Originally posted by kris_smith87:[..]
I meant the reviews as a whole. That was before I posted the article from Buzzfeed.
My bad! Yeah, they have been almost all positive, by my understanding
Originally posted by kris_smith87:[..]
I meant the reviews as a whole. That was before I posted the article from Buzzfeed.
Originally posted by MWSAH:Just finished reading both Buzzfeed and NME. Suprised with their criticism, especially with NME.
Originally posted by Ultimate - LINK
The big news surrounding U2‘s 13th album is its surprise attack. Unexpectedly unleashed at an iPhone unveiling, ‘Songs of Innocence’ was made available as a free download on iTunes to anyone who wanted it. That’s a risky venture no matter how you look at it. With the music industry sinking to all-time lows, it’s either the shrewdest or stupidest move ever made by a superstar artist.
U2 are banking — figuratively now, but you can bet they’ll be making money off this somewhere down the line — on the former.
And you can forgive and excuse their confidence: The 11 songs aren’t throwaways. This is a legitimate U2 album, right down to the very seriousness that runs through its stacked grooves. Gimmick aside, ‘Songs of Innocence’ is no better or worse than any other U2 album of the millennium (not counting the century-starting ‘All That You Can’t Leave Behind,’ a record as powerful and as magnificent as anything they’ve done). It’s a bit bulky, it’s a bit overbearing and it runs out of steam before it reaches the end.
But it’s also a relatively pomp-free outing that unfolds more seamlessly than the band’s last few albums. In that sense, ‘Songs of Innocence’ is a bit like U2′s most recent record, 2009′s ‘No Line on the Horizon,’ but without the overriding self-importance. A roster of producers — including, most famously, Danger Mouse — pull it all together with touches of the traditional mixing it up with the modern. There are few curveballs here; like ‘No Line on the Horizon,’ ’Songs of Innocence’ is a U2 album for fans who like U2 best when they sound like U2.
That’s not to say they settle into formula. The opening ‘The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)’ is all buzzing guitars, distorted vocals and a clickety-clack rhythm that comes off like a futuristic arena shaker that splits the difference between ‘Achtung Baby’ and Danger Mouse’s work with the Black Keys. But on the very next song, ‘Every Breaking Wave,’ they recycle ‘With or Without You”s pulsating bass and ominous soundscape for the album’s most familiar-sounding track.
And the bulk of ’Songs of Innocence’ is like that: Old-school U2 tweaked with just enough modernity to keep them from becoming a nostalgia act. Songs like ‘California (There Is No End to Love),’ ‘Song for Someone’ and ‘Cedarwood Road’ rattle and hum with the best of the band’s post-’Leave Behind’ numbers, but without history to inform them, they lose some of their might. U2 have gotten to that stage in their career where everything they do will be measured by what they did before. After 13 albums, it’s inevitable.
By the time things wind down on the closing song, ‘The Troubles’ — a moody, somber duet with Swedish indie-pop singer-songwriter Lykke Li — you realize that the initial surprise of having a brand new U2 album show up unannounced in your iTunes playlist is the most forward-thinking thing about ’Songs of Innocence.’ And it’s a reminder that sometimes staying on track is the most reliable, rewarding and safest route.
Originally posted by Maxazine - LINK
Het ene moment leek het bijna onwaarschijnlijk dat U2 nog met een nieuw album zouden komen, maar vanuit het niets was het verkrijgbaar via iTunes. Bono en consorten weten in ieder geval hoe ze de aandacht voor zich moeten winnen. Maar zijn de nummers op het album net zo gedenkwaardig als het idee van deze stunt?
We kunnen vrij snel een antwoord daarop gegeven worden. Want ondanks dat ze jongere producers als Danger Mouse, Paul Epworth, Ryan Tedder, en Declan Gaffney eraan lieten werken klink het vertrouwd als U2 zoals we ze al jaren kennen. Geen nieuwe experimenten of nieuwe richting te bekennen. Veel nummers op ‘Songs Of Innocence’ hadden op één van hun vorige albums kunnen staan.
cd-recensie-u2---songs-of-innocenceZo klinken de wereldmuziek invloeden die op hun vorige album ‘No Line On The Horizon’ voorkwamen nog door in de opener ‘The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)’. Daarin geen directe Ramones invloeden dus zoals de titel zou vermoeden. ‘Volcano’ klinkt alsof ze terug grijpen naar hun debuutalbum ‘Boy’. En Bono zingt in het door synthesizers begeleidde ‘Sleep Like A Baby Tonight’ met dezelfde falset stem als in ‘Lemon’. In het nummer lijkt ook hun vroege invloed van Kraftwerk terug te horen. Het is hierdoor wel een vreemde eend in de bijt op het album. ‘The Trouble’ (waarin Lykke Li een kleine vocale bijdrage aan leverde) zou net als ‘Moment Of Surrender’ een uitstekende afsluiter van concerten kunnen zijn.
