U2 Experience + Innocence Tour **Discussion Only // No Ticket Sales or Requests**

lazer.blue

innuendo141 wrote: »

Anyone get their album delivered yet?

I haven't

Greg81

innuendo141 wrote: »

Anyone get their album delivered yet?

Nope.

Graham1978

Yes Recieved it yesterday

Greg81

Graham1978 wrote: »

Yes Recieved it yesterday

CD or Vinyl???

Graham1978

CD arrived yesterday. What's the deal with the presale for tickets when you ordered the album ?

innuendo141

Graham1978 wrote: »

CD arrived yesterday. What's the deal with the presale for tickets when you ordered the album ?

I think we get a code depending on how many are left after the fansales or something.... I'd just settle with getting my vinyl at this stage to be honest!

q2xv9rjei4awgb

Graham1978 wrote: »

CD arrived yesterday. What's the deal with the presale for tickets when you ordered the album ?

You get it in January.

Now, whether that's true or not is another story.

johnpatrick81

Yeah, I've very little faith in them and their absolutely turgid online system. Livenation can suck my balls. They shipped my CD apparently 30th Nov, and even with overpriced shipping it's nowhere to be seen. I ordered something from Amazon after that date and have already received it.

They said we'll get our pre-sale codes "a few days before the presale starts".

MisterAnarchy

johnpatrick81 wrote: »

Yeah, I've very little faith in them and their absolutely turgid online system. Livenation can suck my balls.

Their No Purchase necessary page for presale access was blocked in Ireland ,you actually had to use a UK VPN to get it to work.
Some amateurs.

thegreengoblin

Listened to it a lot over the last few days and I can only come to the conclusion that it's a poor album by U2 standards. The signs were already there with the songs that had been released and even though there are some very good moments there's just not enough quality to save the album.

I'm not getting into the 'artists generally go into decline as they get older' argument as that's just ridiculous, it's not an argument at all. People lose their edge, that's only natural. And their truly great work came a long time ago, everyone realises that. But age and supreme wealth is not a barrier to making great music.

The problem for me is that there are too many songs that sound like they're reheated leftovers from ATYCLB or HTDAAB. Or, in the case of There is A Light, a reheat from SOI. Most of the songs here don't engage me, they don't make me sit up and pay attention. They just pass me by and I don't find myself thinking I want to hear many of them again.

I think it's fairly obvious that U2's biggest weakness is Bono and has been for quite some time. He used to be a really brilliant lyric writer. But around the time of ATYCLB he became submerged in his own earnestness and self-regard. And he hasn't been able to come up for air since. Some of the lyrics here are appalling such as this from Red Flag Day

Not even news today/So many lost in the sea last night/
One word that the sea can't say/Is no, no, no, no

Or 'In the rubble of Aleppo/Flowers blooming in the shadows' from Summer of Love. And that's before you even mention 'refu-Jesus' from American Soul. :pac: Reading them is embarrassing enough but hearing them sung is worse. We never hear any instrumentals from the band anymore. I'd suggest they try it out on the next album.

Postitives for me are: Love Is All We Have Left, it's an interesting choice as an opener and works very well. Lights of Home is decent although the big singalong fade-out, which is great in itself, sounds like it's welded on to the song. The Little Things is excellent. Book of Your Heart should be on the album proper, it's too good to be just a bonus track. I like it more and more every time I hear it. But that's really it for me. Four songs.

I take no joy whatsoever in saying any of this as U2 have brought me countless hours of life-affirming music across several decades. There aren't many bands I can say that about. I still hope they can raise their game again but there's very little sign of this happening.

johnpatrick81

I’d low expectations but it’s surpassed them.

There were more songs on SOI that I loved, but on SOE there are less songs I dislike.

GOOYOW is as close as I get to disliking, but I don’t even find myself skipping that.

It’s a damn solid album. Slightly better than SOI but not threatening their best work.

Little Things is the only classic I reckon. That in itself is impressive, a band in their 40th year still producing classic songs.

johnpatrick81

thegreengoblin wrote: »

. Or, in the case of There is A Light, a reheat from SOI.

