Bono's as old as Mick was when Bridges to Babylon came out.
― Man, when I tell you she was cool, she was red hot, I mean she was (intheblanks), Monday, 15 September 2014 20:31 (nine years ago) link
he's aging better.
― piscesx, Monday, 15 September 2014 20:46 (nine years ago) link
Would love to see U2 enter a neon "Let's Work" period.
― the man with the black wigs (Eazy), Monday, 15 September 2014 20:55 (nine years ago) link
Fricke's review is the beginning of U2's Doodoo Lounge period:http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/doodoo-lounge/Content?oid=885084
as this state of affairs continues, reviewers will be forced to make finer and finer distinctions to keep describing records as better than the last one but not as good as Some Girls. Mathematically, this recurring loop can be demonstrated thusly, where Some Girls is given a value of 1, its successor, Emotional Rescue, is arbitrarily assigned half that value, and each succeeding album is assigned half the value of its predecessor plus the total of all the fractions before it:1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + 1/32 .While this progression is theoretically infinite, it may eventually strain the bounds of human journalism. It's possible reviewers will eventually agree that some future Stones album is better than Some Girls, and then compare it to the previous watershed, probably Exile on Main St. (As the quotations below demonstrate, this process may have already begun.) Exile will hold for a while, and then even earlier benchmarks (Beggar's Banquet, Aftermath) will be cited and then breeched. Finally, inevitably, England's Newest Hit Makers, the Stones' U.S. debut, will rise and ultimately fall in the face of their extraordinary continuing artistic growth. All of which can only mean one thing: the band's best work is ahead of them.
1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + 1/32 .
While this progression is theoretically infinite, it may eventually strain the bounds of human journalism. It's possible reviewers will eventually agree that some future Stones album is better than Some Girls, and then compare it to the previous watershed, probably Exile on Main St. (As the quotations below demonstrate, this process may have already begun.) Exile will hold for a while, and then even earlier benchmarks (Beggar's Banquet, Aftermath) will be cited and then breeched. Finally, inevitably, England's Newest Hit Makers, the Stones' U.S. debut, will rise and ultimately fall in the face of their extraordinary continuing artistic growth. All of which can only mean one thing: the band's best work is ahead of them.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 15 September 2014 22:10 (nine years ago) link
I feel like Eno should devise a series of Oblique Strategies exclusively for U2:
235. "Losing Your Edge"14. Record in a room filled with money. Then record the sound of just the money. Then delete that recording and burn the money. Then record that.72. Replace Larry with a machine. Then replace Adam and the Edge with a machine, too. Then replace Bono with a machine, but bring back the real Larry, Edge and Adam.875. Cut your hair like Macklemore.65. Wrap it in foil, stick it in the microwave, see what happens. 8777. Record an album in a week.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 00:05 (nine years ago) link
I feel like we can replace Eno with an Oblique Strategy.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 16 September 2014 00:12 (nine years ago) link
Not really bothered about reading his U2 review or even listening to the album, but I'm just wondering... does David Fricke still have that haircut that makes his head look like the shape of the helmet of a penis?
― Welcome To (Turrican), Tuesday, 16 September 2014 00:24 (nine years ago) link
Would be funny if one of the rhythm section decided to do a Bill Berry at this point. Maybe funnier if they actually carried on
― Master of Treacle, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 00:25 (nine years ago) link
Xpost at least as of a Robyn Hitchcock concert in manhattan a few years back, yes he does still have that haircut
― Rand McNulty (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, 16 September 2014 00:35 (nine years ago) link
Fricke looks like a cross between Johnny Ramone and Skeletor.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 00:44 (nine years ago) link
http://www.programmingthenation.com/production_stills/David_Fricke.jpg"Five stars. You're welcome."
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 00:47 (nine years ago) link
(To be fair, he always seems like a nice guy, and he's one of the few older critics who still goes out to shows all the time.)
