U2's Songs of Innocence....Five Year Later

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by americanscientist, Sep 9, 2019.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. fmfxray373

    fmfxray373 Capitol LPs in the 70s were pretty good.

    Every Breaking Wave is a masterpiece.

    Don't really like the first song I think something else should have been used.

    I have two white vinyl versions one pressed by GZ and the other I don't know where it is pressed but seems a little better than the GZ pressing.

    Is there a black vinyl edition?

    I think these last three albums are much maligned and will stand the test of time. Get the clear vinyl of No Line On The Horizon while you can it sounds awesome.
     
    Stone Turntable likes this.
  2. RedRoseSpeedway

    RedRoseSpeedway Music Lover

    Location:
    Michigan
    I agree!
     
    Panama Jack likes this.
  3. Purple

    Purple Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    I'm a huge fan of Atomic Bomb but other than that, Songs of Innocence is probably the best thing they've since Zooropa. By contrast, the mellow Songs of Experience was a complete snooze fest, and probably their worst album next to No Line. My 2 cents.
     
    twicks likes this.
  4. JackOfAllTrades

    JackOfAllTrades It's only my opinion

    Location:
    Bristol, UK
    Definitely towards the bottom of my list of U2 albums although I do like Every Breaking Wave. I thought No Line was a huge step back in the right direction but U2 still seem to be chasing relevance instead of just being U2.
     
    davers and ausgraeme like this.
  5. Panther

    Panther Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tokyo, Japan
    You summarized my own feelings exactly.

    (I'm kind of baffled by the supporters of No Line on the Horizon, a sticky-turd if I've ever seen one.)
     
    Purple likes this.
  6. Randy5554

    Randy5554 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Birmingham, AL
    I absolutely love this album and I think it’s their best, most complete collection of songs since Pop. The only changes I would have made would have been to dump Miracle of Joey Ramone, put This is Where You Can Reach Me Now at song #1 as they’d apparently originally considered, and then put Crystal Ballroom as the second-to-last song as the replacement. Miracle is the only weak track for me, and this revised order would flow well in my opinion.
     
    JeffMo likes this.
  7. JeffMo

    JeffMo Format Agnostic

    Location:
    New England
    Joey Ramone song is weakest link, and I agree using this song as lead off track and tv commercial tie-in backfired and made the iTunes incident seem worse than it was.
     
  8. NathansForSale

    NathansForSale Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Liverpool
    Cheap low grade comments like this are worse than the complaints of the auto download and say more about you and whatever insecurities you have than the artwork itself I think.

    But no, "looks like gay porn"

    I liked the album when it came out still stands up , any other band or a u2 that didn't release it like that would surely have been praised a lot more. Eclipsed the music such a waste
     
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2019
    D.B. and dkmonroe like this.
  9. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    Unfortunately there's no way that they could have done that cover without it being misunderstood but it's an interesting concept. To me, it looks like older Larry is embracing his younger self. It suggests that your most direct ancestor, the person who made you the man you are today, is your younger self. The child is father to the man and all that. In light of literally every song on the album, the significance of the image seems clear.
     
  10. NathansForSale

    NathansForSale Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Liverpool
    Agreed! Unfortunately impossible to escape the usual digs, like the boy cover getting replaced in the US
     
    Man at C&A and dkmonroe like this.
  11. whisper3978

    whisper3978 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Apex, NC
    Remove the blatant Arcade Fire ripoff "California" and you've got a great album. As an autobiographical song, I'm fine with Joey Ramone. The Ramones were important to the band's existence! If the song was just shamelessly name-checking for some sort of cred, the song - as is - would be horrible. Is that weird?
     
  12. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    What the heck is it with people saying that U2 is ripping off bands who ripped off U2? "California" is a great song. Five years ago the line was that "The Miracle" was a ripoff of Coldplay. If either of those bands sound like those songs, then they stole their sound from U2 and not the other way around. It's like saying that the Stones ripped off the Black Crowes for pete's sake. :laugh:
     
  13. NathansForSale

    NathansForSale Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Liverpool
    I think it's interesting they felt they needed to name him, could have left it quite ambiguous as they usually tend to be.

    Reach Me Now didn't need to specifically namecheck (i think it was) the clash but maybe u2 thought a song named "the miracle" would invite more criticism of their forever pious image and needed a bit of clarification.

    Reach Me Now should have stayed the first song too.
     
    dkmonroe likes this.
  14. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    I think they included Joey's name in the title as pure tribute. I don't think they would have anticipated any problem just calling the song "The Miracle." It's a common enough figure of speech. What I find interesting (and others found blameworthy of course) was that they wrote a song with "Joey Ramone" in the title that sounds nothing like the Ramones. I would guess that literally any other band would have cranked out a Ramones sound-alike for their tribute.

    I love "The Miracle." It sounds like a perfect album opener to me. I didn't pay any attention to the marketing angle of the song when it was released so I know it only as the lead track on the album. It's a little bit over-produced, I'll grant that, but it's such a perfect introductory statement to the album.
     
    keef00, Purple and Sammy Banderas like this.
  15. hollywoodswag

    hollywoodswag Forum Resident

    Location:
    Central Florida
    No Line on the Horizon has a fair amount of weak spots, but I appreciate the album because I felt like U2 were really putting themselves out there and being experimental. That it didn’t always pay off was okay, in my opinion. The record felt genuine. It didn’t feel like commercialism was driving its creation. It also had Unknown Caller, which I think is among U2’s most spectacular songs. There are a good four or five others on there that I also think are pretty good, but Unknown Caller...I know it’s not a popular opinion to have, but it is a phenomenal song in my book.
     
