Whose comparing it to X&Y? I'd say its less pop than the two previous albums, in fact its the persistently darker themes of the songs that make me miss A-bomb. How to dismantle, as Bono said, was a personal album, a direction you wouldn't expect by dint of 9/11. It was about life, love, God and family (tracks like 'love and peace' were the minority) while No line seemed uninspired in addressing worldly matters. 'Magnificent' feels lack-luster and two-dimensional to me, while the next tracks have nearly identical plots of being rescued from the ditches. Then the duo of GOYB/Stand Up Comedy are just lyrically corny. In generally the song stories are much more distant.

 

Mind you, most of these songs are decent or even great instrumentally, I guess its just that no line doesn't have much authentic emotional import from bono. Pretty much every A-bomb track features a sincere, beautiful, sensitive vocal that adds more than just melody, and I feel cut-off from that. Even white as snow comes off as very stoic compared to miracle drug, sometimes, city of blinding lights, original of the species, yahweh etc..

Agreed, Chris.

 

A Bomb is very, very deep.

U2, yes, has strayed LYRICALLY from A Bomb to No Line.

 

A Bomb is obviously a personal record, because nothing beats the emotion in Sometimes...

However just because all of Bono's emotion isn't there does not make this a bad record.

I wouldn't rank A Bomb higher than No Line because No Line is musically better IMO.

A Bomb has Miracle Drug, which has an Edge verse which is great.

Vertigo is the big lead song, which is something No Line does not have.

The thing with A Bomb is that once you get to A Man And A Woman, you get off the 'easy listening' sort of songs, and you have to listen to 'One Step Closer' which i think is overrated. but it's still good.

I think Yahweh is good, but it's not that good.

The thing with No Line is that Eno and Lanois are great in it, the production. I'm not saying A Bomb is poorly done, however, No Line, with songs like Cedars of Lebanon and Unknown Caller (listen to the birds in the beginning) are just amazing.

I like them both, but since No Line is new and i've heard A Bomb so many times, I like No Line better.

There is no bad U2 record, and I think each in their own rights have their strengths and weaknesses. I can't put one on top of another, no album is my favorite

Lol, you've just spent your last few posts talking about how No Line is better than HTDAAB, and not you say "no album is my favorite."

 

I think the appeal of HTDAAB is the emotion, with U2 you get a lot of songs about politics and that's how Bono originally wanted the album to be cause there was so much shit going on in the world. But that's not "where he was at," so it's a album about relationships more than anything. And that's attractive to me in particular because I enjoy the love songs and the relationship songs more than the straight political stuff.

 

No Line is still great but it comes off as a bit lacking emotionally and lyrically.

 

I pretty much just agree with Tnspieler.

 

Also the imaginary X&Y comparison made no sense. :P

I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight!

saw them in cardiff

best gig i have ever seen

yeah, same here! best perfomance act today for sure! it was magnificent to see them live for both shows and hear some good/great songs (old and new). and now.. next year in rome, woohooo!

what kind of seats did you guys have?

what should be my first U2 album?

sure, i have a lot of random songs by them, but i really wanna buy a full album. right now:lol:

 

any thoughts? :nice:

 

Darcy- I'd highly recommend All That You Can't Leave Behind. After that, you have to get The Joshua Tree, imho. :nice:

first day i was in front row outside of "the ring", cuz i wanted to see whole stuff, and on the 2nd concert i was in 2nd row inside, near the stage :)

what should be my first U2 album?

sure, i have a lot of random songs by them, but i really wanna buy a full album. right now:lol:

 

any thoughts? :nice:

Most accessible - How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (recommended), All That You Can't Leave Behind

 

Best - The Joshua Tree (highly recommended), Achtung Baby (also highly recommended).

 

most political - War

 

most underrated - Boy, October, The Unforgettable Fire (recommended)

 

^all IMHO

I've decided Atomic bomb is much better than No Line, and is in my opinion their third best behind Achtung Baby and Joshua Tree . I keep going back and saying, wow this is a sensational album. The mixing is impeccable and it just has more natural feeling and depth. the guitar sound is beautiful, warm and perfectly layered, whereas No Line, save for tracks like FEZ, just doesn't have as much life to it, just little riffs milked for all they're worth. There is nothing with the spirit of 'sometimes you can't make it on your own' or 'yahweh', and those that try aren't executed well enough.