Niet alleen muzikaal grijpen ze terug naar het verleden. Want de songs zijn voornamelijk persoonlijke teksten over hun jeugd. Daarvan lijkt ‘Iris (Hold Me Close)’ het meest persoonlijk. Bono zingt hierin over zijn overleden moeder die hij op zijn 14e
verloor. Het vormt één van de hoogtepunten van het album. ‘Cedarwood Road’ gaat dan weer over de straat in Dublin waar Bono is opgegroeid. ‘This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now’ beschrijft een avond in 1977 waarop de leden van U2 een concert van The Clash bezochten.
Deze eerder genoemde nummers zijn allemaal vrij sterk. Enigszins tegenvallend zijn ‘California (There Is No End to Love)’, en ‘Raised by Wolves’. Waarin het in het refrein iets te veel naar emorock lijkt te neigen.
Maar voor de rest heeft U2 met ‘Songs of Innocence’ een album gemaakt met een aantal sterke songs. Waarvan ‘Volcano’ misschien de beste single van zou zijn. Maar hitsingles hebben ze niet meer echt nodig. Misschien is U2 na ‘No Line On The Horizon’ meer een albumband geworden. (Island) (7,5/10)
VERDICT: 7,5/10.
Originally posted by LFLMagazine.nl - LINK
Het gerucht gonsde al het hele jaar: ergens in het najaar van 2014 zou het nieuwe album van U2 het licht zien. Toch komt de release van Songs Of Innocence als een verrassing: op 9 september werd ‘ie officieel aangekondigd en dezelfde dag was dit dertiende album van de Ierse rockers gratis te downloaden via iTunes (op 13 oktober volgt de fysieke release en vanaf dat moment mag ‘gewoon’ de portemonnee getrokken worden). Geinige stunt, maar Radiohead flikte een jaar of zeven geleden ongeveer hetzelfde grapje met In Rainbows, dat toen ook in eerste instantie gratis te verkrijgen was. Dat kopieergedrag, om het maar even zwaar aangezet te zeggen, is ook enigszins van toepassing op Songs Of Innocence zelf. Ooit was U2 trendsetter, maar de afgelopen vijftien jaar verdween het experiment steeds verder naar de achtergrond en manifesteerden Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton en Larry Mullen Jr. zich als radiovriendelijke stadionrockers. De eerste gedachte die bij me opkwam tijdens het beluisteren van deze plaat was dan ook: verrek, dit lijkt wel heel erg op Coldplay, Editors, The Killers en Kings Of Leon – en was dat ooit niet precies andersom? Dat gezegd hebbende: Songs Of Innocence is wel simpelweg een sterke plaat waar U2-fans blij mee zullen zijn en waarop genoeg prima songs staan. De geste naar Joey Ramone in de fijn rockende opener The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone) is sympathiek, This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now is een knap staaltje discopunk en het door Bono kenmerkend smachtend gezongen Iris (Hold Me Close) heeft alles in zich om een dikke wereldhit te worden. U2 anno 2014 is kwalitatief goed, maar ongevaarlijk entertainment – daar kan zelfs een hippe producer als Danger Mouse (o.a. The Black Keys) niets aan veranderen. Of dat erg is, mag u zelf bepalen.
Originally posted by shkee23:[..]
I feel as though NME has always rated U2 albums as poor. I honestly think they have something against them...
Originally posted by JuJuman:[..]
That review is insanely biased. This is album has an insane amount of insanely good songs. They're not perfect, but they're insanely good:
The last three - especially: This is where you can reach me now - best song of the album IMHO
The first two: very different, but equally insanely good - even if not perfect
Everything in between is also really quite good: you don't really skip a song (yet).
This is, like, a fact!
Originally posted by music-mix.ew.com - LINK
Yesterday, U2—easily the biggest rock band left on the planet—surprised everyone when they released their long-in-gestation new album for free.
Songs of Innocence was made available to everybody with an iTunes account, which allows most everybody who listens to digital music to hear it; a physical version will be out on October 14, at which point it will be eligible to chart.
After a solid 12 hours of digesting the record — their first since 2010’s generally disappointing No Line on the Horizon — EW music experts Kyle Anderson and Miles Raymer fired up their e-mail machines, and their critical judgment.
KYLE: My relationship with U2 has always been a bit fraught: I don’t care at all for their early work, and while I’m not 100 percent on board with their ’90s output, I’m really glad it exists (Zooropa is probably my favorite album that I never, ever listen to). I’ve been pretty neutral on their 21st-century music—I know a lot of people thought No Line on the Horizon was a dull disaster, but it made me feel nothing at all. So I approach every U2 release with a healthy skepticism and nothing in the realm of expectation.
