U2 Band • Page 4

I think it's up there for sure. People's reaction to the rollout seemed to carry over to the music itself, which is a shame. "Every Breaking Wave" is a pretty perfect pop song.

 

It really was a more naive time when the world got mad about being given a free album.

 

The rollout was the entire thing. That's all most of the critics wrote about. Read back through most of those negative reviews and it sounds like they either didn't actually listen to the album or listened to it once with preconceived notions about it being bad. At least one review called it soulless, which is an incredible (and incredibly stupid) thing to say about such a personal, reflective record. I really wonder what the reception would have been if they hadn't done the Apple thing.

 

That rollout will haunt them forever, unfortunately. Whenever I bring up U2 to people, they still mention the free album fiasco. It just seems ridiculous to me.

And I do agree that SOI was an excellent album. Definitely their best since ATYCLB.

 

It just basically became a meme. Everyone was making fun of it and any substantive conversation or criticism got drowned out. It's a bummer.

 

Looks like they will be releasing a remixed version of Red Hill Mining Town, including new vocals from Bono, for RSD next month. U2 > News > Red Hill Mining Town (2017 Mix)

The preview clip they have sounds INCREDIBLE!

Also, totally agree with SOI being more about the release than the music itself. It's a shame. There is a great (albeit overproduced) album in there, especially the second half.

 

I can see both sides of this. I am a big fan of U2 who found the album to be their best in a long time, yet I fully understand why people were so upset. To me, I got a free album from a band I've always enjoyed very much.

I'm trying to come up with a similar scenario for an artist of roughly equal stature who I've just never liked at all, and seeing how I would feel if they automatically downloaded that person or band's album to all of my stuff. Money is tight for me, and I can never afford as much disk space on my computer or on my iPhone as I want. I'm constantly having to delete music and pictures off of my phone to make more room. I would definitely be pretty heated if Phil Collins put out a new album and it automatically downloaded itself onto my stuff without my permission. I can't imagine I would give the album a fair shake or an open minded listen after that, no matter how many times people who like him told me to give it a chance or that it was really good.

Songs of Innocence - with a slightly altered tracklist featuring some of the bonus songs and alternate versions of album songs - is one of my favorite albums to come out in recent years. So good. Have to agree it's a shame that the extremely ill-advised and honestly very stupid release decision became the entire conversation in regards to the album.

 

I think the problem was on Apple's end, honestly. They should have anticipated the issue with people who had their iPhones set up to automatically download purchases from iCloud. It seems like no one foresaw that issue, which was the only legitimate problem. If U2 and Apple had just given people the option to download the album and then promoted the hell out of it, that would have been fine.

How would you alter the tracklist? I don't like either of the bonus songs much, and I wouldn't trade any of the official recordings with the acoustic versions, but I would get "Invisible" in there somewhere. That's about the only change I would make, I think.

 

They just played a new song on Jimmy Kimmel and it sounded really good

Also said a new album was coming "sometime in the next 27 years," so who knows.

 

I'm glad they can joke about being incredibly slow at making albums, but...just put the thing out already. I don't understand why such a major, confident band has built up such a huge tendency to second guess themselves.

 

Red Hill Mining Town may be my favorite track on Joshua Tree, but this doesn't have me that excited.

 

What I've come to understand is that no matter how successful or confident you are, you are always susceptible self-doubt as a human being (unless you have a narcissistic personality) . It kind of sucks ahha

 

FYI, the Super Deluxe version of The Joshua Tree is on streaming services now. Includes the original album, an incredible live show from MSG in 1987, 2017 remixes, plus all previously released B-sides from the era. Almost 4 hours of content.

I'm listening through the MSG show a bit now and it sounds absolutely phenomenal... probably one of the best recordings of a show from that era we have.

 

Yes.

 

this was so good

 

U2 adds a Sept. 8 date at U.S. Bank Stadium on 'Joshua Tree' tour

(((((((:

 

OH MY GOD YESSSS

 

Did any of you that went get presale and have tips?

 

They're coming to Buffalo for this tour! Yes!

 

I went pre-sale for earlier dates... what sort of tips are ya looking for? Haha.

Nice to see them add an extra leg of this tour, but a few strange town choices in the US and no extra dates in Europe. I'm hoping they tack on Atlanta to the NA leg once they figure out their stadium situation down there. The shows in South America are going to be so fun to follow.

And then there's this from a pretty reliable fan website...

 

fuck fuck fuck fuck

 

Upload that shit to my iPhone Bono.

 

Just what codes did you use? Or where are they posted? I think presales start Thursday for the MN date!

 

Well it's about time