Vorsprung durch Technik: U2 Zooropa poll

Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
Lemon

two good choices imo

Why ty!

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.

http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/74615/photos/PHOTO_9402914_74615_12651433_ap.jpg

Lemon - Bono's vocal theatrics serve the song instead of detracting from it.

'Lemon' or the title track.

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.

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.

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.

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

The backing vocals are always great on U2 songs, whether it's Edge backing Bono or Bono backing Edge.

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?

Does Eno sing on this? Or other U2 records? I never knew.

definitely him and the edge on lemon right?

yes

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.

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.

Was U2 first onboard the Johnny Cash revival?

seems like it, the first American Recordings album came out the year after Zooropa

"Stay" is a never-fail karaoke number.

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".

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.

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.

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

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'.

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.

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.

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.

i always thought 'high and dry' was sort of a ripoff of 'stay' w/the latter being much better.

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lchb4oRSNR1qz6f9yo1_500.jpg

Almost everything's a contender but... very very hard not to vote the title track.

The Highwaymen is an album deserving rediscovery. Like a lot of eighties country it's gone down the memory hole.

i always thought 'high and dry' was sort of a ripoff of 'stay' w/the latter being much better.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

The Wanderer

This often seems to be the U2 album for people who hate U2.

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)

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?!"

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.

IT'S COLD OUTSIDE / BUT BRIGHTLY LIT

most of the English reviews couldn't resist making analogies to the implosion of Yugoslavia (U2 themselves advanced the notion on tour).

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.

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

really the whole record is Bowie/Eno/Fripp Berlin, which is why it sounds so great

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.

Lemon. This is far and away their best album.

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.

http://i.imgur.com/MWmSl.jpg

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.

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xpWBasyoMs

1993 was so fucking awesome

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.

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!

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

did you like the book?

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!

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?

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

oh you're right: Flanagan flirts with conflict of interest a lot, so I don't doubt he kept the drugs under the doormat.

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.

voted 'stay' and while i don't exactly regret it, thinking i should have voted 'zooropa'

lol macphisto

Can you imagine being at a U2 show in 1993 and 100 pizzas show up

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?

i was at a u2 show in 1993 and got no pizza alas

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.

standard basketball arena, pixies opened and it was super apparent that band was gonna break up soon

had this precise experience in chapel hill

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

I know I'm on the right board when so many other people pick this as a favourite U2 album!

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

PE also did the Stop Sellafield gig with U2 in 1992. there was a VHS of it and everything

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/a4/63/87e262e89da05d8221434110.L.jpg

Noel Gallagher's favourite *ever* gig he's said since.

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...

the saddest truth bomb

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.

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...

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.

daddy's gonna pay for your crashed car

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

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'?"

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

http://i.imgur.com/eap1P.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

The worst album Henry Rollins has made, no less

still haven't voted. so hard!

still in contention:

Zooropa
Lemon
Stay
Some Days Are Better Than Others
Dirty Day

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

poor "Babyface."

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'.

'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.

ha, i almost voted babyface there at the end. it's a pretty lazy song, but it kind of works in that way.

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.

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::

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.

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.

stay still catches me off guard no matter how many times I hear it

i just went back & listened to stay for the first time in years

damn

I just love everything about Stay. Great lyrics and a perfect vocal.

put zooropa on just now. i remember thinking it sounded so horrible & alien, but I dont hear any of that now

wish the band that made this record still existed

truth bomb

^^^ how did they go from this to 'Pop'?

(which aside from Discotheque is more like 'Poop' or 'Plop' or something)

wish the band that made this record still existed

― 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.

20 years old today...

ive been listening to this a lot lately, i ignored it when it came out . it feels like the last great U2 album. theres no anthemic rockers, it just seems to glide all the way to the end with "the wanderer" (which is a really cool context to put JC into)

The Wanderer; the song i think should be played to people who think they tailed off after Achtung Baby.

the drum loops on daddy's gonna pay for your crashed car are so great

this is my favourite u2 album.

the drum loops on daddy's gonna pay for your crashed car are so great

yea thats incredible

The Edge Says U2’s Next LP Is Coming Together Quickly, Compares It To Zooropa
http://www.stereogum.com/1851251/the-edge-says-u2s-next-lp-is-coming-together-quickly-compares-it-to-zooropa/news/?

