Winter - All discussions

Originally posted by TheLedge:Yep, the track's unfinished in that regard. But I still find it worthy of inclusion, even in it's unfinished state. Heck, most of the album sounds rushed or unfinished anyway to me.

Originally posted by vanquish:Does anyone else think they way he sings the first chorus line ("Looking at the bruised") sounds incredibly harsh and rough?

Originally posted by Hoosier2012:Not a big fan. The ending voices are annoying. And the beginning sounds too much like Coldplay for me to like it...the strings on Viva La Vida are much better. Slightly cheesy lyrics..."we're like butter on toast"? Really? Hoping that the rest of SoA is more like Kingdom and less like this...

Originally posted by drewhiggins:[..]

Could it be a deliberate play on the line with his vocals? A bruised voice...any part of you that's bruised, whether it's physical or mentally would have happened in rough and harsh circumstances.

Originally posted by drewhiggins:[..]

That's the exact line that makes me cringe. While the rest of the song is pretty damned good for their output since 2000 (anything is better than Elevation or Vertigo), just that makes me wonder what Bono was drinking when he wrote that. It clearly wasn't Guinness...

If that was going to get a proper release, not just as a DVD feature, I'd hope they'd get back in the studio, rip it apart and change some of the lines.

Originally posted by vanquish:[..]

Err, interesting take but I don't think so, I think it's just Bono straining to sing the line.

[..]

I don't mind that line for some reason, it has a very visual feel to it, it's a similie that strongly conveys how thinly spread the soldiers are. It's certainly not elegant though, but I think it's in keeping with the nature of the song and a colloquialism like that suits the persona singing.

Bono also delivers the line very well which helps. To me the way the first line of the chorus is sung is much more annoying.

Originally posted by drewhiggins:[..]

There's nothing like a bit of thought and originality in why it's like that though. It's probably just him being unable to reach the high notes.

Originally posted by drewhiggins:[..]

It sort of matches up with Cedars of Lebanon, both being about wars and soldiers. Is White As Snow about soldiers and war as well?

Originally posted by vanquish:Cedars of Lebanon is about a war correspondent in the Middle East but White As Snow and Winter are both sung from the point of view of a soldier in Afghanistan (the same persona in both songs).

Originally posted by drewhiggins:[..]

I take it this is where a lot of people originally got confused when they heard it had the same concept and thought Winter > White As Snow.

Originally posted by drewhiggins:[..]

Another thing, is it just me or is the song recorded in such a way that it becomes painful to listen to - like in the mixing of the song? I have a rip of it using DVD Decrypter that I converted to .wav and it still is painful as hell to listen to and sounds overly sharp and cracks at even low volumes.

Cedars and the last two albums have the same problem.

Originally posted by vanquish:[..]

Yup, me included it seemed unlikely that they would have two songs with titles referring to snow and both being about a soldier in Afghanistan.

I think that chorus line sounds harsh whether I watch the DVD or listen to the mp3. Maybe you're referring to the clipping present in the album due to the dynamic range compression?