You know that’s intentional right? That SOI and SOE are companion albums? 13-song for someone, iris-lights of home, volcano-American soul. I’m sure there’s more direct links but it’s 100% intentional and they have said so as far back as 2014.

thegreengoblin

johnpatrick81 wrote: »

You know that’s intentional right? That SOI and SOE are companion albums? 13-song for someone, iris-lights of home, volcano-American soul. I’m sure there’s more direct links but it’s 100% intentional and they have said so as far back as 2014.

Yeah I know that, and I don't mind the odd link or snippet to previous material but in this case they've overcooked it. I just think it's laziness on their part.

johnpatrick81

Sooooo.....you understand the concept.....yet still call it lazy......Fair enough!!

thegreengoblin

johnpatrick81 wrote: »

Sooooo.....you understand the concept.....yet still call it lazy......Fair enough!!

Yeah, I wouldn't have thought that to be too radical an assessment

johnpatrick81

So it shouldn’t have come as a surprise if you were familiar with the concept 3 year delayed reaction of disappointment

q2xv9rjei4awgb

thegreengoblin wrote: »

Listened to it a lot over the last few days and I can only come to the conclusion that it's a poor album by U2 standards. The signs were already there with the songs that had been released and even though there are some very good moments there's just not enough quality to save the album.

I'm not getting into the 'artists generally go into decline as they get older' argument as that's just ridiculous, it's not an argument at all. People lose their edge, that's only natural. And their truly great work came a long time ago, everyone realises that. But age and supreme wealth is not a barrier to making great music.

The problem for me is that there are too many songs that sound like they're reheated leftovers from ATYCLB or HTDAAB. Or, in the case of There is A Light, a reheat from SOI. Most of the songs here don't engage me, they don't make me sit up and pay attention. They just pass me by and I don't find myself thinking I want to hear many of them again.

I think it's fairly obvious that U2's biggest weakness is Bono and has been for quite some time. He used to be a really brilliant lyric writer. But around the time of ATYCLB he became submerged in his own earnestness and self-regard. And he hasn't been able to come up for air since. Some of the lyrics here are appalling such as this from Red Flag Day

[I]Not even news today/So many lost in the sea last night/
One word that the sea can't say/Is no, no, no, no[/I]

Or 'In the rubble of Aleppo/Flowers blooming in the shadows' from Summer of Love. And that's before you even mention 'refu-Jesus' from American Soul. :pac: Reading them is embarrassing enough but hearing them sung is worse. We never hear any instrumentals from the band anymore. I'd suggest they try it out on the next album.

Postitives for me are: Love Is All We Have Left, it's an interesting choice as an opener and works very well. Lights of Home is decent although the big singalong fade-out, which is great in itself, sounds like it's welded on to the song. The Little Things is excellent. Book of Your Heart should be on the album proper, it's too good to be just a bonus track. I like it more and more every time I hear it. But that's really it for me. Four songs.

I take no joy whatsoever in saying any of this as U2 have brought me countless hours of life-affirming music across several decades. There aren't many bands I can say that about. I still hope they can raise their game again but there's very little sign of this happening.

Disagree massively with the bold and underlined part.

That is one my favourite parts on the entire album. It's a great part of the song and the song is one of my favourites. Reminds me of a song straight from the War era of the band

Red Flag Day
The Blackout
Love Is Bigger Than Anything In It's Way
GOOYOW
Little Things

They're all top tracks to me. I'd even lump a large part of American Soul in there too. I absolutely love the groove of the verses in that song. Absolutely top notch.

Summer Of Love...It's a One Republic song, or part one. They were working on that last year from what I gather.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UWZxGRR12o

Again, I know the guy produced it. Maybe he gave them the idea. Producers do that. It's their job. Eno, Lanois, Flood, Lilywhite have all done it. It's what a producer is there for.

Couldn't tell you other than that though

thegreengoblin

johnpatrick81 wrote: »

So it shouldn’t have come as a surprise if you were familiar with the concept 3 year delayed reaction of disappointment

I heard they were 'companion' albums but I didn't realise they'd be basically putting the same song in twice.

thegreengoblin

Tomas White Suspect wrote: »

Disagree massively with the bold and underlined part.

