I listen a lot to Smile and Are You Gonna Wait Forever these days(B-sides/outtakes HTDAAB)..Especially Smile is a great song, I think. U2 should have put these songs on the album. Are You Gonna Wait Forever is better than Love and Peace Or Else, if you ask me. And Smile easily defeats A Man and A Women.
What!! One Step Closer is a great song I feel, perhaps better than A man and a Woman and Love and Peace or else. It's a great song to listen to when u have had a few too many drinks and are lying on the floor with no energy to move. It's a relaxing song, a good song to listen to on a beach in the Summer is suspect.
The majority of songs on HTDAAB are good, in many cases they are better on the record than the live versions i.e. Miracle drug, Sometimes you....., City of Blinding Lights (Sticking my neck out here).
Interesting, I also am a fan of "One Step Closer." It's very contemplative; it really reminds me of "When I Look At The World," the chords are very similar.
It's also one of those songs where Adam & Larry really shine 100%, even in the studio version (usually those two are not done justice except live, in my opinion).
Originally posted by Angel_or_Devil:
The majority of songs on HTDAAB are good, in many cases they are better on the record than the live versions i.e. Miracle drug, Sometimes you....., City of Blinding Lights (Sticking my neck out here).
I must say, I agree with Angel_or_Devil here, U2 really nailed some of those studio versions throughout HTDAAB; I love Miracle Drug, SYCMIOYO & All Because of You. While I love City of Blinding Lights, I prefer Larry's drumming on Chicago DVD when the lights go on (on the album he plays this cymbal fill, live he plays more snare in the little-drummer-boy style which he is a master of).
I completely ignored the exsistence of those two b-sides...
Anyway I think that HTDAAB is a great album (8,5/10 for me) because all the songs have something expeciall in them. The songs (like One Step Closer for example) which are not very expecial in the music have almost always a great lyric, or some great sentences. I'd not through any song away from HTDAAB! Maybe I would add one or two other songs, maybe just those two b-sides...
I agree that One Step Closer is the worst song on the album but i don't think Dismantle is such a bad album...
Ofcourse not as good as Achtung Baby but these 2 albums are just SO different you cant't compare...
I love Dismantle for it's serious music and good songs but it's just not so different to other groups, while Achtung Baby was something very strange and that really scored...
Dismantle now => 8.5
Dismantle without One Step Closer but with Fast Cars and Smile => 9.5
(Achtung Baby => 10 ! )
I'm glad to see a thread like this because even though I've been a fan since October, I think HTDAAB is their worst album, as much as it pains me to say that. I felt stronger in that opinion after hearing the b-sides and unreleased cuts like Smile and Zanax and Wine and even some of the unreleased trax from the ATYCLB sessions like Flower Child or Love You Like Mad.
I've got three basic gripes with HTDAAB (and, of course, these are just my opinion): (1) Many of the songs are in roughly the same tempo and follow the same structure (verse chorus verse chorus bridge verse chorus), (2) Many of the songs seem over produced (a lot of extra and unnecessary guitar flourishes) and underwritten (Yahweh, Miracle Drug, and One Step Closer depend on some cliched ideas and terms or conventional imagery which is unusual in Bons's lyrics, as if they're not quite finished. Love and Peace or Else hovers at a level of generality and lack of contemporary critique that never rises to, say, Bullet), and (3) While we know that Bono has to really watch his voice, the octave doubling occurs in, what, 4 or 5 or more of the tracks and he has to stoop to little sentimental vocal tricks in songs like One Step Closer.
My two cents. But I'm hopeful about the band's collaboration with Rubin. I think they got a little too comfortable and complacent with Eno and Lanois, even with as much great work they've done together over the years.
I think you're right about that tempo. It's basically the same. But I don't see it as their worst. Joshua, Achtung and ATYCLB are the three best for me. HTDAAB will show up at place 6 or 7. The best songs:
- City of Blinding Lights
- Vertigo
- Original of the Species
- All Because of You
SYCMIOYO is reasonable. Live version is better.
Worst songs:
- A Man And A Women
- Love and Peace Or Else
U2 never peaks in these songs. It's so 'boring'...And they should have put Smile on it. Great song in my opinion.
But I'm sure the next one will be one of the best...I just feel it.
I love HTDAAB...It's one of my favourite U2 albums....
One Step Closer:sometimes I like...sometimes not...
and the other songs are fantastics...I think HTDAAB should have one more song....Cars or Are You...I don't know...I like both
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