Wish I could be so happy-go-lucky about it, but I'm wagering you haven't listened to this thing  

Also, the precedent this (and other things, iirc Jay-Z did a similar thing with Samsung last year but that album was even worse than U2's so no-one cares) sets is sh*t and terrible. You could have Apple forcing whatever the f*** they like on you. That is bad.

I know these twats have power over my every waking moment thanks to my fucking phone, but i don't need it rubbed in my face quite so flagrantly, you know?

Why?

I reviewed it because the suits at Apple decided I should have a U2 album. This is what being an apple user is all about.


and yes I have an iphone, f*** my life.

I agree with you. Apple should not automatically download it to everyone who has an account. I differ with you in that being free is a nice thing to do by U2. I should have the option to decide whether I want to download it or not.

'Nice' doesn't come into it - all U2 care about is getting paid, and they have had to have been compensated incredibly to essentially sacrifice 5 million sales because Apple gave it away.

Ugh, just thinking about it makes me mad. Damn corporations and internet and everything. It's an incredibly flagrant power play by big business to just give me an album, and have it never be truly deleted - that sh*t will stay on your itunes account forever, I don't think it's possible to delete it from there.

"Thank You, BasedGod"

Why?

I reviewed it because the suits at Apple decided I should have a U2 album. This is what being an apple user is all about.


and yes I have an iphone, f*** my life.

One point i did not get into because, well, i was shitfaced, is that just giving everyone a U2 album is so fucking obnoxious and actually pretty evil in a sense - Apple could do this for any music, videos or other content it so pleased just because they can. The reality being, they would have had to pay U2 a boatload of cash to be able to do this - I'm pretty sure Bono doesn't care, he gets paid either way.
They could do this for loads of big albums because it removes the uncertainty of people buying physical (or any other) media. The band gets paid no matter how many people resent it or delete it. They'll probably make a decent sum when it gets released on CD anyway, but this guarantees an audience (no matter if they actually WANTED a U2 album) and a large paycheck.


Tl;dr: I DIDN'T WANT THIS ALBUM, YOU PRICKS, DON'T FORCE IT ON ME.

Sounds good!!

Do you like being bored?

first off,

f*** U2, BONO IS A GOBSHITE.

The Miracle Of Joey Ramone

Instantly this is not anything that Joey Ramone would have ever written
I was wishing to be blinded is a sh*t sentiment for a punk hymn, lad
He's not going to mention Joey in this song, is he.
If you had a point, you are fucking it up with your bonoism
Your falsetto is a thing which is not good
nice of you to try adding distorted guitar chords, despite how vanilla this sh*t is
What the hell did this have to do with Joey Ramone?

Every Breaking Wave

Well this is dull
I think this is the same chorus progression as the last song
I think this may be a pirate song
but it's very fucking dull
it's like coldplay in 2005
f*** me
are they trying for a crescendo in such a boring piece of music
Bono can't even do soaring platitudes at this point
I regret this decision immediately.
And that's it?
f***

California (There's No End To Love)

Some weirdo harmonising loops
But oh dear, it ends up in boring three chord fuckery
This doesn't sound as urgent as Bono's vocal
'In a mirror, watching yourself cry/california' is a terrible lyric
they are layering the synths on this
instead of actual musical invention?
edge isn't trying on this guitar solo
nobody except bono seems to be trying on this sh*t tbh

Song For Someone

Oh my god it's a ballad
is it bad to say that i don't believe that Bono actually has suffered in the last 15 years?
I don't believe any of this
someone could be anyone
he's playing for the stadium.
This is One.2
I'm not even sure what he's trying to say
Edge with the nice guitar break
Bono hasn't stolen a kiss from anyone lately because he's fucking Bono and that sh*t would be TMZ within minutes so f*** this song.

Iris (Hold Me Close)

Oh look, more weird vocal harmony loops. Someone's listened to a Julianna Barwick album and missed the point
ooh techno beats
bet you can turn this into 4 chord minor chord balladry
This chorus is bullshit
everything is dumb
dammit all
the chorus does not provide a release from the tense verse - it's not even strong enough, it's just the verse with some weak vocal harmonising
Edge is phoning this sh*t in.
Bono, this sh*t is so painfully hypothetical this album should carry a disclaimer of 'THE CONTENTS DO NOT BARE ANY RESEMBLANCE TO ANY PERSONS ALIVE OR DEAD'

Volcano
The bassist gets some play.
but this is already sh*t
Oh my god
is this a song about partying
i think it is
this is so lazy
My christ
it's just verse chorus verse of mediocrity
oh hello choir
this is sh*t
SUCH sh*t
why jettison the most interesting part of your song
f*** THIS

Raised By Wolves

I get a hounds of love vibe
sadly
come on bono, do your worst
and i think he's doing his best dylan
f***
OH MY GOD
THE LYRICS ARE TERRIBLE
HE DID HIS WORST
oh my god
this song is an argument against rock music
every cliche is here
it's the worst
I wouldn't wish this song upon my enemy
and it hasn't finished
it has a really thin production
JESUS

Cedarwood Road

Ugh, immediately.
Oh my god is this them doing metal
Bono's lyrics make no sense
WHAT THE f***
this is the same plodding sh*t from the first few tracks with a riff on top
How do these cunts sleep at night
on piles of money, obviously.
you can't return to where you've never left? JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, BONO, YOU AREN'T EVEN TRYING.

