I love the melody of 13 (There is a Light). But like near everything on Innocent/Experience the verses are just verbal vomiting of words, lacking any art and sucking the life out of the songs.liebzz wrote:Songs of Experience...
They do write great songs, but there is a big danger with this band that if they don’t incorporate something separate to Bono and Edge alone that the songs can suffer from sounding the same. The Edge in the 80s brought basically the same riff to 50% of the songs on the album and maybe slightly altered it, and did the same thing the last 20 years with a different riff. Bono has a great voice, and he did a much better job in the 90s onward with changing his delivery to fit the song, but can default back too often to sounding like a desperately constipated man on the toilet trying to push out a massive turd (I say this with love). So it means they need other elements to keep it fresh and interesting. That’s why I keep harping back at bringing the others more front and center in the mix and in crafting their songs. I don’t want them to sound like they used to, I want them to push together as a full band to reach the next sound.surfndestroy wrote:I love the melody of 13 (There is a Light). But like near everything on Innocent/Experience the verses are just verbal vomiting of words, lacking any art and sucking the life out of the songs.liebzz wrote:Songs of Experience...
One thing I have learned as I went on this journey with you is that at their core, U2 writes really strong songs. They may not always capture them but it is interesting seeing what the remixes find and bring out of the songs.
tragabigzanda wrote:I'd maybe bump Life & Limb for Epic Problemtragabigzanda wrote:Top 10 maybe?
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That description more or less immediately brought to mind Keith Richards. Though my feeling there is that Keith’s dedication to variations on the blues combined with Mick Jagger’s obsessive need to have the music feel modern and current, and the sort of battle playing out in those songs and the tension it creates makes The Rolling Stones such an incredible band (not to leave out of course the musical contributions of the rest of the group).Kevin Davis wrote:I don't think Edge ever brought the same riff, or even "basically" the same riff, to any two songs -- I think the harder truth is that there is a tradeoff between finding a singular, identifiable guitar sound (which Edge has done, arguably as much as anyone in popular music ever) and being able to compose within the confines of that sound such that the musical passages, the actual sequences of notes, don't blur and become subservient to that superficial effect. I think this is even truer when that "sound" is driven by an artificial effect, like Edge's instantly recognizable echo/delay. I'm not saying that sound can't feel a little repetitive, but I think there is less actual musical repetition than it seems.
Oh, unquestionably, and the nature of the sound he chooses only amplifies this feeling. I'm not trying to argue that his effects pedal is concealing the fact that he's Nels Cline or Bill Frisell or something -- as guitarists of his stature go, he's much more of the "sonic architect" variety than someone who really grips my interest from a purely musical standpoint. The musician in me is just unduly sensitive to criticisms that music that sounds superficially similar is "the same," even though I am sure I have said similar things myself.liebzz wrote:If the same can be said for The Edge, then to me it’s a much more confined space.
I think we mostly agree, but I guess when I hear Pride (In the Name of Love), Where the Streets Have No Name, and I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, it sounds pretty similar - and I say that while fully acknowledging they are great songs.Kevin Davis wrote:Oh, unquestionably, and the nature of the sound he chooses only amplifies this feeling. I'm not trying to argue that his effects pedal is concealing the fact that he's Nels Cline or Bill Frisell or something -- as guitarists of his stature go, he's much more of the "sonic architect" variety than someone who really grips my interest from a purely musical standpoint. The musician in me is just unduly sensitive to criticisms that music that sounds superficially similar is "the same," even though I am sure I have said similar things myself.liebzz wrote:If the same can be said for The Edge, then to me it’s a much more confined space.
Also, listening to their more recent albums, I think the de-emphasis of the rhythm section is more often down to production value than musical arrangement (with the exception of All That You Can't Leave Behind, which is definitely a very top-end heavy album compositionally). But No Line and Innocence have songs where all those elements are firing on all cylinders, but when everything is going at once the production tends to feel like a big wall of nondescript sound with the vocals on top. Their '80's records just had a much more natural separation of instruments.
). Now I just can't get enough and have been going through the deepest reaches of their formidable catalogue once again.
), I thought I'd see y'all would put on such a disc?
)
Anders wrote:I do not have a «neoliberal assessment of geopolitics», so please stop writing that I do.
Wouldn't that be U,2?Jorge wrote:No, it means "you as well"
tragabigzanda wrote:I'd maybe bump Life & Limb for Epic Problemtragabigzanda wrote:Top 10 maybe?
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Cool!ridleybradout wrote:I'm sorry I missed all this U2 discussion late last year
After barely listening to U2 for years (I never even bothered with Songs of Experience), I stumbled upon a copy of their 'Experience and Innocence Live In Berlin 2018' fan-club DVD and thoroughly enjoyed it (it's very Achtung heavy
Anyhoo, with 2020 having drawn to a close, I thought it might be fun to think about what a 'U2 Best of 2000-2020' disc might look like, to continue the series they started at the turn of the century (I opted against doing separate discs for each decade, given two albums doth not a best of make).
Before I reveal my much sweated over tracklist (with artwork and FLAC download of course
But first a couple of ground rules.
1. The disc is not limited to songs released as singles (remember 'Gone' and 'UTEOTW' were on 1990-2000 - two of my all-time favourite songs by anyone
2. 'Beautiful Day' and 'Stuck In A Moment...' were included on the 'Best of 1990-2000', so they are out of contention. HOWEVER - 'Elevation' and 'Walk On' (released in 2001) were passed over, and were curiously not included on the 'Best of 1990-2000' DVD set (which included bonus videos for all the other singles not included on the CD set, including 'Ground Beneath Her Feet'), so methinks they intended to hold them over for the third installment in the 'Best of' series. So I say they're fair game
Ok, go!