SOE
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U2 - Songs Of Experience (2017)
 Tracks: 14
  1. Originally posted by Edi:If it helps your apparent collective disappointment, I thought The Miracle of Joey Ramone was dreadful so Little Things is better than that IMHO !

    ...but then what do I know, I like Elevation, Walk On, Boots, Lemon, Unknown Caller & don't like Beautiful Day which is against the prevailing view here
    Little Things or Best Thing?
  2. Originally posted by LikeASong:[..]
    Exactly, GOYB was generally well received, probably due to the fact that we were starving for anything U2-related after the long post-Honolulu wait. They could have released a 4 minute compilation of Larry snoozing and we would have liked it.

    The Best Thing, on the other hand, has been strongly disliked by a big, big portion of the fanbase since minute 1.

    Hence my argumentation and my fear.
    the big difference is that GOYB did absolutely NOT get a positive response from casual U2 fans / the radio / critics. I would say the opposite is now happening with Best Thing
  3. Originally posted by amansman:Also look at the age and lifestyle. Almost 60, smokes occasionally, drinks alot, travels all the time (sitting), not alot of sleep, probably only exercises if time permits. Any normal person would have dropped dead or had a heart attack with that schedule.


  4. The Miracle is IMO one of the best of their "big dumb rock songs". In that category is Vertigo, Elevation, Beautiful Day, Boots, probably Blackout now too, Volcano, etc. It's catchy, it kicked ass live, and it actually has a pretty cool meaning told by some decent lyrics IMO (minus 'young, not dumb' lol)

    I don't know if I prefer it to The Best Thing when it comes to personal opinion, but I don't think it's nearly as divisive, and it's certainly not as "try-hard" when t comes to the age old argument of "U2 writing songs that appeal to them and their fan base". It wasn't written to be a chart topper, it was a personal song that happened to also be a decent modern U2 song to me. It also played fantastic live, no doubt about that. You could argue that U2 was aiming for another Vertigo, but I'm not so sure. I think the release strategy allowed them to relax a little in terms of trying to get a song on everyone's phone the traditional way. They knew it would be there regardless so why try to write a hit that would get people to choose to download it?

    The Best Thing doesn't seem to be as concrete, not yet anyway. The Miracle is a "hey we're back song".
  6. Originally posted by dieder:[..]
    the big difference is that GOYB did absolutely NOT get a positive response from casual U2 fans / the radio / critics. I would say the opposite is now happening with Best Thing
    Agreed (although I would say the casuals' response to GOYB's and The Best Thing were comparable).

    And that's where my point goes. While a broader audience might like this new style, with easy lyrics and "relevant production", I honestly fear they might lose a big portion of their fanbase. And what is U2 without their fanbase? Do you think newfound fans who just like The Best Thing will fork out 100 bucks to see the band live? I bet these teenagers who (supposedly) rave about The Best Thing in Youtube don't know anything else by U2, not even the greater hits.

    So...

    If they are taking this new direction to appeal the masses, that will NOT happen because the masses won't embrace anything coming from U2, AND in the other hand they might just lose us.

    Clearer now?
  7. Originally posted by LikeASong:[..]
    Agreed (although I would say the casuals' response to GOYB's and The Best Thing were comparable).

    And that's where my point goes. While a broader audience might like this new style, with easy lyrics and "relevant production", I honestly fear they might lose a big portion of their fanbase. And what is U2 without their fanbase? Do you think newfound fans who just like The Best Thing will fork out 100 bucks to see the band live? I bet these teenagers who (supposedly) rave about The Best Thing in Youtube don't know anything else by U2, not even the greater hits.

    So...

    If they are taking this new direction to appeal the masses, that will NOT happen because the masses won't embrace anything coming from U2, AND in the other hand they might just lose us.

    Clearer now?
    Agree
  8. Originally posted by LikeASong:[..]
    Agreed (although I would say the casuals' response to GOYB's and The Best Thing were comparable).