That is one my favourite parts on the entire album. It's a great part of the song and the song is one of my favourites. Reminds me of a song straight from the War era of the band

Red Flag Day
The Blackout
Love Is Bigger Than Anything In It's Way
GOOYOW
Little Things

They're all top tracks to me. I'd even lump a large part of American Soul in there too. I absolutely love the groove of the verses in that song. Absolutely top notch.

Summer Of Love...It's a One Republic song, or part one. They were working on that last year from what I gather.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UWZxGRR12o

Again, I know the guy produced it. Maybe he gave them the idea. Producers do that. It's their job. Eno, Lanois, Flood, Lilywhite have all done it. It's what a producer is there for.

Couldn't tell you other than that though

Those lyrics are toe curlingly bad.

q2xv9rjei4awgb

thegreengoblin wrote: »

Those lyrics are toe curlingly bad.

"A Mole, digging in a hole"
"You know some places are like your Auntie,but there's no place like Miami"
"An intellectual tortoise"
"Hot as a hair dryer in your face/hot as a handbag and a can of mace"
"Password. You. Enter here. Right now."

I beg to differ that they're not

Not getting what's embarrassing about "In the rubble of Aleppo/Flowers blooming in the shadows" tbh

thegreengoblin

Tomas White Suspect wrote: »

"A Mole, digging in a hole"
"You know some places are like your Auntie,but there's no place like Miami"
"An intellectual tortoise"
"Hot as a hair dryer in your face/hot as a handbag and a can of mace"
"Password. You. Enter here. Right now."

I beg to differ that they're not

Not getting what's embarrassing about "In the rubble of Aleppo/Flowers blooming in the shadows" tbh

Agree to disagree so!
With the exception of Miami, those lyrics you quoted are from and after when the quality began to drop, in the late 90s as I was pointing out. Previous to that he was brilliant at writing lyrics.

q2xv9rjei4awgb

thegreengoblin wrote: »

Agree to disagree so!
With the exception of Miami, those lyrics you quoted are from and after when the quality began to drop, in the late 90s as I was pointing out. Previous to that he was brilliant at writing lyrics.

Fair enough.
I like the album. Not a song I dislike it on it. Picked up from where the last album left off.

Love the focus put on the rhythm section and love the vocal harmonies and use of synths and strings.

The Little Things is a classic U2 song for me

MisterAnarchy

Tomas White Suspect wrote: »

Summer Of Love...It's a One Republic song, or part one. They were working on that last year from what I gather.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UWZxGRR12o

Again, I know the guy produced it. Maybe he gave them the idea. Producers do that. It's their job. Eno, Lanois, Flood, Lilywhite have all done it. It's what a producer is there for.

Thats pretty embarrassing ,its the exact same song !

It confirms what I have long believed about the band ,they are out of ideas.
The songs on the last 2 albums are a combination of old songs they didnt release before and stuff they got off other bands .

tritriagain

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

Thats pretty embarrassing ,its the exact same song !

It confirms what I have long believed about the band ,they are out of ideas.
The songs on the last 2 albums are a combination of old songs they didnt release before and stuff they got off other bands .

I have to say I love the new album. You are entitled to your opinion of course. But for me I feel it's their best in a long time.

PropJoe10

Its a decent album, for sure, but the edge (no pun intended) is gone from U2's music since Pop.

I've often felt that they'd benefit as a creative band if they worked with other people. I saw that Larry Mullen played drums on Alice Cooper's new album, which is cool, but Edge and Bono should go out and collaborate with other artists, or even do solo projects. It must be incredibly hard to keep coming up with fresh ideas when they only seem to work on music as part of U2.

dublinman1990

I bought the deluxe album today on CD with the bonus tracks.

