Stay (Faraway, So Close!)Lemon
― wolf kabob (ENBB), Friday, 11 May 2012 19:51 (1 year ago) Permalink
two good choices imo
― omar little, Friday, 11 May 2012 19:59 (1 year ago) Permalink
Why ty!
― wolf kabob (ENBB), Friday, 11 May 2012 20:00 (1 year ago) Permalink
Instinct says Stay but the first half-dozen tracks are all really good. I really liked the description of Bono's writing process in U2 At The End Of The World. No memory of the last four except for The Wanderer sounding ridiculous.
I'll need to give this another spin before voting.
― Ismael Klata, Friday, 11 May 2012 20:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
― omar little, Friday, 11 May 2012 20:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
Lemon - Bono's vocal theatrics serve the song instead of detracting from it.
― banal like anal (snoball), Friday, 11 May 2012 20:16 (1 year ago) Permalink
'Lemon' or the title track.
― Gavin, Leeds, Friday, 11 May 2012 20:23 (1 year ago) Permalink
like enbb it's either Stay (Faraway, So Close!) or Lemon for me. it's funny, i was pretty heavily into u2 when this came out (age 13?), and i remember *thinking* about Zooropa a lot, trying to figure it out.
― tylerw, Friday, 11 May 2012 20:25 (1 year ago) Permalink
Absolutely love pretty much every song here apart from Babyface. Ny favourite U2 album. I voted Lemon as my favourite song in the U2 poll and I'm doing the same here.
― nate woolls, Friday, 11 May 2012 20:28 (1 year ago) Permalink
the first half of this album is very strong. songwriting slips on the second half, but there's still some interesting textures. i voted for numb, even though i may like lemon better... numb was pretty audacious at the time (even for u2, which seems funny to say these days,) and still sounds incredibly strange, yet remains a great pop song. lemon really changed the way i listen to music, but it doesn't quite have the same impact as it did then (i guess it really couldn't). but i do love the backing vocals and the watery guitar line.
― zingzing, Friday, 11 May 2012 20:43 (1 year ago) Permalink
tyler i was about the same age when this album came out, i remember sitting on the floor with the zooropa guitar line washing over me, just blown away
― hot slag (lukas), Friday, 11 May 2012 20:51 (1 year ago) Permalink
The backing vocals are always great on U2 songs, whether it's Edge backing Bono or Bono backing Edge.
― nate woolls, Friday, 11 May 2012 22:21 (1 year ago) Permalink
Or Eno, as is often the case.
"The First Time" is great, but will prolly vote "Stay."
Was U2 first onboard the Johnny Cash revival?
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 11 May 2012 22:26 (1 year ago) Permalink
Does Eno sing on this? Or other U2 records? I never knew.
― nate woolls, Friday, 11 May 2012 22:37 (1 year ago) Permalink
definitely him and the edge on lemon right?
― tylerw, Friday, 11 May 2012 22:41 (1 year ago) Permalink
yes
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 11 May 2012 22:50 (1 year ago) Permalink
Often this is my favorite U2 album, thanks to timing: summer '93 when I discovered Eno, Roxy, and Bowie. What startled me about U2 is how well their new music adapted the sources I was myself absorbing. The playing is precise, the songs often beautiful. Think of the opening of "Zooropa": the wah-wah riff, the strings, Bono, mixed low, saying "What do you want?" or Clayton's bass hook in "Some Days Are Better Than Others," the entirety of "Lemon" but especially the Eno-Edge "A man makes a picture" section; a song that began consciously as Prince-meets-Talking-Heads, a song that could have been a farrago, succeeds beautifully.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 11 May 2012 22:53 (1 year ago) Permalink
I really liked the description of Bono's writing process in U2 At The End Of The World. No memory of the last four except for The Wanderer sounding ridiculous.
I've given U2 too many chances over the years thanks to how well Bill Flanagan presents them. The in-the-studio conversations between the band, Flood, and Eno make for my favorite you-are-there moment in any rock bio.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 11 May 2012 22:54 (1 year ago) Permalink
seems like it, the first American Recordings album came out the year after Zooropa
― Aglet, Friday, 11 May 2012 22:55 (1 year ago) Permalink
"Stay" is a never-fail karaoke number.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 11 May 2012 22:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
voted "numb", just so much fun to nod along to, and i love the way bono's falsetto "too much is not enough" creeps in.
in recent years, U2 songs often start out with great textures, beats and guitar sounds, lots of ambient space, but usually drown themselves almost immediately in wedding cake glop. enjoyed them much more when they weren't pushing so hard for "songs of ascent".
― 10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Friday, 11 May 2012 23:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
And we've talked about this before, but this album was famously churned out, using the same process Eno and James used with "wah wah" - two studios, one for the band, one for Eno to fiddle with what the band had done.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 11 May 2012 23:20 (1 year ago) Permalink
When this album was released my roommate at the time told me "did you produce this album without telling anyone? It sounds exactly like something you would be into." I still feel that way... I don't know if I'd put any tracks from this on a POX list (maybe I did? Have to go look in the archives) but as a complete start-to-finish album this is easily my favorite U2 album. The short recording schedule absolutely works in their favor - U2 albums have always felt like there were months of second-guessing, hand-wringing, and doubt in between all the good parts. I suppose then that this is their Obscured By Clouds, but I also feel that Achtung Baby is the uneven transitional step, and this is the fully-realized work.
"Stay" is a wonderful song, something that any other band would have built a career out of, but in the context of the album it feels too traditional. I've always linked it with the bar scene in Wenders' "Far Away, So Close" where it's playing in the background - a small-scale slice of post-collapse Berlin. Too bad the movie is such a p.o.s.
Voted for the title track. "Zooropa" is their Bowie moment, sounding as if they took the architectural diagrams of a Bowie song (especially in how it steadily builds up) and built their own song out of it.
― Vini Reilly Invasion (Elvis Telecom), Saturday, 12 May 2012 00:25 (1 year ago) Permalink
i'm not sure i'd call this my favorite u2 album, but it's definitely the one i'm most likely to listen to today
― mookieproof, Saturday, 12 May 2012 00:35 (1 year ago) Permalink
love u2 basically, love this album, voted 'lemon' which might get my top vote in a u2 poll (which has apparently already been done), runnerup to 'zooropa'.
― balls, Saturday, 12 May 2012 00:50 (1 year ago) Permalink
johnny cash revival had been attempted many times (and tbh maybe wasn't totally needed really - those highwaymen records sold a shitload, got played like crazy on radio) before the rubin castrations took, johnny 99 (yes that song is on it) is a clear attempt and almost a blueprint for rubin to the extent that it's 'johnny cash needs to make records that sound like nebraska'. and water from the wells of home was an all-star type affair and was just a few years before american recordings. 'the wanderer' is a little ridiculous but i would LOVE if there was an entire disc of johnny cash making an old testament yazz record, i think it works wonderfully as an album closer.
― balls, Saturday, 12 May 2012 00:57 (1 year ago) Permalink
i'd never thought about it before, but i suppose U2 do deserve credit for interesting america in the sort of "gothic americana" that's always been so popular in the UK and europe. and the awakening of that interest probably did pave the way for the johnny cash revival.
― 10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Saturday, 12 May 2012 01:02 (1 year ago) Permalink
Lemon and Stay are my two favourite U2 songs. Stay has Bono's best ever vocal and gets to me every single time. Lemon is such a strange and wonderful song unlike anything else in thier back catalogue, I'd have to go with that but its very close. Love the first half of this album so much, second half is good but just doesn't compare.
Babyface is the most underated song on the album, always thought the "How can beauty be so kind" bit was heavily ripped off from the title track of Here Come The Warm Jets.
― Kitchen Person, Saturday, 12 May 2012 02:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
i always thought 'high and dry' was sort of a ripoff of 'stay' w/the latter being much better.
― omar little, Saturday, 12 May 2012 02:31 (1 year ago) Permalink
― calstars, Saturday, 12 May 2012 02:49 (1 year ago) Permalink
Almost everything's a contender but... very very hard not to vote the title track.
― all yoga attacks are fire based (rogermexico.), Saturday, 12 May 2012 04:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
The Highwaymen is an album deserving rediscovery. Like a lot of eighties country it's gone down the memory hole.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 12 May 2012 04:18 (1 year ago) Permalink
Never thought of this before but yeah I can really hear it. I loved this album at the time, really wanted to see the tour but they played Roundhay Park (about ten minutes drive from our house) the same day we went away on our family holiday, was kind of gutted.
― Gavin, Leeds, Saturday, 12 May 2012 08:43 (1 year ago) Permalink
I've never really been much of a fan of U2, but there are one or two moments on this album I enjoy. Voted for the title track.
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Saturday, 12 May 2012 08:58 (1 year ago) Permalink
The drummer from my first band used to inflict this on us in the car.
I had completely forgotten about this album, but suddenly Bends era Radiohead makes a lot more sense. Even down to the inside cover art. That's just shocking.
― They have fangs, They have teeth! (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Saturday, 12 May 2012 09:28 (1 year ago) Permalink
This often seems to be the U2 album for people who hate U2.
Ha, it's easily my favourite. (I appreciate and respect the band but for the most part don't have very strong feelings for them, with a couple of exceptions.) My impulse is to pick "Lemon" but I should listen to the whole thing again. Listened to this so much in Grade 10.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Saturday, 12 May 2012 11:12 (1 year ago) Permalink
Absolutely 'Stay (Faraway, So Close!)' by a country mile. You wouldn't have got Suede's 'The Wild Ones' or 'High And Dry' by the proto-Muse without it.
I largely hate U2 these days, but they were onto some good things at that point.
― Morrissey & Clunes: The Severed Alliance (PaulTMA), Saturday, 12 May 2012 12:26 (1 year ago) Permalink
The Wanderer
― piscesx, Saturday, 12 May 2012 12:27 (1 year ago) Permalink
It's their "Nebraska!" Oddly enough, I do know a few die-hard U2 fans who dismiss this disc as "too weird." They're stupid, because I'll forever take this over all the "too boring" that followed.
(It's a total aside, but yeah, of course Johnny Cash was always making records, some not bad, but he still had no cachet at all, inexplicably. I saw him tour behind "Unchained," and even then the crowd was mostly old guys with big grey beards. It took a while for even the comeback to connect with all but the cognoscenti)
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 12 May 2012 16:51 (1 year ago) Permalink
Often this is my favorite U2 album, thanks to timing: summer '93 when I discovered Eno, Roxy, and Bowie.
I had gotten heavily into Roxy about a year before I heard this, and still see it as a sort of 90s Stranded. I remember it getting a fairly chilly reception on rock radio, though: they'd gone too far. One DJ angrily said, "Where's that cool strumming thing they always used to do?!"
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Saturday, 12 May 2012 16:59 (1 year ago) Permalink
love the title track here so much, including the ad-slogan lyrics. i like listening to this as the specifically post-91 end-of-history opening-of-europe album people usually say achtung baby is -- sensual but cold, adventurous but frightened, excited about new commercial opportunities going forward but already becoming numb. ("numb" is like if "fitter happier" actually functioned as a song.) plus this is a really quiet album mixwise; contenderizer's right about the space that u2 are still capable of but usually clutter up (this is also why i love the maligned "new york" off ATYCLB). and then lol johnny cash at the end doing his best to conjure some gravitas around bono's Serious Songwriter nuclear-prophet verse. and yeah like apparently half the thread this is basically the only u2 album i listen to. anyway my answer is probably the title track but you know what i'll put this on right now; i'm hungover.
― their private gesture for bison (difficult listening hour), Saturday, 12 May 2012 17:11 (1 year ago) Permalink
IT'S COLD OUTSIDE / BUT BRIGHTLY LIT
― their private gesture for bison (difficult listening hour), Saturday, 12 May 2012 17:15 (1 year ago) Permalink
most of the English reviews couldn't resist making analogies to the implosion of Yugoslavia (U2 themselves advanced the notion on tour).
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 12 May 2012 17:32 (1 year ago) Permalink
My favorite U2 album, sure, although 'Unforgettable', 'Joshua' and 'Achtung' are right up there and close. A superb four album run (we'll forget about the other one that's mixed in there, although I do love a lot of that too)
But yeah, it's "Stay". Love the way the melody/Bono lifts up on the "like a car crash" line. Just a beautiful performance. probably his best like I think someone said upthread? Seeing them perform it the last couple years on the 360 tour really drove it home too.
― Stormy Davis, Saturday, 12 May 2012 19:26 (1 year ago) Permalink
also i 'get' that it's a more traditional 'guys playing instruments' song than the rest of this fantastic album, but i think it has more gravity becuz of that when you listen to the rec. the tone on that guitar line on the chorus sounds totally Bowie/Eno/Fripp Berlin tho
― Stormy Davis, Saturday, 12 May 2012 19:30 (1 year ago) Permalink
really the whole record is Bowie/Eno/Fripp Berlin, which is why it sounds so great
― Stormy Davis, Saturday, 12 May 2012 19:31 (1 year ago) Permalink
It's got to be Stay v Lemon but I like every track on this, especially Numb and Dirty Day - the only U2 album I can say that about.
I agree Stay is his best ever vocal performance and maybe his best lyric too.
― Get wolves (DL), Saturday, 12 May 2012 19:33 (1 year ago) Permalink
Lemon. This is far and away their best album.
― EZ Snappin, Saturday, 12 May 2012 21:02 (1 year ago) Permalink
Once the encore began, Bono would return as a different alter ego—Mirror Ball Man in 1992, and MacPhisto in 1993. Performances of "Desire"—accompanied by images of Richard Nixon, Margaret Thatcher, Paul Gascoigne, and Jimmy Swaggart—were meant as a criticism of greed; cash rained the stage and Bono often portrayed Mirror Ball Man as an interpretation of the greedy preacher described in the song's lyrics. Bono often made a crank call from the stage as his persona of the time. Such calls included dialling a phone sex line, calling a taxi cab, ordering 10,000 pizzas (the Detroit pizza parlor delivered 100 pizzas during the show), or calling a local politician. Bono regularly called the White House in an attempt to contact President Bush. Though Bono never reached the President, Bush did acknowledge the calls during a press conference.
― ♆ (gr8080), Sunday, 13 May 2012 20:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
i fucking love this album.no idea where to place my vote as the whole thing is just a stream of "lets just do it" madness.
― mark e, Sunday, 13 May 2012 20:13 (1 year ago) Permalink
Mirror Ball man >> McPhisto imo. it's weird how under-documented and barely remembered Winona Ryder's part in the early Zoo Tv era encores was. even google doesn't bring much up.
― piscesx, Sunday, 13 May 2012 20:24 (1 year ago) Permalink
1993 was so fucking awesome
― ♆ (gr8080), Sunday, 13 May 2012 20:29 (1 year ago) Permalink
ha.
me & gr8080 = two old f*ckers on porch knocking back a few tins reminiscing re the brilliance of trabants being used for the foundation of a light show.
― mark e, Sunday, 13 May 2012 20:40 (1 year ago) Permalink
voted Numb because its what i immediately think of when i think of this album and i was totally obsessed with it in 7th grade, but after listenibg to Stay(Farway So Close) for the first time in prob 10 years i wish i voted for that-- such a beautiful song!
― ♆ (gr8080), Sunday, 13 May 2012 21:43 (1 year ago) Permalink
voted "Stay" but I could vote for anything except "Dirty Day" & even that's a good song, if not a jam
read Flanigan this winter & listened to this album whilst walking from the East Side Gallery to Alexanderplatz; epic
― Euler, Sunday, 13 May 2012 23:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
did you like the book?
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 13 May 2012 23:02 (1 year ago) Permalink
absolutely loved it. The band's confusion is convincing; maybe it's an artifact of following Eno but they're guided by basic intuitions, gestures, emotions, without much strategy, & so they're able to realize those intuitions in fascinating ways. plus I loved the decay as the book went on, ending up in brothels in Japan, drugs always around, no sleep. no wonder it all went pop!
― Euler, Sunday, 13 May 2012 23:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
It's been a while but other than Adam blowing a gig in Australia and the band's drinking habits were the drugs mentioned often?
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 13 May 2012 23:19 (1 year ago) Permalink
the gigs in Japan seemed to lead to parties where drugs were around; Flanigan never says that the band indulged but it's a bit coy; & even if they didn't, getting involved in those scenes indicated something, maybe just prurience but even that's interesting enough
― Euler, Sunday, 13 May 2012 23:36 (1 year ago) Permalink
oh you're right: Flanagan flirts with conflict of interest a lot, so I don't doubt he kept the drugs under the doormat.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 13 May 2012 23:41 (1 year ago) Permalink
i may be misrembering this, and i can't find a link, but i seem to recall reading a rolling stone piece that came out (i think?) just in advance of zooropa. it described entering the band's studio hole-up as though it were some sort of subterranean drug den: dimly lit, reeking of weed and incense, booming with occult dance music. the band were characterized as louche and zonked, in love with "trash" and pop. seemed as though we were supposed to understand that it was gonna be their druggy experimental album.
― 10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Sunday, 13 May 2012 23:47 (1 year ago) Permalink
voted 'stay' and while i don't exactly regret it, thinking i should have voted 'zooropa'
lol macphisto
― mookieproof, Monday, 14 May 2012 01:24 (1 year ago) Permalink
Can you imagine being at a U2 show in 1993 and 100 pizzas show up
― ♆ (gr8080), Monday, 14 May 2012 01:30 (1 year ago) Permalink
Does it strike anyone else as awkward or strange at all that these days Bino and Wedge seem to be more interested in making money (vis-a-vis Elevation Partners) than good music?
― calstars, Monday, 14 May 2012 01:36 (1 year ago) Permalink
i was at a u2 show in 1993 and got no pizza alas
― mookieproof, Monday, 14 May 2012 01:46 (1 year ago) Permalink
i caught two zoo tv shows, a friend was in their fan club so we got amazing seats. first was that spring at the omni, standard basketball arena, pixies opened and it was super apparent that band was gonna break up soon. we'd attempted stalking out their bus (ie we hung around their bus for fifteen minute or so) to no avail; attempting to stalk u2 never even occurred to us, like what were we gonna do - just hang out at the mlk center all day? second time was that fall in the georgia dome (first concert there) w/ the huge set, big audio dynamite II opened which we were kinda :/ about (were hoping for sugarcubes) but (as big a thrill as u2 for me) public enemy also opened, at that point they could do no wrong. our seats were eight rows back from the stage and we were by a pretty huge margin the biggest pe fans in the vicinity so when they went on my friend and i were able to rush the stage and flav and chuck spent pretty much the entire set performing directly to us, two teenagers who were shouting out every word to every song vs a crowd of skeptical yuppies - it was an easy choice. u2 were great also, afterwards i did a writeup for the high school paper, an attempt at recreating 'the kentucky derby is decadant and depraved' titled 'i'm ready for the laughing gas', i think fucking god that thing isn't on the internet and i never kept any copies of my high school paper.
― balls, Monday, 14 May 2012 02:17 (1 year ago) Permalink
standard basketball arena, pixies opened and it was super apparent that band was gonna break up soon
had this precise experience in chapel hill
― mookieproof, Monday, 14 May 2012 02:19 (1 year ago) Permalink
jb I would love ... I mean I would LOVE .. to read that thing. You know you still have some sort of copy somewhere. Share it with me, I won't betray you (huge HST fan here, would love even a juvenile attempt, esp from YOU.) Had no idea PE *ever* opened for U2?? how did that fact escape me all these years, that is nuts.
First time I ever saw U2 was 2009 on 360 tour. crazy I know. saw it three times tho ... making up for lost time, I guess
― Stormy Davis, Monday, 14 May 2012 04:41 (1 year ago) Permalink
I know I'm on the right board when so many other people pick this as a favourite U2 album!
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, 14 May 2012 04:50 (1 year ago) Permalink
yeah, I dunno, I feel self-conscious, that it is challopy to say so. but if it is not this one, then it is 'Achtung' or 'Unforgettable'. but at the end of the day it really really is this one
― Stormy Davis, Monday, 14 May 2012 04:54 (1 year ago) Permalink
PE also did the Stop Sellafield gig with U2 in 1992. there was a VHS of it and everything
Noel Gallagher's favourite *ever* gig he's said since.
― piscesx, Monday, 14 May 2012 05:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
i know i've said this before on this board but imo U2 disappeared mysteriously after recording Zooropa, popped in briefly to help Eno with Passengers, and then disappeared again. given the trajectory they were on i have to imagine they would have made some amazing records if only they'd stuck around...
― all yoga attacks are fire based (rogermexico.), Monday, 14 May 2012 06:02 (1 year ago) Permalink
the saddest truth bomb
― hot slag (lukas), Monday, 14 May 2012 06:30 (1 year ago) Permalink
It's significant that this is the quickest album they've made since the early days and that it followed a big gamble that paid off. Achtung Baby and Zoo TV were really tense and fraught and might have misfired but they did so well that it gave them the sense that they could do anything - you don't lead with Numb unless you're feeling pretty confident. But the failure of Pop put paid to that and ever since they've been hedging their bets and not wanting to risk another flop. The saddest thing about No Line, as Bono has acknowledged, is that it should have been a braver and more unapologetically leftfield record but they attempted to have it both ways with "big" singles that turned out to not be big at all. They can't get back to the headspace they were in when they made Zooropa, when it felt like they could do whatever they liked and momentum would carry them through.
― Get wolves (DL), Monday, 14 May 2012 09:04 (1 year ago) Permalink
according to Eno's diary they relaxed in the chateaux Bono and Edge bought in the south of France, drinking wine and hanging out with supermodels by the pool.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 May 2012 12:20 (1 year ago) Permalink
daddy's gonna pay for your crashed car
― da croupier, Monday, 14 May 2012 12:54 (1 year ago) Permalink
there are more songs from Achtung I love than on this album, but if I have to hear one of their albums front to back this is def my pick
― da croupier, Monday, 14 May 2012 12:58 (1 year ago) Permalink
I never saw a concert and didn't bother hearing "Pop" during my high school writing days, but I DID put Zooropa at #9 on the 25 best alternative albums of ALL TIME, between Black Love and The Modern Lovers:
"The classic band really got it right on this one: classic melodies, futuristic sounds and soul searching lyrics. What went wrong between this and 'Pop'?"
― da croupier, Monday, 14 May 2012 13:08 (1 year ago) Permalink
This album reminds me so much of my first Inter-rail trip in the summer of 93, despite the fact that I've never owned it or heard it in full. Seems like it was the soundtrack to many a backpacker
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Monday, 14 May 2012 13:23 (1 year ago) Permalink
― ♆ (gr8080), Monday, 14 May 2012 17:47 (1 year ago) Permalink
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Monday, 28 May 2012 00:01 (11 months ago) Permalink
The worst album Henry Rollins has made, no less
― Morrissey & Clunes: The Severed Alliance (PaulTMA), Monday, 28 May 2012 00:52 (11 months ago) Permalink
still haven't voted. so hard!
― all yoga attacks are fire based (rogermexico.), Monday, 28 May 2012 14:48 (11 months ago) Permalink
still in contention:
ZooropaLemonStaySome Days Are Better Than OthersDirty Day
― all yoga attacks are fire based (rogermexico.), Monday, 28 May 2012 15:02 (11 months ago) Permalink
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Tuesday, 29 May 2012 00:01 (11 months ago) Permalink
poor "Babyface."
