Vorsprung durch Technik: U2 Zooropa poll

Someone here (I forget who) made a joke about Adam Sandler's Cajun Man singing "Bad." Ruined the song for me. Thanks, jerk.

I like Bad fine, but I don't like all the A-A-A-A- rhyming or how it's just those two chords over and over again (which is all fine as are the performances but I don't really listen to it much). Until the End of the World might be my fave.

The Quietus: From The Joshua Tree To Pop: Angus Batey Revisits U2

Interesting take, but seems like there was even more room for rhetorical exploration in the piece. I think the band's issue is that up until Achtung the songs were largely political, not personal, in that they were about problems the world was facing, from drugs to war to etc.. But Achtung marked a remarkable shift to mostly personal stuff - failed relationships and the like - precipitated, apparently, by the dissolution of Edge's marriage. if Joshua Tree was the peak of U2 looking out at the world, Achtung was the peak of the band looking into itself, and Pop found the group struggling for a new mission. Hence the misbegotten and, in light of how people misconstrued Achtung and Zooropa, a more fervent and identifiable embrace of "irony." Recall when the band toured Pop they had their own version of the McDonald's arch on stage, emerged out of a giant lemon, and led Neil Diamond singalongs.

When they emerged post-Pop they were flailing for a direction, and they've been stuck in a sort of purgatory ever since. I want to say pretty much every album is preceded by rumors of a return to experimentation, or news that they've been so productive that there's an entire second album in the can, or EP, often hinted to be weirder and more adventurous. But those bonus records never appeared, and every time an album came out it was if any rough edges or weirdness had been cautiously sanded down, never more so than with No Line on the Horizon. If anything I'd controversially suggest the free album was the first U2 album in a long while with a clear direction or theme, which the band embraced on a tour that drew heavily from the new record (and amplified the theme). Which is partly why the group's first full-on sell-out move of playing Joshua Tree in its entirety is so lame, imo.

Even Bono is better than Reznor.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, March 3, 2017 9:46 PM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no, no, i don't think this is right

― the raindrops and drop tops of lived, earned experience (BradNelson), Friday, March 3, 2017 11:57 PM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I agree, Reznor at least is able to pivot away from his typical mode (misanthropy/self-loathing/etc.) for surprise moments of warmth and humanity here and there, especially on the newer records. Bono only has "pompous mouth garbage"

But those bonus records never appeared, and every time an album came out it was if any rough edges or weirdness had been cautiously sanded down, never more so than with No Line on the Horizon.

I don't remember all the records since Pop getting saddled with the "experimentation" label, but No Line definitely was. I just read the wiki entry for that album to refresh myself on it and got angry when I saw this

many of "the more contemplative and sonically adventurous songs" had been dropped, attributing the lack of African-inspired music to its sounding "synthetic" and unconvincing when paired with other songs.

yes, let's cut the adventurous songs because it doesn't mesh with a song we wrote with will.i.am

Xpost Oh, come on. I love Nine Inch Nails but I don't think there is a single Nine Inch Nails lyrics I can quote as anything other than a good Nine Inch Nails Lyric. That is, good for Nine Inch Nails, but terrible in pretty much any other context. Knees please disease is pretty much as deep as it gets, and yeah, compared to that stuff any moments of wit or levity seem pretty magnified and conspicuous.

Lately Depeche Mode seems to be splitting the difference between Reznor and Bono.

I'm not saying reznor is a good lyricist! But I will say that "the foot is deep and the mouth is wide" works on two levels (one of which is funny and, yeah, probably unintentional), which is more than one level than any bono lyric works on

i think "one" is mostly a kinda good lyric but then bono does the "too much/more than a lot" thing and poisons the whole affair

I love the synth strings in the "Have you.." section

as usual Eno plays Capn Save a Song

I think Lanois goes underrated as a producer/player/arranger, given he is far more musical than Eno. He's playing a lot of guitar, singing, too. I dunno if Eno alone can be credited with the strings on "One," but if you listen carefully you can definitely hear his Omnichord, which if memory serves is the last thing you hear. (Also the last thing you hear on "Trip Through Your Wires." Omnichord lets Eno play along with anything.)

I was so mad about the Negativland lawsuit that I didn't realize that the rawer mix of "Until The End Of The World" from the movie soundtrack is pretty much my favorite thing of theirs from this era - maybe my fave thing of theirs period.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8md8py8yVxY

Lately Depeche Mode seems to be splitting the difference between Reznor and Bono.

Seems to me the trick here is to get the shade of Johnny Cash to comment, considering he covered all three of these bands. And presumably didn't mind the lyrics.