    Twilight, ARK, davers and 2 others like this.
  16. whisper3978

    whisper3978 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Apex, NC
    The music is almost identical to "No Cars Go" by Arcade Fire. Maybe there's some influence from U2 in there, of course, but the production/sound of U2's "California" is clearly inspired by this Arcade Fire song.

     
    RudolphS likes this.
  17. DML71

    DML71 Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    SOI and SOE are both good albums in my opinion. U2 have always faced the new album problem of 'it's not as good as The Joshua Tree... Achtung Baby.. Unforgettable Fire.. Insert favourite U2 that you listened to death to when you were much younger.

    If I dip in and out of the recent albums (by recent I mean 2000 onwards) I'm surprised how good most of the tracks are. I think most of their albums are better than people give them credit for.
     
  18. lc317

    lc317 Forum Resident

    Location:
    .
    I thought 'Every Breaking Wave' was brilliant for late in their career. The seminal U2 sound with that one IMO. The rest of the album struck me as by the numbers, but I'll have to re-listen, maybe at work today.

    With Zooropa, close to half of it is very good (Stay, The First Time, Some Days, Dirty Day, The Wanderer), but that goodness seems to be overshadowed by the silliness of the first half of the album with kitschy tracks like Numb.
     
  19. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    I'm not able to listen to it now but the bassline, chiming background chords and harmony vocals are pure U2. So I maintain that if Arcade Fire sounds like that, they got it from U2. But I'll check the Arcade Fire song out tonight when I am able to.
     
    Purple and whisper3978 like this.
  20. JackOfAllTrades

    JackOfAllTrades It's only my opinion

    Location:
    Bristol, UK
    I love the atmospherics of No Line. It has one howler (Boots) but it seems to flow and go somewhere. Always prefer U2 with Eno and Lanois involved.
     
    Cracklebarrel, ARK, davers and 2 others like this.
  21. Panther

    Panther Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tokyo, Japan
    Does it? I mean, the album seems to me like a lot of songs about U2's/Bono's memories of being younger, in Dublin, in the US for the first time, etc. So, I'm not sure what that has to do with their kids.

    At the very least, why is Larry's son topless?
     
    Man at C&A likes this.
  22. Panther

    Panther Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tokyo, Japan
    For me, that album that three howlers in a row:
    - I'll Go Crazy if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight
    - Get On Your Boots
    - Stand Up Comedy

    Those three are by far the worst three successive songs in the U2 catalog. They all make me cringe. In fact, I'd rate "I'll Go Crazy..." as far and away the single worst song/track U2 has ever issued.

    Beyond that, there's nothing horrible. All but one of the remaining tracks are okay: 'No Line...', 'Magnificent', 'Moment of Surrender', 'Unknown Caller', 'Fez-Being Born', 'White As Snow', and 'Breathe'. I think U2's millennial fans desperately hoped 'Moment of Surrender' would be the new 'Bad'... but then, they realized everyone went to the bog when they played it live. (This is the grade-A example of Bono's bad vocals, badly recorded, on this record.) As with 'Walk On' years earlier, 'Unknown Caller' sounds like U2 trying to impersonate 1984-era U2. 'Fez-Being Born' I enjoy. 'White As Snow' sounds like what it is -- a slow song written for a movie. 'Breathe' is 1/3 a fantastic song, 1/3 weird, and 1/3 crap. It sounds to me like three different songs they were working on awkwardly sandwiched together. Embarrassing lyrics, too.

    There's one really great track on No Line, which is 'Cedars of Lebanon' (despite the regrettable "got out from a tank" rhyme).
     
    godslonelyman, Dave513 and Purple like this.
  23. morgan1098

    morgan1098 Forum Resident

    I love Songs of Innocence. My expectations were very low after months of delays, a long list of "hip" producers like Danger Mouse and Ryan Tedder, etc. But the final result is glorious. Every Breaking Wave, Iris, Sleep Like a Baby, The Troubles, these songs are amazing.

    Actually, the whole album sounds astonishingly cohesive even with all the different producers. On the other hand, Atomic Bomb and Songs of Experience both have an army of producers too, but I think they suffer as a result.
     
    JeffMo, Randy5554 and Nipper like this.
  24. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    It's not about their kids. Larry's son represents younger Larry. The songs are about their youthful experiences which made them the men they are today.

    I suspect that they are topless for the same reason that a man is nude on the cover of two Rush album covers. It has nothing to do with sex, it has to do with an abstract concept. And if they were both nude, no one would interpret it any other way than in a sexual one.

    It's not a perfect cover, but I think I understand it nevertheless.
     
  25. Panther

    Panther Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tokyo, Japan
    Thanks for clarifying that Larry and his don't have a sexual relationship. I wasn't clear on that.


    I listened to Songs of Innocence again just now. Wow, good album.

    Quality wins out in the end. People will one day look back on this and realize they were idiots to dismiss it quickly.
     
    whisper3978 likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine