U2 | Songs of Innocence

[stip]

someday, Dime.

[VinylGuy]

Great Review Stip...( wtf with your friend and Yield though).

I feel the same about the new album; i really like the feel from this one and No Line; it feels like its the band trying to make music and sometimes forgetting they are u2. I hate ATYCLB because it felt like, we are this big band and we want to be bigger...and the last two are different...

i agree with pretty much everything you say about the songs; although i love Every Breaking Wave. There is something there that got me, pretty much like Miracle Drug, my favorite U2 song in the recent years.

For me, the real gem here is Sleep Like A Baby Tonight...feels like a very improved version of the already cool one; One Step Closer..its a very good and different type of song for them, and everything works; and i love love Edge`s solo...its a mix between Neil Young and Jack White. Very different from what he is doing in the album too.

[McParadigm]

Bono-bashing has reached such a fevered pitch with this delivery stunt, I doubt many people (including reviewers) listened to it without having already made up their mind.

[dimejinky99]

U2 are either trying to be where they were, as with this record, or be where they are and getting beaten for it, as with No Line...they cannot win

[VinylGuy]

Bono-bashing has reached such a fevered pitch with this delivery stunt, I doubt many people (including reviewers) listened to it without having already made up their mind.

And i get that....Bono has turned into a very very lousy character. But the music and what he does there are great.

[stip]

i insist you make a video of you singing that song in that voice for your daughter, and post it here. Make it happen.

And I called you out in my ice bucket video and have seen nothing, so who are you to make demands?!

[digster]

I think Bono's voice has matured fairly well, at least in comparison to his peers.

It's interesting that this seems to be the record where U2 really cratered with a lot of the public, at least from my limited viewpoint. It's just that to me the album, particularly the second half, is obviously the best and most consistent they've been in quite a while.

[stip]

I think Bono's voice has matured fairly well, at least in comparison to his peers.

It's interesting that this seems to be the record where U2 really cratered with a lot of the public, at least from my limited viewpoint. It's just that to me the album, particularly the second half, is obviously the best and most consistent they've been in quite a while.

i guess it's offset by the fact that the first half is some of the least consistent and worst stuff they've put out in a while. It's a slog to get to that second half, and I'm a fan.

it's also easy to read giving the record away for free as obnoxious hubris--who the hell is U2 to put their record in my download que--like it was being forced upon people, as opposed to something you could get for free if you wanted it. I don't see it that way, mind you, and thought this was pretty cool, but that's not a crazy interpretation, especially given the way U2 understands and markets itself

[Heathen]

like it was being forced upon people

Why like? It was being forced upon people.

[surfndestroy]

It's also easy to read giving the record away for free as obnoxious hubris--who the hell is U2 to put their record in my download que--like it was being forced upon people, as opposed to something you could get for free if you wanted it. I don't see it that way, mind you, and thought this was pretty cool, but that's not a crazy interpretation, especially given the way U2 understands and markets itself

I think this is more a iTunes issue than U2. iTunes should offer an option to have an album to not show up in your cloud. I suspect feedback will make this option available in a future iTunes update.

I like Volcano, so for me from Volcano on it's a solid album. Pars of Volcano really remind me of Pop era U2.

[stip]

It's also easy to read giving the record away for free as obnoxious hubris--who the hell is U2 to put their record in my download que--like it was being forced upon people, as opposed to something you could get for free if you wanted it. I don't see it that way, mind you, and thought this was pretty cool, but that's not a crazy interpretation, especially given the way U2 understands and markets itself

I think this is more a iTunes issue than U2. iTunes should offer an option to have an album to not show up in your cloud. I suspect feedback will make this option available in a future iTunes update.

Fair point, but I suspect U2 will still bear the brunt of the association

[digster]

I think Bono's voice has matured fairly well, at least in comparison to his peers.

It's interesting that this seems to be the record where U2 really cratered with a lot of the public, at least from my limited viewpoint. It's just that to me the album, particularly the second half, is obviously the best and most consistent they've been in quite a while.

i guess it's offset by the fact that the first half is some of the least consistent and worst stuff they've put out in a while. It's a slog to get to that second half, and I'm a fan.

it's also easy to read giving the record away for free as obnoxious hubris--who the hell is U2 to put their record in my download que--like it was being forced upon people, as opposed to something you could get for free if you wanted it. I don't see it that way, mind you, and thought this was pretty cool, but that's not a crazy interpretation, especially given the way U2 understands and markets itself

I don't know if I'd say that about the first half. It didn't strike me as on a different plane than the lesser tracks on NLOTH. I think that album may have higher highs but it's way spottier than this one.

As for the second point, I agree there's a ton of baggage, but the music itself is getting trashed. Even when the release is the story, the music usually gets covered. People seemed to realize the music on In Rainbows was great pretty quickly, despite the frenzy surrounding how it got released.

[Sgt. Crackpot]

OK, this album is growing on me. Probably the weakest songs are the first three, especially California, as the intro is terrible but the rest of the song is becoming more tolerable with each listen. I think since adjusting my EQ settings to bring Bono lower into the mix, that I've been able to enjoy the album a lot more.

[McParadigm]

like it was being forced upon people

Why like? It was being forced upon people.

Africa has the Ebola, Ukraine has the Russia, and we have The Miracle of Razor Ramone.

It's a hard knock life.

[dimejinky99]

I'm not making this or the number involved up, but 15 U2 albums(????) have gone back into the charts in ireland. 26 albums(I don't understand this. They don't have that many records) have gone back up into the US iTunes Charts.

Fifteen back catalogue U2 albums have re-entered the Irish iTunes albums download charts.
The highest re-entry is at number five for the “Joshua Tree” album.
In the world’s biggest music territory, the US, 26 old U2 albums (studio albums, live albums, compilations and extended plays) have re-entered the iTunes charts and a similar pattern is emerging globally.
At this rate, Apple are well on course to recoup the estimated $100 million they paid to U2 and the band’s record label, Universal, to allow the new U2 album go out free to their 500 million customers.
It’s win-win for Apple and U2.
The tech company make money every time a U2 album is downloaded as do the band.
In U2’s case, they enjoy one of the highest ever royalty rates on their sales – meaning they get a far bigger percentage of the retail prize than even Michael Jackson or The Beatles had.
Bono confirmed to The Irish Times last week that the band had been paid by Apple.
In essence, this means even if the band do not sell a single copy of the physical release of the album next month, they will still have made a substantial profit from “Songs of Innocence”.
In addition, Apple have committed to a substantial marketing campaign, which will use the album’s first single “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone) to soundtrack a global television advertising campaign for its new iPhones and Apple Watch.
A person familiar with the talks says the campaign will cost upwards of $100 million.
Mon, Sep 15, 2014, 00:52
First published:
Sun, Sep 14, 2014, 20:27

[dimejinky99]

i insist you make a video of you singing that song in that voice for your daughter, and post it here. Make it happen.

And I called you out in my ice bucket video and have seen nothing, so who are you to make demands?!

I didn't see or hear or know about any such ice bucket challenge, but honestly I wouldn't had done it at all even if I had seen it. Social (media) imperatives never inspired or encouraged me to do anything. Plus less than 1% of people of the whole number that have done this sheeple nonsense, have actually donated to the charity it was started for.

I'll send them some cash. I am not taking part in this ice bucket hallucinage mess tho. Sorry.

[surfndestroy]

For me, the real gem here is Sleep Like A Baby Tonight...feels like a very improved version of the already cool one; One Step Closer..its a very good and different type of song for them, and everything works; and i love love Edge`s solo...its a mix between Neil Young and Jack White. Very different from what he is doing in the album too.

I agree. This sounds like U2 being U2 without consciously trying to be U2, norhing forced. Sounds much more like them playing in a room just for themselves than trying for an anthemic hit.

[McParadigm]

Every time it gets to the chorus of that song, though, I find myself singing "Tonight you're sleeping alone, without him..."

[Chris_H_2]

So I've finally gotten through this, and quickly realized that every album over the past 12 years or so sounds like a collection of B-sides from the previous album.

[dimejinky99]

different version apparently