It's a strange album to me, some of it is awful (the singles) but some of it is great (Little Things, Lights of Home, Love Is Bigger, Love Is All We Have Left and a few others. Hard to tell this early where it ranks.

I've been really busy for days so not had a proper chance to listen to it so will need to listen and let it sink in.

better than the past 2 imo
don't think it eclipses All that You Can't or Atomic Bomb, for me

Just got through listening to the whole album. I think 13 may just be one of the best closers U2 has done in a while. It reuses the Song for Someone pre-chorus and chorus but does so well enough to act as a great companion to the song (unlike American Soul, as it is to Volcano). Bono and the boys did a good job with this album. Almost every track is at least a 7/10 or higher and there's some good production and work on there that sounds modern but not overdone, and is fresh.

I agree with all of this, and in terms of its ranking I think it's spot on.

For all the hollow bombast of the previous albums and forcing it into peoples iTunes account, I think this album's more restrained nature than previous U2 albums is what sets it apart. It's not Zooropa style restraint but it certainly sounds less like a band desperate to capture everyone's attention, and feels more acceptant of their place in the music industry. It feels more personal and intimate in terms of its lyrical content. Certainly by U2's standard, the release of this feels a lot more low key than the previous two albums, and maybe they realised their current status in accordance with this.

The pop fodder crap of the singles is something this album could do without - you can tell where Ryan Tedder's had his filthy hands all over it with some of the songs cheap gimmicks. But I was certainly impressed with the Song For Someone rewrite of 13 - astonishing how such a shite song could be turned into something so beautiful.

I'm loving Love Is All We Have Left - proof that if U2 have to throw out broad sentiments like this, it doesn't always have to include lung bursting choruses and other such anthemic cliches and can be made a bit more intimate and, as a result, more romantic. Digging Summer Of Love too - Bono keeps the restraint and The Edge's simple little guitar riff is one of his best in years. And for all U2's desperation for a catchy, modern tune, The Showman is a bit more old fashioned and retro in its style but far catchier and less cliched than any of the singles. And The Little Things That Give You Away is achingly beautiful - maybe the best song out of the Innocence/Experience collection; I think it's Bono at his most human and fragile in years.

In all honesty, from Summer Of Love onwards, the album doesn't put a foot wrong, although Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way is forgettable amongst the three singles from the first half (would have replaced it with the bonus track Book Of Your Heart).

It's not a classic but it's far superior to the last three albums (though not as good as All That You Can't Leave Behind), but this album just feels a bit more humble and less self conscious in its desperation to reach out to everyone, as opposed to the bravado that really spoils a lot of the previous three albums. Evidence that the more restraint U2 show these days (or at least Bono), the better band they are for it.

Wow, this first track is pretty beautiful with the vocoder thing. Might listen to the full album. Expect a playlist from me sans-shit-singles

Yeah, it's alright. Some nice tunes, a few really awful ones. Par for the course, really.

All praise to Andy Barlow from Lamb who produced that. Ditch the others and work solely with him on the next album.

He also co-produced Little Things That Gave You Away (along with three more tracks, one of which was the bonus tune) - the beautiful ethereal opening brings much of the mystique and beauty back to U2s music, likewise with the intro track. His influence sounds contemporary without trying too hard and sounding cheap (ahem, Ryan Tedder); U2 could do with a lot more from him in the future.

Of all the producers U2 have worked with over the course of these two albums, only him and Danger Mouse could be labelled as ‘artistically influential’. Danger Mouse and U2 did fuck all with regards to creating anything interesting, so Barlow is the only producer in my opinion from these two albums to come out with any credit.

Noel (7.1) beat U2’s Pitchfork score (5.3)

“The pursuit of relevance seems above all what motivates them to create. What are they doing, really, when time and again they endeavor to reinvent themselves, if not trying to remain fashionable—or, more precisely, to stave off obsolescence?”

pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/u2-songs-of-experience/amp/

I'll have to get this album, some good reception; I liked enough songs off the last album to actually buy a physical copy along with the free one, so....

Thanks.

The Little Things That Give You Away is the best song from the two Innocence & Experience albums for me. Love the lyrics and the fragility of it, and some classic Edge guitar riff at the end there too. Pulls off the feat that only U2 can do - widescreen sound yet intimate at the same time. Classic U2 - it might be my favourite song from them since Walk On.