like a Baby and The Troubles are what I would love to hear more of from them. RBW being another one that has an early 80's sound to it in the chorus, and then sort of a No LIne era delivery in the verse.
mikal
Blue Crack Addict
SOI is such a good album that no one cared about because of both the iPhone thing and frankly, U2 became a legacy band the prior tour 5 years before the release. After HTDAAB/Vertigo Tour, public interest in their every move seemed to just reach the point where they didn't care anymore. U2 was in the public spotlight pretty heavily for 5-6 years. Happens with a lot of bands.
Despite all that, U2 returning to arenas after 360 was treated like a big deal (as opposed to a retreat) and the shows sold well. The mix of songs we got on i+e was also very solid. Hoping they rattle the cage similarly or moreso with song choices next outing.
mikal
Blue Crack Addict
Agreed. I really enjoyed the setlists on I&E.
The John Tree
War Child
Yeah, I remember when Red Flag Day came out, so much of the buzz was around how it sounded like it could have come from the War era. In my head, RBW had already done that!
ascender_RS
Refugee
I really like Volcano, the bass in particular, but again, the mix seemed to lack punch and heft. I don’t quite know how to describe it, but there was something missing.
The John Tree
War Child
What’s missing is a sense of dynamics that have been absent since Eno and Lanois left the fold. The “Songs of…” albums feature countless examples of choruses being smaller than they are because they don’t feature many sonic qualities that distinguish them from the verses. Often, Edge’s guitar is way too low in the mix or he doesn’t have a powerful part. Larry, too, can be buried in the mix some times.
The chorus to Volcano should explode in with power chords or a more pronounced Edge guitar line. Instead, it relies on the “ohhhh” for the liftoff, and it doesn’t quite do it.
The same can be said for Get Out Of Your Own Way, which should have been a massive hit because it’s not a bad song, but it’s produced terribly. The chorus features a snare fill intro that should signify a big liftoff, yet instead it’s just the background vocals that have to do most of the heavy lifting. Edge’s guitar is nonexistent until the *third* iteration of the chorus, before the solo. That’s an astoundingly poor choice for a song with such a hooky chorus. Listening to Get Out Of Your Own Way kind of sounds like you’re playing Guitar Hero and messing up all the notes - there’s no guitar, just drums, bass, and vocals.
Compare that with Beautiful Day. The chorus is *huge* and then manages to get even bigger during the “touch me” part, and then manages to somehow get even more epic during the “what you don’t have you don’t need it now” section. It’s a testament to the mixing and production of Eno and Lanois.
(Though I also have a gripe with Eno and Lanois, who took a potentially massive chorus in Unknown Caller and never managed to get it off the ground).
The chorus to Volcano should explode in with power chords or a more pronounced Edge guitar line. Instead, it relies on the “ohhhh” for the liftoff, and it doesn’t quite do it.
The same can be said for Get Out Of Your Own Way, which should have been a massive hit because it’s not a bad song, but it’s produced terribly. The chorus features a snare fill intro that should signify a big liftoff, yet instead it’s just the background vocals that have to do most of the heavy lifting. Edge’s guitar is nonexistent until the *third* iteration of the chorus, before the solo. That’s an astoundingly poor choice for a song with such a hooky chorus. Listening to Get Out Of Your Own Way kind of sounds like you’re playing Guitar Hero and messing up all the notes - there’s no guitar, just drums, bass, and vocals.
Compare that with Beautiful Day. The chorus is *huge* and then manages to get even bigger during the “touch me” part, and then manages to somehow get even more epic during the “what you don’t have you don’t need it now” section. It’s a testament to the mixing and production of Eno and Lanois.
(Though I also have a gripe with Eno and Lanois, who took a potentially massive chorus in Unknown Caller and never managed to get it off the ground).
Haha. That bar needs a playlist overhaul! Damn, those middle 3 of NLOTH were bad and have gotten worse with time....... at least to my ears.
"Best Thing,"
"Love Is Bigger " and one of the seemingly endless remixes of " Summer of Love" (the most edm influenced one) get played pretty regularly at a restaurant/lounge that is one of Boston's best known/busiest night spots.
Criticisms justifiably in place, the "Songs of" era has done quite well. The SOI tour recovered as best as possible from the Apple debacle. That album to me was a 9/10 and gets better with time. SOE had its issues, but came with very high peaks- "Little Things," "Landlady," "Red flag day" along with the aforementioned 3 that had the originals and a few remixes gain some staying power out there in the world.
There have been plenty of missteps, but we have to remember that rock has seen a straight downward spiral since 2004 (Vertigo). Someone up thread ran the numbers and there's really no rock act that has done better in terms of airplay or especially, tour attendance numbers. Even in the 2000-2004 environment, they had to hit it completely out of the park twice- BD and Vertigo- to have the smash hits they had. This shit ain't easy..... so we have to guard against judging say, California or Invisible as not up to U2 standards just because they weren't hits.
