SOE
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U2 - Songs Of Experience (2017)
 Tracks: 14
  1. And they most probably will play it live.. hopefully instead of Elevation and/or Vertigo...
    Doubt I will sing a long with it...
  3. Afternoon gang,

    So: gave it a first listen last week on Spotify (album proper's just come through today) - I've barely got involved with the build-up this time around so had no idea what to expect.

    First impressions are... well, I don't know to be honest. Feels different to so much of what they've done before and much of it caught me by surprise - I'll admit there were points where I wondered if it felt like a U2 album or not, both for better and for worse, but the main thing is the whole thing has caught me off-guard in terms of tone and feel. I basically have no idea what to think, so going to give it a lot of time and patience to let it sink in.

    (Am reassured to see that HAIM were credited on Lights of Home - when it started I thought I'd shuffled to 'My Song 5' by accident.)

    As plenty of y'all have said, constantly amused by many saying 'they're trying to sound like X, Y, Z etc.' - pretty sure U2 nailed the sound of popular music of the 2000s/2010s (the good and not so good) with ATYCLB, and everyone else has been nicking from them since...

    Anyway, peace and love, and be good to each other

    H x

    (NB: I see the Graurniad gave it 4*, mad times indeed.)
  5. Originally posted by WojBhoy:Afternoon gang,

    So: gave it a first listen last week on Spotify (album proper's just come through today) - I've barely got involved with the build-up this time around so had no idea what to expect.

    First impressions are... well, I don't know to be honest. Feels different to so much of what they've done before and much of it caught me by surprise - I'll admit there were points where I wondered if it felt like a U2 album or not, both for better and for worse, but the main thing is the whole thing has caught me off-guard in terms of tone and feel. I basically have no idea what to think, so going to give it a lot of time and patience to let it sink in.

    (Am reassured to see that HAIM were credited on Lights of Home - when it started I thought I'd shuffled to 'My Song 5' by accident.)

    As plenty of y'all have said, constantly amused by many saying 'they're trying to sound like X, Y, Z etc.' - pretty sure U2 nailed the sound of popular music of the 2000s/2010s (the good and not so good) with ATYCLB, and everyone else has been nicking from them since...

    Anyway, peace and love, and be good to each other

    H x

    (NB: I see the Graurniad gave it 4*, mad times indeed.)
    I was one who accused of them of trying too hard to sound like todays pop music and I still believe that. I’m 1987, hair bands were dominating and they released JT. 1991 grunge, the release AB. 2000 was the return of “garage rock” and they release ATTCLB. I just feel like the need to be relevant took away from the sound of these songs. During all the highs of their career it felt like they did what they wanted to do. Not what they thought people wanted to hear. Just my humble opinion. I definitely don’t hate SOE it’s just in the lower half of their work for me.
  6. And as someone stated already, I’ll judge it after the tour. Some songs take on a whole new sound and meaning during a live show and I’m sure that’ll happen again with these songs
  7. Originally posted by WojBhoy:Afternoon gang,

    So: gave it a first listen last week on Spotify (album proper's just come through today) - I've barely got involved with the build-up this time around so had no idea what to expect.

    First impressions are... well, I don't know to be honest. Feels different to so much of what they've done before and much of it caught me by surprise - I'll admit there were points where I wondered if it felt like a U2 album or not, both for better and for worse, but the main thing is the whole thing has caught me off-guard in terms of tone and feel. I basically have no idea what to think, so going to give it a lot of time and patience to let it sink in.

    (Am reassured to see that HAIM were credited on Lights of Home - when it started I thought I'd shuffled to 'My Song 5' by accident.)

    As plenty of y'all have said, constantly amused by many saying 'they're trying to sound like X, Y, Z etc.' - pretty sure U2 nailed the sound of popular music of the 2000s/2010s (the good and not so good) with ATYCLB, and everyone else has been nicking from them since...

    Anyway, peace and love, and be good to each other

    H x

    (NB: I see the Graurniad gave it 4*, mad times indeed.)
    I was wondering what you made of it...good to hear your first thoughts
  8. Originally posted by MoFoNYR15:[..]
    I was one who accused of them of trying too hard to sound like todays pop music and I still believe that. I’m 1987, hair bands were dominating and they released JT. 1991 grunge, the release AB. 2000 was the return of “garage rock” and they release ATTCLB. I just feel like the need to be relevant took away from the sound of these songs. During all the highs of their career it felt like they did what they wanted to do. Not what they thought people wanted to hear. Just my humble opinion. I definitely don’t hate SOE it’s just in the lower half of their work for me.
    I think it's safe to say though that Achtung sort of hit right when Grunge was taking off, meaning they weren't writing and recording that album while grunge was becoming huge across the world. Not to mention that U2 themselves have said when making Achtung Baby they were trying to absorb everything that was happening in the European music scene at the time, it was their reaction to the reaction of Rattle and Hum, to "go back to Europe and see what's happening there" - pretty sure Adam said that. They did the same thing with Pop. The experimentation came from merging these trends WITH rock music, and I think that's where the magic happened.

    I see tons of people saying "U2 are trying to sound mainstream these days" - speaking generally here, are you guys (general) sure you know what "mainstream" sounds like these days? As Kris has mentioned, it's pretty much dominated by dance music and hip hop, with a few pop singers like Sam Smith and Lorde thrown in here and there. The fact that U2 still has guitar prominent in their music already ages it by a ton. They're not really sounding mainstream at all, in fact that's why people don't think they're relevant anymore, because their sound is sort of old at this point.

    My impressions of SoE is that they're still trying to get to the focal point of what makes "U2 music great", through great songwriting, BUT with modern producing techniques. So many little touches from the producers of this album are what make this album sound modern, but not necessarily mainstream to me. It does a great job of that IMO. The most obvious attempt at "mainstream success" was getting Kendrick to be on American Soul. Otherwise, this album doesn't really sound commercial at all to me.
  9. I haven’t listened to any of it in days. Hmmm
  10. Originally posted by MoFoNYR15:[..]
    I was one who accused of them of trying too hard to sound like todays pop music and I still believe that. I’m 1987, hair bands were dominating and they released JT. 1991 grunge, the release AB. 2000 was the return of “garage rock” and they release ATTCLB. I just feel like the need to be relevant took away from the sound of these songs. During all the highs of their career it felt like they did what they wanted to do. Not what they thought people wanted to hear. Just my humble opinion. I definitely don’t hate SOE it’s just in the lower half of their work for me.


    Definitely take your point, particularly re. the impact of the need to be relevant - I often wonder about what U2 unleashing themselves these days would sound like, and whilst I know what I'd want that to be like, maybe this is that?

    Like you've said below, I think post-tour will be the best time to review. I couldn't begin to think where I'd place it in their canon, let alone post-2000, and with each of the last few albums, the songs in their live form definitely took different turns with the live performances.
  11. Personally I'm taking a bit of a break from listening to any music, my ears got tired
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