Where The Streets Have No Name / The U2 Thread

[McParadigm]

[dimejinky99]

Stay (Faraway, so close)


Take that REM

[EJ]

[stip]

Discoteque
A Sort of Homecoming
Zooropa
Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me

Hold Me Thrill Me was a song I really didn't like when it came out. A few years later it clicked in a big way.

A sort of homecoming is probably at the top of my songs I wish pearl jam covered in their prime.

[Lament]

Top Ten U2

Gone
Zooropa
Lemon
I'm Not Your Baby
Until the End of the World
Another Time, Another Place
Love is Blindness
Please
Stay (Faraway, So Close)
Bad


Top Ten REM

Try Not to Breathe
Me in Honey
Walk Unafraid
Maps & Legends
So. Central Rain
Country Feedback
Nightswimming
So Fast, So Numb
The Great Beyond
Electrolite

I'm definitely more emotionally attached to the U2 ones. But I'm definitely more emotionally attached to U2 as a whole, so that's not surprising. I felt like there were more U2 songs that I could have realistically put into my top ten than R.E.M. songs, though both groups got really difficult at the end (especially the U2 one, as I just kind of randomly chose Bad among a group of about 15 songs I was considering for that last spot). I dunno, they're both an absolutely stunning set of songs to me. While I could name other artists whose 10 best songs I like just as much, it'd be hard for me to come up with more than a few artists whose 10 best songs I unequivocally like better than these two.

[VinylGuy]

Stay (Faraway, so close)


Take that REM

Stay is U2´s best song. Ever.

[Lament]

A sort of homecoming is probably at the top of my songs I wish pearl jam covered in their prime.

I always wished that snippet Ed played of it in 2005 would have turned into a full cover. He sounded great on it.

[McParadigm]

This seems like a good time to admit that I hate Everybody Hurts, and have always hated Everybody Hurts.

Also, if the lyrics to that song were Bono lyrics, everybody would laugh at how trite, immature, implicitly self-important, and sideways condescending they sound.

Sometimes everything is wrong. Now it's time to sing along.
When your day is night alone (Hold on, hold on), if you feel like letting go (Hold on), if you think you've had too much of this life,
well hang on.

Everybody hurts.
Take comfort in your friends.
Everybody hurts.
Don't throw your hand, oh no.

And they put it on Automatic for the People.

[Norah]

I know I'm a couple of pages late but REM over U2 every single fucking time.

[doug rr]

I know I'm a couple of pages late but REM over U2 every single fucking time.

I'm with you pete..stand strong

[Lament]

Also, if the lyrics to that song were Bono lyrics, everybody would laugh at how trite, immature, implicitly self-important, and sideways condescending they sound.

This is a good point, and can probably be applied to a lot of things.

I wonder how many people who love Sirens would hate it if it were a U2 song.

[Rangi Guy]

I know I'm a couple of pages late but REM over U2 every single fucking time.

I'm with you pete..stand strong

I'm behind this 100% - U2 had some good albums - then pulled out brilliance in the 90's, but after that my interest in them just faded. I was invested in REM till the end

[Lament]

Now that I think about it, Sirens was Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of redux for me.

Before All That You Can't Leave Behind came out, Brian Eno said Stuck in a Moment was maybe the best U2 song ever and was going to be a bigger hit than With or Without You and would be the song U2 would be forever remembered for or something like that, and then when I was walking home from the midnight sale and listening to it for the first time I was like "Wow, this is so overwrought and cheesy and adorned with unnecessary bells & whistles and I can't believe U2 would do something like this." Fast forward thirteen years and Sirens is the new Black and and I'm sitting in the living room watching the video for it and thinking pretty much the exact same things I thought about Stuck in a Moment.

[Mojopin]

I cannot believe that a thread about U2 has LESS posts than a thread about REM has... err wait!

<---ducks

What have I done here?

[dimejinky99]

Stay (Faraway, so close)


Take that REM

Stay is U2´s best song. Ever.

You're preaching to the choir, sister.

[stip]

Now that I think about it, Sirens was Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of redux for me.

Before All That You Can't Leave Behind came out, Brian Eno said Stuck in a Moment was maybe the best U2 song ever and was going to be a bigger hit than With or Without You and would be the song U2 would be forever remembered for or something like that, and then when I was walking home from the midnight sale and listening to it for the first time I was like "Wow, this is so overwrought and cheesy and adorned with unnecessary bells & whistles and I can't believe U2 would do something like this." Fast forward thirteen years and Sirens is the new Black and and I'm sitting in the living room watching the video for it and thinking pretty much the exact same things I thought about Stuck in a Moment.

I didn't like stuck in a moment and really like Sirens (although I didn't feel stuck in a moment was a departure for U2, as much as it was just a side of their sound I don't enjoy that much). But with a really overwrought song like that is going to work if you buy the sincerity of the performance--it you're willing to let the singer not only speak to you, but for you. Trite moments don't feel trite when they're yours.

I love everybody hurts, and it's not because I think it is a sophisticated presentation of that sentiment. It's that when Michael Stipe sings 'when the day is long and the night is yours alone' I feel like he is the voice I wish I had when I feel that way. When he sings you're not alone you believe him. That really comes down to whether or not you believe the performance. I believe it completely in Everybody Hurts, and so am almost always genuinely moved when I hear it. I mostly believe it for Sirens, and so I like that song a lot. I don't really feel it for Stuck in a Moment, and so I don't like the song.

[Norah]

Stay (Faraway, so close)


Take that REM

Stay is U2´s best song. Ever.

You're preaching to the choir, sister.

Who's better, REM or Glen Hansard?

[dimejinky99]

Grow up, Pete.

[Lament]

I felt like the schmaltz and weird drum sounds and all the "ping-pongy" stuff going on in Stuck was a weird departure for U2, especially considering what the previous three records had sounded like. It sounded really tinny and cheap, and if there was a decent song in there it was absolutely buried under the overproduction on it. Supposedly there's a stripped down version of it with Mick Jagger doing lead vocals that they almost put on the album instead, but decided to leave in the vault. I've always been very curious to hear what that sounded like.

For me Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own knocks out of the park the feeling that Stuck in a Moment swings and misses in trying to capture. Stuck (unlike Sirens) is a song very much in line with a lot of my personal experiences, and I've always felt like it absolutely falls flat on its face in trying to capture the essence of them.

[dimejinky99]

But since you're asking, There's a few REM songs that glen plays and plays em better than REM do.

Suck it n see.