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U2 - Songs Of Surrender (2023)
 Tracks: 40
  1. This isn't really an "album". It's a release of lots of music on four discs. I'm glad there are 40 songs As Edge imagined, I've fairly quickly made a 17 song playlist that pleases me very much.


  2. "It's not a tree. It's just leaves held up by branches and roots."
  3. I love the fact that it’s so long. So much content to absorb! I wish there was a 5th disc!!

    I don’t love every song, but I just really enjoy the journey, and having it on in the background while driving, etc.
  4. Originally posted by bpt3:[..]

    Appreciate your take. I hear you on much of this - especially the "some are cool" others "fine" and others "questionable" - though I'm enjoying the fact that they released a full 40 song collection. In the best sense of the phrase, it's great "background music" to have on at home at any point in the day. Just letting it play for the full 2.5 hours or so and appreciating the laid-back vibe.

    Also, I had sort of the opposite reaction to your final point, at least to more of the band's recently released material. I posted this previously, too, but I think especially the SOI/SOE stuff has benefitted immensely from this stripped-back approach. Barlow and Jacknife I prefer to Epworth/Tedder/Danger Mouse but collectively I'll take just the Edge on acoustic guitar/piano for a lot of these songs any day.
    Your point about 'background music' makes sense, like it's more wallpaper that leaves you headroom to fill it in by yourself a little bit. Couple of the recent songs definitely benefited from re-interpretation, Lights of Home and Invisible to my ears. A lot of post-2000 vocals are better and less stressed than the original, but then either badly mixed or have to sit sit in a terrible mix.
  5. I meant it's not an album in the sense of a focused, highly curated whole. Obviously, strictly speaking, as a collection of songs, it can be called an album. But it's not really an album album, haha.

    In the same way, I don't consider the Best of collections or box sets to be "albums".

    Just me?
  6. It's a collection of 40 songs done acoustically and kind of as a companion to Bono's book. That's not curated or focused?
  7. That's actually one of the criticisms in the reviews - that's it's too uniform stylistically. If anything this might be their most album album
  8. True.. I'm not worried about ratings, critics or reviews though. As long as I'm enjoying it, it was worth the money. It's sure fun seeing all the different views and thoughts about the release
  9. My 4xCD edition finally arrived yesterday and I was surprised at how slender it was with its dual gate fold design. Don’t know why but I was expecting something much thicker.
  10. Originally posted by Sydney_MIke:My 4xCD edition finally arrived yesterday and I was surprised at how slender it was with its dual gate fold design. Don’t know why but I was expecting something much thicker.
    yeah very poor quality packaging. Case of being gentle with it or it will all fall apart
  11. my 2 dogs love this album, they both settle down and go to sleep when i put it on now


  12. Makes sense with the 4 paws it got in Rolling Bone magazine.