No kidding. I'm not saying to bust out The Rising, but Nebraska is a lot cooler than you realize. And I can understand "One" being overplayed, but Actung Baby is still pretty cool in my book.

I think I've said this before, but I'm still pretty confident in my belief that anyone who thinks U2 sucks hasn't heard any of their records prior to All That You Can't Leave Behind. Am I wrong?

My mom has been playing Actung Baby and Joshua Tree for a very long time around me-- still does, and for some reason the sound just annoys me. I realize they don't suck, they just rub me the wrong way.

I Have Martin Denny's best hits or whatever it is called. The guy was a jazz/pop
genius, but really only a couple or three songs were musically approachable. So, I think I will record the good ones and use then use the CD for target practice.

jeez. didn't know my earnest reaction to a question about being embarrased about certain items in your music collection would draw such ire. i was just responding in the spirit of the question. i would like to elaborate on my response:

1. i love bruce springsteen. always have. always will. and i'm not ashamed of owning springsteen's music. i am not one of those "too cool for school" indie purists. i listen to everything. i cited springsteen because there was a time (mainly in the '90's) when there was a tremendous backlash against him - a reaction, no doubt, to the oversaturation of the *born in the u.s.a. period.* i had many people come to my apartment and see that i owned every springsteen cd, and chuckle. so many people questioned my musical taste because i owned springsteen! however, that has never stopped me from buying springsteen cds. i wondered if this opinion of springsteen still exists, or if a youger generation of music fans now hold a different opinion of him. some of your strong reactions to my including springsteen in the response to this question would indicate that general opinion of him has, indeed, changed. good. i hope this is the case. still, i fail to see the connection between arcade fire and springsteen, but that's another topic

2. i also love U2. always have. always will. i own every U2 cd as well, and have received the same sorts of criticism. lots of people have made fun of me for my love of U2, as if it was so damn uncool to like them. perhaps this, too, is a generational shift. i personally think the last couple of U2 cds have been the best in their career, and some of the strongest rock music created by anyone recently.

3. i noticed that nobody took issue with the inclusion of kiss in my response what? no defenders of kiss out there?

but seriously, i'm not ashamed, per se, of anything in my collection. i just found the question light-hearted in its intent and i responded with the same tone. incidentally, this question was posed by a professor in a popular music class i took about 10 years ago when working on my phd. as a class, we had a great deal of fun with this question. i was just trying to do the same with my response here.

quote:

Originally posted by ericg75:
I think I've said this before, but I'm still pretty confident in my belief that anyone who thinks U2 sucks hasn't heard any of their records prior to All That You Can't Leave Behind. Am I wrong?

I'm pretty confident in my belief that anyone who thinks U2 didn't suck prior to All That You Can't Leave Behind has never listened to Zooropa or Pop!

quote:

Originally posted by Borachon:

quote:

Originally posted by ericg75:
I think I've said this before, but I'm still pretty confident in my belief that anyone who thinks U2 sucks hasn't heard any of their records prior to All That You Can't Leave Behind. Am I wrong?

I'm pretty confident in my belief that anyone who thinks U2 didn't suck prior to All That You Can't Leave Behind has never listened to Zooropa or Pop!

Not to mention the shining turd that is Rattle and Hum! Still, any band that makes albums as wonderful as 'War' and 'Unforgettable Fire' deserves some forgiveness for (m)any missteps.

quote:

Originally posted by Borachon:
I'm pretty confident in my belief that anyone who thinks U2 didn't suck prior to All That You Can't Leave Behind has never listened to Zooropa or Pop!

Pop was so-so, but Zooropa is a great album. If you were paying attention when you listened to it, you'd notice that the beloved Radiohead borrow more than a few ideas from that album.

quote:

Originally posted by ericg75:
Pop was so-so, but Zooropa is a great album. If you were paying attention when you listened to it, you'd notice that the beloved Radiohead borrow more than a few ideas from that album.

I think you're being very generous calling Pop "so-so". You must be a true fan!

I remember burying my mates copy in the garden because he kept playing it over and over again at a holiday cottage we'd rented in Ireland, much to the chagrin of the other 12 of us that were there.

As for Zooropa, I haven't listened to it in over a decade. I wasted a tenner on a cassette copy the day it came out. I was a student at the time, and ten quid could have fed me for a fortnight! To this day, I have not heard a more pretentious collection of nonsense. It was the sound of a band that had become full of their own self-importance. Lemon...yeuugh.

