Passengers - Original Soundtracks 1

your blue room btw

"Your Blue Room."

in before anyone votes for anything but "Your Blue Room"

I've said it several times: "Your Blue Room" is U2's best song

"United Colours" is their 2nd-best song and if I could be bothered loading up a sockpuppet, that's who he'd be voting for. But "Your Blue Room" needs to win this, and win this well.

Great album and criminally stupid that some of the members of U2 disowned it. Really it's between "Your Blue Room" and "Miss Sarajevo", but I'll have to ponder on it.

The soundtrack to Million Dollar Hotel has some great stuff too, even their ropy cover of "Satellite of Love" has it's charm. Bit like Bowie in the 80's in that some of their best work is hidden away on soundtracks and one off singles rather than their "proper" albums.

I voted "Your Blue Room" but was tough as I think it's a strong album all around.

The album's just incalculably better than anything else I've heard of theirs. First half especially is mesmerising.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

Not surprising.

plz to poll "Your Blue Room" against "Any other U2 song"

Thanks to this thread, I picked this up (very cheaply b/c it's so late in the game), and I'm enjoying it a lot. I slept on "Miss Sarajevo" at the time but boy is that a great song. But "United Colours", "Your Blue Room", and "Elvis Ate America" are also really great songs. Some of the percussion is a little dated sounding: these beats could slam quite a bit harder and these instrumental tracks like "Plot 180" would be better, I think. But still, this is a totally respectable album. I had no idea.

United Colours on my shuffle right now. U2 could have been a fucking excellent art-rock band

they were for two albums (this and zooropa).

This is definitely U2 for people who hate U2. The million dollar hotel ost and zooropa might also apply.

"Theme from The Swan," kids.

I've said it several times: "Your Blue Room" is U2's best only good song

I do love it tho

I said it myself upthread! But 'United Colours' is also good tho so

got the feeling they're both two parts Eno, one part U2 tho

I was quoting/amending that post

oh yeah shit

don't really remember the rest of this album except for "white knickers/white nigger", what awful people

here, trust

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ARajHGbYYs

ok yeah this is good

I had a pretty strong feeling of recognition when it started, I think maybe cause it sounds a bit Nerve Netty, but then when it takes off in the 2nd half I didn't remember it at all

now I'm a little pissed off that this got no votes and elvis got 1 wtf

it's a strong enough album up until and including 'beach sequence' but then yeah regrettable stuff happens

guess if they completely frontloaded* it they could probably extract enough decent material to fool people into thinking they had a decent art-rock album in them :P

*the first three tracks smoke the rest of the album, the next three aren't actively offensive

got the feeling they're both two parts Eno, one part U2 tho

I seem to recall this collection was originally going to be co-credited to U2 and Eno, but either for legal reasons or more likely ego reasons they just credited it as Passengers.

rly makes u think what they might have been, such regrets, so music

I like this album fine, but no point pretending it isn't duking it out with Rattle And Hum for the U2 wooden spoon

How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and NLOTH are hungry though.

much as I love exhortations to stop pretending (LETS FACE IT, it's such an intelligent thing to say), U2 are fucking atrocious is the thing

a rain shall come

All their other Eno collaborations do a lot more with sound is the thing for me though; compared to say The Unforgettable Fire this is more like a set of demos. The name change suggests more a project ditched halfway through than a first step on a new road.

yeah but are there songs on those albums where bono sings in that depressed bowieish voice he uses on YBR as opposed to his normal shitty awful bono voice? serious q

He drops into it sometimes from Achtung Baby onwards iirc. It's not my favourite register of his tbh, but it's perfect on ybr I agree

it's def the best register I've heard him use (you may have guessed that bono's vox = a sticking point for me)

"Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car"
"Some Days are Better Than Others"

xpost

Imagine how well u2 could only have done if theyd tweaked it a bit to pick up youse guys along the way

I'm sayin

you really are

Cedars of Lebanon is another xp. Never been quite sure if it's horrific, or if I quite like it.

did you actually like that lst u2 album, darragh?

albums? who listens to albums, it's 2013. i could hum along to some u2 songs from 2000 onwards but idk albums etc. who cares. u2. yknow. they sound like u2, sell a lot, seem to have it sussed tbh.

cedars of lebanon is gorgeous xp

That sprechgesang quality you guys are ascribing to his voice I think is largely due to a close mic with few effects. You hear it a bit on "Zooropa," where they made a point of putting the thing together fast. Compare it to "With Or Without You" are "All I Want Is You," which have similar vocal performances, at least in parts, but much more polished in the studio by stuff. That plus Bono is frankly older c. this collection, and his singing has changed.

But you know, I never really noticed a loose similarity between Bono and Bowie until you all mention it. Interesting.