    And that's where my point goes. While a broader audience might like this new style, with easy lyrics and "relevant production", I honestly fear they might lose a big portion of their fanbase. And what is U2 without their fanbase? Do you think newfound fans who just like The Best Thing will fork out 100 bucks to see the band live? I bet these teenagers who (supposedly) rave about The Best Thing in Youtube don't know anything else by U2, not even the greater hits.

    So...

    If they are taking this new direction to appeal the masses, that will NOT happen because the masses won't embrace anything coming from U2, AND in the other hand they might just lose us.

    Clearer now?
    They just need to save the day by putting out a Pop anniversary edition this Christmas

    Also, speaking of people knowing nothing else about U2, I had an argument with a friend last night who tends to know the lyrics to every hit on the radio since the 90s (lol) and it came to me saying "name 5 U2 songs" (he was comparing them to a current band saying that all of U2's songs sound the same (sigh)) and he said "uhhhhhhh The Saints Are Coming In" and that's all he could name. Case closed.
  9. Originally posted by LikeASong:[..]
    Agreed (although I would say the casuals' response to GOYB's and The Best Thing were comparable).

    And that's where my point goes. While a broader audience might like this new style, with easy lyrics and "relevant production", I honestly fear they might lose a big portion of their fanbase. And what is U2 without their fanbase? Do you think newfound fans who just like The Best Thing will fork out 100 bucks to see the band live? I bet these teenagers who (supposedly) rave about The Best Thing in Youtube don't know anything else by U2, not even the greater hits.

    So...

    If they are taking this new direction to appeal the masses, that will NOT happen because the masses won't embrace anything coming from U2, AND in the other hand they might just lose us.

    Clearer now?
    meh...

    I totally see your point, but I don't think TBT is that divisive...
    ...and I think (or at least I hope) that SoE will sound closer to Blackout/Little Things than to TBT.

    (Divisive, divisive, like really divisive, were The Fly and Discotheque )
  10. Originally posted by LikeASong:[..]
    Agreed (although I would say the casuals' response to GOYB's and The Best Thing were comparable).

    And that's where my point goes. While a broader audience might like this new style, with easy lyrics and "relevant production", I honestly fear they might lose a big portion of their fanbase. And what is U2 without their fanbase? Do you think newfound fans who just like The Best Thing will fork out 100 bucks to see the band live? I bet these teenagers who (supposedly) rave about The Best Thing in Youtube don't know anything else by U2, not even the greater hits.

    So...

    If they are taking this new direction to appeal the masses, that will NOT happen because the masses won't embrace anything coming from U2, AND in the other hand they might just lose us.

    Clearer now?
    I agree that if they are going this new direction and they're going to have an album of songs comparable to The Best Thing they might lose a few people. However I just can't see them doing that, I think what they're going for on this album is a variety of styles so that there's at least a bit of something we'll all like. I still think back to that fender thing Edge done and the bit at the end sounded so Achtung Baby it was amazing if that's on the album it could become one of my favourite u2 songs. The Little Things and Blackout give us 2 totally different songs that will appeal to different sections of the fan base, the best thing will be more suited to others. That's what I believe anyway, they do need to be careful though and make sure theres a balance there as well. At the end of the day it's an album so we're going to need to like at least 8 or 9 songs from it for it to be considered good. Even 4 Or 5 great songs won't make up for 7 or 8 average-poor songs .
  11. Expect the unexpectable
  12. I honestly fear they might lose a big portion of their fanbase. And what is U2 without their fanbase? ... If they are taking this new direction to appeal the masses, that will NOT happen because the masses won't embrace anything coming from U2, AND in the other hand they might just lose us.


    Admittedly biased here, since I love The Best Thing, but how much of a risk do they really risk of losing their canvases? I mean, you just said yourself, you spend hours reading U2 fan opinions over ten years - don't think you're going anywhere. And I think that's true for most of us. They might lose a few here and there, but that's it.
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