― go down on you in a thyatrr (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 29 May 2012 00:49 (11 months ago) Permalink
Was fully expecting 'Lemon' and 'Stay' to be up there. Pretty surprised that the title track only managed 4 votes, though. I think it's definitely better than 'Numb'.
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Tuesday, 29 May 2012 00:51 (11 months ago) Permalink
'babyface' is probably my least favorite track on the album, which isn't to say i don't think it's really good. 'achtung baby' is probably my top U2 album but i think the valleys here are higher than the valleys there. and it's their best 'nighttime listening' lp.
― omar little, Tuesday, 29 May 2012 19:27 (11 months ago) Permalink
ha, i almost voted babyface there at the end. it's a pretty lazy song, but it kind of works in that way.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 29 May 2012 19:28 (11 months ago) Permalink
I dig its chorus (backup vocals are nice), & the bell sound on the verses. I like it more than "The First Time", which is still great.
― Euler, Tuesday, 29 May 2012 20:15 (11 months ago) Permalink
Oh, fuck me. It's not just nostalgia for the back of my first drummer's car. I actually *like* this album.
Curse you, Elvis Telecom
::shakes fist::
― I want to smother him in electronic butter. (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 10:37 (9 months ago) Permalink
Yeah, I like this album quite a great deal, and I wouldn't call myself a U2 fan. The first five songs are incredible, and I have more than a soft spot for 'Some Days Are Better Than Others'. What makes this album comparatively more palatable to me in U2's discography, is that Bono (when he's not singing in that ridiculous falsetto as on 'Numb' and 'Lemon') seems to adopt a more restrained vocal style here. Listening to his vocals here and comparing them to say, his vocal approach on The Joshua Tree and most certainly Boy is like day and night. I find "bellowing Bono" gets a bit much.
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Friday, 3 August 2012 20:30 (9 months ago) Permalink
listening to this right now, crazy nostalgia rush. stormy otm above about 'stay', the context of the album makes it hit so much more than it might - first vaguely "traditional" u2 cut. this thing still sounds fantastic.
― balls, Wednesday, 10 April 2013 03:04 (1 month ago) Permalink
stay still catches me off guard no matter how many times I hear it
― jokestoldforu (gr8080), Wednesday, 10 April 2013 04:24 (1 month ago) Permalink
i just went back & listened to stay for the first time in years
damn
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 10 April 2013 04:50 (1 month ago) Permalink
I just love everything about Stay. Great lyrics and a perfect vocal.
― Kitchen Person, Wednesday, 10 April 2013 04:56 (1 month ago) Permalink
put zooropa on just now. i remember thinking it sounded so horrible & alien, but I dont hear any of that now
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 10 April 2013 05:05 (1 month ago) Permalink
wish the band that made this record still existed
― inste grammophon (rogermexico.), Wednesday, 10 April 2013 16:53 (1 month ago) Permalink
truth bomb
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 10 April 2013 17:35 (1 month ago) Permalink
^^^ how did they go from this to 'Pop'?
― Will you see a political publicity stunt? (snoball), Wednesday, 10 April 2013 17:37 (1 month ago) Permalink
(which aside from Discotheque is more like 'Poop' or 'Plop' or something)
― Will you see a political publicity stunt? (snoball), Wednesday, 10 April 2013 17:38 (1 month ago) Permalink
― inste grammophon (rogermexico.), Wednesday, April 10, 2013 12:53 PM (56 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
iirc, the story is that they were hastily rehearsing in a hotel basement the night before their Pop tour kickoff. They didn't have their samplers, drum machines etc. set up, so it was just guitars, amps and drums. Their soundman remarked on how much he dug their sound, and they incredulously replied, "Well, yeah, this is what we sound like." A light bulb went off, and they resolved after the tour to go all back-to-basics and shit.
― Pope Frank is the messenger of your doom (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 10 April 2013 17:58 (1 month ago) Permalink