I was going to say 'with or without you'. when I was a kid and I heard that for the first time I thoguht it WAS bowie.

anyway thanks to this thread for having me pull this album out again, it's really great. back when it came out and it seemed like Eno stuff was suddenly everywhere on a pretty regular basis again (nerve net, shutov, spinner, etc) I listened to this all the time but my distaste for U2 eventually made it fall by the wayside. don't think I've given it a spin in at least 10 years.

with the twilight breaking thruuuu

the best u2 album

I knew who revived this thread w/out looking

objectively "your blue room" is the best thing in the world but "one minute warning" is my favorite track bc it was at the end of ghost in the shell

yeah i've been trying to create a single perfect u2 playlist out of zooropa, "hold me thrill me," uhhh probably just "mofo" from pop, and this record, what about it alfred

I want to agree with your first post but U2 without Bono's braying isn't U2. I like my quiet instrumentals by U2 with more vulgarity.

i mean obviously i don't like u2

obviously! Their moms don't like them either.

my mom likes U2

i like the idea of trying to make a mix of bono singing in that "depressed bowieish voice"

maybe it would be like...

until the end of the world
the fly
zooropa
daddy's gonna pay for your crashed car
the first time
slug
your blue room
mofo
if you wear that velvet dress
never let me go
cedars of lebanon

thought about adding Heartland from R&H but maybe that's a bridge too far for some people. idk, it's pretty moody and bono keeps it relatively subtle.

Is there a time for The 1975?

Good timing as I've been listening to this and a bunch of other mid-90s Eno just the last day or two.

Can someone make the case for why "Your Blue Room" is their best song? I'm willing to hear them out.

Best? No, but it's lovely, and can't go wrong with Wall of Eno.

yeah i don't feel compelled to make that case but it's up there

following this thread I started listening to this album (which I had totally forgotten and had never cared for since its release).
in my memory, "miss sarajevo" was horrible but now I kinda enjoy it (except the pavarotti part !).
I had never heard "your blue room". it's also nice but I agree that I don't see what's so great about it either.

Realized in the car last night how much "Plot 180" sounds like a 90s instrumental remake of the Talking Heads' "Listening Wind":

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpK_nz-dQjw

Also, I love this passage from the Eno diary:

"Passengers getting a complete range of reviews – suitably controversial. But there is a good buzz about it. I wonder know whether U2 will adopt it as one of their own, rather than holding it at arms length and blaming it on me!"

even though this isn't a 'great' album I can't imagine U2 doing something this interesting ever again.

There's a live version of Your Blue Room with Sinead O'Connor singing the chorus, which made me think how many U2 songs would be improved if Sinead O'Connor sung them instead.

Also, something about the organ riff in the song has always made me think it's gonna segue into the Primals' Come Together.

xpost https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpwsK2mLFeI

Almost the whole album was robbed in this poll, but it really must be said, "Slug" was robbed

It's also wild that one of the only four tracks to get a vote was Elvis Ate America

Re. “Bono’s Bowie voice,” I’ve said it elsewhere but the most obvious place we hear it is on “Lemon” on the “Driftin’ driftin’ driftin’ from the shore” line.

Slug is incredibly good, just a simple track but completely elevated to another level by Bono's vox.

*bono vox's bono vox

I opened this thread and saw the results and thought “I think “slug” was robbed” before I even got to the revive.

Is it time for a general revival of that mid-90s over-production vibe? The space between this and contemponeous FSOL? I think so.

This is not just a production vibe, you're talking about my youth! I mean my absorption in this music was tied up in interzone / third way blind optimism, rave like a firework still expanding outward, computers that kept getting faster / more networked, but before the eternal September ... and yes the optimism of youth. Passengers was a chill space station in a solar system with FSOL and all the other stuff happening. We were obviously going interstellar.

The production vibe can and should come back, but it would have to be put to a different use. For a while it felt less like electronic music was less a firework, more like ripples that had reached the edge of the pool and bounced back. And now?

what was so great about the '90s is U2, merely 7 years after Rattle and Hum, was out there making something like this and it sorta made sense. they were actually plenty weirder than a lot of other weird bands of the time, if only because it was a move that sent them into the furthest reaches past their usual orbit. maybe that's why it was so disappointing when, after exploring in a way that for me at least was somewhat revelatory and inspiring, they retreated so rapidly.

Best track on this album is Always Forever Now

The first side is the best imo

agree, I forgot how nice the segue from Beach Sequence to Miss Sarajevo was!

haha, I guess that only works if you have the CD

This is not just a production vibe, you're talking about my youth! I mean my absorption in this music was tied up in interzone / third way blind optimism, rave like a firework still expanding outward, computers that kept getting faster / more networked, but before the eternal September ... and yes the optimism of youth. Passengers was a chill space station in a solar system with FSOL and all the other stuff happening. We were obviously going interstellar.

The production vibe can and should come back, but it would have to be put to a different use. For a while it felt less like electronic music was less a firework, more like ripples that had reached the edge of the pool and bounced back. And now?

― default damager (lukas), Tuesday, 23 July 2024 01:12 (one hour ago) link

My youth too, except I was 12/13 in 1995 so I didn't have quite enough historical perspective to appreciate just how fast things were moving at the time. But the production vibe coming back would in part reflect nostalgia for that sense of velocity / "anything is possible".

i am still looking for more music that sounds like “one minute warning”

You know I sure get why James' Wah Wah was compared to Zooropa back in 94. What I don't get quite so much is why that comparison has continued ever since at the expense of OS1. The original sticker of WW credited it to 'James/Eno' so it's another full collaboration really and I feel like Eno was in the same headspace for both, wrt both bands, as bands, being ephemeral presences submitting fully to texture, drone, doing away with 'rock' altogether most of the time et al.

Haven't listened to this in probably 20 years. "Your Blue Room" and "Always Forever Now" are the two I clearly remember liking, but looking at the titles, there's a few others that were pretty good, weren't there? I bet I'd like the album more nowadays

i played this a few weeks ago for the first time in years and it really holds up well

RSD reissue!

https://www.u2songs.com/discography/u2_record_store_day_2025_single