Classic or Dud: U2

I think the new one "rocks" a bit more than the last one. The last one was also a better album.

xpost Lifeson also clearly glommed on to what the Edge and cohort were up to.

Bono thinks The Biggest Band in the World should record rock singles * shrug*

Edge should have just had them include this Bill Bailey clip in that doco

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8dZwXnMrRU

also Rush literally afaik has never jammed or improv'ed ever in concert

GUYS the distinction is "admired by chops-hungry muso types" / "reviled by chops-hungry muso types."

You can quibble all you like about who is included/excluded from each bucket, but it is a recognizable distinction.

Edge can't play

But hes read all the manuals of the post-playing equipment

This is not even up for argument tbh. He couldn't even figure out the chords for the weight ffs

Quick note here that Bono, in his introduction to Tom Doyle's Billy Mackenzie biography The Glamour Chase, specifically admitted that they tried to rip off the Associates (and that he knew there was no way for him to rip off Billy's singing, a wise assessment). And as Doyle himself says in the book, I think you can pretty clearly hear it on the band's 1980 song "Paperhouse," from their debut The Affectionate Punch -- definitely a proto-Edge guitar break in there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U3xiazgtmA

(Should add of course that said guitar is played by the other core member of the original band, Alan Rankine.)

so as ILM's likely most loyal U2 fan i feel the need to add my 2 cents about the new album. don't read if you hate them, or me i guess.

like all U2 albums, if you're a U2 fan you're probably going to enjoy it but it feels like only half their work, there are a lot of songs on here that sound very much unlike them. more generic. This one too often feels like the work of other parties in places (recognizing that U2 has worked with other parties before of course but it felt a lot more collaborative in those instances.) though in a few cases on this album it works, the song w/Haim and a couple of the tracks with Andy Barlow from Lamb are nice.

But this is down there with Rattle and Hum and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb but where the former fell flat on its face sometimes bc of miscalculation and the latter was U2 settling into a very by-the-numbers groove, at least in R&H there were some genuinely outstanding songs and in HTDAAB they nailed a classic U2 sound and there are a couple of genuinely rousing tracks.

(also: after sitting with it for awhile i think Songs of Innocence is the better album and actually winds up in the middle of their discography quality-wise for me. upthread i complained about it but i think it's actually very good and sounds like a very heartfelt U2 album -- similar to No Line on the Horizon, albeit not nearly as great.)

my updated, subjective album rankings:

Achtung Baby
The Joshua Tree
Zooropa
War
Unforgettable
Passengers
Pop
Boy
No Line on the Horizon
Songs of Innocence
All That You Can’t Leave Behind
October
Rattle and Hum/How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb/Songs of Experience

Probably wouldn't quibble with that ranking, even if I might shift a couple of the top ones around. Haven't even bothered with the new one.

clicked this What's Going On cover expecting it to be disastrous, to my surprise it is not horrible https://open.spotify.com/track/5CPWcXuqQ2QSXJmc1sT19u

War
The Joshua Tree
Unforgettable
Achtung Baby
No Line on the Horizon
Rattle and Hum
Passengers
Boy
Zooropa
October
Pop
Songs of Experience
Songs of Innocence
All That You Can’t Leave Behind
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb

one of us could win!

https://www.omaze.com/experiences/U2-play-mini-golf-red?ref=U2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO1gzR36K0I

Just look at these two

Putt on your boots

Just-For-Men-Gel of Harlem

where the geeks have no shame

i still haven't found what i'm looking for, which is my golf ball, so i'll have to take a two stroke penalty

how long, how long must we play this hole

Before and after hairplugs.

Stuck in a sandtrap you can't get out of.

“You’re the best thing about me” is worse than “I’m my own best friend” and bono should just go crawl under a rock somewhere and not bother anybody

this hardwell remix, which truly goes hard, is hilarious https://open.spotify.com/track/242D4gArhDykTJodk93EP1?si=ecxVeq4TQo-FhU10iDNqmA

U2 have shared a new song called “Your Song Saved My Life.” Their new track appears on the soundtrack to the upcoming animated film Sing 2, which stars Bono as a reclusive lion rock star named Clay Calloway. Listen to the new song below. Sing 2 hits theaters on December 22.

!!!!!!!!!!!

All of that sentence makes me a little ill.