I am listening to this for the first time in over a decade (possibly 2) after seeing several people on Facebook and Twitter wax rhapsodic about it today and... idgi

My favourite U2 album, bar none!

yep

the first four songs sound like unfinished demos to me

u guys

i think

maybe

Dan is

NUMB?

:D

"Stay (Faraway, So Close)" is good, I'll grant that

wish the band that made this record still existed

― inste grammophon (rogermexico.), Wednesday, April 10, 2013 4:53 PM (three years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

god that is such a truthbomb

the first four songs sound like unfinished demos to me

― ornate orchestral arrangements (DJP), Tuesday, February 28, 2017 10:55 AM (twenty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wow wait til you get to the second side

green light
7-11

"Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car" – I wish more U2 songs sound like this.

The second side sounds like a hangover.

Zooropa is definitely frontloaded like pretty much every U2 album is, but the back half has grown on me quite a lot over the years.

I don't know, I guess it just feels to me like they took a bunch of Achtung, Baby demos and paired them with a bunch of Joshua Tree demos and then went on a pub crawl on the label's dime

have u heard the passengers record djp

I don't remember now. Probably? No memory of it if I did.

now that record is innocuous

am i the only person who loves it conditionally (the condition being "elvis in america" is improbably horrible)

"Your Blue Room" is lovely, the first half perfectly pleasant background music to play while reading Stendhal.

OH RIGHT I never listened to it after hearing "Elvis in America" because, well, why would I

Because Slug and Your Blue Room are on it

maybe they should have led with one of those then and hidden Elvis in America where it couldn't hurt anyone

U2 has a song called 'Slug'?

Oh, Passengers.

Is there a time for East 17?

the first four songs sound like unfinished demos to me

Even if this were the case, that in and of itself is appealing. This album is great, and I like the second half better than the first half. I mean, "Dirty Day" and "The First Time" are awesome, and for all their lame Rattle & Hum era pedantry, they recruited Johnny Cash for this before the Rick Rubin resurgence, which was pretty hip.

Still remarkable to me how many U2 fans I know that don't like it and dismiss it as some weird, inaccessible experiment. It's as strange a stance to me as people who truly bought into U2 as being somehow "ironic."

Demos interest me only in how they contrast with the final, polished songs that made the album (or the sketches of ideas that were abandoned). If I want to listen to half-finished, half-baked ideas, I have an entire folder full of abandoned GarageBand projects I can export to sound files and play to my heart's content.

I get that the loose, disconnected ramble is what you are all responding to with this album. That is precisely what is pushing me away from it. None of it speaks to me because none of it aside from "Stay" sounds or feels like a complete thought; I don't know exactly what the "more" I'm looking for is but it isn't present in the material as-presented on the album.

Yeah, 'Dirty Day' and 'The First Time' grew on me a hell of a lot. I don't think the record is inaccessible at all (of course) but I can definitely how people who love the U2 of The Joshua Tree or 'Beautiful Day' might find the record a little beyond their comfort zone.

For all that's been said about Kid A confounding expectations, tracks like 'Numb' and 'Lemon' must have sounded fucking bizarre to long-time U2 fans.

"Zooropa" and "Babyface" sound like demos? Wow. They sound complete to my ears (whether you like them is another point entirely).

I get that the loose, disconnected ramble is what you are all responding to with this album.

It's not, actually! I think the album is actually quite tight and well put together considering how quickly they made it. What I respond to is the way the album sounds... the guitar sounds, the synth sounds etc.

"Zooropa" especially sounds like someone threw a bunch of loops together with minimal editing to sketch out some ideas about where they wanted the song to go and then said "you know what, let's just use this"

I think Pop sounds more undercooked than Zooropa, and they spent far more time on that!

I'm not a big fan of Pop either but that statement is crazy to me.

