U2

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Pandemonium
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Re: U2

#141 Post by Pandemonium » Wed Aug 30, 2017 2:00 pm

U2 finally announced the upcoming release of their new album and premiered a new song "The Blackout" on their facebook page. It's not bad, but I need to give it a few more listens. I will say, when I first heard the opening few seconds of the song, I honestly thought I was hearing a new Sgt Sanders "(name of guitarist) Shreds" YouTube parody clip with the dubbed in generic fake crowd noise and dissonant music.

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Re: U2

#142 Post by creep » Wed Aug 30, 2017 3:43 pm

I liked the first few seconds but then it got weird and kinda awful. I'm not really a u2 fan so maybe I'm missing something but that is a bad pop song.


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Re: U2

#143 Post by creep » Wed Aug 30, 2017 3:47 pm

And I hate the video with the fake crowd enthusiasm and fake crowd noise.

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Matz
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Re: U2

#144 Post by Matz » Fri Sep 01, 2017 3:37 am

why can't you listen to this on youtube anymore? Or Spotify?

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Re: U2

#145 Post by Larry B. » Fri Sep 01, 2017 4:06 am

That was pretty shit, looking forward to listening to it live next month.

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Re: U2

#146 Post by Matz » Fri Sep 01, 2017 11:34 am

so you can listen to it, but I can't?!? Fuck, that aint right....A-T A-L-L :jasper: :sui:

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Re: U2

#147 Post by creep » Fri Sep 01, 2017 11:50 am

Matz wrote:so you can listen to it, but I can't?!? Fuck, that aint right....A-T A-L-L :jasper: :sui:
You can probably watch it on their Facebook Page :noclue:

https://www.facebook.com/u2/

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Re: U2

#148 Post by Matz » Mon Sep 04, 2017 10:40 am

right, thanks!

what a train wreck

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Re: U2

#149 Post by Pandemonium » Wed Sep 06, 2017 9:29 am

Another new song. They should call this album "Sounds Of Creative Bankruptcy." They've completely lost the plot.


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Re: U2

#150 Post by Larry B. » Wed Sep 06, 2017 12:01 pm

I thought this was better than the previous one, but still terrible. The verse wasn't so bad, but the pre-chorus and chorus are just so oddly produced.

And the awkward drums on the chorus... fuck.

And that fucking standard U2 bridge... awful.

And the lyrics... boy oh boy.

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Re: U2

#151 Post by JOEinPHX » Mon Sep 18, 2017 9:07 pm

I'm seeing Beck tomorrow.

U2 will be there in the stadium to close the show.

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Re: U2

#152 Post by nausearockpig » Tue Sep 19, 2017 1:12 am

Six7Six7 wrote:I'm seeing Beck tomorrow.

U2 will be there in the stadium to close the show.
I get while the getting's good, just after Beck..

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Re: U2

#153 Post by Matz » Tue Sep 19, 2017 2:06 am

Pandemonium wrote:Another new song. They should call this album "Sounds Of Creative Bankruptcy." They've completely lost the plot.

what a lazy and weak song, they just repeat that little best thing phrase endlessly.....can't believe it's the same people that wrote Achtung baby

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Re: U2

#154 Post by JOEinPHX » Wed Sep 20, 2017 2:58 pm

U2 Review:

Three dudes playing instruments: Awesome (but waaaaaaay too loud. Even for a stadium the volume was just deafening for no reason. And Bono's vocals were way too high in the mix)

And speaking of Bono... He can't hit the notes he recorded on the records, so he does the EXACT same thing Perry does and makes up new melodies or sings in a totally different key. Or he let's the crowd sing parts, or he just talks over certain parts of the song about women's rights or positivity or world peace or whatever the song is about. Leaves out a lot of lyrics just because he can't hit the notes in time to get them all out in time with the music.

Also, HOLY FUCK does Bono talk alot. Like, ALOT. He doesn't necessarily even introduce the songs or say what it's about, he'll just give a random 5 minute speech about something.

The show was 2 hours long and I would say 20 minutes of it was just his rambling. The guy needs to make the segues shorter and get to the songs quicker.

1/4 of the crowd walked out before they even started the 5-6 song encore. And sure, it was a Tuesday and 11:30pm before they got the encore, but I feel like if they played more upbeat numbers and Bono talked less, the crowd would have been having too good of a time to leave.

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Re: U2

#155 Post by kv » Wed Sep 20, 2017 10:57 pm

Six7Six7 wrote:
Also, HOLY FUCK does Bono talk a lot. Like, A LOT.
:tiphat:

How was Beck?