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 00:48 (nine years ago) link
Greates Marky Ramone tribute act ever
― Master of Treacle, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 00:59 (nine years ago) link
I dunno. Could also read that as the Greatest Tom Scholz tribute act ever.
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 04:36 (nine years ago) link
― Master of Treacle, Tuesday, September 16, 2014 12:25 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I think U2 could quite comfortably carry on if Adam Clayton left. Maybe less so if Larry Mullen left.
― Welcome To (Turrican), Tuesday, 16 September 2014 09:01 (nine years ago) link
I think at this point they could carry on if they all left.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 13:33 (nine years ago) link
"Ladies and Gentlemen, HoloBono and the U2s!"
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 13:42 (nine years ago) link
We are all U2, that is why they are called U2.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 13:48 (nine years ago) link
this is not "No Line on the Horizon" by U2
Indeed!
― Mark G, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 15:20 (nine years ago) link
Anyway, I won't have to deal with this until I get a new laptop― Dominique, Thursday, September 11, 2014 5:46 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
^i really love this, the new U2 album as something you're gonna have to man up and face someday, like death and taxes
― u2 removal machine (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 16 September 2014 18:43 (nine years ago) link
I thought I'd lost my mind during the 'ba ba barbara, santa barbara' part
― Bitterer than Bitter (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 16 September 2014 19:26 (nine years ago) link
does this album sound weird, or do iTunes files just sound bad?
― Bitterer than Bitter (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 16 September 2014 19:41 (nine years ago) link
so when I download the latest version of itunes this is gonna be in my library?
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 19:49 (nine years ago) link
if you download it before Oct 13, yeah. I think so.
― Bitterer than Bitter (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 16 September 2014 19:52 (nine years ago) link
dud
― 💻 👀 (am0n), Tuesday, 16 September 2014 19:53 (nine years ago) link
ughhh it's on my ipod touch
― marcos, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 19:55 (nine years ago) link
Nelson Muntz should have been on the cover of this album, basically
― Bitterer than Bitter (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 16 September 2014 19:56 (nine years ago) link
You can miss it if you have automatic downloads turned off in iTunes, I think.
― Malibu Stasi (WilliamC), Tuesday, 16 September 2014 19:58 (nine years ago) link
yeah I don't have that turned on (why would I want anything automatically from iTunes)
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 20:00 (nine years ago) link
oh wait, there is a little cloud icon with an arrow, so i think it's in my library but i have to download it to get it? anyways this is so fucking stupid
― marcos, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 20:01 (nine years ago) link
It's on my wife's iPhone, she's never plugged it in to iTunes or ever synced it. It just appeared on her phone.
― nate woolls, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 20:01 (nine years ago) link
the album is now part of your default consciousness, and you only need to remember that you've heard it
― Bitterer than Bitter (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 16 September 2014 20:04 (nine years ago) link
My new perspective on this is that U2 is the perfect musical equivalent of Apple, so if you own an Apple product and use iTunes, you deserve to have a new U2 forced on you and are not allowed to complain about it.
― Immediate Follower (NA), Tuesday, 16 September 2014 20:08 (nine years ago) link
complaining was cool last week. this week, it's cool to listen to the whole album and enjoy it.
― Bitterer than Bitter (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 16 September 2014 20:13 (nine years ago) link
it sounds like it was recorded in a glass bottle, it's so airless/dead sounding
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 16 September 2014 20:32 (nine years ago) link
That, my friend, will never be cool.
― OutdoorFish, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 20:57 (nine years ago) link
They should have given out Zooropa for free to help the global audience to one last chance to rediscover this gem and thus correct one of the great misjudgements in the history of human art.