Yeah I think your opinions about Zooropa are RONG but at least I can tell you've listened to it

The First Time and Dirty Day are the only tracks that sound half baked to me. I've taken them off my Zooropa playlist and replaced them with Night and Day and Miss Sarajevo.

I guess I should mention in the name of transparency that somewhere in U section my CD collection are the singles for "Discotheque" and "Last Night on Earth"

mofoooooooooooo

MOOTTHAHHHHHHHH

I wanted a whole album of "Mofo" and "Do You Feel Loved?"

'Do You Feel Loved?' definitely one of my favourite U2 songs of that period.

I wanted a whole album of "Mofo" and "Do You Feel Loved?"

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, February 28, 2017 1:29 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

brb gonna start a band that sounds like this

So, Jesus Jones?

lmao

International Brad Young Things

Bradrock

For all that's been said about Kid A confounding expectations, tracks like 'Numb' and 'Lemon' must have sounded fucking bizarre to long-time U2 fans.

Even this doesn't ring accurate to me. It's not like "Zooropa" came out of nowhere. They were in the middle of their "Achtung Baby" career peak, and don't forget, the song they returned from semi-hiatus with was "The Fly," which was a far bigger shock post "Joshua Tree"/"Rattle & Hum" than anything on "Zooropa" was post-"Achtung Baby."

I know we've all talked about it before, but there were two studios - one for the band, and one for Eno. Band would work on stuff then hand it off to Eno, who did his thing. Which is the exact thing he did with James around the same time, with "Laid" and "Wah-Wah," except "Wah Wah" was the weird, truly experimental, largely improvised and noisy and whatever album. I could easily imagine James fans swayed by "Laid" hearing "Wah-Wah" and reacting, more justifiably, the way some U2 fans did to "Zooropa."

"Zooropa" especially sounds like someone threw a bunch of loops together with minimal editing to sketch out some ideas about where they wanted the song to go and then said "you know what, let's just use this"

There's something illustrative to this, since I think even many of the best/my favorite U2 songs are massively underwritten or at least super-simple to the near point of banality, imo, but saved/enhanced/made by the production, the effects, the performance. Like the infamous scene in "It Might Get Loud" where Edge is showing Jimmy Page and Jack White how to play "I Will Follow." Edge is a bit embarrassed/bemused, Page and White react like parents of a kid who just gave them a shitty crayon picture of a cat for their anniversary.

I remember hearing "Numb" and "Lemon" at the time they came out, and really thinking U2 had lost the plot. Or more accurately, since I was 12, my reaction was more like "this is weird and it sucks". And I had been a U2 fan for 2+ years by that point and loved everything from Boy to Achtung Baby. "The Fly" didn't throw me the same way Zooropa did. Course, after a couple years living with Zooropa, my reaction changed to "this is weird and it's awesome"

I think Pop sounds more undercooked than Zooropa, and they spent far more time on that!

― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Tuesday, February 28

didn't the band think this as well, hence why they revisited and tweaked several tracks for the compilation that dealt with this era ?

Zooropa / Pop - only period of the band I can stomach. I especially like the song they made with Sinead O'C on the End of Violence soundtrack, "I'm not your baby".

didn't the band think this as well, hence why they revisited and tweaked several tracks for the compilation that dealt with this era ?

― mark e, Wednesday, March 1, 2017 8:40 AM (ten hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah. There's portions of the Pop album where the final mixes aren't as great as they could be. Couple of really dodgy songs in the second half, too.

Truth be told some of those retooled mixes are actually worse than what came out in Pop.

i never minded any of the production on Pop, i though the unfinished nature of some of the tracks (and i always thought the most unfinished-sounding ones were Last Night on Earth, Gone, and Miami) actually gave them a more interesting sound.

For all that's been said about Kid A confounding expectations, tracks like 'Numb' and 'Lemon' must have sounded fucking bizarre to long-time U2 fans.

― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Tuesday, February 28, 2017 3:05 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I mentioned this upthread, but on release day some local rock radio DJs (in fact, Steve Dahl of "Disco Demolition" fame) played bits and pieces, skipping around and basically shitting on every song. "Where's the cool strumming thing?!"