Knees, please, disease, cheese, peas, fleas, sneeze, pleas, ring of fire.

I was so mad about the Negativland lawsuit

Wasn't there an interview with The Edge where he denied that the band themselves had anything to do with that? I seem to remember an interview where one of the Negativland guys confronted The Edge about it all.

It's since come out that Bertis Downs (who worked for R.E.M.) was the one that purchased the record and forwarded it to U2's management.

Yeah, iirc it was the label. See also: Tom Petty vs. Sam Smith, etc.

http://www.negativland.com/news/?page_id=19

It's since come out that Bertis Downs (who worked for R.E.M.) was the one that purchased the record and forwarded it to U2's management.

He did? What a punk.

Yup, there's footage on Youtube of Mark Hosler confronting Downs about it - because they'd managed to figure out that the copy that made its way into the hands of U2's management was purchased at a store in Athens, Georgia. From what I can gather, he saw the record in the racks and got on the phone to U2's management as he was confused about the release, and then U2's management asked him to send a copy of the record. The rest is history!

I'm more bemused that he wouldn't have at least heard of Negativland after working a decade in college rock as such.

Well, yeah! I've often wondered what R.E.M.'s thoughts on the whole thing were... 'cuz Hosler is on record as saying he actually asked R.E.M. (prior to confronting Downs) whether anyone in the R.E.M. camp was responsible for forwarding the record on, but they were adamant nobody in the R.E.M. camp had anything to do with it.

Hahaha omg i guarantee that was at wuxtry - they had a huge negativland 'u2' poster on one of the front windows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2h1TOfeVFA

Just picked up the new vinyl reissue of this after reading a series of good notices on the pressing, and it sound pretty outstanding. It’s newly remastered!

They seem to be doing an extremely good job with these recent remasters, I actually picked up the one for HTDAAB and was pretty shocked at how much better the album sounded.

Didn't realize that the mixes of "Stay" and "The Wanderer" on the Faraway, So Close! soundtrack are different from the album versions – they're rougher, Eno's voice seems more prominent in "Stay".

I love that U2 took advantage of its imperial phase to do stuff like this album and Passengers. Speaks to their musical character, imo. As does "No Line on the Horizon" for the opposite: relocate to Morocco for a closer than usual collaboration with Eno and Lanois (first time they officially shared writing credits), and yet the results are pretty meh. And the band has been playing it safe and boring ever since.

nloth was an attempt at experimentation again but they clearly got scared about commercial prospects half way though recording and ended up with an even worse and less coherent album than they probably would have if they'd stuck to the original idea, and it still didn't have any his

i think U2 still has the ability to make an interesting and maybe even great experimental rock album, but whether or not they'll ever regain the courage to do so is another matter. considering the album sales of the last pair especially, and the fact that no matter what they'll always do well on tours, i think they should just say fuck it and try some weird shit. this will likely never happen, though. even though NLOTH is actually outstanding when it doesn't play to the fair-weather fans (on maybe half a dozen tracks). it's totally good for most of the rest of the time as well imo, albeit not very interesting.

In my humble opinion, they put the best song they've done in the last 30 years or even longer on a greatest hits album and nobody heard it. Window In the Skies should have been their biggest hit. I have no idea how everybody missed it.

i think "lemon" is my fav u2 song

― the raindrops and drop tops of lived, earned experience (BradNelson), Sunday, March 5, 2017 9:51 AM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same

I totally missed Window in the Skies. Listening now, it's ... ok. A good Beatles-y pop song.

got the wanderer on repeat today. such a fantastic one-off that seems like it shouldn't work in theory, but it just does. anyone know where i can find similar post-apocalyptic synth country?

That's a tough one, since there are so many unique attributes that make that song great. There's of course Johnny Cash, who himself is kind of a fantastic one-off. There's the Eno-fied backing (Eno being another fantastic one-off), and then there's Bono/the song, both of which defer to Cash's Mt. Rushmore presence. The closest I can think right now is some of the solo Lanois stuff, like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrhIfbUsptw

Yeah sometimes I wish there were a full J. Cash album of songs like « the wanderer »...

xpost, thanks for the lanois rec. been meaning to check that out for a while. really nice ghostly omnichord.

i also just remembered eno's cover of ring of fire, which seems like the main precursor to the wanderer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fJqPsMB-g8

Perhaps check out Daughn Gibson?

https://open.spotify.com/album/01pKh9HnyZQKwhJDMEBmvn?si=Utco6g0VRQ2p5J_6jQAEmQ