1. in 2008 Bono exclaimed - "We've hit a rich songwriting vein...". What total garbage, and i fell for it. that statement got me excited for the future of U2. Now i really believe their best work is waaaaaaayyyyy behind them. I believe they totally compromised their integrity by releasing tracks like BOOTS and Standup Comedy on No Line. Though I do think those songs would have been great B-side bonus tracks if released with singles like the title track and Moment. Their is no "rich songwriting vein", or at least if there was they bled it dry and just can't agree on the structure of the music to accompany the words. I hope its the latter but i believe ts the former.
  2. Standup Comedy is crap.

    But Boots is a song that has definitely grown on me. When I first heard about it, I wasn't totally against it, but it wasn't my absolute favorite. But now I like it quite a bit.

    If you ask me, that line is still applicable. MOS is an amazing song (one of their best) along with No Line, Magnificent, and Unknown Caller. Plus, if Mercy and North Star were written at around the same time, I would definitely call it a songwriting vein.
  3. -Get On Your Boots is a better guitar part than Vertigo, the song just isn't as good

    -The "LET ME IN THE SOUND" breakdown in Boots absolutely blew my fucking mind when they played it at the Grammys.

    -Standup Comedy has a great hook and then the song falls flat on its face

    -Moment of Surrender is their ballad of the 00's. The 80's had With or Without You, the 90's had One, and the 00's got Moment. The only other songs that even come close to it are Kite or SYCMIOYO

    -Songwriting is more than just dumb lyrics like the ones in Standup Comedy- do you have any idea how much vision it takes to put out a song like Fez? And the balls it takes to have Bono wailing out of key in the background, hoping it conveys the emotion and not just ends up sounding like dying animals? I have mad respect for them for that song.

    -Cedars of Lebanon is another ballsy move and a greatly written song. The album's true parallel to Love is Blindness if you ask me. Completely different mood, but the same sort of jarringly different departure.

    -Magnificent is a bold, bold statement of a guitar part that could only be faulted by bad lyrics, which thankfully it doesn't have.

    Those are just my opinions.

    Bono overstates everything, but they really did hit a rich vein after releasing songs like...

    -A Beach Boys cover (Wild Honey)
    -A Man and a Woman
    -Crumbs From Your Table
    -One Step Closer
    -All Because of You

    I'm not the biggest fan of the songs above, though some of them aren't terrible...they're just whatever. Easy songs to write. I'll take Unknown Caller, NLOTH, Breathe, Boots, and Fez over all of those any day of the week.
  4. lemmings, all of you. Your life is not worthless if you have a negative thought about U2, its OK. I'll still listen to the parts of their music that i love, but i know when some one is jerking me around. And you can't jerk fans around over your music and then expect them to take you seriously when you speak of politics and world events Bono. Clearly if they had something they felt was good, then we would hear it. So essential for 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011 and now 2012 we get the songs of NLOTH and its a struggle to call it a decent album, for this reason - I actually don't hate any of the songs on the album but there are at least 3 that have no business being on there with the rest of the tracks. Is there any doubt that we will not have a new U2 album for 2013 either?
  5. 1. Nobody's claiming you're worthless, we're stating differences in opinion and trying to shed some light on why he might have made that claim.

    2. If you really think U2 is consciously "jerking you around", I'm pretty sure the Nickelback fanbase has a vacancy you could gladly fill and leave us alone.

    3. The last album that didn't have 3 songs on it that didn't belong was probably Zooropa. Which came out almost 20 years ago.
  6. It's definitely not a struggle to call NLOTH a decent album. I'd actually call it an amazing album (the highs are quite high). It's an album that has a lot of lasting songs. At this very moment, I would say that Magnificent, Unknown Caller, NLOTH, and Moment of Surrender are well-played songs in my library.
  7. NLOTH is the best U2 album since Pop. ATYCLB and HTDAAB... If I had been a fan in those days I'd have been a bit worried about the state of U2's music production.


  8. Of course someone has to go and mention Pop...

    Well here we go.

    *Obligatory response to Pop being called a quality album*

    Pop was rushed and the band paid dearly for it. It has a few good songs and many terrible songs. Miami and Playboy Mansion make Pop an unredeemable album. Mofo works well, Please works much better live than on the album, and Gone still feels incomplete. Wake Up Dead Man is an odd song that works at some times, but I can't stand the production of the album version. Last Night On Earth is another song that sounds incomplete. Discotheque is the one song that should work, but the band is totally unwilling to make it happen live.

    Long story short, there is a reason why the band has essentially stopped playing songs from Pop during the Vertigo and 360 Tours.
  9. Pop was rushed, but is still a great album.
  10. patssox95, I believe you're making too much of it, it's not that big a deal. Bono has always been overstating, that's who he is, and even with that considered, I do believe they hit a songwriting vein, so much that for the first time in their whole career they couldn't keep it in and started playing new unreleased songs live.

    As discussed in other topics, they stopped touring a year ago, and they never release new albums so soon after a tour.

    Opinions differ on their albums. Of NLOTH, I don't like stand up and boots (while you see there are others that love boots). 2 songs. The others I love. That doesn't mean the album is crap. In their career, other than JT, AB and Zooropa all their other albums had a couple of out-of-place songs.

    And Alex...opinions differ...many love Pop, including me, and it's not about the album itself, it's about what those songs evolved to. Except for Miami and The Playboy Mansion (again, 2 songs) all the other Pop songs are big favorites of mine, some of them not in the way they are in the album, but how they were live. IMO the reason the band doesn't play much pop songs is that they believe their new fan-base doesn't know much about them.
  11. Originally posted by patssox95:lemmings, all of you. Your life is not worthless if you have a negative thought about U2, its OK. I'll still listen to the parts of their music that i love, but i know when some one is jerking me around. And you can't jerk fans around over your music and then expect them to take you seriously when you speak of politics and world events Bono. Clearly if they had something they felt was good, then we would hear it. So essential for 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011 and now 2012 we get the songs of NLOTH and its a struggle to call it a decent album, for this reason - I actually don't hate any of the songs on the album but there are at least 3 that have no business being on there with the rest of the tracks. Is there any doubt that we will not have a new U2 album for 2013 either?

    I believe, sir, that you are confusing 'opinion' with 'fact'. We all have differing opinions and thats one thing I like about this place. Having said that, the way you are expressing your opinion gives me the opinion that you are an @$$hole.
  12. Just because we want a release that doesn't mean they have to. They didn't sign a contract.

    I don't see why you complain about No Line on the Horizon. It was Matt who explained why it was a great album. I think it is their best since Achtung Baby. Depending on my mood, sometimes it is even better than Achtung.

    Please, show a little more gratitude and do not think for a single moment U2 owes you anything.