Have not heard the whole album, but U2 is one of those very rare bands that some how manage to keep going from age to age, creating and writing great music.

One of my marks of music greatness is how contemporay or fresh does a piece of music or a song sound, 5, 10, 20 or 30 years after it written or recorded. Many of U2's greatest songs and some of their more obscure work, fall into this category for me. Same with the Beatles. I was listening to the Beatles Revolver album on the weekend and some of the key tracks on that classic album sound as fresh today as they did, almost 40 years ago( scary that it has been that long ago!)

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I always laugh when people get down on groups who have become "too popular" in their mind - Oh I was the first to have their album in the second grade, I bootlegged it off of Bono's Aunt's third cousin who came over from Ireland in the spring of 1983, but I stopped listening to them once everyone else started getting the album...

How stupid! You know the funny thing about good music? It tends to become popular. I think U2 is getting better & better all the time... despite the fact that SO many un-cool mainstream people listen to them.

There's also another way to look at it: Many groups, after getting themselves on the radar, change their music in order to broaden their fan base. I could care less how cool a band is, I listen to a band for, well, their music. If it changes radically in a direction that I dislike, then I no longer like the band. Sometimes the direction change results in mainstream acceptance (per U2, Blink 182, Green Day, et cetera). Sometimes, it works the other way - their evolution actually reduces their mainstream exposure/acceptance (Radiohead is a perfect example of this). Some people may dislike bands they once liked simply because they've become popular. But who cares? Furthermore, I'm not sure how you could have inferred from my messages that I dislike U2 because they've become popular. Simply said that I like their older stuff.

by the way, did anyone catch U2 on Saturday Night Live last week? woah- they were awesome. my friend was there, said they played a bunch of songs after the show stopped taping and it was insane-

if anyone wants to see one of the live songs ( 'I will Follow') from SNL, here ya go:



http://homepage.mac.com/...iMovieTheater15.html



P.S.- turn it up!

Agreed 100%. As a die-hard U2 fan, I'm glad to see that they can still make some SWEEEEEET music.

Has anyone seen the new Live-Aid DVD. I am a bit scared to get it as, the U2 performance of "Bad" has been rivited in my mind all these years as one of the greatest live performances of all time. Of course, I only saw it once, really live on TV on the day off Live Aid and I am a bit worried that seeing it again after all of these years might be a bit of a disapointment from how the performance is finely burnished in my brain.

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Picked up the Live Aid DVD and am happy to say it captured the performance much better than the US televison feed. The liner notes to the DVD tell a very interesting story on the creation of the DVD from MTV archive footage that was spliced together almost Frankenstein-like. Some performances were not even recorded at all due to techincal gliltches (The Who's Pinball Wizard & My Generation, eg). If you are a fan of music of this era (I graduated high school one month before the show) then it is still the definitive record of pop music in the 1980's. At about $25 US retail, it's worth it.

The music on this CD is very good. But is it me, or do some of you folks also notice that parts of some tracks (track 4 being a perfect example) seem way over-recorded to the point of major distortion?

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Where would you want to swim ?

I bought it. Despite my long-time fan-factor, I think it's the weakest CD I've ever bought. Seriously. Other than the first track, which you hear everywhere already, it's all folksy ballads. Some of them are really, really poor. I'm shocked.

It was also the most expensive. My local place only carries the one with the (equally lame) DVD in it. $20.

I may use it as a frisbee off the Golden Gate Bridge.

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Too f@ckin depressed from various injuries to care about having a signature line.

Sponsored by Blue Shield PPO.

-Not a big U2 fan. They bug me.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

(Sigh). I agree. Albums used to be mixed/mastered for maximum dynamic range, but now it seems the mastering process is one of "just slide everything to maximum". The result is some really horrible sounding music.

You might enjoy reading http://www.prorec.com/...71AB86256C2E005DAF1C, which sums up the issue rather well.

So its not just on my copy (purchased, of course, in Shanghai, China)--you can hear it too?

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Where would you want to swim ?

"The new U2 CD is breathtaking. Proof that rock can be art, and culture. After the perfection of 'Achtung baby', I didnt think U2 had another good album in them. Then, 'All That You Can't Leave Behind'. Another masterwork. Now, 'How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb'. A perfect rock album in everyway."

