Originally posted by scarletoak:The Blackout will probably be skipped after the E+I tour...
Originally posted by scarletoak:The Blackout will probably be skipped after the E+I tour...
Originally posted by u2opra:I think also that the last album and potentially this new album (based so far on this new song) make U2 sound younger and fresher than they have done in over a decade. I really liked NLOTH but there were parts that sounded like safe U2 songs. I think SOI gage U2 a fresh sound I hadn't heard in a long time, since probably the 90s. I'm pleased that based on this song so far from SOE that it seems they are continuing this.
I don't want to criticise Eno & Co (because their work has been amazing for U2) but I do think changing producers has worked wonders for their new sound.
If they keep sounding fresh like this they could easily do this into their 60s. Obviously I'm jumping ahead a bit, but I don't see why not if they like making music and touring here and there.
It's as if 2004's "Vertigo" broke something; since then — with "Get On Your Boots" off No Line On The Horizon and "The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)" off Songs Of Innocence and now "The Blackout" off Songs Of Experience — the band has formally introduced its new records with slogs of distorted guitar and stomps of drum and bass. And Bono still has an incredible voice, but his melodies on these introductory songs have had a dulled sheen, like over-workshopped polemics.
Bono, whose brand of pop stardom crystallizes most of the things detractors of the band love to hate, here hits a relative low-point, lyrically. "Statues fall / Democracy is flat on its back, Jack" he sings in one verse. This line goes beyond even "Love And Peace Or Else" in its neutering of political meaning. It's ostensibly a song about a moment of worldwide political entropy — a moment in which we look to the abyss and find that we are the light. It's a message that Bono, given his political and lyrical history, should be able to deliver convincingly. And yet, this song sells the idea that resistance is fun — "When the lights go out / throw yourself about / in the darkness, where we learn to see," he urges on the chorus. If this song had rolled out in conjunction with the announcement that the iPhone 7 would no longer have a standard headphone jack, the digital vitriol would likely have eclipsed even what Kendall Jenner's Pepsi commercial elicited.
"The Blackout" is not Songs of Experience's lead single, nor is it the first thing we've heard from the new record (they've played a promising song called "The Little Things That Give You Away" live on tour and Jimmy Kimmel Live). But this is their most official release yet — the first video that they've produced, premiered and press-released. U2 is still caught in a unique bind. Having pioneered a sound that has since become a framework for a ubiquitous, now generic, kind of rock, they can't sound like a modern version of their old selves without bringing to mind their blander imitators. And yet, they've been working with Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, eschewing further collaboration with their longtime co-conspirators Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois in order to chase the warmed-over, U2-like sound that so dominates mainstream rock radio. There is greatness yet in this band. Their bond and their legacy will never fully dissipate. But they need to be willing to break their path once again and rise to the desperate occasion they're so keen to call out if they're going to tap it. If they've taught their fans anything, it's that they can still hope for more.
Originally posted by Welsh_Edge:NPR Review
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Originally posted by Tim83:Love it! Especially the bass, what a sound... Can't wait to hear more songs of experience.
It seems that The Blackout is gaining a lot of attention on social media and musicwebsites. I wonder how that will play out with The Best Thing as leadsingle following it on such short notice.
Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:[..]
I'd say it's better than The Miracle. The Miracle is guilty of those tiring "ooooohs" in the hook, it doesn't really do anything interesting rhythmically and the studio version sounds way too overdone. Live it was great, but still - there's a reason U2 aren't playing it right now alongside Vertigo, Beautiful Day, Elevation, etc.
Both are great, and it's still the first day, but I'd say The Blackout is already more fun and interesting to me, musically.
Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:[..]
I don't think it will be a problem. People's attention spans, especially when it comes to music, are so damn small these days they'll already have forgotten The Blackout next week just in time for The Best Thing.
