New U2 Album "Songs of Innocence"* (Part 2)

I saw City of Blinding Lights twice. Still hate it. Same with Miracle Drug and All Because Of You.

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is probably my least favourite U2 album. I'm pretty sure I prefer October and I definitely prefer Rattle n Hum.

 

Man would I love to hear those sessions! Even if the songs are garbage, I just want to hear more of that 90s vibe from these guys.

I do like the new album. Can't say for sure if I like it more than "No Line" until I see more of it live. So far the live promo stuff has been pretty good. EBW is a clear gem of a song.

But I will say, my favorite U2 material is when Edge is in the driver's seat, with his complex melodic guitar structures leading the charge. I'm not getting any of that on SOI. In fact Edge is kind of bland here, not really any new sonic territory covered at all, and what he does play often sounds a bit "generic" imo. That's my main criticism of the album. He's always been a team player, and focused on what a song needs, but for heaven's sake he needs to bust out and go nuts once in awhile at the very least.

I would like to own SOI on vinyl, but I just cannot and will not pay $36 for a new album. I have no interest in feeding into a cycle that causes record companies to think that kind of price is acceptable and will be paid. Maybe I'll buy it in a few months if the price drops to <$20 on amazon marketplace or something. I hope these ridiculous prices are a short lived phase. I get the impression they're trying to make up lost digital revenue on the backs of vinyl buyers. I'll stick with labels that charge a fair price of $15-20.

 

Yes, I think any artist can make a conscious decision not to be overly concerned with being contemporary or "hip" or overly influenced by existing trends or even beholden to them. So yes, expert, the answer is yes. Got any more snark for me? Get back in the ring and bring it on.

Love,
Billy

 

Boooooo

 

So it sounds like anything from Zooropa/Pop into All That You Can't Leave Behind/How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb through No Line On The Horizon. Those groups of albums don't sound anything alike. So you must be saying that it's varied. But, you're not. You're saying it sounds like Coldplay or Top-40. I give up. If "Sleeps Like A Baby Tonight" sounds like top-40/Coldplay, I quit.

 

"Sleep Like A Baby" is one of the most haunting and scary cuts I have ever heard. Though cuts like "Love is Blindness" are daring and supremely crafted, "Sleep Like A Baby" is exceptionally daring and tackles one of the most difficult subjects there is to tackle. When Bono goes into that choirboy voice, it is such a great stab at exposing evil and manipulation.

 

Horses for courses. I think those albums sound like one long recording. But now now, tut tut, no need to quit. We're just having a good friendly debate here. If you think there are enough songs like SLABT on each of those past four or five albums, fair play to you. Enjoy. But five or 10 years from now, I don't think anyone other truly diehard fans are going to look back on any of them as "classics" in the same league as their first five or six studio albums. And the reason why, in my opinion, is because the band is trying too hard to compete with younger bands and be "relevant" to the times. I preferred the U2 that was trying to establish itself as a force to be reckoned with alongside The Who, The Clash, Bruce Springsteen, etc. It still came out sounding like U2 but it was unique and "apart' from everything else going on at the time.

I'm listening to Passengers for the first time today. Interesting stuff.

Love,
Billy

 

Funny how one of U2's two best-loved albums is Achtung Baby, where they explicitly set out to be contemporary and hip with the sounds of that moment in time. But your sort of meta-analysis of what they're aiming for or trying to sound like is pointless to me: I agree 110% with the observation above that the endlessly repeated assertion that "U2 are trying to sound like Coldplay" is utter rubbish, for the simple reason that Coldplay's entire career has been based on ripping off U2 lock, stock, and barrel. U2 don't have to change their own sound to react to Coldplay's theft of their sound.

In the end, whether a rock album is good or bad comes down to the quality of songs, and, while I don't particularly care for "The Miracle of Joey Ramone," I like pretty every other song on the deluxe edition of the album. If they write a song as good as "Iris" or "Every Breaking Wave" or "Volcano," I don't really care whether it purportedly "sounds like Coldplay" or whatever other bizarre meta-objection you care to raise to it.

 

Agree to disagree. Moving on.

 

The funny thing is, I lost interest in Coldplay with Mylo Xyloto, when they themselves tried to sound more hip and contemporary and less like U2!

