Vorsprung durch Technik: U2 Zooropa poll

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.