Achtung still had guitars all over the place and Edge's delay thing on a couple of songs and the usual TRIUMPHANT choruses. Zooropa had none of the delay thing, long guitarless sections, and no cheer-along choruses.

"Where's the cool strumming thing?!"

Lolol

Yeah! I mean, Achtung Baby still had things like 'Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses' etc.

'The Fly' just comes across as U2 with some new effects pedals, whereas 'Numb' and 'Lemon' both sound like another band entirely. Those tracks sound quite modern in a way even certain tracks on Achtung Baby don't.

For the first and only time in her life my sister bought the album on the first day and gave it to me, disgusted, the next day.

I remember seeing the video to 'Lemon', long before I heard Zooropa in full, and thinking "ah, they must have released a remix as the single" ... I didn't realise it was the actual fucking track! It seemed far too radical to be them.

The British press liked it. I remember a complimentary review in Select comparing it to Bowie's Low, which made sense b/c Bowie was at the dawn of his '90s comeback and the Ryko reissues only a couple years old.

The Fly' just comes across as U2 with some new effects pedals, whereas 'Numb' and 'Lemon' both sound like another band entirely. Those tracks sound quite modern in a way even certain tracks on Achtung Baby don't.

― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Wednesday, March 1, 2017 7:39 PM (forty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I disagree and am definitely with Josh in Chicago on this one. You are looking at the two albums from todays pov. But The Fly *at the time* was a huge shock, way more than Zooropa was. I remember it vividly, the radio premiere of the 'new U2' single when it came out. I was 13 years old and a big fan at the time. I stayed up late to hear it, through headphones, and remember being so thrilled and shocked I had a physical response to it - upset tummy. Because of the roaring sound, the 'danger' of the sound!

Zooropa and AB the only u2 records I can still appreciate, though I haven't listened in years because they went utter shit. But don't downplay that, at the time, The Fly was a big big deal. It paved the way for Zooropa, which, while much more experimental and refreshing, wasn't such a big step after AB.

* teh band became utter shite, not those two albums

I don't remember "The Fly" being a huge shock -- it was different, but very recognizably U2 (basically, what Turrican said).

I always thought their version of "Night and Day" the year before -- which sounded less like standard U2 fare at the time than "The Fly" would -- softened their audience up/prepared them for something relatively atypical.

not sure how shocking the music was by itself, but i heard the song for the first time when i saw the video, and coming after rattle and hum they might as well have turned into slayer, they seemed like a wholly new creation in image and tone.

otm re Night and Day

in retrospect it wasn't so huge a shift but yeah 'the fly' was a very unexpected leap in 1991

'one' rather less so

True. 'When Loves Comes to Town', 'All I Want Is You' and the 'Everlasting Love' cover were the three singles preceding 'The Fly'. That's a huge difference in sound and approach.

There's a lot of tracks on Achtung Baby that, shorn of their window dressing - which essentially is all that it is - could have fit on any U2 LP. A lot of those tracks are indentifiably U2 songs at their core. The usual melodic sense, and even with the window dressing there's still one eye on classic rock.

'Lemon' would not work any other way than how it is presented on Zooropa, and there's barely an element of classic rock in there. It's far more modern a construction than, say, something like 'So Cruel', which could have closed The Joshua Tree or something.

But The Fly *at the time* was a huge shock, way more than Zooropa was.

It came as such a shock to this guy it took him 25 years to remember to sue them:

http://www.nme.com/news/music/u2-accused-of-stealing-song-for-achtung-baby-1996651

True. 'When Loves Comes to Town', 'All I Want Is You' and the 'Everlasting Love' cover were the three singles preceding 'The Fly'. That's a huge difference in sound and approach.

― Le Bateau Ivre, Wednesday, March 1, 2017 3:57 PM

You're forgetting their cover of "Night and Day," an aural precursor.

anyway "The Fly," a flop in America released like Def Leppard's "Women" several years earlier as a way to consolidate the Real Fans, wasn't such a shock in America. Remember: Jesus Jones and EMF had hits here.

