OT: just got the new u2 cd

[Omaha_Perez]

Wow... I've heard the new "single" and I just checked out "Breathe" on YouTube. I hate to say it but I think both are really TERRIBLE. I'm a big U2 fan from way back but they've lost me over the last 10 years and this new material isn't bringing me back in the fold.

[DirtyMartini]

Thanks for the reviews, everyone. So far I've only heard "Get On Your Boots" -- and it's a bit too much like a modern take on Escape Club's "Wild Wild West" for my taste.

[smudge]

Just watching the BBC Radio Theatre showcase and the rooftop mini-gig on Regent's Street, Friday. That does sound like one tired voice, but Breathe is pretty interesting, and 'Boots' is sounding great live.

ETA It has been more than two decades since they last stopped traffic

ETA Again. When did Adam Clayton morph into Neil Tennant?

[TheEqualizer]

U2 is the musical guest on Letterman all five days next week

[plutonic]

NY Times Take:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/arts/ ... nted=print

Favorite passage:

[quote]
In songs about true love, worldwide connections, transcendence and technology the music heads for extremes. “Get On Your Boots,” at 149 beats per minute, is U2’s fastest song ever...
[/quote]

*cough!BPMGEEK!cough*

[quote]
while “Cedars of Lebanon,” which ends the album, is a somber meditation on war, separation and enmity. The album includes likely arena singalongs in “Magnificent,” “Unknown Caller” and “I’ll Go Crazy if I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight,” but it also encompasses the ricocheting patterns of “Fez — Being Born” and the stately “White as Snow,” which bases its melody on the Advent hymn “Veni, Veni Emmanuel.” (Mr. Clayton said “White as Snow” was conceived as the last thoughts of an Afghan killed by an improvised explosive device; its four minutes are the time it takes to die.)
[/quote]

The comments in this thread have been as mixed as are my feelings on the new album. There are some songs I don't really like, but I want to: 'Magnificent' and 'Moment of Surrender'. I feel like they are sort of watered down versions of earlier U2 triumphs. The stadium worthy moments don't really seem all that stadium worthy.

There are also other songs that I like that I would prefer not to like. 'Unknown Caller' and 'I'll Go Crazy if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight' are the best examples of these, I think. The shouted chorus lines in the former make me sit up and cringe, as it were. And the latter has a title so obviously obvious that it makes me want to puke. Yet if I resist the urge to snark, I can completely identify with the sentiment of the song, and I love it.

Ultimately, it's a more mature U2, and that's good and bad, I guess. The highs aren't as high, and maybe the lows not so low, kind of like what it's like as we grow up and out of our outsized teenage emotions.

Part of me wonders what it would sound like if they made an album that wasn't TRYING to fill stadiums. How awesome would that be?

Ultimately, I'm finding the album both satisfying and unsatisfying. However, it is definitely interesting. And that's more than I can say for most of the pap that poses for music these days.




[/quote]

[Susan]

I think it was in the NYT article that it was reported the band said a companion album will be released later this year with other new material. So not one, but two new albums this year.

[DirtyMartini]

If you just want music files, Amazon has the mp3 downloads of the album for $3.99:

http://tr.im/gYcJ

[plutonic]

Here is the absolute lamest piece of shit in the U2 Hype machine Pipe:

http://www.u2.com/news/article/4609

[quote]
In New York today ? Catch the band with Mayor Bloomberg for the naming of 'U2 Way'.

The temporary renaming of part of West 53rd Street as 'U2 Way' takes place at 1.30pm at West 53rd Street and Broadway, Southwest corner.

The Mayor and members of the band will be on hand to mark the event.
[/quote]

Temporary renaming?
Seriously?
That's LAME.
They're going to have a renaming ceremony for a street, but it's not going to stay named that?

Why can't they just say, "U2 and Mayor Bloomberg are having a press conference to sell more T-shirts in NYC."

I guess after they are done selling T-Shirts, the street will no longer be 53rd either. It will have NO NAME. Badump bump.

[Kiki]

I am actually very excited about this. I've only listened to the first two tracks off the album, because I'm savoring it and would get too distracted at work...but...I dig it. The title track sounds different from their other stuff. But Magificent sounds like something off The Joshua Tree.

Most of the bands that I like aren't recording entities any more. So when the news came out about a new U2 album...I was finally able to get excited about a new release!

...and an upcoming tour.

WOOT!

If I lived in NYC...I'd be going to see Letterman all week, honestly!

~Kiki~

[stevel]

I think like all U2 albums this is a 'grower'.

The stand out track to me on first listen though is Breathe (actually at the moment by a mile) though I'm sure in a weeks time I'll have a better perspective.

Still shame its not The Police's new album we're talking about......

[bluescoobyblue]

Let's face it...few bands have such a back catalogue as U2.......and they are always going to struggle to match their past acheivements. Having said that, Get On Your Boots is a definite grower and shows that sense of humour that came along with Achtung Baby. Magnificent has been slated by some reviewers as ordinary but it is classic U2 and will surely sound awesome when they tour in summer.

There will come a time when a new U2 album wont be an instant number one but they should be applauded for not just sitting on their backsides and reproducing the same tracks time after time.

While I'm here...........fave U2 tracks.....

5) Kite
4) Stay (Faraway So Close)
3) One
2) Zoo Station
1) With or Without You

Lets have your fave U2 tracks!!

PS Listenening to the audio of Certifiable in the car at the moment and it's sounding awesome!!!

[stevel]

5 The Unforgettable Fire
4 Until the end of the World
3 With or Without You
2 Walk On
1 One

sorry need a
6th All I want is You
and
7th Bad
and
8th Stay (Faraway So Close)
and
9th 11 O'clock Tick Tock
and
10th Gloria

[bluescoobyblue]

yeah maybe should have made it a top ten

6) Gloria
7) Vertigo
Ultraviolet
9) New Years Day
10) Do You Feel Loved

[Ramuthra]

Rolling Stone gave it a 5 star rating.

what the fuck?

[irishrose1969]

I was suprised when I heard Magnificent on the radio the other day. The DJ had the nerve to say something like...its edgy or something..not metallica edgy..but in its own way. I listened to like the first minute and changed stations. NOT impressed.

I like the old U2 personally

or is it that I am feeling under the weather this week and in bed the past few days...ugh. God help me.