[ashtrayrock]

scored ga floors and this time they are not paperless and that is a first for a long time
so i got hard tickets in hand already!
presale fan club. experience group. easy buy. in at 10am out 5mins later
ticketbastard verified fan thing not my fave but it worked
they sent me an email with my code when the text did not go through
so i had my code a few hours before the 10am on sale.
as far as new music goes i got 2 copies coming as they come with each ticket
i will wait for the cds to arrive and take my time to digest as right now there's other bands/music that come first
u2 never seem to let me down and im just glad to not be paying top tier ticket prices!
ga floors since first elevation leg. what's not to love about those tickets/prices!
this tour the ticket was < $80cdn before fee's. $188 for 2 ga floors service charges included
city of blinding lights and the last cd made me a fan all over again
loved the last tour a lot.

[direwolf74]

Experience will probably be a very serviceable album but I want so much more from the band, especially given the amount of time spent on this one.

Just once I'd love for them to go into a studio with someone like Adam Kasper or Rick Rubin and bang out a raw, live-off-the-floor style album in 2 or 3 takes. They've always been such a great live band, and I think making an album in that fashion would absolutely bring out the best in them. Just go in with a batch of solid well-rehearsed songs and bash it out quick and dirty, instead of spending 2 years in the studio obsessing over the production.

I know they hired Rubin for a brief time while making No Line on the Horizon, but strangely they ended up ditching those sessions and going back to Eno/Lanois. No Line ended up being a pretty solid album anyway, which is great. But I'd be really curious to hear what they recorded with Rubin before they scrapped everything.

[senrab]

I'm concerned about this album. I'm a huge U2 fan but everything I've heard off this album so far is middle of the road. I just listened to "American Soul" for the first time today and it is nothing more than a weaker version of "Volcano". I don't understand the need for lyric recycling. Anyone else have diminished expectations for this album?

I think they recycled the lyrics because this is supposed to be a companion to Songs of Innocence. I'm sure they'll be asked about it in interviews.

And here's a fun fact - Volcano is version 2.0 of a live song they tried out on the 360 tour called "Glastonbury".

So far I've heard all 4 songs that have officially been released along with The Little Things That Give You Away which was played several times on the Joshua Tree tour and Jimmy Kimmel Live. I can't stand Get Out Of Your Own Way, I love Little Things and the Blackout, You're the Best Thing and American Soul are just meh, I'm tired of Bono writing about America. Maybe it will be better hearing the album in full instead of piecemeal.

[senrab]

scored ga floors and this time they are not paperless and that is a first for a long time
so i got hard tickets in hand already!
presale fan club. experience group. easy buy. in at 10am out 5mins later
ticketbastard verified fan thing not my fave but it worked
they sent me an email with my code when the text did not go through
so i had my code a few hours before the 10am on sale.
as far as new music goes i got 2 copies coming as they come with each ticket
i will wait for the cds to arrive and take my time to digest as right now there's other bands/music that come first
u2 never seem to let me down and im just glad to not be paying top tier ticket prices!
ga floors since first elevation leg. what's not to love about those tickets/prices!
this tour the ticket was < $80cdn before fee's. $188 for 2 ga floors service charges included
city of blinding lights and the last cd made me a fan all over again
loved the last tour a lot.

loads of people did not have the same experience as you with tickets. You are very lucky.

[cochise]

scored ga floors and this time they are not paperless and that is a first for a long time
so i got hard tickets in hand already!
presale fan club. experience group. easy buy. in at 10am out 5mins later
ticketbastard verified fan thing not my fave but it worked
they sent me an email with my code when the text did not go through
so i had my code a few hours before the 10am on sale.
as far as new music goes i got 2 copies coming as they come with each ticket
i will wait for the cds to arrive and take my time to digest as right now there's other bands/music that come first
u2 never seem to let me down and im just glad to not be paying top tier ticket prices!
ga floors since first elevation leg. what's not to love about those tickets/prices!
this tour the ticket was < $80cdn before fee's. $188 for 2 ga floors service charges included
city of blinding lights and the last cd made me a fan all over again
loved the last tour a lot.

loads of people did not have the same experience as you with tickets. You are very lucky.