 

Granted they're very different albums, with very different feelings so perhaps I should be grateful for both sides of the spectrum.

 

 

That's the first U2 record I had and was fully listening to. And I went into it kind of blind, I thought it was brilliant and just loved the whole thing.

 

Then I kind of heard about how people thought it was bad and it wasn't very well received by critics, and I was sort of taken aback.

 

I still think it's fantastic.

 

OK, you two are making me think I need to go back and listen to HTDAAB again. That's honestly the album I've listened to least. I love City of Blinding Lights, but for some reason, the rest of the album never really captured my attention. I'll have to try it again...

 

Whose comparing it to X&Y? I'd say its less pop than the two previous albums, in fact its the persistently darker themes of the songs that make me miss A-bomb. How to dismantle, as Bono said, was a personal album, a direction you wouldn't expect by dint of 9/11. It was about life, love, God and family (tracks like 'love and peace' were the minority) while No line seemed uninspired in addressing worldly matters. 'Magnificent' feels lack-luster and two-dimensional to me, while the next tracks have nearly identical plots of being rescued from the ditches. Then the duo of GOYB/Stand Up Comedy are just lyrically corny. In generally the song stories are much more distant.

 

Mind you, most of these songs are decent or even great instrumentally, I guess its just that no line doesn't have much authentic emotional import from bono. Pretty much every A-bomb track features a sincere, beautiful, sensitive vocal that adds more than just melody, and I feel cut-off from that. Even white as snow comes off as very stoic compared to miracle drug, sometimes, city of blinding lights, original of the species, yahweh etc..

 

This is a really great analysis of both albums. I really agree about NLOTH- it's not BAD, definitely, just nothing that particularly stands up and shouts like ATYCLB did for me.

 

I've been listening to U2 for a loooong time, so I'm still very partial to The Joshua Tree. Achtung is, of course, pretty much beyond reproach and I also really liked Pop. I'm not a fan of Zooropa. Post Achtung, my favorite- by far- is All That You Can't Leave Behind.

what kind of seats did you guys have?

 

Cheap seats and free seats!

im seeeing them september 29 in washington dc :D im so excited :dance:

I like No Line better, but I have no outright favorite.

 

The reason I compared No Line to X&Y is because people are saying it was good, but not their best. I don't think you can define an album as an artists best. record sales stand out, maybe, but really everyone has their own interpretation.

I loved A-Bomb for the longest time, and I still do, but No Line is just in with me right now

Record Sales are meaningless.

When comparing 2 albums, just because album A sold X more copies than album B doesn't make album A better, it had a bigger marketing budget etc.

exactly, now a days, they really need to count digital sales, like iTunes, that's where everyone buys it, not from your local record store..

 

nobody seems to like physical copies! :(

They do count digital sales, don't they? :\

not for certification of platinum and what not...i don't think so.

 

I'm pretty sure no line sold a lot

however I don't see an Ireland listing and UK is only 1x platinum and Gold in the U.S.

Hmm. Interesting.

 

But with just the count of digital and physical... No Line still sold less copies.

That may be, but how many illegal downloads?

A-Bomb did leak but people still bought their music 5 years ago...well at least more than now.

 

and I don't know what the digital sales differences were.

 

but like Kite said, record sales are meaningless

They are pretty meaningless.

 

But I'm just saying No Line sold less.

 

There was a lot less hype around it for one. No big lead single like Vertigo or whatever. So it makes enough sense.

well that's one of the things I like about it, there isn't the song that HAD to be a hit.

and yeah, less hype, but who cares, they are doing what they want.

 

now we need Songs of Ascent.

I don't really care how many copies it sold.

 

It wasn't as well received, but who cares... it's still good music. :)

EXACTLY!

 

as long as the fans like it.

 

i don't care what a critic says