SOE
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U2 - Songs Of Experience (2017)
 Tracks: 14
  1. Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:[..]
    bingo boingo bango

    But just to re-iterate, I think people would like this album more if it was called something different, and if the weight of "a sequel" wasn't on its shoulders. That being said, I love the "coda" or whatever of Lights of Home and how it calls back to Iris as if to remember those wise words on the verge of questioning faith and mortality etc.

    I said a long time ago (not to toot my own horn) that if U2 really wanted to put out something great, I think they'd have to split the fanbase. The greatness factor will always be up for debate, but this album has certainly split this fanbase. That being said, I'd MUCH rather have the discussions we're having now to all of us agreeing that a new U2 album is "fine". That's how I remember everyone feeling about SoI after a month.
    Split the forum maybe. Not casual fans.
  2. Not having my thumb on the "casual fans", what's the consensus there? People like it?
  4. Originally posted by bpt3:[..]
    Interesting point about the "weight" of being a sequel maybe hurting its overall reception.

    As one who puts Achtung/Zooropa/Pop all in the top 5, I still am a little bummed that we didn't get more of a "90s" style, satirical exploration of Experience, as that's what I was expecting after SOI basically charted the influences of "early U2." But the more that I think about it, ATYCLB pretty much signaled the end of any deep engagement with irony for U2. And SOE is still actually pretty heavy and dark at times, while still beginning and ending with a ray of hope.


    I love the 90’s irony and I really like your point there! My first take was that this album was too depressing but then the light shone through.
  5. I would say so too! Those closest to me who I consider casual fans (but are maybe just more casual than me) seem to enjoy it. My buddy who is 25 loved Best Thing and was excited by the Kygo Remix.

    A younger friend has been subjected to numerous plays on my part and seems to enjoy it a lot too.
  6. Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:But I will also say that I don’t really care. I didn’t really need another album that had the same feel as SoI. It’s sort of cold and grey to me, whereas this album is full of life, fun, and vulnerability.
    I find it really intriguing how can I agree with you on so many albums/songs and disagree so much on others...

    To me this is the exact opposite: SOI being the vibrant exciting and full of color album (specially the second half), while SOE is the stable toned down full of unsaturated greys one.

    ---

    About SOE, the track order worked fine for me for a few weeks, but after a while now I find a bit annoying the difference of musical styles / producers in the album, but I still like all the songs on their own. Blackout is amazing, but feels a bit orphan in an album that sounds nothing like it, and I don't think it feels like Drowning Man in War, but more like The Fly in Joshua Tree or Miami in War.

    I do feel a bit like I feel about Pop or NLOTH, where I keep thinking how much I would've loved an album with 3 or 4 more tracks that sound like x song, and that the album as a whole doesn't make sense in its sound, because I'm not a fan of listening to Staring At The Sun in the same context that I'm listening to Mofo, even if I love both songs.

    The positive difference to me is that I like all the songs in SOE, unlike in Pop/No Line, which both have a couple of tracks that I don't really care about (and I know this would be the opposite for many on here).

    I still think SOE works best when it's intertwined with SOI, even if it messes up with any sense of narrative that both albums might have.
  7. Originally posted by kris_smith87:[..]
    I would say so too! Those closest to me who I consider casual fans (but are maybe just more casual than me) seem to enjoy it. My buddy who is 25 loved Best Thing and was excited by the Kygo Remix.

    A younger friend has been subjected to numerous plays on my part and seems to enjoy it a lot too.
    Oh, I was asking, not saying, I have no idea what the average U2 listener thinks.
  8. Originally posted by LikeASong:[..]
    I don't give a damn about Beyonce, I don't know her discography and I don't know how that album compares to the rest of it, I'm talking about U2 here. Many U2 albums have a cohesive theme with their songs sounding totally different (how different is Drowning Man from Surrender, Red Light from New Year's Day? How different is So Cruel from The Fly and Acrobat from One?), while others have a cohesive sound but don't have a theme (let's take the Zooropa album as an example: it's a great collection of fantastic songs but it doesn't tell any story all throughout). But that's not the case here.

    They tried to sell "Songs Of Innocence And Experience" as a back-to-back pair, as a juxtaposed tandem of opposite stories - and it just doesn't work because SOE feels like a collection of songs instead of a story (which, on the other hand, SOI does). The sound doesn't matter here, it's the feel of the songs, the flow of the tracklist, the thread that ties (or should tie) all the songs together even if they feel and sound different, like all the songs from Achtung Baby or Pop. That feel, that binding thread is not present on SOE and if you fail to see it and prefer to think it is, then all the better for you. The lack of theme cohesion does NOT make SOE a bad album – it just makes the whole "SOI&E" concept fail.



    Agreed with all of that and especially the last sentence.

    This album really doesn't go with SOI in any way that I can tell nor does it seem to be a collection of experiences or thoughts born from experience.
  9. As a harddiefan i consider this album a very good album.i don't compare it to any other album not because is worse or better but just because it doesn't deserve a comparison.i love u2 and i love their album.i Like this more than that and the other more than this and so on.by comparing we go nowhere
    So.a good album.good lyrics.
    But just one thing...."the" kickass track is missing.the one that Will be part of the rock history
    It's more acoustic than rock.but i can't stop playing it
  10. Just to keep the discussion going from both points of view...I've already said that I get where people are coming from with not seeing SOE as truly a "companion" to SOI, and that I do have other criticisms of the album, too. Yes, they could have done a better job of connecting the two instead of being hampered by their desire to make SOE "relevant" after the 2016 election, but still - here's my attempt!

    1. SOI opens up joyfully enough...but then turns pretty dark and grim from about Iris (Hold Me Close) onward...from Bono's mom dying, to his rage over the ordeal, to a car bombing that wrecked lives, to the difficulty of growing up on Cedarwood Road as a teenager, to priests who abuse their authority, to the "old man saying he never listens", all the way to the attempt to hang on to innocence with the "will to survival" and being "naked and not afraid".

    2. As a follow-up to an album that (to me) seems to be ultimately about LOSING innocence, SOE opens up in a pretty stark place, lyrically and sonically, with Love Is All We Have Left: looking back at what has been lost along the way. Lights of Home is the desperate cry for help. Along the way are the "letters" written to people/places and from other people/places' points of view dealing with mortality and "defiant joy", ending with both the big anthem of Love is Bigger and then the glimmer of hope on 13 (There is a Light). Innocence regained through Experience!

    Feel free to disagree completely just for the sake of enjoyable discussions with multiple viewpoints.
  11. Originally posted by gurtholfin:[..]This album really doesn't go with SOI in any way that I can tell nor does it seem to be a collection of experiences or thoughts born from experience.
    I do think it can go (musically at least) with SOI, because songs like Blackout that like I said, feel all alone in SOE, in SOI it feels better among Reach Me Now or Volcano... and then you can invite American Soul to the party.

    All We Have Left also feel alone to me in SOE... maybe There Is A Light or Book Of Your Heart can fit with it, but I think it's even a little more better when you include Like a Baby Tonight and The Troubles to the pack.

    Song For Someone sounds better to me when I play it along either There Is A Light, or with Summer Of Love + Red Flag Day + Landlady... and all of a sudden I find there's a lot more cohesiveness in the double album than in any one on its own.
  12. Originally posted by bpt3:As a follow-up to an album that (to me) seems to be ultimately about LOSING innocence, SOE opens up in a pretty stark place, lyrically and sonically, ending with both the big anthem of Love is Bigger and then the glimmer of hope on 13 (There is a Light). Innocence regained through Experience!


    That makes sense...

    (There Is a Light is more of an epilogue to me)
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