― the european nikon is here (grauschleier), Tuesday, 16 September 2014 20:59 (nine years ago) link
http://www.whoisu2.com
― piscesx, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 22:46 (nine years ago) link
OTFM. It's amazing how many people I know (c. pre-nu-U2) like "everything but 'Zooropa," or got off the boat with "Zooropa." "Zooropa" is amazing. Even "Pop" is mostly good. I think what really bristles about this latest marketing gambit is that U2 is finally so rich and so powerful - which really didn't happen til the post nu-U2 era - that they can do whatever they want, and what they choose is ... whatever it takes to get more.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 17 September 2014 00:16 (nine years ago) link
As a friend noted:
in the book 'U2 by U2', Bono says of The Unforgettable Fire, the band’s fourth album, “all we had to do was to keep doing what we were doing and we would have become the biggest band since Led Zeppelin.” And though Bono said they were “reapplying for the job of the best band in the world” in 2000 they have often substituted “biggest” for “best.”
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 17 September 2014 00:23 (nine years ago) link
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/s720x720/10599301_10152707347799214_8572691908702938605_n.jpg?oh=ec8debc3b5711692bdd81e180ebb64e4&oe=548BA421&__gda__=1422905812_cb5edaff3d10e2e4cb47b9be0793102a
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 17 September 2014 00:24 (nine years ago) link
Didn't realise Morten Harket was into U2 then. Subtle A-ha influence?
― Master of Treacle, Wednesday, 17 September 2014 01:00 (nine years ago) link
from the Torygraph
The Irish band’s 19-album back catalogue sold 6,744 copies in the last week ...based on data from then Official Charts Company. That compares with 697 sales the previous week. Almost all of the extra sales were digital downloads, with fewer than 60 U2 albums sold on the high street.
― piscesx, Wednesday, 17 September 2014 01:26 (nine years ago) link
well there is the beautiful day / sun always shines on tv thing so... xp
― john wahey (NickB), Wednesday, 17 September 2014 04:50 (nine years ago) link
nobody that likes their own music would behave in such a way
― OutdoorFish, Wednesday, 17 September 2014 06:27 (nine years ago) link
I know that the internet is filled within whining whiners who like to whine but all the complaining about a free album irritated me to no end. (I guess I am whining about this... Whatever.)
I got the album on my computer, listened once and (apparently unlike everyone else) had zero problem making it go away once I realized it was boring and I'd never listen to it again.
― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Wednesday, 17 September 2014 07:26 (nine years ago) link
Yeah it's kind of incredible. I don't like it but I dunno I'll probably keep it just for shits & giggles
― u2 removal machine (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 17 September 2014 12:54 (nine years ago) link
Not feeling the album so much, it's probs my least fave of theirs from what I can tell (disappointing bc NLOTH was really good and has some epic U2 jams) but it's an amazing troll effort.
― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Wednesday, 17 September 2014 14:16 (nine years ago) link
hey look, free albumdog shit i threw into your front window! i think it's a useful case of tech company overreach because the intrusion is more personal. if you don't think tech is monitoring and selling everything it can around "you" to the highest bidder or you're ok with it because oh em gee it's so cool there's nothing to say really. it isn't about the thickness of u2 "the band" that makes "rock music" it's about the truthiness of this band being applied to current "benevolent" consumer ideology which relies on the maxim that you can't be ungrateful for or criticize something if it's free.
― mattresslessness, Wednesday, 17 September 2014 15:53 (nine years ago) link
Very well put. That is one major aspect why I think it is odd some people find all the upheaval odd.
But the second one is the tech side - or rather, ethical side - of it: Apple showed a complete disrespect to its users personal digital space. Just days after the news broke that dozens of accounts had been compromised and had their private photos stolen, here comes Apple flipping you the finger, saying: "You know what? We can do it the other way around too! We'll put something in your personal cloud, something you didn't ask for, without your consent, and something you can't get rid of! And we'll break it to all our users as if they won the fucking lottery, haha!"
If you don't understand why people take issue with that, then I don't know what to tell you.
― ambient yacht god (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 17 September 2014 16:15 (nine years ago) link