"Night and Day" wasn't a single, oddly enough, but I remember hearing it on the radio, and the video was in regular rotation.

There's a lot of tracks on Achtung Baby that, shorn of their window dressing - which essentially is all that it is - could have fit on any U2 LP. A lot of those tracks are indentifiably U2 songs at their core. The usual melodic sense, and even with the window dressing there's still one eye on classic rock.

'Lemon' would not work any other way than how it is presented on Zooropa, and there's barely an element of classic rock in there. It's far more modern a construction than, say, something like 'So Cruel', which could have closed The Joshua Tree or something.

Replace the piano in "Lemon" with a guitar playing the same figure and it's almost "Last Night On Earth" with more falsetto

I would love to get my hands on the bordering-on-avant-garde-for-U2 album you all are talking about because it sounds a lot more interesting than Zooropa.

Unforgettable Fire is a lot more U2 gone avant-garde, as such. Zooropa is just a fun weird spare album.

that would be Passengers! probably best to forget Elvis Ate America, as you said. everything before and after is really something though. I was listening to Eno's The Shutov Assembly album the other day and it was eye-opening how much it resembled the passengers album in a lot of ways. Made me want to further explore Eno's early to mid nineties work, and probably more relevant to what showed up on that album than what U2 and Eno did with Zooropa.

Nerve Net!

nomar otm

I bought The Shutov Assembly and Arrested Development's debut at a Sound Warehouse in Broward in spring '93.

Guess which I sold to CD Warehouse fist.

'Night and Day' was on the 'Red Hot' compilation wasn't it? But I agree with you Alfred, that it is on the same sonical palette. Still, a Sinatra cover wasn't exactly the same as The Fly.

btw here's where I recommend Bill Flanagan's U2 At the End of the World again, one of my favorite biographies. It follwos the band from 1990-1994 as they record Achtung with the threat of breakup, tour the world, record Zooropa with Eno and the Edge fully in control of production, and watch Bosnia and Michael Jackson collapse.

^ cosign that, enjoyable read, like a really good travelogue Rolling Stone or Spin article made book length.

i prob said this upthread but i wish lcd soundsystem would cover "daddy's gonna pay for your crashed car"

You're alone, bro.

Couple of tracks on Zooropa sound like LCD Soundsystem already, well, apart from the vocals

Something to be said about Zooropa is that it's probably the swan song for Bono's voice. Up to that point I'd put him among that generation of great post-punk, post-Bowie and Ferry romantic vocalists from the 80s such as Midge Ure or Morten Harket, with considerable depth and range. From Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me and onwards his voice'd become increasingly thinner and weaker, to the point it's become nearly unlistenable to me now.

Malo Vox.

I was a huge u2 fan as a teenager, especially "Achtung Baby", up until "Zooropa" was released (I haven't listened to any of their albums after that).
I've always found it - not bad - but minor.
I tried to listen to it again following this thread (maybe for the first time since then).
"Lemon" is nice. "Stay" too. the rest is ok.
The only track I really like is "The Wanderer" !

As said upthread, I think The Fly was a shock primarily because of the video and the new branding of the band. Sonically, the so-called transformation was greatly exagerated.

Seriously. I was a long time fan, Joshua Tree was my first ever concert, and I saw a Rattle and hum in the theaters, even bought a poster in the lobby. I was maybe sixteen when The Fly came out? My reaction to the video was that they had turned into Depeche Mode. Ridiculous now, obviously, and ridiculous then, but I think it defines the context a better.

well, then Depeche turned into U2 by releasing "I Feel You" (which also flopped in America).

yeah, the video was a huge part in the shock of "The Fly" but sonically it was also a big leap from "Rattle&Hum".

Anyway, the big single was "Mysterious Ways", which was more in line with what came before

On your knees, boy!

yeah, that one was less of a change (never liked it much).

What I wrote about Zooropa on its anniversary several years ago.

"The Fly"was bigger in EU (well, I checked UK and NL chart history), "Mysterious Ways" did better in the US.

