1. This is amazing
  2. Thanks to the U2start's Top List 2017 thread, I've been enjoying Radiohead's Fake Plastic Trees.
    And that led me into a rabbit hole that ended up in "What if that was a U2 song?", like for practical purposes just replace Thom's voice with Bono's...

    I have a feeling people (fans and otherwise) would be complaining that it's U2 trying to sound like Adele or Coldplay (Fix You?) or whatever, in the n'th attempt to get into the radio.

    And then I thought... is it just that the world is "tired" of Bono's voice? In a different approach... if in any recent U2 song you replace Bono's voice with someone else's, would it sound less commercial?
  3. Originally posted by Bloodraven:Thanks to the U2start's Top List 2017 thread, I've been enjoying Radiohead's Fake Plastic Trees.
    And that led me into a rabbit hole that ended up in "What if that was a U2 song?", like for practical purposes just replace Thom's voice with Bono's...

    I have a feeling people (fans and otherwise) would be complaining that it's U2 trying to sound like Adele or Coldplay (Fix You?) or whatever, in the n'th attempt to get into the radio.

    And then I thought... is it just that the world is "tired" of Bono's voice? In a different approach... if in any recent U2 song you replace Bono's voice with someone else's, would it sound less commercial?
    Interesting idea. I think you're sort of on the right track... I'd say it's something like we fans are so spoilt by their back catalogue that anything they've done in the later act of their career has to be measured up against that immense body of work so it'll be criticised more harshly than it probably deserves rather than interpreted on its own merits (hardly a novel idea around here, right?), and to the wider public U2 can't win for losing and everything they do has to be derided (which I've never understood but there ya go). I guess maybe it's a similar thing?
  4. Anyone has tried listening to NYD on Dec 31st minutes before midnight? I did that with the Popmart DVD and it was awesome.
  5. I'll listen to NYD right before midnight tonight. I think this'll be the fourth year I do it
  6. Oh that Redanka mix of Miracle Drig. First time in years. Wonderful.
  7. Looking back at 2107, what a year it was:
    - a top grossing stadium tour which breathed new life into a revered album, with so many highlights (Exit, Exit, Exit)
    - a new (great) album
    - becoming the only band with a #1 album in each of four decades
    - many new TV performances / videos to critique
    - U2 / Bono in the news ( maybe we could have done without some of that )

    There will very likely never be another year like it. Whether you love or hate the new album, think Bono's voice is shot, or not, or are tired of the band not varying the setlist, I think we all need to pause and appreciate what a great year it has been to be a U2 fan and how very lucky we are to have our band still here and not just existing, but always reinventing. And how lucky we are to have U2Start.

    On to U2 2018!
  8. Originally posted by CMIPalaeo:[..]
    Interesting idea. I think you're sort of on the right track... I'd say it's something like we fans are so spoilt by their back catalogue that anything they've done in the later act of their career has to be measured up against that immense body of work so it'll be criticised more harshly than it probably deserves rather than interpreted on its own merits (hardly a novel idea around here, right?), and to the wider public U2 can't win for losing and everything they do has to be derided (which I've never understood but there ya go). I guess maybe it's a similar thing?
    that has a lot to do also, but my thought in that post was focusing just on Bono's voice... like maybe it's not that U2 sounds outdated/overly commercial/out-of-touch for its critics (including fans)... but maybe it's just Bono's voice the one that sounds like that... meh... just a thought.
  9. Just reporting that in this past few days, so far I've had a 100% success rate lullabying my baby nephews to sleep singing Forty to them
  10. U2.com should open a poll,

    "WHAT SOE songs do you want to hear on the next tour"
  11. That's an easy one: All of them!
  12. Still thinking about U2's relevance in the 201x's:

    it's like if Elvis Presley was releasing albums in the early 90's, 40 years after he started...
    I'm imagining myself back in college, what would happen if while I'm listening to U2, Radiohead, Nirvana, REM, Pearl Jam, Guns N Roses, Depeche Mode, The Cure... and here comes a "fresh new" one more album from Elvis Presley... I can totally imaging myself doing a big roll-eyes, and in the best case saying something along the lines of "ok, I get it, he's awesome, but I don't care about it... maybe I'll enjoy his new single a couple of weeks, but there's no way I'd be interested in listen to the whole album..."

    It wouldn't matter what music he'd be playing in the 90's... it wouldn't matter if he's playing 50's music, or if he's playing some achtung baby progressive shit... it would sound old and out of time still, because it's fucking Elvis the one playing it.

    It makes me sad because, first and most important, it makes me feel really old ("listening to U2 now is like listening to Elvis in the 90's??? holy shit!!!"), but also because it doesn't matter how good U2's music is, or the musical style they go for, it will sound outdated.