I had originally planned to just do a post using my U2 chapter from my book. Yet, with all the controversy surrounding the new U2 release, I felt like I needed to comment. If you don't know, U2 released their new album this week (Songs of Innoncence) by giving it away to everyone who had an Itunes account. Certainly, an innovative idea in a world where hearing new music has been fractured and overly complicated. You would think this would be met with a fanfare from fans...instead...that's not necessarily the case. One of the details of getting this new album was that everyone who had an itunes account, had the album automatically added to their accounts, whether they wanted it or not. This is where the outrage originates. Critics (meaning anyone who has a Twitter account) have been slamming the band for forcing the album upon them without their permission. It's been called an "invasion of privacy" and an extreme example of "corporate harassment" as well as "creepy," "sinister," and outright "evil." Let's just start here.
It's fucking music album...that you get for free. If you don't like it...don't listen to it. Everyone complains about corporations gouging customers...then when they give something away...people continue to complain. Stop whining...everyone. Getting free music on a platform owned by Apple is not an invasion of privacy...go talk to some Holocaust survivors about what real invasion of privacy is. I don't want 90% of the terrible TV shows I get via my digital antenna...I'm not going to storm ABC and make them take Grey's Anatomy off the air (yes, it's still on). Grow up...get a backbone...and shut the fuck up. There are kids in part of this world who have to dodge landmines when walking to school. Get some fucking perspective.
And it's U2. One of the greatest rock bands of all time. You may not like their music...and honesty, that's okay. But if Apple is going to give us an album at least they picked a band with a respectable pedigree. Would you rather it be Mylie Cyrus?
Free U2 album is the ultimate first world problem.
In honor of U2, here is my article from my book.
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When making U2's best song list for their 2009 release,
No Line On The Horizon, I became inspired to compile this book. I realized that an act like U2, with a career that spans decades, cannot be categorized into one giant list. There is no comparison of U2's material of the '80s to the music they are making now. Don't get me wrong, there is some great material still coming out of the band. You just cannot compare music being made in the '00s by guys in their forties to music being made in the '80s by guys in their twenties. The circumstances are different. The societies are different. The trends are different. The worlds are different. In the '80s, they were struggling musicians. Today, they are multi-millionaires, shaping the world. They are not the same band.
This is what makes U2 so magnificent. Has there ever been a band that has had as much continued success as the Irish lads? The Rolling Stones? Springsteen? Dylan? It is a short list. Many artists who manage to stay around for multiple decades struggle to sell new albums. U2 has done something that no one else has ever accomplished... they remain trendy. Most artists cannot remain trendy for three years, let alone thirty. That in itself is a major accomplishment.
I firmly believed that their work in the 2000s deserved its own list - its own moment of splendor. From that realization, this book was born.
The 11 Best U2 Songs of the '00s:
- Walk On (All That You Can't Leave Behind)
- City of Blinding Lights (How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb)
- Magnificent (No Line on the Horizon)
- Beautiful Day (All That You Can't Leave Behind)
- Moment of Surrender (No Line on the Horizon)
- Miracle Drug (How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb)
- Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own (How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb)
- Stateless (The Million Dollar Hotel Soundtrack)
- New York (All That You Can't Leave Behind)
- The Ground Beneath Your Feet (The Million Dollar Hotel Soundtrack)
- Electrical Storm (Best of 1990 - 2000)
Fun Fact: U2 has had the same line-up for their entire recording career.
Don't forget to check out our blog's awesome new book
The 111 Best Lists of the 2000s. Available now! (featuring U2)
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Being the third week of the NFL season, despite all the crazy parody in the games, all anyone can talk about is abuse. Players in the NFL are no longer just being suspended for games but they are being kicked out of the NFL...indefinitely. It's a bold move and draws a giant line in the sand. The NFL is shouting out loud that they will no longer tolerate players in their league behaving like uncultured cavemen. If you're going to play in this league, then you must have an image to uphold on and off the field. These players only hit each other when they are wearing huge pads and helmets, any of them who thinks it's okay to hit an unprotected woman is a coward and a disgrace.
But I have a problem with this. My problem is that this has gone on way too long. The NFL, NBA, MLB have all turned the other way. I'm writing this while watching the Pittsburg Steelers play on Sunday night football, led by Ben Roethlisberger. Why do his "legal" missteps get swept under the rug? The guy was basically found guilty of rape. Even the Oscars and Grammys have ignored some of the worst perpetrators. With Chris Brown releasing a heralded album this week...have we all forgotten that he beat the living shit out Rihanna? The Grammys did when they gave him the featured spot to perform on their telecast. Just hope you all remember that when you do music shopping this week and you're looking for new tunes.
Here are the 11 Best Songs By Guns N Roses (featuring Slash):
With such a big week of releases and the awesome return for a few big artists...who has the time to write about all of them. I'm doing my best to catch up...so here's another post from the book...with one alteration. In the book, I only rank the best songs by an artist between the years 2000-2009. But Ryan Adams added a couple more songs to the Cardinals catalog in 2010...so I thought I'd throw them in for fun.
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Obsession with Ryan Adams does not have to do with the music he makes as much as it has to do with the amount of music he makes. Over the course of the decade, this heartbreaker has released twelve official albums, half a dozen EPs, and over fifty non-album tracks. He has had six unreleased albums leak to the internet along with a 5-volume, 25-disc, 350-song live bootleg collection. Listening to Ryan Adams’ music isn’t as exciting as trying to collect it all. Ryan Adams fans don’t discuss what our favorite album is, we discuss: what unreleased material do you have? This list focuses only on his songs with the Cardinals. I mean, who has time to include all his music?
Fun Fact: Besides performing solo, Ryan Adams has a glam metal band called Orion, a punk band called The Finger, a death metal band called Werewolph, a hardcore-punk band called The Shit and a hip-hop persona, called DJ Reggie.