Seriously. I was a long time fan, Joshua Tree was my first ever concert, and I saw a Rattle and hum in the theaters, even bought a poster in the lobby. I was maybe sixteen when The Fly came out? My reaction to the video was that they had turned into Depeche Mode. Ridiculous now, obviously, and ridiculous then, but I think it defines the context a better.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, March 2, 2017 2:31 PM (fifty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well, then Depeche turned into U2 by releasing "I Feel You" (which also flopped in America).

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, March 2, 2017 2:39 PM (forty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The Great Corbijning

Re Mysterious Ways, that super low dubby bass was a huge change from old U2, not a continuation, IMO. Aside from With Or Without You, bass is not that prominent on Joshua Tree, say, Ted Nugent's rip aside.

well, "Bullet the Blue Sky" was quite heavy with big drums, low end and metallic guitars.
That one wasn't too far from "Achtung Baby" (except the lyrics, of course).

"Mysterious Ways" it was more the drums that were different from their previous sound.

Bullet was the Nugent rip I referenced. Nugent sucks, but Stranglehold rules.

Zooropa is weirdly linked in my mind with the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me soundtrack, which I was listening to concurrently at the time as a kid in my rural hometown, so I was excited for U2's apparent new mood experiment phase.

I don't remember very well but I think "Exit" was also something that could have been a link between the "Joshua Tree" era and the "Achtung Baby" era.

xxposts
Nugent ? ah, I had no idea "Bullet" had anything to do with Nugent (I don't know much about him...).

no need to, he sucks. but Google Stranglehold.

'Some Days are Better Than Others' is seriously underrated, IMO. One of my favourites.

yeah that's a good one, love the bassline on that and the fuzzy guitar solo and the chiming church bells effect

i do think that while there are some tracks on AB that could have appeared on an earlier album and not really stood out that much, i think there are elements on all the songs that really indicate their new direction. Bono's vocals on most of the songs are pretty different too.

i guess One and So Cruel and Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses? are probably the most trad sounding ones with the fewest "Berlin" touches.

Disagree about the second two. so cruel has a crazy treated drums and great nu Bono vox and wild horses is radically different in scope and approach from past U2 anthems, plus the guitar effects are the groups most shoegazey since unforgettable fire at least.

Huh, I guess this was in U2 by U2:

Adam: So Cruel was lifted up by studio trickery. It started out as an acoustic tune, I was playing acoustic bass, Edge was playing acoustic guitar and Larry was playing a bodhran (Irish drum). It wasn't something one could imagine being on the recrod but overnight Flood did a couple of treatments to the track that utterly transformed it. He keyed my bass part off Larry's bodhran, which gave it a much more bubbly, off-beat feel and then we overdubbed a few things and the drum part went on"

and wild horses is radically different in scope and approach from past U2 anthems

I dunno, it starts out with Edge using some new-fangled fuzziness, but by the chorus, it might as well be a Joshua Tree outtake.

The thing about Achtung, Baby that makes it special to me is that it simultaneously sounds like a new sonic direction for the band and also exactly like what my conception of "a U2 album" sounds like. There are individual songs from the Pop/Zooropa era that I can get behind but overall both sound like the band chasing trends rather than the band using a trend to express their own musical vocabulary (if that makes any sense).

I wanted a whole album of "Mofo" and "Do You Feel Loved?"

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, February 28, 2017 1:29 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I wanted a whole album of "Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me".

Huh. Pop, sure, but I don't hear Zooropa chasing any trends at all, and less so than Achtung, at that.

I really don't hear Horses as Joshua Tree at all. Achtung almost from start to finish is also emotionally devastating/devastated, which is new for them as well. Flanagan's review remains the standard-bearer take, imo. It's a dark record, darker than Joshua Tree for sure, which tackles dark stuff, too, but in a really facile way.

due to this thread revival i have put this album on for the first time in ages.
it's still my fave album of theirs, by far.
thought i would get bored after a few tracks, but no, not at all.
i like the demo/random ideas type groove.
i love the use of weird drum loops/textures.
and many of the songs send genuine shivers up my spine
'some days' has just finished, and i am in bits, and this is followed by the brilliant and moody 'the first time'
so much for the suggested front loading of this album.

tldr : DJP : you mad.

im not really a u2 fan, i feel pretty fatigued even hearing the songs i do like by them, but man lemon is such a good song

I dunno, it starts out with Edge using some new-fangled fuzziness, but by the chorus, it might as well be a Joshua Tree outtake.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, March 2, 2017 6:12 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yup, basically this!