I still shudder when I remember the grotesquery of the tour to promote that album. That was when U2 lost me as a fan forever.

But if you say Radiohead borrowed ideas from that album, I won't disagree. I haven't listened to it since well before The Bends came out, probably even Pablo Honey, so I'd be a fool to argue.

Who knows... maybe I'd love it now. I'll never know.

quote:

Originally posted by culture is ordinary:
but seriously, i'm not ashamed, per se, of anything in my collection. i just found the question light-hearted in its intent and i responded with the same tone.

It's hard to gauge sincerity or seriousness in some posts, and I took your post to be serious. Now, I get it.

I've always taken the stance that if you're ashamed of something in your collection, you shouldn't have it in your collection. I've got LOTS of stuff in my collection that people might hate on (I have two Hanson records, and I like them both) but that doesn't prevent me from keeping them. And I don't hide them when people come over, either!

But if someone seriously was embarassed having U2 and/or the Boss in their collection, I hate to see what was the 'acceptable' music for their friends.

quote:

Originally posted by ericg75:
Pop was so-so, but Zooropa is a great album. If you were paying attention when you listened to it, you'd notice that the beloved Radiohead borrow more than a few ideas from that album.

Shoot, Radiohead borrow plenty from some of the greats. Even their more obscure, weird things like putting random words in the liner notes or on the back of CDs might be thanks to R.E.M.'s use of it on the back of Life's Rich Pageant. That's part of what makes them great in the way they aren't afraid to borrow and get direct influences from past greats and they will be the first to admit it. Whoever thinks that Radiohead is the most original band of all time is crazy.

By the way this is coming from someone that just loves Radiohead.

quote:

Originally posted by culture is ordinary:
3. i noticed that nobody took issue with the inclusion of kiss in my response what? no defenders of kiss out there?

KISS is tough, because no band has worked harder to ruin their legacy. Their first album is damn good. Alive, Destroyer, Love Gun are also great. They've just become a fucking cartoon embarassment joke of an act that doesn't know when to stop.

i don't know.. U2 and the boss are certainly nothing to be ashamed of, and if you are.. perhaps you need to get some new friends?

Personally, I can't feel too proud of my love for the new Justin Timberlake record.

And any Xiu Xiu record; I mean no normal person would like that kind of music. (If you do, and if you think you are normal, than you are probably not). The album art for "A Promise" is especially embarrassing. People would think I'm into weired asian man porn.

quote:

Originally posted by subrock:

Personally, I can't feel too proud of my love for the new Justin Timberlake record.

I don't think that's shameful. I've heard the album two or three times. It sounds fantastic production wise. JT uses his voice wisely, and the singles were corkers.

The last 3 or 4 songs are fairly dire, but usually the rule of thumb with modern R&B is that you can write off the entire second half of the album, because it's filled with sickly slush, so that's not too bad.

quote:

Originally posted by Hophead:
KISS is tough, because no band has worked harder to ruin their legacy. Their first album is damn good. Alive, Destroyer, Love Gun are also great. They've just become a fucking cartoon embarassment joke of an act that doesn't know when to stop.

In my opinion, you could defend everything by Kiss right up until Love Gun. That is, their first six studio albums and Alive. Alive II wasn't bad, but then it's all downhill from there, beginning with those ridiculous "solo" albums.

I think they're not taken seriously now because the majority of their discography sucks, and they were so gimmicky from the start, that most people don't realize that their early material is actually good.

That's probably not that much different from the point Hophead made, I guess.

The funny thing about Kiss, IMO, is that their live stuff is a zillion times better than their studio stuff. I think you could buy Alive and Alive II and be set on Kiss material.

I'm only ashamed of owning the Scissor Sisters, but I got to say, they make great dance music, and their last album was to my surprise, very great, it made my top 20 last year.

Outside of these forums, I'm actually get a little nervous to say I actually enjoy Animal Collective, the new Peter, Bjorn, and John and Of Montreal albums. I'm an indie lover and skateboarding fiend and I hate the outside world perception of both

quote:

I'm an indie lover and skateboarding fiend and I hate the outside world perception of both

What you don't listen to Blink 182 and NOFX? Gawd you're so not skater .