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  1. I'm listening to the album non-stop. I think the the Rolling Stone review is on the mark that U2 have redefined themselves with the album, much as they did with Achtung Baby and then again with All That You Can Leave Behind (even if the latter album was a back-to-basics approach). Not sure if it is 4/5 stars or 5/5 stars. Time will tell. I also think we'll have a better idea when the album is viewed as a package with Songs of Experience, which I suspect will be released in early 2015 (just a hunch).
  2. Originally posted by ric:You're all the hardest of die hard fans so of course many of you can't understand the criticism and react with disbelief when the album is given bad reviews. I also used to be a die hard fan and I was exactly the same when I had to endure scorn from every angle or read press criticism.

    I will always have the memories but this is the end for me as far as the U2 of this era goes. I am no longer a fan of the U2 of today - there I said it.. I was disappointed with the last album but even then I still loved a fair few songs but this is just not the kind of music that does anything for me and not the kind of music I would ever choose to listen to. Apart from 'Sleep Like a Baby Tonight' (which I think is great) the majority of the rest of the album just sounds like Bono trying far too hard over completely non challenging, safe music. Basically I hate bands like Snow Patrol and Coldplay and this sounds like something their fans would love..

    Did it REALLY take five years to come up with this?! An album of b-sides from the 80's and 90's would make an album of infinitely more memorable songs.

    Heartbreakingly for me, U2 now appear to be a spent force creatively (although as usual I still hold out a tiny bit of hope for Songs Of Experience if it ever materialises).

    Here's another couple of reviews I unfortunately had to agree with:

    http://www.eventhestars.co.uk/2014/09/u2-songs-of-innocence.html

    http://www.newyorker.com/culture/sasha-frere-jones/u2s-forgettable-fire?src=mp


    That is just not true, to be complete, there never were that many great b-sides, looking at the reissues of AB and JT...
  3. Originally posted by dieder:[..]


    That is just not true, to be complete, there never were that many great b-sides, looking at the reissues of AB and JT...

    Agreed lol. I actually NEVER listen to the Joshua Tree b-sides, apart from the late 90's single mix of the Sweetest Thing, and even that one only when it's on the radio.

    I don't know how anyone can say U2 is a spent creative force with this album. To me it sounds like a band in their 50's not willing to do what all of the other "legacy" acts are doing, which is either doing what they did in their prime just trying to "do what they do best" or looking back even further and trying to become an old classic rock or blues band or something. U2 are pushing the envelope and still trying to write songs that young people can listen to, despite their age. Some people say age doesn't matter in music but it definitely does.

    Even the way they released it was cutting edge. Sure Beyonce did something similar, but U2 are basically forcing themselves into everyone's faces. Some people see that as a negative thing, others don't care, but to me that says that they know they're old and that people would just look at their new album on the iTunes home page and say "cool another U2 album, meh, already have The Joshua Tree" and never give it a listen. This way people are almost forces to try it out, and if you go and read the iTunes comments it's FULL of people saying "thanks Apple and U2, this is awesome!" All U2 fans commenting on iTunes? Doubtful. There are also a bunch who are pissed off at Apple but also saying "But U2's new album is pretty cool, so that's good."

    I think U2 are far from a spent creative force, and their "coming out fighting" stance totally speaks to that. A spent creative force would be doing something exactly like releasing B-sides from the 80s. Leave that for the posthumous releases when they're really "spent"... for now I'll enjoy the U2 that's been acting like the same band from 1980 these days, the one that wants to set the world on fire again.
  6. http://www.newyorker.com/culture/sasha-frere-jones/u2s-forgettable-fire?src=mp

    @markromanek: Hate to bring more attention to it, but @sfj's U2 piece in the @NewYorker is stunningly assholic. Shocked they would even print it.

    I have no take on the iPhone 6 Plus, which looks like the Samsung Galaxy and other big phabonelets. I’m sure that I will eventually buy an iPhone 6 Megabundle, because the new built-in camera is banging, and I use my phone mostly to order food and take pictures. The Apple Watch looks like a Happy Meal prize, and it may or may not change health care by helping people “learn” to avoid junk food and run more, which is some groundbreaking intel.

