Jim Derogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times is a reviewer who hates U2 more. Note how he decides to add a bunch of Bono jokes found on the internet at the end of the review.

Sorry I haven't seen it posted it anywhere, but if you go into I tunes, its there. And its amazing. I 'm not about to type 446 song titles, but its every album, every single, including the very rare early singles, both fanclub only CDs, the 25 rare tracks ( including some recent studio outtakes) , and two full concerts. Its the most complete collection ever put together. I hope other bands jump on this bandwagon. Also it would be nice if u2 added a few complete concerts every month, and every show from the upcoming tour.

I'm sure she could hate them more. She gave it a 6.9. That's not exactly hate. I'd like to read more reviews that focus on the music and not Bono's activities. Guess it's hard to avoid that sometimes.

Actually, it's entirely possible that the reviewer had nothing to do with the numerical rating. I seem to recall a thread in here a couple months back (with DeRo, no less!) about how Rolling Stone assigned the star ratings. It's a way the editorial staff can -- in theory -- exert some control over the overall ratings process to adjust for particular reviewers' individual biases. (The review is personal, but the rating isn't.) Not sure if that's what happened here, but the thought occurred to me that the review came off a lot harsher than a "6.9."

Here's the setlist from the Brooklyn concert (from another board):

Vertigo (Take one)
All Because Of You
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can’t…
City Of Blinding Lights
Original Of The Species
She’s A Mystery To Me
Beautiful Day
I Will Follow
———-
Out Of Control
Vertigo (Take two)

I like this album a lot so far. "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" is my favorite so far.

I like "Miracle Drug" a lot, but man, does that opening riff sound like the one from "Out of Control."

I am happy to have this.

Couldn't pay $29.99 for the "collector's" set. Since I don't care about the book I'd be paying about $12 for just one more song that I'm sure I'll get somewhere else sometime.

GREAT CD thus far...

Wow. You people are all very kind to U2. I am a huge fan of U2 and have all their albums.

Just listened to the CD for the first time. My initial reaction: eh.

The music seems mostly uninspired, minimal, and blah overall. Bono's voice does not sound very good either.

I hope that it will improve for me with further listenings, but I usually like U2 songs right away. This album just left me bored.

I can't believe I am saying it, but Vertigo felt like the most complete song on the CD. Like the Edge was asleep during these sessions and just didn't bother to do more than add his charcteristic guitar sound from almost every other album.

Here's to hoping I like it more as time goes by.

Thank god I bought the cheapest version. I'd be pissed had I paid for one of the higher end releases.

WOW, I went from defending this release to being really bummed, This book edition BLOWS, unless you are a very hardcore U2 fan (I thought I was one) every page in the book is the same as the next. It just a bunch of crappy doodles from the band. A complete waste of paper and a GIANT let down, I wish I had bought the regular version minus the "Fast Cars" song. Someone please let me know if the regular versions booklet has photos of the band, etc. because the book version has absolutely NO band photos. I'll probably ebay this version and buy the regular edition, cause I doubt Best Buy would take this back opened!

WARNING: to all that might purchase this edition IMO it is not worth the extra $15 I paid at Best Buy. Plus, like someone else had mentioned before the extra track will probably appear on some promotional disc at Target like the "7" cd from the last album that had all the B-sides from the singles.

Anybody else feel the same or I'm I alone on this one? :(

thanks for the heads up there... i'm a sucker for special editions, but i get really pissed when they're a total ripoff.

I made a mistake there are two pages that I passed over that have a collage of the band standing on a beach. Hardly the stuff you would find in a cd booklet. I knew it when I had the regular cd in my hand with the black and white cover shot of the band walking in front of some kind of refinery that I should have bought that version. But I ASSumed that they would include the cd booklet with the book version, makes sense to me! WRONG SUCKER!

U2=CA$H WHORE$

And everyone else in the Industry.....

There is a link in the first post of this thread that provides complete pictures of what came in the box.

Yeah, god forbid a band would give consumers a choice of three versions of their album to buy. All three versions came out the same day, no double-dipping, your choice: $10 for regular, $15 for regular with DVD, $25 for oversized box with book.

For cahs whores, look to Franz Ferdinand, who released a "special edition" of their CD with five more songs, long after the standard version had become a hit.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Mr. Salty
For cahs whores, look to Franz Ferdinand, who released a "special edition" of their CD with five more songs, long after the standard version had become a hit.