Just listened to the whole thing for the 3rd time. It's growing on me quickly, an amazing piece of work.

"When the Sorority girl in line behind me at the Starbucks says "the new U2 album is soooo good!" it's clear to me that they're not the same band they once were."

This is strange logic for me to follow. It reads that "your" music is only acceptable if a certain type of person also likes it. Before I pass judgement, please explain! :)

Interesting. Thanks for the link to the article. It's a bit over my head, but I have heard that the CD and digital recording was the death of the art of recording and engineering to get the best sound possible. It seesm this way with much of pop and rock. Thank goodness in jazz, classical and world music, because much of the instumention is acoustic, care still needs to be taken in HOW you record. Thus, the final product is better.

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I'm simply saying that U2's current music is not the same as their older music, as evidenced by the shift in target market acceptance.

Fleck, I thought I was the only one who thought BAD was one of the best cuts in history at Live Aid, they were on fire that day. I liked Powderfinger by Neil Young as well, but for almost twenty years I have been waiting for the release of Bad on a U2 set. G

I think that I mentioned this before, but I must confess, that I am a bit nervous about getting the DVD. That performance of Bad by U2, that I only saw once on the day of, was one of the best live performances of any pop/rock group that I have ever seen. I hope that I have not just built up the greatness of it in my mind over all these years and that the DVD will be able to live up to that.

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Dude, U2 has been pretty accessible to the average sorority girl for over 20 years now.

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It's not a matter of accessibility. It's a matter of, as the band's sound changed, it changed in a direction that appealed to the top-40 crowd. Songs were more polished, lyrics were less emotional, marketing was more pop. I tend not to like much top-40 music. There's nothing wrong with it, but it just doesn't speak to me.

I remember in high school I started wearing Doc Martins before they were cool. They only had about three models of shoes. All black, big, and bulky. Three years later, the same people that made fun of me for wearing them were themselves now wearing Doc Martins. The shoes' styles were now more conservative and trendier and they appealed to a different crowd. Kinda like that.

I just wanna say that I dug their music well before it even reached "alternative" status. I'm fairly sure I was the first at my high school in '81 or '82 to get into it.


Wow... this brings back memories. Boy was released in 1980, and I KNOW I was the first to get it in my school. I was in grade 11, and the town I grew up in was fairly small at the time. Except for the "department store" record store, we only had one real record store... Sam the Record Man. After schools, I used to drop in and browse the new releases. I remember when I first saw the cover of Boy. Real easy to see as it was a vinyl record and about 12" x 12"... haha. All it said on the cover was "U2 Boy"... and I remember thinking how haunting the cover looked. I'd never heard of the band, but bought the album solely on the "look" of that cover.

I played it as soon as I got home, and my first thought was how different this was from anything else I'd ever listened to... it was almost... hypnotic. It also was not full of 'one-hit-wonders' either. Those kinds of songs, that you LOVE from the first play, you get tired of real fast. No... these tracks were different... they grew on you over time.

October picked up where Boy left off...

In 1982 U2 came to Vancouver to play a concert in either the Orpheum or the Commadore (can't remember which). I didn't go, thinking that I'd catch them next time around. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!!! The next time they came to town was after they had released WAR, and were well on their way to being elevated to super-group status - never to play a small venue again in Vancouver. I rank missing that opportunity, right up there with my grade 10 missing of the opportunity that was the babe, "Colleen". Damn.

I still actually own the first 4 U2 albums on vinyl (also have War '83, and Unforgettable Fire '84). After that I started bying the CD's (except POP... couldn't get into that one).

Back to the new album... when I first played it, nothing jumped out at me (except for Vertigo, as it had been played lots on radio). That nothing jumped out at me was a good thing (in my mind), as it meant that I could probably listen to it quite a bit and not get tired of it. It's been on regular rotation in my car now for the past couple weeks, and I really starting to like it.

There's no question their sound has changed, a few different times, but generally in the direction you're talking about.

But I'd say that U2 has appealed to a top 40 crowd for quite some time.

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When it comes to music, to each his own! I suppose there are indeed many factors that dictate what is great music to each person. For me it is simple. If it sounds good, I like it.

This coming from a guy who's music collection consists of anything U2, John Denver, Rush, The Scorpions, and cute little Avril. Oh, and that one Celine Deon (sp?) song. I always seem to score when my wife hears it...