Having spent some time with Songs of Innocence, I have come to the conclusion that I think I actually kind of like it. Bono’s lyrics (with multiple assists by the Edge, according to the digital liner notes) remain deeply wonky in their earnestness—he still writes the kind of poetry hyper-literate 11th graders scribble in yearbooks. But sonically, I really like what producers Danger Mouse, Ryan Tedder, Paul Epworth, and Flood have done with the songs. I’m especially jazzed to hear the return of the Edge’s bumblebee distorted guitar, a crunch I don’t think I’ve heard since “Discoteque.”
There’s a lot to unpack here, both with the album itself and the surprise rollout. But Miles, where do you stand on U2, and how does Songs of Innocence play into that stance?
MILES: U2 and Guns N’ Roses were the first two rock bands that I got into as a kid after the stuff my parents listened to. I still think War is one of the best rock records of the ’80s, and I rode hard for them all the way through Zooropa, but I lost faith somewhere around the point where we started to figure out that the hyper-narcissistic character Bono had begun playing on stage was actually just where Bono was at (and where he’s stayed since). Their past two decades have been a joke, albeit a pretty hilariously self-important one at times.
That being said, I listened to Songs of Innocence four times yesterday and although I literally LOL’d at points on the first listen (the lyrics to that Joey Ramone song are still killing me), I eventually started coming around. Most of the credit goes to the producers, who keep enough respectably weird sounds coming to distract you from the corny-ass songs themselves, but I have to give it up to the band for going there with them and making music (“Sleep Like a Baby Tonight” for instance) that could conceivably weird out the older, more conservative classic rockers who make up so much of their fan base.
Still, I find it highly suspect that a band that’s supposed to be back on its game has to literally shove their record down 500 million people’s iTunes. “Thought you weren’t interested in another U2 record? Well too bad, you already own it!” Does that seem a little desperate to you too?
KYLE: In my mind, there are two ways to look at the roll out. The first way is that U2 essentially operate like, say, Pearl Jam or Prince now, where the albums are merely mile-markers that offer a reason to hit the road again. Since nobody makes any money off of selling albums—not even a band as universally huge as U2—then the release is actually a smart way to get people to buy tickets to next year’s inevitable stadium tour.
Of course, the other way to look at this is that U2 worked hard on an album, realized it wasn’t very good, and attempted to cut their losses by masquerading as a benevolent content provider offering up a hugely-anticipated album suddenly and for free. I think either way it’s a smart business move, though one that only people with the financial liquidity and cult of personality like Bono and Jay Z can really pull off.
I agree that there are a lot of problems here, starting with the very title of the first single “The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone).” I like how “Song For Someone” builds, but I wish that it was built on a better hook. And I like that Lykke Li shows up to coo on “The Troubles,” but it’s a bummer that it’s by far the worst song on the album. (We could have a whole separate conversation about the problematic nature of the last songs on U2 albums.) But the production really carries a lot of this, and I think Songs of Innocence really makes a case for Danger Mouse being one of our most underrated knob-twiddlers.
So we’re both kind of shruggy on this album, though I can say that I genuinely love the self-conscious weirdness of the Joe Strummer tribute “This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now.” Do you have a favorite song, Miles, or is this another U2 album that doesn’t get an entry on the greatest-hits package?
MILES: Like I mentioned, I really like the sonics on “Sleep Like a Baby Tonight,” especially the John Carpenter-esque synthesizers and the part where Bono goes into a weird screechy falsetto bit, but the song itself isn’t memorable at all–I can’t imagine liking it if it had an acoustic arrangement. I think “Raised by Wolves” is kinda cool, although its Bloc Party-style dance punk thing would have been a lot more interesting if this was ten years ago.
The Pearl Jam and Prince comparisons seem apt, but it reminded me more of recent Bowie albums where no one with any sense goes into it expecting to get their wig flipped by its greatness, but there’s a pleasant surprise in finding them making semi-decent music that obviously shows they’ve been listening to some new stuff that’s actually cool. I want to give them a clap on the shoulder and a “Good for you, guys,” but odds are I will never listen to this album again after this conversation’s over.
KYLE: I agree. U2 are like Paul McCartney or the aforementioned Prince—even if this album was shockingly excellent, it still probably wouldn’t be in the top five (or maybe even the top 10) of the band’s all-time releases. Those spots are all locked up. The sudden rollout has made Songs of Innocence inherently more interesting than No Line on the Horizon was, which maybe justifies dropping it into everybody’s pending downloads queue.
It certainly has made me curious about the rumored forthcoming collection Songs of Experience, but ultimately I agree with you: Outside of an inevitable spin to remind myself how goofy “The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)” sounds, it’ll probably stay in the single digits on my play count until the end of iTunes.