Fight me on this one.
I'm serious, Achtung Baby is worth a listen or three for the production design alone.
The idea that such an unabashedly pop-y band that had been around for over a decade, making a mainstream-oriented album, would/could throw together a borderline-noise rock album with long, meandering "K-hole"-esque instrumental stretches and overlaid layers of reverb that MBV could be proud of seems utterly foreign in today's pop musical climate.
Today, it would be as if Maroon 5 or Coldplay decided to completely ditch their sound and make an album produced by Avey Tare.
So what other normiecore or dad-core albums are secretly far better crafted than their peers?
Dude, u2 was excellent for a long time
>Today, it would be as if Maroon 5 or Coldplay decided to completely ditch their sound and make an album produced by Brian Eno.
EVERY ARTIST IS A CANNIBAL
EVERY POET IS A THIEF
ALL KILL THEIR INSPIRATION AND SING ABOUT THEIR GRIEF
>>64157981
That's a great album honestly
>>64157957
So I'm not a bad person because I think the bridges on "Until The End Of The World" or "The Fly" are honestly some of the best shoegaze that was ever recorded?
Achtung Baby hasn't aged a day, it's still a blueprint for any pop/rock band
>>64158002
U2 has at least six or seven good-to- excellent records
>>64157981
>not remembering that 1980's Eno was the Panda Bear of his time, and that comparing 2000's Eno to 80's Eno is like comparing 90's Peter Gabriel to 70's Peter Gabriel
>>64158006
I love sound production, and it's an honestly spine-tingling experience for me to listen to Achtung Baby and think that it's just as old as Dirt or Nevermind, and that it's older than ALL of post-grunge/nu-metal, etc, because that album would STILL sound fresh as fuck if it was released today.
For me, for the sound design alone, it's in Pet Sounds or Sgt. Pepper's territory.
I always thought that the White Stripes were like this. Pretty popular and normiecore but Jack White has always been a pretty revolutionary musician.
I'm on the ropes about this, but I think the Black Keys were on to something up until El Camino. Brothers is probably the best example of this. It was a mainstream album that basically put them on the normie map, and is known for pretty much only two songs; but, the rest of the album is very artistic, and really keeps true to their roots. Songs like "Black Mud" and "Ten Cent Pistol" are definitely well done.
Lastly, I think Ultraviolence was probably Lana Del Rey's best work. Born to Die was fun to listen to, but it still had kind of a basic "pop" sound to it that made it so attractive to tumblrinas. I feel like Ultraviolence was a lot more serious and solemn, and it leans way more towards her "jazzy/bluesy" side, rather than edgy party anthems.
Those are just my opinions though.
>>64157944
the last great rock album and probably won't ever be topped because of the internet killing the record business
>>64158111
>Jack White has always been a pretty revolutionary musician.
How?
Achtung Baby is one of my favorites. It makes me mad that they still held back a little from going full-on experimental rock, but it's still great, one of the best pop-rock albums. U2 are better than people give them credit for. I can understand not liking their 2000a albums but everything else is consistently excellent.
>>64157981
I don't like a lot of coldplay's work, but every now and then they will release a song that just hits me the right way. Violet hill was one of those songs.
>>64158167
This, I love to hate Coldplay, LOOOVE to fucking hate them.
But god damn can they write a song when they try.
>>64158123
Ooooh, good one.
The idea that a song like "Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans" could be on such a mainstream album makes me weep at the thought of what the internet did to the music industry.
I just turned 30, and I was in middle school from 97-2000, but even then I was able to catch just a taste of what the pre-internet 90's music scene was like, from the radio to the concert scene to the fact that music just sort of MATTERED so much more than it does today.
Compared to most younger millennials, I feel uniquely privileged to have been able to experience the pre-internet music world firsthand.
We have lost so much since then.
>>64157944
U2 are fucking shit and you know it faggot
Pic related is another one for me
The reverbing math-rock synth lines of Baba O'Reilly and We Won't Get Fooled Again were like something from a Panda Bear album.
>>64158448
What's with this whole le wrong generation thing, anon?
>>64157944
The bad thing about this album is that it made U2 think they could fiddle with the knobs in the studio until something great happened. And it bit them on the ass with their last two albums especially.
>>64157944
I am old and this was the first CD I ever bought and I have no regrets
seriously a great album that doesn't get the respect it deserves these days for U2 doing all sorts of crap over the years.
Albums like this and the first Stone Roses albums hit me just as hard as Nirvana's Nevermind back then and I think have stood the test of time as well.
Well the production is good, and it aged much better than, say, Pop.
I'm not really into U2, but The Fly has something incredible in its sound. And some clever lyrics here and there.
Violator also has the same feeling (and the same production, U2 hired Flood after Depeche Mode).
>>64158123
It's so fucking good. There are a few "misses" like Love, Muzzle, and Tales of a Scorched Earth, but this album is underrated in a lot of circles imo. It is vastly superior to Siamese Dream and has way better songwriting and arrangements. It also has several songs with an incredibly original sound like Lily, 1979, Thirty-Three, Cupid de Locke, and Tonight, Tonight. The album art fits it so perfectly and its seriously one of the the best rock albums ever recorded, possibly the single best in the last 25 years.
>>64157944
Pic related isn't super normie, but it used to be in that category.
>>64157993
this are lyrics from the new death grips actually
>>64161267
>isn't super normie
So are you telling me that liking Achtung Baby is now obscure/cool?
>>64161129
Listening to The Fly never gets old. It's a criminally underrated song that knocked me off my feet the first time I heard some classic rock radio station play it as part of a U2 block.
The bass/guitar interplay is as good as anything New Order ever did.
>>64162583
Normies hate U2 now
>>64160758
So which one do you think has aged the best?
I honestly think it's Achtung Baby, and I love the Stone Roses. It's frightening how well it aged.
>>64160157
You had to have lived it to understand, I'm sure >>64160758 would agree with me on that one.
It was a completely different world and we are all worse off for what has happened to music since.
>>64162705
God, I feel cool now...