I haven't listened to "AB" in a while but if I remember well, "horses" is the worst song on it.

Nah, I actually really like that song. 'Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World' is the weak link on Achtung Baby for me. The title is like a parody of a U2 song title.

agreed.

Yeah, even a their most zeitgeist, they could never keep themselves from throwing up some broad singalong, a la "Wild Horses" or "Staring at the Sun"

sorry - even at their most zeitgeist-y

"You're dangerous/cuz you're honest"

ugh fuckin' die

lmao

anyway "arms around the world" >>>>>> "wild horses", the latter tries a bit too hard, i like it i guess but it's definitely a lower tier U2 song imo.

I wanted a whole album of "Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me"

"Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me" is such a successful, accomplished deviation that I'm sort of glad they didn't risk ruining it by trying to make a whole album of it and failing.

Yeah I think an album of HMTMKMKMs is even less sustainable than an album full of Mofos, as much as I'd like to see both happen.

These guys never go full on with their concept anyway - there's always at least three or four safer songs per album that could have fit on any of their albums, except for the production touches. As if they have to cater to the fanbase that wants Joshua tree U2 forever. Zooropa is the closest they got to fully committing, I think

"You're dangerous/cuz you're honest"

ugh fuckin' die

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, March 2, 2017 2:18 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

second time in my life i ever recognized a bad lyricist was when i first heard achtung baby at age 14. before that it was trent reznor

Even Bono is better than Reznor.

y u guys braek heart i love trent

don't make me mention silverchair

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

daniel johns is the worst lyricist of all time. i love him so much still

i am fond of daniel johns & silverchair

Zooropa is the closest they got to fully committing, I think

Haha, my own memory left it out too. For sure, it beats Zooropa as far as committing to a concept, but tbf, it isn't U2. Eno shares writing credits on that album and is hardcore on concepts - I suspect he did a lot of the steering

i think "lemon" is my fav u2 song

Xpost Yeah, iirc it was going to be credited to U2, or U2 and Eno, but the label objected.

Eno essentially had cowrite on Zooropa, too,and I'm sure contributed earlier, but it wasn't until No Line that he and Lanois were ever formally credited as writers.

I sometimes wonder if 'Elvis Ate America' was deliberately crafted to be the most irritating track they could possibly come up with.

Blame it on Howie B.

Have we ever polled stupid songs about Elvis? Dire Straights, "Calling Elvis." Living Colour, "Elvis is Dead." Kirsty MacColl, Richard Thompson, Neil Young ... there are some good ones, too, and apparently a lot!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_about_or_referencing_Elvis_Presley

i think "lemon" is my fav u2 song

I'm starting to come around to this too. Also for a long time I'd mentally tagged this album as a curate's egg but after re-listening to the whole thing thanks to this revive I've completely changed my mind, right now I'd say it's at least as good as Achtung Baby.

is Bono doing a... boston accent on Lemon?

I don't know if 'Lemon' is my absolute favourite U2 song, but it's definitely an all-time favourite of mine. I wish that Pop had been both more of a success and that the end product was one that the band were satisfied with, then maybe they wouldn't have been too scared to go further down this path instead of wimping out with 'Beautiful Day' etc.

Lemon is my favourite U2 song. The moment around the five minute mark where those heartbreaking strings change note as the piano comes back in is probably my favourite moment in music ever. That and Stay are the two best songs they ever did.

I think 'Bad' might be their greatest ever song, fwiw.

i had it #1 when we polled

I used to appreciate the 3 tempos in zooropa. Now I could give a fuck

ISOLATION
MASTURBATION
COPULATION

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