Originally posted by pleasegone:After my 10 billion negative(which translates to honest in my language) posts about this album before hearing it, I promised to give my review after a few listens. The bad news here, is that I haven't been able to make it through my second listen. I've been going back to Tears For Fears The Tipping Point, Duran Duran's Future Past, even Def Leppard's Diamond Star Halos instead. So how do I feel so far?
I actually like the album about 5 billion times more than I thought I would. The bad news? Since my opinion was that it was going to be the worst thing ever, I don't know how to coompute taking that negative number in relation to how I rate it.
In all seriousness, I like it a lot more than I thought....but my opinion has not changed. It was a waste of time. Not a single song is better than the original. Not one. A few of them are dreadful. Desire comes to mind..in fact the stink of it is keeping my fingers numb. I simply rearranged the four discs in chronic logic order lol or chronological order. Another thing, a lot of the songs sound like the music could be interchangeable with others. Running To Stand Still could be sung to multiple songs. Lazy guitar, and trend following at its worst in some cases. The reworking thing is a horrible trend that artists feel they are doing something creative that has been done before over and over. Now Def Leppard is doing the overdone orchestral thing. Only twist is they are using original vocal tracks instead of having old Joe Elliot record new ones. Can an orchestra U2 album be next? Hope not.
Some plusses? Two Hearts is nice. The early ones are nice too. Stories For Boys, Out Of Control shine. I Will Follow has some weakness, but a good song usually does well no matter what the reworking is(Other then Red Hill Mining Desire Disaster!!!) Red Hill is nice, just made a dumb joke with Desire). Wild Horses, Little Things, and 40 not bad. One is dwarfed like crazy from the original. It's still a decent listen, but even at the highest of the highs, the album suffers from not holding a candle to the original. If God Would Send His Inspiration For A New Album would be the best thing for this band. Wasting any time taking away from a future "REAL" album is the biggest crime for this somewhat useless project. Had they just done one 80 minute album of these things, maybe not so bad, but reworking 50 songs is a crime. Angels, by the way, was done nice.
On a side note, I wonder just how involved Adam and Larry are in the songwriting process? I wish they had worked together on the side, as Bono and Edge obviously spend a lot of time working on stuff. Then the 2 groups could bring in some things and do some cut and paste. Perhaps they do this without our knowledge. It would've been nice for more behind the scenes video, not so unlike Aerosmith's The Making Of Pump. My real fear is that this reworking monster is simply the effect of serious writer's block, or lack of faith in the material they already have. Still, U2 has given us more than enough for the rest of our lives. Anything new from them is a bonus, and just that.
In final, this album never should have existed, but there is a small part of me that smiled a bit during some of the songs. The fact that I still have only listened to 20 of the songs more than once says a lot. I may never give Desire a second listen. Maybe Two Hearts and Out Of Control 3 or 4 times. So after all this time, my opinion has not changed, but it was better than expected.
Originally posted by pleasegone:After my 10 billion negative(which translates to honest in my language) posts about this album before hearing it, I promised to give my review after a few listens. The bad news here, is that I haven't been able to make it through my second listen. I've been going back to Tears For Fears The Tipping Point, Duran Duran's Future Past, even Def Leppard's Diamond Star Halos instead. So how do I feel so far?
I actually like the album about 5 billion times more than I thought I would. The bad news? Since my opinion was that it was going to be the worst thing ever, I don't know how to coompute taking that negative number in relation to how I rate it.
In all seriousness, I like it a lot more than I thought....but my opinion has not changed. It was a waste of time. Not a single song is better than the original. Not one. A few of them are dreadful. Desire comes to mind..in fact the stink of it is keeping my fingers numb. I simply rearranged the four discs in chronic logic order lol or chronological order. Another thing, a lot of the songs sound like the music could be interchangeable with others. Running To Stand Still could be sung to multiple songs. Lazy guitar, and trend following at its worst in some cases. The reworking thing is a horrible trend that artists feel they are doing something creative that has been done before over and over. Now Def Leppard is doing the overdone orchestral thing. Only twist is they are using original vocal tracks instead of having old Joe Elliot record new ones. Can an orchestra U2 album be next? Hope not.
Some plusses? Two Hearts is nice. The early ones are nice too. Stories For Boys, Out Of Control shine. I Will Follow has some weakness, but a good song usually does well no matter what the reworking is(Other then Red Hill Mining Desire Disaster!!!) Red Hill is nice, just made a dumb joke with Desire). Wild Horses, Little Things, and 40 not bad. One is dwarfed like crazy from the original. It's still a decent listen, but even at the highest of the highs, the album suffers from not holding a candle to the original. If God Would Send His Inspiration For A New Album would be the best thing for this band. Wasting any time taking away from a future "REAL" album is the biggest crime for this somewhat useless project. Had they just done one 80 minute album of these things, maybe not so bad, but reworking 50 songs is a crime. Angels, by the way, was done nice.
On a side note, I wonder just how involved Adam and Larry are in the songwriting process? I wish they had worked together on the side, as Bono and Edge obviously spend a lot of time working on stuff. Then the 2 groups could bring in some things and do some cut and paste. Perhaps they do this without our knowledge. It would've been nice for more behind the scenes video, not so unlike Aerosmith's The Making Of Pump. My real fear is that this reworking monster is simply the effect of serious writer's block, or lack of faith in the material they already have. Still, U2 has given us more than enough for the rest of our lives. Anything new from them is a bonus, and just that.
In final, this album never should have existed, but there is a small part of me that smiled a bit during some of the songs. The fact that I still have only listened to 20 of the songs more than once says a lot. I may never give Desire a second listen. Maybe Two Hearts and Out Of Control 3 or 4 times. So after all this time, my opinion has not changed, but it was better than expected.
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Originally posted by Monopoly:For some reason, I keep coming back to Electrical Storm and IGWSHA. But the other 38 haven’t stuck with me