Sleep Like A Baby Tonight

Pitch shifting? Nice try, Bono
If this is an attempt at political songwriting, you are so complicit in this sh*t Bono - you cosied up to Tony Blair
I'm not even sure what this song is trying to be
Bono is so in the political establishment it's laughable
maybe he's calling out himself
Ooh, that's a terrible falsetto
don't ever try that again.
you f*cker.
i think this is the same 4 chords in the chorus again.
The Edge is again phoning in his solo
what the f*** was that
everyone except bono seems so uninspired during this record
it's really sad.

This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now

Before it starts, let me just say that this is a really bad name for a song.
piano loops this time around
this is a record bereft of inspiration
empty lyrics and melodies
this is so borrrrrriiiiiiiing
i can't even try to hate this song - it's so full of nothingness
and it's still going.
They'll probably release this sh*t as a single.
no-one is trying on this - the edge, mullen, whoever
bono is the only one attempting to bring it and well - bono is a c*** so
is this song still going.

The Troubles

Lets get into the irish problem. c'mon bono. let's get political.
'the trouble is you'? i think you missed the point here, bono
it wouldn't be the first time
In case you didn't know, i think this record is

FUCKING

BORING.

it has no redeemable qualities
none.
this last song sounds as boring as the 11 that preceded it.
f***.

But let's put a choir on the final track, because IT'S THE FINAL TRACK
you haven't earned this catharsis.
f*** you.
Why did you give this to me.
I will give bono a punch to the face for free.

Just heard. This is very sad, he seemed like a funny, lovely, heartfelt guy who was a great painter and friend to all. My condolences to Jonathan and his family.

I'm finding the way this thread has devolved just fascinating.  What began as an interesting discussion about the future editorial direction of ESQ has turned into insane, adolescent-level playground argument about the contributions of two near retirement rock musicians and the possibility that each might be harboring some form of lingering mental issue at their advanced age.   Who gives a damn?  Certainly not the principals involved.  This is a perfect illustration of the phrase "little minds at work."  

It's almost as if the magazine in question was concerned with these two individuals! I can't even imagine. Why, back in my day, editors talked about such matters on a place that wasn't a thread on a public forum where they invited these 'little minds' to contribute! Peons to a man!

The Wild Honey album has great lyrics by Mike.

And it sold f***-all!


If you want to talk Beach Boys hits, sure - Mike Love has a decent track record (btw putting a word that doesn't exist into the chorus of good vibrations is up for debate). But so do Usher and Christian! Off the top of my head....

Don't Worry Baby? (lots of people's favourite beach boys song of all time, natch)
Little Deuce Coupe?
409? (y'know, that thing that got them writing about cars? Hardly insubstantial, is it?)
In My Room?

We can't deny that Mike Love got a bit better as a writer but it's hardly as if he was Brian's writing messiah until the hits stopped coming in.

Mostly because when Mike became Brian's go-to lyrics man permanently the hits dried up.

If Mike Love was the magic touch, Wild Honey would have murdered the Billboard Charts. BUT IT DIDN'T.

Word - The Beach Boys owe an equal amount of their early success to Gary Usher and Roger Christian.

And there's nothing wrong with putting Mike Love's achievements in perspective.... is there?

Wirestone, you know I respect and love you as a poster, but that's a little too far? Why would M&B's organisation care, so long as they can get the soccer moms in Pisshole, Alaska to come out,  sing Barbara Ann and *cough*unleash the love*cough*?

We are a minority to M&B. Not to a lot of people in the BB's organisation (thanks for putting Our Sweet Love with Vox and Strings on MIC btw, I have been posting about that sh*t since 2011) but a minority to M&B. It's a shame, but the sudden influx of M&B love is just because people don't know sh*t and can't respect genius over hard work.
Let's blame Ayn Rand. BW doesn't work hard enough to be respected nowadays. Mike plays 370 shows a year for the milfs in the front row, and as we both know, thats what the beach boys are all about. [/sarcasm]

My mum was responsible for all of The Beach Boys' cd's in my house - a copy of 20 Golden Greats that skipped inexplicably on You're So Good To Me and Heroes & Villains, i think, and Pet Sounds. I remember being 14 and asking, after some reading about how Pet Sounds and Sgt Pepper were psych masterpieces of pop music in the fucking NME or something, whether I could pinch my mum's copies of both. She said that Sgt Pepper was nice, but Pet Sounds was 'depressing'.