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Amen! Don't even get me started with this bullshit trend...

Oh, wait...U2 $old out. There.

Not a big Boner fan, but I love Vertigo. Ordered up the cd/DVD combo. Boner needs the money.

I like the CD a lot after a couple of listens. I was a little skeptical as I don't like Vertigo much, but the rest of the album is very good.

I think I'll end up liking it more than All That You Can't Leave behind as I thought the second half of that album was weak.

Got the $10 version. Not disappointed at all, easily the best U2 album since Achtung Baby.

When are people going to realize making money doesn't equal selling out. If u2 have sold out, that every band on the planet has. U2 leaves everything they have on stage, everytime they play. They make amazing albums everytime. I dare anyone to name another band/artist after 25 years still making new music, that is as good as anything out there. Most bands become greatest hits shows.

u2 released 3 versions, you knew what you were getting, and you had choice

Has a huge fan, gotta admit the collectors edition packaging blows.

I will put it away and not play that copy again. I would buy it again for the extra song, but it will sit on the shelf.

Went to Target, and the CD/DVD edition was completely sold out. I'll have to check another Target tomorrow, or price match it somewhere else (most likely Best Buy, which is next to my college).

What got me completely psyched about this album was their performance on SNL last weekend. My girlfriend and I really enjoyed how tight the band sounded. Great stuff. Can't wait.

Well, after reading many reviews, think I'm gonna wait until I find a used copy down the road. Sounds like this album is basically ATYCLB, but maybe with slightly less crappy songs (?). Some of the harsh reviews on Amazon from U2 fans sound like what I was saying 4 years ago.

Fast Cars is available on iTunes, for separate purchase, but you have to go into the link for the Complete U2, not for the HTDAAB listing... though it is listed in that section on the Complete U2 track listing. Just FYI for those that may not want to fork out for the box set... I will probably still get it, unless they are out when I get the $$$ for it.

Got my CD/DVD combo yesterday.
Good listening so far. Need to check out the DVD this weekend.

'Bomb' flattens doubts about U2
By Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY

U2's new album has nothing to do with nuclear arsenals, yet its title couldn't be more fitting. U2 dropped a Bomb on me, baby: The band's latest is its most emotionally absorbing work.

Disarming and explosive, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (* * * * out of four) has the radiating energy of a reactor meltdown and the potential half-life of uranium. U2 is the new U-235, white-hot and untouchable.

Bomb, out today, is a blast, as quickly established by the spiking voltage of Vertigo and warped glam-rock of Love and Peace or Else. It's also the band's most emotionally absorbing work, riding on great swells of optimism and faith occasionally darkened by a chilly undertow of grief and anxiety.

Bomb's majestic sweep owes much of its verve to the sparkle, thrum and roar of Edge's bold guitar. Larry Mullen Jr. excites and fattens the songs with a pugnacious thump, spiced by the steady, seductive bass of Adam Clayton.

Bono, in peak form vocally and lyrically, sweats and bleeds passion, whether marveling at the human spirit in Miracle Drug, mourning shattered innocence in City of Blinding Lights or offering a healing prayer in the closing Yahweh.

Songs full of heart and mind-tingling ideas gracefully coexist on personal and universal planes. In the seething Crumbs From Your Table, Bono's response to sluggish funding for the AIDS crisis doubles as a lover's tantrum. One man's anguish explores Everyman's ache for connection in two gorgeous and devastating songs inspired by the death of Bono's father in 2001: One Step Closer and Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own.

Many will declare the grandeur, open spaces and chiming crescendos a return to form, and Bomb certainly embodies U2's finest qualities, but it's also a triumphant leap forward that stretches the limited vocabulary of rock 'n' roll without sacrificing the genre's original promise of purity. It delivers a dizzying payload of entertainment without diluting purpose.

With 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind, the Irish quartet retrenched after a decade of irony and invention to reapply for the job of World's Greatest Band. Bomb leaves that title unthreatened.

Atomic Bomb is U2's best album, eclipsing not only Achtung Baby and The Joshua Tree, but a good many 20th-century holy grails and prematurely anointed classics of the new millennium. U2 stands as rock's lone superpower, not after constantly defeating its challengers, but by constantly challenging itself.


LINK

Good review! While I don't agree this album is better than The Joshua Tree, I do like it better than Achtung Baby!.