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  1. Every breaking wave album version is one of the most boring tracks ever. The live version is better but give me the 360 version any day.

    I want the 2009 eno version. It was nearly on no line for god sake, there’s even a video with Gavin Friday and there’s a tick box next to it that it’s finished.

    Tedder butchered that song.

    It tried to be a with or without You sequel but fails miserably because it’s so dull.

    Kudos for the EMA version but it’s an overblown result, the 360 version had so much more promise and a tantalising bridge.
  2. Originally posted by eddyjedi:Every breaking wave album version is one of the most boring tracks ever. The live version is better but give me the 360 version any day.

    I want the 2009 eno version. It was nearly on no line for god sake, there’s even a video with Gavin Friday and there’s a tick box next to it that it’s finished.

    Tedder butchered that song.

    It tried to be a with or without You sequel but fails miserably because it’s so dull.

    Kudos for the EMA version but it’s an overblown result, the 360 version had so much more promise and a tantalising bridge.


  3. Originally posted by eddyjedi:Every breaking wave album version is one of the most boring tracks ever. The live version is better but give me the 360 version any day.

    I want the 2009 eno version. It was nearly on no line for god sake, there’s even a video with Gavin Friday and there’s a tick box next to it that it’s finished.

    Tedder butchered that song.

    It tried to be a with or without You sequel but fails miserably because it’s so dull.

    Kudos for the EMA version but it’s an overblown result, the 360 version had so much more promise and a tantalising bridge.
    360 version is unfinished and lacks structure the album version is much better and is one of the best tracks on SOI the acoustic version I can live without the power of U2 is all 4 playing together not just Bono and the Edge.
  4. Originally posted by eddyjedi:Every breaking wave album version is one of the most boring tracks ever. The live version is better but give me the 360 version any day.

    I want the 2009 eno version. It was nearly on no line for god sake, there’s even a video with Gavin Friday and there’s a tick box next to it that it’s finished.

    Tedder butchered that song.

    It tried to be a with or without You sequel but fails miserably because it’s so dull.

    Kudos for the EMA version but it’s an overblown result, the 360 version had so much more promise and a tantalising bridge.
    ... nope
  5. The album version is crap and so drony at least the 360 one had more melody, a better harmonic bridge and told a better story even if it didn’t have a finish.

    It was haunting. The album version is an over produced, police inspired, repetitive mess. Tedder destroyed the promise of the song.
  6. Originally posted by eddyjedi:The album version is crap and so drony at least the 360 one had more melody, a better harmonic bridge and told a better story even if it didn’t have a finish.

    It was haunting. The album version is an over produced, police inspired, repetitive mess. Tedder destroyed the promise of the song.
    Better story? The lyrics are the same in the verses and the old chorus has zero melody and lyrically was vacant “ hey hey now, hey hey now, i don’t know if I’m that strong, I don’t know if I’m that strong, I don’t know if I’m that strong, to be somebody who needs someone” oh yeah.. haunting. The only thing haunted is the vacancy on the notepad where the Chorus was supposed to be. If they had released that version it would have been the most lifeless u2 song since peace on earth
  7. I'm not convinced that the song reached its potential on the album. The production has an uninspired sheen to it. Also, Bono's vocal delivery on the live version can come across as too emotive or overwrought. There's a decent song in there somewhere.
  8. Originally posted by eddyjedi:Every breaking wave album version is one of the most boring tracks ever. The live version is better but give me the 360 version any day.

    I want the 2009 eno version. It was nearly on no line for god sake, there’s even a video with Gavin Friday and there’s a tick box next to it that it’s finished.

    Tedder butchered that song.

    It tried to be a with or without You sequel but fails miserably because it’s so dull.

    Kudos for the EMA version but it’s an overblown result, the 360 version had so much more promise and a tantalising bridge.
    Agreed.

    Originally posted by TheRefugee:I'm not convinced that the song reached its potential on the album. The production has an uninspired sheen to it. Also, Bono's vocal delivery on the live version can come across as too emotive or overwrought. There's a decent song in there somewhere.


    Agreed.
  9. Listening to SOI, EBW right now... It felt less special than I remember.
    Maybe it has to do with the fact that I've been listening the acoustic version very often in the last couple of weeks.

    Still I rate them both about the same, I'd say a 3.5/5, or to be more precise, 7/10.
  10. I do think the 360 version vs the final one is a good example of what we all say U2 is constantly guilty of, and that’s overthinking/over-finishing ideas and songs. I think the original “idea” and performance of it on 360 was hauntingly pretty. There was something lonely about it, and just...again, haunting. Not sure how else to put it. Yeah maybe that “I don’t know if I’m that strong” part needed work, but the part that became the sort of “rapped” bridge on the final version was just peak Bono and Edge, and to me they ruined it. They swept it aside in favour of the chorus that supposedly Ryan Tedder came up with and it became this truncated thing that’s sung so fast you can’t really take in the lyrics. Give me those sad but not sappy harmonies any day of the week over the chorus that ended up being on SoI. I can still hear Bono and Edge harmonizing in my head:

    Waaaaves know, where are the rocks, and drowning is no sin...
    And youuuu know, my heart is, the same place yours has been
    And weeeee know, the fear of winning, so we end before we begin...
    Oh oh oh oh, oh oh oh ooooooooooohhh.

    I also agree that even the final song has never really hit its peak. The album version just sounds a bit too much like WOWY for comfort and if just sort of comes and goes. Maybe it’s because Iris comes shortly after in the tracklist and to me blows EBW out of the water in terms of sorrow-filled songs. And then the version they ended up doing live felt like they were trying a bit too hard to make it an emotional song, when again, Iris just took that spot from me tenfold, as does One when I hear it live, etc.

    EBW has never been “complete” in my opinion, but if I had to choose I’d choose the 360 version. It has that thing that the better tracks of NLOTH have. That sense of character, of setting, of quiet sadness. It’s very literary and story-like, and the emphasis on that bridge can’t be understated. The final version is more like “wow come listen to how emotional this bombastic ballad is”, at least in comparison.
  11. Wait, I never felt EBW (SOI) was anything close to a ballad, much less anything near resembling WOWY. At all.

    It's always felt to me more of an ode, a closer relative to Streets or Beautiful Day than to any ballad...
  12. I find the promise of the early version vs the final song a great shame and a huge missed opportunity.

    Just like unknown caller and various other songs over the past decade.