    Yesterday, to help celebrate the celebration of a phone and a watch and the omnipresent-overlord vibes of Apple, its C.E.O., Tim Cook, announced that the new U2 album, “Songs of Innocence,” was being added automatically to everyone’s iTunes library. That’s right, even if you didn’t ask for the new U2, it showed up in your iTunes music library. Except if it didn’t. My iTunes Store cheerfully insisted that I already had the album in my library. I did not. Whether an iCloud mix-up or an iTunes glitch, early adopters and heavy users should beware of Apple products not working with Apple products (or iTunes Store copy leaving out a note about hinkty little preferences boxes that need checking). This heightens the feeling of the music and the gear—all of it—being for the casual user, and not of any great significance. What Cook and U2 probably wanted to duplicate yesterday was the organic delight when Beyoncé released an entire album out of the blue last December on iTunes. Instead, U2 stuffed a locksmith card in your doorframe, which you’ve probably already tossed. In case you didn’t delete this modern-rock wet wipe, here is my track-by-track guide to “Songs Of Innocence,” by those famous tax-avoiders U2.

    1.“The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)”: One of those yo-ho-ho nautical camp sing-alongs that Coldplay loves to squeeze out. Not as good as “Pretty Hurts.” Also: don’t talk about Joey Ramone.

    2.“Every Breaking Wave”: That recursive U2 trick where they sound like one of the hundred bands who ripped them off. I think this one might be by Snow Patrol. Bono’s vocals sounds like they’re ten feet away from anyone else in the band. Not as good as “Haunted.”

    3.“California (Blah Blah Blah)”: The track sounds like seventeen different bands averaged out in Yelp and turned into an Active Rock Smoothie. Nowhere near as good as “Drunk In Love.”

    4.“Song for Someone”: Bono’s opening lines in this tender douche-fest are “You got a face not spoiled by beauty, I have some scars from where I’ve been. You got eyes that can see right through me, you’re not afraid of anything they’ve seen.” As an alternative to Google Translate, Apple will be releasing the Pick-Up Artists Translation Tool for Tools. It will be baked into the iPhone 7, which will be available only in whatever country U2 moves its tax haven to next. Not as good as “Blow.”

    5.“Iris (Hold Me Close)”: Sounds a lot like U2, at least. More lyrics generated by Mechanical Turk, but the Edge is Edgy. Not as good as “No Angel.”

    6.“Volcano”: Really nice bass sound, and it helps to remember that Adam Clayton is in the band. The least unpleasant moment so far. Don’t even compare this to “Partition.”

    7.“Raised By Wolves”: The mixing on this album is truly weird. A man makes sad asthmatic wolf noises and then a guitar louder than everything on the album goes HONK in the left channel and the rest sounds like Imagine Dragons. Not as good as “Jealous.”

    8.“Cedarwood Road”: This was cool when I thought it was a Sisters of Mercy cover, but it turned out to be a U2 song that maybe the band thinks is metal. I’m pretty sure that nobody in the band has ever listened to metal, so it seems to be a Red Hot Chili Peppers song about a cherry tree that leads to the sky. Not as good as “Rocket.”

    9.“Sleep Like a Baby Tonight”: Slow and synth-heavy. Not necessarily clear if anybody from the band attended the recording of this song. Not as good as “Mine.”

    10.“This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now”: Lots of men singing at soldiers. I am beginning to suspect that U2 hasn’t listened to U2 since the last time U2 released an album, because this, like many of the songs, sounds like a grab bag of bands from the past twenty or thirty years. The track resembles Interpol and Jane’s Addiction blended with whichever band does lots of chanting. Not even comparing this to “XO.”

    11.“The Troubles”: Features singing by Lykke Li, which relieves the tedium, sort of. Not as good as “Flawless,” or the three extra songs on Beyoncé’s album, but it would be mean to point that out.

    Don’t shove your music into people’s homes. A U2 album that some would have taken seriously was instead turned into an album that seems as pointless as it probably is. Lack of consent is not the future.
  8. Compare U2's and Beyonce's album, yeah seems like a good move

    I don't really care about reviews, but the negative one's I read aren't really about the music and more about the deal with Apple or the tax thing. Doesn't really looks like a objective review.
  9. Lmao fuck me dead

  10. It is indeed rude and irritating. They struck a deal with Apple - what's wrong with that? The reviewer never really engages with the music. I guess some people feel personally offended by U2's success...
  11. Bash Pitchfork all you like, they are perhaps the most articulate of music critics. They are very critical. Rare you'll see an album above 7 most of the time.
  12. *double post - sorry*
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