It's easy to let the combination of (justifiable) fan criticism and the ridiculous "cool to hate U2" attitude take over, but they're really doing quite well. And while things like Apple and some of the more cringeworthy decisions will certainly be remembered, I don't buy for a second that U2's legacy is anything but solidly intact forever.
I still get way more positive than negative responses from people I meet (all ages) when I say I'm a U2 die hard.
In fact, I'm 35 and one of the more enthusiastic reactions I got in the last few years was from a bartender I met in Manhattan in 2019. She was 26 and LOVED them. Mentioned her top songs as BD, WOWY, SBS , One Tree Hill, Please and Wild Horses. The last three very impressive for someone born during Zoo TV.
Last edited:
Totally agree about rock's downward spiral. I'd say mid-90s is about where that started and things like Vertigo were a refreshing hiccup. Early 2000s did have its pockets of rock, I suppose; the emo/punk stuff and the wave of pop-metal can all be filed under rock, but grunge and Brit-pop kind of felt like the last bigger hurrahs. I don't even think it's that rock can't come up with anything good anymore. I think it says more about the climate of record company giants continually pushing more and more flash-in-the-pan, flavor-of-the-moment music in an effort to stay afloat when the industry money has mostly shifted to streaming providers (and touring giants/legacy acts, like our boys). If Streets were released today, it might gain some underground traction, but that's probably where it'd stop.
Of course this all leads to the thing most of us seem to want; and that's U2 making the music that captures the moment of whatever music they want to make with no special engineering (during or last minute) to make something that's more enticing to the bubblegum peddlers. There are so many ways, as we've seen with Stranger Things, that music can become popular other than trying to make an easily digestible radio song. They still have some fuel left in the marketing tank to make music without all the shine on it and still get "out there". Get a new (or an old deep-cut song) into Instagram Reels even if it's used for humor. Get your stuff into hot TV shows. There are kids now getting into Metallica who didn't know them before because of it.
Anyway, am I the only one who doesn't like Red Flag Day?
Of course this all leads to the thing most of us seem to want; and that's U2 making the music that captures the moment of whatever music they want to make with no special engineering (during or last minute) to make something that's more enticing to the bubblegum peddlers. There are so many ways, as we've seen with Stranger Things, that music can become popular other than trying to make an easily digestible radio song. They still have some fuel left in the marketing tank to make music without all the shine on it and still get "out there". Get a new (or an old deep-cut song) into Instagram Reels even if it's used for humor. Get your stuff into hot TV shows. There are kids now getting into Metallica who didn't know them before because of it.
Anyway, am I the only one who doesn't like Red Flag Day?
I like Red Flag Day, but I wish there was something more from the Edge. All other pieces are amazing, but he again decides to not really do anything interesting. The opening few chords are kinda nice, but then it's nothing. Adam, Bono, and Larry are all on their game.
I think with societies attention spans become smaller and smaller (and they weren't great anyway), rock has to try and compete with the TikTok, IG, SnapChat, etc etc where you literally have 10-30 seconds to get your point across.
For a band like U2, that's not their thing. They are not the Ramones as much as they want to be. Their pop songs, their love songs have always been a slow buildup. There's layers which take repeated listens to really appreciate.
That doesn't seem to work for what's popular now.
And goes to the point again, just make the music they find interesting vs trying so hard to break back into the charts.
I think with societies attention spans become smaller and smaller (and they weren't great anyway), rock has to try and compete with the TikTok, IG, SnapChat, etc etc where you literally have 10-30 seconds to get your point across.
For a band like U2, that's not their thing. They are not the Ramones as much as they want to be. Their pop songs, their love songs have always been a slow buildup. There's layers which take repeated listens to really appreciate.
That doesn't seem to work for what's popular now.
And goes to the point again, just make the music they find interesting vs trying so hard to break back into the charts.
mikal
Blue Crack Addict
There is so much great rock, especially the metal scene, out there right now. It's that the mainstream pop radio has gravitated away from rock. Unfortunately U2 obsessed with being in the mainstream and not the rock band they used to be. With that said, SOI was a really good rock album.
[emoji88]
OP
OP
Registered Dude
Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
Crumbs from your Cheesecake
womanfish
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
Crumbs From Your Bagel
OP
OP
Registered Dude
Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
If God Will Send His Angel Food Cake
OP
OP
Registered Dude
Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
Bake Up Peach Flan
show me bono eating a bagel
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
Bagels Are Best
This AI image generator is hours of fun
pacemaker
Refugee
Bialy Want Is You
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
Dirty Danish
Muffins of the Disappeared
Muffins of the Disappeared
Last edited:
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
Gonna Run 2 U
New Yorker
The Black Cookie (And White)
Similar threads
- Locked
