Songs of Innocence: general album thread

Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:I always think it's way too hard because of how eclectic U2's catalogue is. JT and AB are always regarded by U2 fans as the top dogs, but almost all of their other albums capture something so different it's hard to compare. When someone asks what their best album is those are the stock go-to answers, but they also don't represent fully who U2 are and what their sound is. Boy has their innocence, October their spirituality, War their politics, Unforgettable Fire their atmosphere, Joshua Tree their fascination with America, Rattle and Hum their earnestness for learning, Achtung Baby their reinvention, Zooropa their experimentation, Pop their yearning to be part of club-culture, All That You Can't Leave Behind their motivations, Bomb their nostalgia, NLOTH their storytelling, and now this album... I'm not sure what I would call it yet, but it's something special. Point being, all of these things are what makes U2 amazing and not just one or two of em.

Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:I always think it's way too hard because of how eclectic U2's catalogue is. JT and AB are always regarded by U2 fans as the top dogs, but almost all of their other albums capture something so different it's hard to compare. When someone asks what their best album is those are the stock go-to answers, but they also don't represent fully who U2 are and what their sound is. Boy has their innocence, October their spirituality, War their politics, Unforgettable Fire their atmosphere, Joshua Tree their fascination with America, Rattle and Hum their earnestness for learning, Achtung Baby their reinvention, Zooropa their experimentation, Pop their yearning to be part of club-culture, All That You Can't Leave Behind their motivations, Bomb their nostalgia, NLOTH their storytelling, and now this album... I'm not sure what I would call it yet, but it's something special. Point being, all of these things are what makes U2 amazing and not just one or two of em.

Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:I always think it's way too hard because of how eclectic U2's catalogue is. JT and AB are always regarded by U2 fans as the top dogs, but almost all of their other albums capture something so different it's hard to compare. When someone asks what their best album is those are the stock go-to answers, but they also don't represent fully who U2 are and what their sound is. Boy has their innocence, October their spirituality, War their politics, Unforgettable Fire their atmosphere, Joshua Tree their fascination with America, Rattle and Hum their earnestness for learning, Achtung Baby their reinvention, Zooropa their experimentation, Pop their yearning to be part of club-culture, All That You Can't Leave Behind their motivations, Bomb their nostalgia, NLOTH their storytelling, and now this album... I'm not sure what I would call it yet, but it's something special. Point being, all of these things are what makes U2 amazing and not just one or two of em.

Originally posted by KieranU2:[..]

I see what they are doing. Songs of Innocence and Experience is an old book by William Burke. Smart. Now release it quickly before it becomes irrelevant, eh?

Originally posted by AMLBONO:Without a doubt Bono's best songwriting since Achtung Baby!

Originally posted by snortier:[..]


Intresting...below a text from wikipedia...U2 doing a classical dyptich, not a double album and yet connected?...They keep me astonished, thank U2!!

"Songs of Innocence and of Experience is an illustrated collection of poems by William Blake. It appeared in two phases. A few first copies were printed and illuminated by William Blake himself in 1789; five years later he bound these poems with a set of new poems in a volume titled Songs of Innocence and of Experience Showing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul.

"Innocence" and "Experience" are definitions of consciousness that rethink Milton's existential-mythic states of "Paradise" and the "Fall." Blake's categories are modes of perception that tend to coordinate with a chronology that would become standard in Romanticism: childhood is a state of protected innocence rather than original sin, but not immune to the fallen world and its institutions. This world sometimes impinges on childhood itself, and in any event becomes known through "experience," a state of being marked by the loss of childhood vitality, by fear and inhibition, by social and political corruption, and by the manifold oppression of Church, State, and the ruling classes."

Originally posted by snortier:[..]


Intresting...below a text from wikipedia...U2 doing a classical dyptich, not a double album and yet connected?...They keep me astonished, thank U2!!

"Songs of Innocence and of Experience is an illustrated collection of poems by William Blake. It appeared in two phases. A few first copies were printed and illuminated by William Blake himself in 1789; five years later he bound these poems with a set of new poems in a volume titled Songs of Innocence and of Experience Showing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul.

"Innocence" and "Experience" are definitions of consciousness that rethink Milton's existential-mythic states of "Paradise" and the "Fall." Blake's categories are modes of perception that tend to coordinate with a chronology that would become standard in Romanticism: childhood is a state of protected innocence rather than original sin, but not immune to the fallen world and its institutions. This world sometimes impinges on childhood itself, and in any event becomes known through "experience," a state of being marked by the loss of childhood vitality, by fear and inhibition, by social and political corruption, and by the manifold oppression of Church, State, and the ruling classes."

Originally posted by bartajax:[..]

5 years later??? That looks like a good excuse for U2 to take their time