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Re: U2

#156 Post by Pandemonium » Thu Sep 21, 2017 10:20 am

Six7Six7 wrote:And speaking of Bono... He can't hit the notes he recorded on the records, so he does the EXACT same thing Perry does and makes up new melodies or sings in a totally different key. Or he let's the crowd sing parts, or he just talks over certain parts of the song about women's rights or positivity or world peace or whatever the song is about. Leaves out a lot of lyrics just because he can't hit the notes in time to get them all out in time with the music.

Also, HOLY FUCK does Bono talk alot. Like, ALOT. He doesn't necessarily even introduce the songs or say what it's about, he'll just give a random 5 minute speech about something.
That's pretty much Bono since day one. Dude just makes up lyrics, throws in seemingly random snippets of classic rock songs and rambles like a motherfucker in-between songs, maybe to give the other three guys time to take a piss or switch out instruments. It's also one of the things that seems to endear him to a lot of U2 fans (not me, necessarily).

Sometimes, especially back in the good ol' days it would occasionally make for exciting rock n' roll, like the time I saw them on the War tour in '83 at the LA Sports Arena when Bono was waving this stupid white flag pontificating about peace and love during one song and walked on a railing in the loge seats and was mobbed by a bunch of fans who literally ripped the shirt off his back and shredded his flag to pieces leaving him confused and pissed. Most of the time, especially in the last 2 decades especially when Bono plugs whatever feel-good theme of the tour might be, it's been a nice long bear/piss break for the audience. I'm sure you probably felt like grabbing a cold one before the "women are cool" bit before "Ultraviolet."

I will also say this is the tour where I really see age, wear and tear and a lot of health-related issues catching up especially with Bono. Considering he's fallen off the stage more times then I can count, was nearly paralyzed from a major back injury, had the really bad bike crash that wrecked his arm and throat surgery, all that shit is taking it's toll. IMO, I think they have one, maybe two more significant tours left in them.

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Re: U2

#157 Post by JOEinPHX » Thu Sep 21, 2017 11:42 am

kv wrote:
Six7Six7 wrote:
Also, HOLY FUCK does Bono talk a lot. Like, A LOT.
:tiphat:

How was Beck?
Too short. Also, he has way too many musicians onstage to be playing an open air stadium. It would have sounded better had the wall of sound been properly contained.

I look forward to seeing him again in the future in a smaller, more acoustic friendly environment.

But he was great. He left me wanting so much more.

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Re: U2

#158 Post by JOEinPHX » Thu Sep 21, 2017 11:54 am

Pandemonium wrote:
That's pretty much Bono since day one. Dude just makes up lyrics, throws in seemingly random snippets of classic rock songs and rambles like a motherfucker in-between songs, maybe to give the other three guys time to take a piss or switch out instruments. It's also one of the things that seems to endear him to a lot of U2 fans (not me, necessarily).
The funny thing is that Eddie Vedder does the same thing, but it's so much less bothersome to me. I think it's because he doesn't just do the same stage rap every single night, whereas Bono clearly does. Eddie will talk to the crowd, but it's always to introduce the song or he'll tell a funny story about the last time they played it in that exact same city. Instead of just screaming "Hey Biloxi, Mississippi!" he'll tell them what their city means to him.

Bono should be more personal. He's trying to come across as a guy who wants to save the world, but doesn't seem to realize he's just the David Lee Roth of his own personal arena cock rock band.
Pandemonium wrote:I'm sure you probably felt like grabbing a cold one before the "women are cool" bit before "Ultraviolet."
I actually commented to my friend on the way out about how much that speech annoyed me.

The problem wasn't the message. The problem was that he was all "this next song is for, ummm, mothers, and ummmm, sisters, and ummm, wives, and ummmm...."

Meanwhile dude has been standing onstage every single night in front of the most enormous screen I have ever seen, that during the song flashes images of probably 50 different important women in world history.

He struggled to dedicate the song, coming up with just general female family relations, when he could have been shouting out specifically. Surely he could have talked about one specifically every night and what SHE meant to the world. Instead of getting a back story and being educational about WHY those women are important, it was just dumbed down to "this is for your mom because females are important"

Ugh.
I will also say this is the tour where I really see age, wear and tear and a lot of health-related issues catching up especially with Bono. Considering he's fallen off the stage more times then I can count, was nearly paralyzed from a major back injury, had the really bad bike crash that wrecked his arm and throat surgery, all that shit is taking it's toll. IMO, I think they have one, maybe two more significant tours left in them.
Agreed. I think they'll take a long deserved break and then do the anniversaries of Rattle and Hum and Achtung Baby over the next few years, cash in on a 30 month farewell tour, and call it a day except for a single Live Aid show here and there for charity purposes.