I had the pre-sale code, was in the que and within about 5 minutes was let in. It then pulled up two good seats in the 100 level, but when I saw the total price was $750, I released them. All in all it was a smooth process, but I just could not justify spending that much.

I don't want to sound cheap, but some concert prices are beginning to get too out of hand, even non-scalper tickets. I know artists lean on tours to make the money now as its just not there in record sales, but there are few and far artists between that I would be willing to pay that amount to go see.

[ashtrayrock]

rich people go for and sit in level 100
poor people go for ga

if there wasnt cheap ga i would be upper level no question about it !
and i will never pay $300 to see any band unless its vedder with pete and a full orchestra doing quadrophenia in it's entirety

[direwolf74]

First review I've seen so far. They're calling it a return to form, and their best album since Atomic Bomb.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsfilmtv/album-review-experience-counts-on-u2s-return-to-form-463243.html">http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/ ... 63243.html</a><!-- m -->

[sean.bonner]

Theyre the musical guest on SNL next Saturday

[potsie]

First review I've seen so far. They're calling it a return to form, and their best album since Atomic Bomb.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsfilmtv/album-review-experience-counts-on-u2s-return-to-form-463243.html">http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/ ... 63243.html</a><!-- m -->

"Best since Atomic Bomb"? Not exactly a bold statement by the reviewer since that time frame encompasses exactly two albums. Kinda of like someone describing a new Hip album as their best since "We are the Same"! But hey, if it exceeds No Line (which I think is underrated), I'll take that.

I also think the gushing over the "coup" of having Kendrick Lamar on an album is a bit much. I hope this wasn't a ploy on U2's part to curry favour with the millennial crowd. Appearances by rappers can date rock songs fairly quickly. One that comes to mind right away is REM's "Radio Song" with KRS-One, which is gawd awful, although Kendrick is certainly in a different league than KRS.

[cochise]

Not sure if this link will work, but for any original "The Office" fans.......

https://twitter.com/purbrooktony/status/...3279772672

[senrab]

Album leaked yesterday.

They picked the wrong songs to reveal first, IMO

[potsie]

They picked the wrong songs to reveal first, IMO

I like the sound of that... I hope you're right!

[NWOntario]

"Best since Atomic Bomb"? Not exactly a bold statement by the reviewer since that time frame encompasses exactly two albums. Kinda of like someone describing a new Hip album as their best since "We are the Same"! But hey, if it exceeds No Line (which I think is underrated), I'll take that.

I'll take that one step further and say No Line is a top-five all-time U2 record. It's frigging fantastic, and horribly underrated...I think if any song other than "Boots" is the lead single people have a totally different impression of that album.

[direwolf74]

So I caved and listened to the album leak a few times over the last couple of days. Some early thoughts:

The deep cuts are much better than the singles, and the album as a whole is pretty solid. The Little Things That Give You Away is hands down the best song on the album, and also the most U2-ish song. I can honestly say it stands up nicely alongside their best work. Fantastic song.

Other highlights so far: Lights of Home, Summer of Love, Red Flag Day, Landlady, The Blackout.

And I can't really explain it, but hearing American Soul in the context of the rest of the album adds a different element to it. I wasn't sure about this song at first, but I've come around on it.

There's a bonus track on the deluxe edition called Book Of Your Heart which is quite excellent. I'm baffled as to why it didn't make the final cut, as it's arguably one of the better songs.

[senrab]

So I caved and listened to the album leak a few times over the last couple of days. Some early thoughts:

The deep cuts are much better than the singles, and the album as a whole is pretty solid. The Little Things That Give You Away is hands down the best song on the album, and also the most U2-ish song. I can honestly say it stands up nicely alongside their best work. Fantastic song.

Other highlights so far: Lights of Home, Summer of Love, Red Flag Day, Landlady, The Blackout.

And I can't really explain it, but hearing American Soul in the context of the rest of the album adds a different element to it. I wasn't sure about this song at first, but I've come around on it.

There's a bonus track on the deluxe edition called Book Of Your Heart which is quite excellent. I'm baffled as to why it didn't make the final cut, as it's arguably one of the better songs.

I love Little Things and Love is Bigger. Red Flag Day is also really great, I wish that was a single.