Wait till you hear the song :(

Finally, the Performance remake I’ve been dreaming of.

Pretty sure KM's sentence gave me a good enough sense of that too!

The only hope I have for this is that "rock star Clay Calloway" is an homage to rock star Clay Collins, played by Rick Moranis in SCTV's soap opera parody The Days of the Week.

U2 have shared a new song called “Your Song Saved My Life.” Their new track appears on the soundtrack to the upcoming animated film Sing 2, which stars Bono as a reclusive lion rock star named Clay Calloway. Listen to the new song below. Sing 2 hits theaters on December 22.

Is it April 1 already? I could've sworn it was November.

I've got to be honest, of all the people/bands to be mostly quiet these past couple of years, U2 is not the band I would have guessed. Like, Paul McCartney and Springsteen have been inescapable, Stones back in gear, other people have been doing shit, surely U2 wanted in on the international mood.

just imagine Bono nude

please put "nsfw" on this thread after last post

I said international mood, not international nude.

Imagining Bono nude is a Political Statement

With or without pants

I can't believe the nudes today
I can't close my eyes and make it go away

lol YMP

Thought this was Richard Branson for a sec:

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/261490777_6616405951765554_7450432136253468005_n.png?_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=M0wXM_qcdUwAX9nA96L&tn=nMaCpl2pu4gQQq4y&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=45a86d350faa8306443aad14fe8b281b&oe=61AFFCC0

U2 will reportedly stage a Las Vegas residency to open a newly constructed Sin City arena in 2023.

Billboard reports that Bono and company will be the premiere act when the $1.8 billion MSG Sphere finally opens at the Venetian resort next year. The residency’s dates have not yet been announced, but the shows will reportedly be non-consecutive and spread over the course of 2023.

MSG Entertainment, the company building the new venue hailed as the world’s largest spherical structure, and U2 did not confirm the residency to Billboard.

U2 has not performed a U.S. concert since the North American leg of their Experience + Innocence tour wrapped up here in July 2018. The band last played together onstage in Dec. 2019 when their Joshua Tree anniversary tour ended in Mumbai, India.

The MSG Sphere was originally scheduled to open in 2021 but the Covid-19 pandemic delayed its arrival until 2023. When completed, the 388-foot-tall venue will hold between 17,500 and 20,000 people along with what is promised as a state-of-the-art audio and visual experience, including 580,000 square feet of programmable LED panels, KSNV reports.

Doesn't surprise me at all that U2 will have a Vegas residency.

U2 is a total dud. One of the worst bands I've ever endured. I live near a stadium and heard them rehearsing for their Joshua Tree anniversary tour every night for several nights in a row. One of the most horrific weeks I've ever lived through.

I'll admit they had some good songs in the '80s but it's all very formulaic and samey and anthemic and good god, someone please stop the endless delay...

I live near a stadium and heard them rehearsing for their Joshua Tree anniversary tour every night for several nights in a row. One of the most horrific weeks I've ever lived through.

LMAO. Reminds me of a friend who actually worked next door to a stage where Led Zeppelin rehearsed daily for their big one-off reunion at the O2, except he actually likes Zeppelin, as did his colleagues, so it was a surreal and mind-blowing treat.

Haha would be so psyched to have Ghost Club's problem

Day 4, morning, groggy and confused from lack of sleep, can't figure out if you're hearing things or if the Edge's delay is still echoing from the night before

They're not the worst band ever and they're not the biggest band ever but on a graph of those lines they'd be the nexus of worst and biggest.

True. I can't think of a more polarizing band than U2, at least when you factor in the sheer number of people who love them or despise them, and that's probably applicable to both public support/opposition and critical support/opposition. Even my own fandom runs that way - they're discography kind of whiplashes all over the place for me.

*their*

can’t emphasize enough how cool this band would be if they had any other frontman, though they wouldn’t be u2 i guess

I actually think Bono is underrated. I mean, he can be annoying for sure, but so can Mick Jagger, and he (Bono) is as important to that band as the guitar. Back when my guitar teacher and I were trying to figure something out about "With Or Without You" (the repeating 4-note part at the start that turned out to be a synth) we found some recent (so, still several years back) clip of the band doing that song, and Bono was really struggling, because if you go back to the recording he sings the *hell* out of it.

Anyway, I can't think of any U2 songs/albums off the top of my head that I dislike because of Bono.