Songs of Innocence - New U2 album

[ZiggyPSB]

Hi folks

Just a heads up if you're an iTunes customer. In conjunction with their performance at the launch of the new iPhone 6, 6+ and Apple Watch, U2 have released their new album Songs of Innocence on iTunes, for free. So if you want it, grab it while you can.

[whateverman42]

It's the most un-U2 album they've ever made. No real standout song like Beautiful Day or Vertigo, but no bad tracks either. It's a consistent, punchy, and maybe slightly boring listen. I'm not sure, it sounds like they've fit into the current music scene now... but I hate the current music scene. Their craftsmanship and intelligence is definitely ahead of the big radio acts of today, but they've absorbed and imitated some of the irritating current styles in order to fit in. Pet Shop Boys did a remarkable job with Electric: it's very modern and forward sounding, but it has nothing in common with radio crap.

[Danimal]

I kinda wonder, and have been wondering for 10 years now, if albums that are distributed and released purely as electronic files will have the same shelf life as the physical albums of old regardless of quality. One if the reasons I still purchase compact discs is so I may browse my physical collection and rediscover forgotten favorites visually. Yes, I load everything up in my iPod for playback on my various systems, but I find that I never troll my iPod for lost classics, once it's virtual, unless it's a recent release, I tend to forget it's there without that physical cue.

[whateverman42]

For sure, that's a valid criticism of digital music. Album releases have definitely lost their special event status, and the draw isn't there to go back to one album over and over (if like me, you have many hundreds of albums on your iPod, it feels odd listening to an album more than twice when all those other songs are sitting there within clicking distance). But also, there are fewer new artists than ever releasing albums due to the new economics, so mostly we have older acts who already have lots of money releasing albums as a labour of love (PSB) or as promotional tool for a tour (U2). And older acts in music generally get worse with time, so therefore there actually aren't that many classics in danger of being overlooked. This summer for example I don't think there was a single album that was released that attracted my attention.

Also, I have the 160 GB iPod Classic and Apple just discontinued it during their big event. They're moving away from wanting their customers to have a large music collection, towards wanting their customers to subscribe and stream. Which, IMO, is crap and I don't want to rely on some company's servers with my music/data. I just bought two as backups, so if you're in the same boat I'd recommend getting one or two, as they're disappearing quickly. There's not many high capacity MP3 players left on the market, and none with the intuitive clickwheel.

[PoloPony]

As if having music only as downloads wasn't bad enough, now they want you not even to have it on a file on your device, they want you to access it from their platforms? OUch

[Syncratic]

Awful. It's worse than having pop ups. I gather with this we don't even get a choice to click 'download'. Next it could be Michael Bay or One Direction being sent to your devices. Just horrible. U2 haven't been musically relevant since about 1993. Who can actually relate to them anymore?

[daveid]

Or herpes:

http://www.nme.com/news/u2/79754

[Jamesqdot]

Awful. It's worse than having pop ups. I gather with this we don't even get a choice to click 'download'. Next it could be Michael Bay or One Direction being sent to your devices. Just horrible. U2 haven't been musically relevant since about 1993. Who can actually relate to them anymore?

I can't quite put my finger on why, but I've always found U2 to be incredibly annoying, and I use the word "annoying" with precision. They have always annoyed me, more and more over the years to the point where I also now actively hate them because any reference to them or even the slightest snippet of their music playing unavoidably puts me in a bad mood.

How fitting, then, that not only do they end up annoying me even more by curling their latest turd of an album into my iTunes account without my consent, but have also created one of the most irritating TV adverts I have ever seen in my life. Every time their stupid pink and purple and blue faces lurch into the frame I want to punch the TV screen to custard.

And this is all Apple's fault, shark-jumping idiots that they are.

Phew! Rant over.

[Andie]

Apple have got a nerve sending unwanted crap into my iTunes account - unimpressed!!!!!

[PoloPony]

Awful. It's worse than having pop ups. I gather with this we don't even get a choice to click 'download'. Next it could be Michael Bay or One Direction being sent to your devices. Just horrible. U2 haven't been musically relevant since about 1993. Who can actually relate to them anymore?

I can't quite put my finger on why, but I've always found U2 to be incredibly annoying, and I use the word "annoying" with precision. They have always annoyed me, more and more over the years to the point where I also now actively hate them because any reference to them or even the slightest snippet of their music playing unavoidably puts me in a bad mood.

How fitting, then, that not only do they end up annoying me even more by curling their latest turd of an album into my iTunes account without my consent, but have also created one of the most irritating TV adverts I have ever seen in my life. Every time their stupid pink and purple and blue faces lurch into the frame I want to punch the TV screen to custard.

And this is all Apple's fault, shark-jumping idiots that they are.

Phew! Rant over.

+1

[Danimal]

U2's talent is undeniable. For me it's the self-righteous "social conscious" and belief in their own rock 'n roll divinity, and further compression of those two things as if they're one and the same i.e.: if we're the biggest act in the world (by what measure?) then we must use our cultural godhood for our own idea of what's good and correct.
Many of their fans love this, lining-up to have their heads filled with U2's concept of political correctness rather than forming their own opinions.