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  1. HTDAAB & ATYCLB had better singles than NLOTH ... the former two were betters collections of songs overall on their own but NLOTH was stronger as a long format album: it should be listened to in sequence and it does a better job of carrying a mood throughout. Not to mention Magnificent and Moment of Surrender can stand next to most of U2's best work.
  2. I think the fact that this thread comes up all the time from people either defending the album or attacking it shows that it's sort of a U2-fan-critical-darling, but ultimately not that great.

    I've said it many times and I'll say it again. NLOTH is the sound of U2 chickening out. There are moments of greatness, but too many others of weirdness, generic rock, arrogance in assuming that U2+Eno and Lanois would automatically result in greatness, etc.

    The album has a vibe that no other U2 album has, but it also has too many stinkers for me.

    But Fez is a fucking revelation.
  3. Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:I think the fact that this thread comes up all the time from people either defending the album or attacking it shows that it's sort of a U2-fan-critical-darling, but ultimately not that great.

    I've said it many times and I'll say it again. NLOTH is the sound of U2 chickening out. There are moments of greatness, but too many others of weirdness, generic rock, arrogance in assuming that U2+Eno and Lanois would automatically result in greatness, etc.

    The album has a vibe that no other U2 album has, but it also has too many stinkers for me.

    But Fez is a fucking revelation.
    I like the line about them chickening out, I think that's exactly the case. Achtung Baby was the sound of u2 experimenting successfully, zooropa and pop I thought were enjoyable experiments too however NLOTH just isn't that good. I'd rather listen to u2 being u2 in albums like ATYCLB and HTDAAB than them trying and failing at being something else. I don't even agree with the idea that NLOTH is better as a whole I'd say the other two are much easier and enjoyable listens and so much easier to connect with.
  4. Originally posted by RUMMY:This forum is waaaaayyyy too hard on ATYCLBH and, to a lesser extent, HTDAAB. Even if they are both essentially albums full of a bunch of singles, they blow NLOTH out of the water.
    Amen
  5. i like NLOTH very much but i think something happened. They wanted to make a concept album (Linear, dvd, Winter but some much more) , a story of a trip to Africa but they had some problems during the recording sessions. In my opinion that wasn't a complete album, they had more ideas but the ideas were not explained with music. I feel that just from the songs and the videos.....it could be a release with much more african inspirations in the yrics and in the sound. IMO of course.Just a feeling or more. It seems to me they had problems with Anton Corbjin too, but maybe i'm wrong. ps the tour was fantastic and we won't see such a stage like the Claw anymore.
  6. The 360 tour just might be their best ever (well, maybe not better than ZooTV). The fact that they gave up on performing most of NLOTH during the tour itself really says something. If they kept playing the songs, maybe we (or at least I) would have bought into the album.
  7. Some truly magnificent songs in there. But the album lacks unity, there are some duds, and there's no real single (e.g. Pride). I think MOS is one of their best songs ever. NLOTH, Magnificent, and Breathe are really good songs. Being born is good. The rest is good, but forgettable to various degrees. Stand up comedy would have made a fantastic B-side, just like GOYB. UC isn't bad. White as snow, cedars, crazy are not memorable. While none of these songs is particularly bad on its own (except perhaps crazy), they should have never all been on the album. A couple perhaps, e.g. UC and comedy. But the album would have needed more good songs, which they clearly hadn't at the time. Or did they? All my life would could have filled crazy's spot, and is a much (much) better song.
  8. Originally posted by JuJuman:Some truly magnificent songs in there. But the album lacks unity, there are some duds, and there's no real single (e.g. Pride). I think MOS is one of their best songs ever. NLOTH, Magnificent, and Breathe are really good songs. Being born is good. The rest is good, but forgettable to various degrees. Stand up comedy would have made a fantastic B-side, just like GOYB. UC isn't bad. White as snow, cedars, crazy are not memorable. While none of these songs is particularly bad on its own (except perhaps crazy), they should have never all been on the album. A couple perhaps, e.g. UC and comedy. But the album would have needed more good songs, which they clearly hadn't at the time. Or did they? All my life would could have filled crazy's spot, and is a much (much) better song.
    All my life really does have a great vibe to it, that chorus sounds really uplifting to me, dont know why it didn't make the cut, would most people not agree it was better than a good few on the album and even fit in better?
  10. Based on the little bits we HAVE heard from the Rubin sessions (including Window in the Skies), I think that would've been a better album to put out. Would've come a lot sooner too.
  11. I think people would contest this, but now that I think about it NLOTH as concept actually feels somewhat rushed. It feels as if something new was stirring, but they shut the door before it got a chance to blossom. I think that's why NLOTH has this hodgepodge of songs that don't seem to fit on the same album. To me, Boots, Stand Up Comedy, and I'll Go Crazy are the odd ones out. I think you take these guys out, add Winter and you have a solid foundation for a great album.

    The problem then comes from the fact that we don't know if they had any other songs in the bank that came from the same idea stream as the rest of NLOTH. Perhaps this is why people are less willing to give NLOTH a pass compared to say ATYCLB and HTDAAB, which had a lot of great songs released in their album cycle, but not necessarily on the proper album itself.
  12. Originally posted by ahn1991:I think people would contest this, but now that I think about it NLOTH as concept actually feels somewhat rushed. It feels as if something new was stirring, but they shut the door before it got a chance to blossom. I think that's why NLOTH has this hodgepodge of songs that don't seem to fit on the same album. To me, Boots, Stand Up Comedy, and I'll Go Crazy are the odd ones out. I think you take these guys out, add Winter and you have a solid foundation for a great album.

    The problem then comes from the fact that we don't know if they had any other songs in the bank that came from the same idea stream as the rest of NLOTH. Perhaps this is why people are less willing to give NLOTH a pass compared to say ATYCLB and HTDAAB, which had a lot of great songs released in their album cycle, but not necessarily on the proper album itself.
    Good points. However, I don't think anyone was thinking they needed to give ATYCLB a "pass" back in late-2000. The music world was very excited about this album and it was just what they were looking for from U2 after the commercial failure of Pop. However, I think HTDAAB could have gone either way. I don't think the songs (er, singles) are as strong on that album compared ATYCLB (but better than NLOTH) and I wouldn't have been surprised if it was brushed aside. Sometimes I feel they got lucky with HTDAAB.

    NLOTH suffers as it didn't really have any good great singles (like ATYCLB) nor did it have a great overall vibe (like Pop). Might have been made for a decent couple of EP's if you split the tracks right but I guess you can't justify a tour as big as 360 when you're just promoting a five- or six-song album.

    Well, maybe if you're U2 you can.