Nothing to stop this being the best day ever

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts.

08/12/17 : Songs Of Experience - U2


Our ninth visit with them chirpy Oirish funsters (and we've got at least another three to meet) and this is one I've never listened to - in fact, I'm not sure I even knew it existed.

Hmmm. Well, I didn't hate it but I didn't love it either. It felt like they were aiming for that big stadium sound and I suspect they'd sound good swirling around a cavernous arena with much accompanying cheering. But, it's all very soulless and, on initial listen at least, incredibly forgettable - the only songs I particularly noticed were "Red Flag Day" which harked back to their earlier sound and "13 (There Is A Light)" which would fit nicely on to Achtung Baby. My only other comment is that, in some places, the lyrics are BAD - cringingly so. I do like the album cover though - it's Bono's son (you'd never guess, would you?) and The Edge's daughter (and yes, it was taken by Anton Corbijn). 

We're at #5 with a new entry in the chart this week on the start of a ten week run - it's fair to say most people didn't exactly take it to their hearts. The rest of the top five this week were Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, Michael Ball & Alfie Boe and P!nk, with the next highest new entry being Pete Tong, Jules Buckley & The Heritage Orchestra (#17) with some classical Ibiza, which I suspect I'd quite enjoy.

Wikipedia has loads on the album (513 milliPeppers) and it tells us it's their fourteenth album. There are an interesting set of guest artists involved including Haim, Kendrick Lamar, Davide Rossi (half of Goldfrapp), Lady Gaga and Julian Lennon - there are also seven producers involved, which seems a bit excessive. I didn't read it all in detail, but I did have to laugh at Bono's complete lack of awareness - after their previous album Songs Of Innocence managed to annoy everyone with their iTunes based nonsense, he proudly proclaimed "If you like Songs of Innocence, stay with us for Songs of Experience. It should be ready soon enough". Unfortunately, things didn't quite work out that way because he had a bad cycling accident and then open-heart surgery - but don't worry, they got there in the end! 

Critically, the reviews were polarised because those that liked it, liked it and those they didn't - well, you can probably guess. Commercially, it did surprisingly well considering we gave it a relative "meh" with it getting to #2 in Austria, Czechia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland and #1 in Belgium, Canada, The Netherlands, Ireland (surely not?), Portugal and the US. Their US #1 was a bit of a cheat because the "sales" included copies bundled in with tour tickets, but it made them the first group to have a #1 album there in every decade from the 80s to the 10s. 

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a copy for a couple of quid but if you want the double 180gm translucent cyan blue vinyl (which I bet looks cool) complete with gatefold double CD (which seems to have exactly the same tracks on it) then it's going to set you back £309.18, making this easily the most expensive album of the year so far. I didn't hate this album but it left me very cold - multiple listens might endear it to me, but I can't help but feel that my time would be better spent listening to other U2 albums. 

15/12/17 - A decent "that sort of thing" 

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