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Re: U2

#159 Post by JOEinPHX » Thu Sep 21, 2017 11:58 am

I'm probably too critical.

I'm sure it's a pain in the ass to put on that huge of a show every single night and maintain your energy in doing so when you're 60. Without forgetting words or falling off the stage or whatever.

I just hate seeing missed opportunities or feeling like someone is going through the motions. If you're just on autopilot, maybe you shouldn't book that many shows. It's not like they need the money. (Or maybe their massive production requires them to do X amount to even break even before they can profit. Who knows)

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Re: U2

#160 Post by Pandemonium » Thu Sep 21, 2017 2:29 pm

Six7Six7 wrote:I'm probably too critical.

I'm sure it's a pain in the ass to put on that huge of a show every single night and maintain your energy in doing so when you're 60. Without forgetting words or falling off the stage or whatever.

I just hate seeing missed opportunities or feeling like someone is going through the motions. If you're just on autopilot, maybe you shouldn't book that many shows. It's not like they need the money. (Or maybe their massive production requires them to do X amount to even break even before they can profit. Who knows)
I think the whole band is going through the motions on this tour. This tour was pretty much thrown together at the eleventh hour earlier this year when the band didn't have the new album or stage production ready to go and Live Nation more or less demanded they go out and tour behind *something* in 2017 as they were supposed to be touring in 2016 and didn't because they were still fiddling with the unfinished album.

As I've mentioned in the past, U2 is one band I've been following since practically day one - I first saw them during their club tour in 1981 after the "Boy" album was released and have seen them every US tour, often multiple times. I've seen some clunkers, mostly some good shows and a few really incredible shows from them and the show I caught on this tour earlier this Summer was the first U2 show that gave me the same rote vibe as seeing The Rolling Stones the past 25+ years despite the performance being solid enough. I don't begrudge a band cashing in on multiple decade's worth of their legacy but it's still disheartening when it finally happens.

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Re: U2

#161 Post by blackcoffee » Mon Dec 11, 2017 6:40 pm

AM waiting for Panda's review of the new album.

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Re: U2

#162 Post by Larry B. » Tue Dec 12, 2017 6:27 am

Preview: It's absolute shit.

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Re: U2

#163 Post by Pandemonium » Tue Dec 12, 2017 5:01 pm

Larry B. wrote:Preview: It's absolute shit.
I wouldn't go that far, at least to my ears it's better then the last album "Songs Of Innocence" which I consider to be the worst album they've ever put out. The first time I listened to it, for the first few songs I was thinking "this might be a really solid album" but that opinion started giving way to "this song sucks, this song sucks, this song sucks" as I waded through the last half of the album. The opening track "Love Is All We Have Left" should be the closing song on the upcoming tour and "You're The Best Thing About Me" is a solid single. Past that, there's not much to recommend... I guess Summer Of Love and Red Flag Day are ok in a kind of simple Beatle-esque light pop tune thing but especially the songs that try to rawk like The Blackout and the obnoxious American Soul make it appear U2 have completely run out of ideas.

Speaking of American Soul, someone explain to me how you can take a promising song like this...



...and fuck it up and make it this:


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Re: U2

#164 Post by Larry B. » Wed Dec 13, 2017 4:50 am

Yeah, the only track I can swallow is "You're The Best Thing About Me", which has been in rotation in my house. The rest is so forgettable, it's almost painful. And similarly to their previous album, there's just too much Bono in it. There's barely any space for the music, Bono is always there pushing his poorly crafted rhymes.

Any predictions on when they'll call it a day, Panda? At what point the cow dries out?

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Re: U2

#165 Post by Pandemonium » Wed Dec 13, 2017 4:35 pm

Larry B. wrote:Yeah, the only track I can swallow is "You're The Best Thing About Me", which has been in rotation in my house. The rest is so forgettable, it's almost painful. And similarly to their previous album, there's just too much Bono in it. There's barely any space for the music, Bono is always there pushing his poorly crafted rhymes.

Any predictions on when they'll call it a day, Panda? At what point the cow dries out?
Achtung Baby 30th Anniversary/Greatest Hits stadium cash-in tour in 2021 is my guess.

I'm going to the 2nd LA Forum show next May. It's kind of like I'm continuing to see them when they roll around partly because they're one of the bands I saw every tour since day one and don't want to break the streak nearly 40 years in and also I figure they don't have too many more tours left in the tank. And to be fair, even if the new music has mostly blown the last 3 albums, they still put on a solid show and the production they've used for arenas for the 2015 tour and presumably this one is admittedly pretty cool.

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