 

"Meta-objection" Love it!

 

For my ears, I group together Achtung/Zooropa, Passengers, Pop, Behind/Bomb/Horizon. SOI strays away from the last 3, but not entirely. U2 has always used outside music, usually contemporary, to influence their albums. In the 80's they described it as putting, say, Joy Division into the U2 black box and seeing what comes out the other side.

 

I'd say U2 is still a force to be reckoned with, which is why so many people have observed that only they could partner with Apple and distribute their album for free in the manner they did.

 

Yeah, ok, that's a fair point. Maybe for me the "U2 filter" or "black box" was just more effective back then. Perhaps it was due to the influence of Steve Lilywhite and Eno/Lanois being at the controls. Studio professionals who were just after the best sound that served the song, not trying to sheen everything up so brightly to curry favor with the earbud generation. I just don't think that bringing in these young, hip engineers and producers has done U2 any favors.

Love,
Billy

 

I agree they are still the main driving force. Only them could do that.

 

I thought it might have been more effective in U2's early albums because they were black boxing bands that were in the same genre, college music/alternative. They got a bit away from that in Rattle and Hum when they black boxed the influences of their genre like Beatles, Dylan, and Hank Sr. Achtung Baby was the big change of course with black boxing other genres and a huge number of fans parted ways. There were lots of used Achtung CD's in bins for awhile.

 

Coldplay admittedly did its level best to sound more like U2 than U2 did. I think this album is different from the past 3 and I can sense a lot of effort into making the album sound fresh and innovative. Unless they all played sequencers or bagpipes I'm not sure how you can expect them to not sound like U2 or like a band that took its cues from U2. I'll stand by my opinion that this is an amazing album and I like it more each time I listen to it.

 

I can wholeheartedly can say without a doubt that I like every song on this album and I can't say that since POP.

EBW is just a song that sticks in my head and won't get out, I'm constantly singing it, love the studio version, the acoustic version and the performance on Jools Holland. Volcano rocks but not in a throwaway sense like tracks off the last 3 albums, it's a serious song but it's a monster and will sound amazing live. RBW is immense and sounds like nothing U2 have done before, great lyrics and just utterly compelling. SLBT again sounds like something new from the band, the lyrics are heartbreaking and hearing Bono's falsetto is so powerful.

Cedarwood Road and This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now again are great tunes, great lyrics and just hold my attention. The Troubles is the best closer to a U2 album since Wake Up Dead Man. The other songs I like even Joey Ramone, that one has truly grown on me but the ones mentioned are the ones that stand out but I don't dislike a song on SOI. As for AYCLB, HTDAAB and NLOTH I can't say that, as much as there are great songs on those albums neither album has the consistency SOI has.

As for the opinion Elevation and Vertigo are great songs and sound amazing live, you can substitute them with Joey Ramone, Volcano, RBW or Cedarwood Road all the way, those songs blow those efforts away. I'm not hearing a band anymore playing to new trends and looking for acceptance, if you hear that fair play but this album is starkly different to those last 3 to me and yes like the poster above this album reveals more to me on each listen and it is an amazing listen, album of the year for me and I'll tell you I never expected to say that about a U2 album ever again.

 

Or tried to make the same sort of move that U2 made with Achtung Baby.

 

Agree 100% with this. If not for "Joey Ramone," this is the first album since All That You Can't Leave Behind that is start-to-finish filled with songs that I enjoy. There are individual songs on Atomic Bomb and No Line that I enjoy a great deal, but also too many clunkers on those records.

 

I'm a bit to the party but I just picked up the vinyl version after listening to the iTunes gift for a few weeks.

Final Verdict. I love it. I just can't play Iris and Raised by Wolves often enough.

Great sound. What else could be expected when it's mastered at the Bernie Grundman studios.

 

Is that what Mylo Xyloto is trying to be? I must admit, I have never listened to this album; I wasn't in a Coldplay frame of mind when it was released. Is it any good? Should I give it and Ghost Stories a chance?

 

I like Coldplay's new single "Sky Full of Stars"? from Ghost Stories when it comes on the radio, but X & Y was their last good album, in my opinion.

 

I really like Viva La Vida, and I was okay with most of Prospekt's March, but I recognized immediately the Jay-Z song as the jump-the-shark moment that it was...