Luckily, I listened anyway.

The first one I bought with my own money was the 72 live album, after seeing BW live (I really wanted a version of Marcella, as I recall). But I got BWPS for my birthday after watching Beautiful Dreamer on the BBC, then I saw BW live.

So either Pet Sounds, BWPS or In Concert.

This is important work and should be submitted to Capitol Records ASAP

There are no other gods. Only The Ramones.


Now will the congregation join me,

HEY

HO

LETS GO

There is a bootleg of them doing a few songs on a radio (?) session in Amsterdam, 1972, on something called Grand Gala Du Disc. Heroes & Villains, Sloop, Surf's Up and Student Demonstration Time (well, three out of four ain't bad). Qualities a little fuzzy but still pretty great and I can assume it's a soundboard. Can't remember where I found it though, so, well, you know what to do.

Mike Love has always wanted the artistic legitimacy of The Beatles.

But how far was he willing to go?

We have all seen Al Jardine today. Whilst he still has a voice, he looks like a withered skeleton of a man, and certainly not the man who kept it clean.

This is because the current Al Jardine is an imposter, designed to keep Mike Love afloat in the 1980's and 1990's, to keep singing Help Me Rhonda and toe the party line. The real Al Jardine had to die. Mike Love saw it so.

He died in 1978.

The MIU album has all the details, however obscure. But that was Mike Love's greatest act. Like a true serial killer, he hid the clues in plain sight. Only now can we connect the dots.


If you want the true story of MIU, if you dare delve into the horror of Mike Love's psyche, and witness the terror of Al Jardine as he realised that he was meeting the sweet release of death....


Reply.

it would be better for you if you just stopped posting.

oh no, what a mean hypehat.

I don't care how sorry you are. Just change how you post. The fact that you're the only poster ever in the history of this board to say 'well, hitler wasn't as bad as Mao or Stalin', make sh*t 'P-Santa' rape jokes, and say that a 49 year old man and a 14 year old child had a legit relationship makes me severely doubt your character.

I'm not sorry I hurt your feelings. Thanks for posting PMs on the board, if i'd responded that'd be a bannable offence but as it stands....

I don't care how sorry you are. If you're genuinely that sorry, BE A BETTER PERSON.

After the events on a certain recent thread and the hateful bile from certain members on it, I've given up hope on this ever happening.

debates are normal, but you know something's wrong when you have multiple people complaining about the negativity on this board. something's gotta change, somewhere.

Yeah. Especially when arguments degenerate into one-sided personal insults. Like a "Horrible piece of shite who has no redeeming factors". What kind of awful person says unapologetic sh*t like that? Especially when that person uses inaccurate and exaggerated examples. And what some people don't understand is that people change. Yet these people don't change their attitude towards the changed people and even after they admit they're wrong, those jerks still act like mega-arseholes towards the changed people and hold grudges.

It saddens me to see people with so much pure hate in them. Those people don't belong on forums and are a major detriment to the people who actually want peace around here.

You haven't changed yet.

From all your senseless hitler defending, to your senseless rape jokes, to your senseless paedophile defending....


Why don't you think about what you're posting?

And why shouldn't I hate you? If you genuinely think Hitler wasn't awful, rape is a laughing matter, and that 14 year girls are fair game sexually, everyone here should hate you. The balls in YOUR court here, not mine. Don't cry about your hurt feelings when you so obviously don't care about the feelings of others.

My hero is a rapist now I'm gonna cry myself to sleep. And hypehat was mean to me.I don't know what to do...

A simple lol does not express the ways in which i laughed at this.

Okay.

I suppose he most likely is. Again, big disappointment.

'Most likely'?

I stand by my earlier point. You are a horrifying piece of shite.

It's kinda hard to sink in. And I really don't appreciate you calling me that. Read my reply to Hal

Really, defending paedophilia is the icing on the cake of rape jokes, general idiocy and nazi apologism you've posted on the board. You have no redeeming qualities.

I didn't make Rape jokes. I don't defend paedophiles, I've realized I was wrong, and nazism was horrible

you have 500 words to defend your P-Santa posts. Go on. You can dig some more.

Okay.

I suppose he most likely is. Again, big disappointment.

'Most likely'?

I stand by my earlier point. You are a horrifying piece of shite.

It's kinda hard to sink in. And I really don't appreciate you calling me that. Read my reply to Hal

Really, defending paedophilia is the icing on the cake of rape jokes, general idiocy and nazi apologism you've posted on the board. You have no redeeming qualities.

Okay.

I suppose he most likely is. Again, big disappointment.

'Most likely'?

I stand by my earlier point. You are a horrifying piece of shite.