Out of those songs; I loved the St Peter's string version of Light of Home as it sounded great to me. I thought the acoustics from it sounded brilliant. The Little things that give you away was a great song in the album. I think this particular song is one of their best works ever in years. I was a little disappointed in The Blackout because I thought the live music video version of the song on YouTube sounded much better and it had more of an better atmosphere. It is still a decent bit of work from these guys; but I think it would be better if that song was sung out live in front of an audience rather than in a studio setting.

Overall I'm very happy with what U2 have produced for SOE. I still think that it is a solid album with some really terrific songs in there. I'd say this because a lot of the songs have a uplifting and a very positive feeling to them. I think this album will have a high amount of sales coming from this release. I have a feeling that this will come true some day for U2. They deserve all the credit that is due to them.

thegreengoblin

Tomas White Suspect wrote: »

Disagree massively with the bold and underlined part.

That is one my favourite parts on the entire album. It's a great part of the song and the song is one of my favourites. Reminds me of a song straight from the War era of the band

Red Flag Day
The Blackout
Love Is Bigger Than Anything In It's Way
GOOYOW
Little Things

They're all top tracks to me. I'd even lump a large part of American Soul in there too. I absolutely love the groove of the verses in that song. Absolutely top notch.

Summer Of Love...It's a One Republic song, or part one. They were working on that last year from what I gather.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UWZxGRR12o

Again, I know the guy produced it. Maybe he gave them the idea. Producers do that. It's their job. Eno, Lanois, Flood, Lilywhite have all done it. It's what a producer is there for.

Couldn't tell you other than that though

Eno and Lanois have got songwriting credits before where they were due (although you suspect they probably could have got more). Presumably the One Republic lads get one too? I didn't buy the album so I don't know what it says on the sleeve. They'd certainly want to be getting songwriting credits from the sounds of it!

johnpatrick81

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

Thats pretty embarrassing ,its the exact same song !

It confirms what I have long believed about the band ,they are out of ideas.
The songs on the last 2 albums are a combination of old songs they didnt release before and stuff they got off other bands .

It’s something U2 have done plenty of times before, Do you feel loved on POP also borrowed a riff as did many other songs. It’s pretty common in music. A producer shares an idea and they interpret that riff into a song.

It’s nowhere near embarrassing.

And yes goblin, Ryan Tedder is a producer and was on SOI too.

Some seriously petty swipes but we should be well used to that when it comes to U2.

q2xv9rjei4awgb

I think there is selective memory going on here

It's not exactly something new for any band or artist to work with or on another's creation. If we're dismissing artists because of it, I guess Elvis Presley would be top of the list so.. Rockin All Over The World ain't written by who you think it is..

I'm just curious to know what is U2's part in the creative process of the song. Was that something they came up with and the producer worked on it for awhile etc. Or did he give them that riff etc.

From what I've read from U2 fans, it appears to be that 90% like the album. While the other 10% don't. That's the most positive I've read in a long time.
If it's not for you, cool. There is other music out there. I don't like a lot of stuff out there at the moment but, I choose not to listen to it. I don't feel the need to write "pay your taxes" or "retire now" on YouTube or forums for artists I don't get.

Was said above me that it's a combination of songs they hadn't released before or reworkings of songs they didn't release before... Well, yeah that's normally how these things work.. City of Blinding Lights, there was a version of that supposed to be on Pop but, it was reworked. Sweetest Thing was released and reworked in 1998, 11 years after it was made. Wake Up Dead Man was going to be on Achtung Baby or Zooropa but, was reworked. I could go on
I genuinely do not know of any band that has never done that in their careers

On anothet note, The Little Things That Give You Away... Everyone, from what I've read, seems to think this is a U2 classic.

The Nal

Tomas White Suspect wrote: »

From what I've read from U2 fans, it appears to be that 90% like the album. While the other 10% don't.

U2 lost their original and even their 90s fanbase years ago. Their new fanbase is made up of people who cycle between nice easy listening stuff like Keane, Snow Patrol, the Killers and Coldplay etc and then U2. Depending on who has an album out that week. Theres nothing different between U2 and those bands now. Not a single thing.

Have to say the defence of the new album when anyone says anything remotely negative is hilarious. Methinks the lady doth protest too much.