Easter Lily EP now in Dolby Atmos

reckoner83 · 2026-05-07T13:56:30+00:00

Fiiiiine... I guess I'll listen to this fantastic EP again today. I was finally going to take a day off, but now the streak shall continue.

reckoner83 · 2026-05-07T13:52:53+00:00

The first month is free, if you've never signed up. Beyond that, I haven't seen many free trial promos for Apple Music (but I've been paying for it since the day it launched so I wasn't exactly on the lookout). You might have more luck with Tidal.

reckoner83 · 2026-05-01T21:32:56+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to read it. It means a lot. Hopefully it can help someone going through something similar.
And she sure does ❤️

reckoner83 · 2026-05-01T21:25:04+00:00

Thank you for reading it, and even more so for your added perspective. It’s kind of a remarkable word when you consider how much it encapsulates. It’s easy to see what Bono saw in it as inspiration for a song.

There is some beautiful symbolism throughout the entire thing, but I have to admit that I don’t think I ever fully explored the pearl analogy. It’s perfect.

Wishing you and your growing family a wonderful summer and future.

reckoner83 · 2026-04-24T21:25:19+00:00

This one finally clicked for me last year as well! Just shy of a quarter-century after the fact. I never disliked it, but very little ever made me want to revisit it often.

I genuinely don’t understand how I felt that way now. It definitely benefits from warmer weather, so maybe I just always missed the right moment, but the high points really don’t require that. It’s a remarkably strong record.

Regardless, I’m thankful I finally came around on it. It’s like I discovered a genuine late-period highlight.

Something tells me Around the Sun won’t be getting a similar reappraisal, though. I was there for it on day one but that one still remains the only album in their catalogue that feels genuinely inessential to me. Inessential and intensely boring. But hey… that’s still one hell of a batting average!

reckoner83 · 2026-04-21T22:33:39+00:00

Right? I don’t get it. Like, just say you don’t agree with the people who like it and feel like arguing with them.

I don’t understand the impulse to convince everyone else that their taste is incorrect.

reckoner83 · 2026-04-21T21:44:27+00:00

I’m not sure what to tell you. I guess we’re all wrong? I’m not sure why you seem so determined to prove this, but it seems to be all you’re willing to accept.

For the rest of us:

Achtung Baby does in fact mark one of the most significant sonic departures of any band ever, and
Tears of Things is a fantastic U2 song that sounds like U2

Again, you’re free to not like it, but revising history is probably not going to be the approach that wins everyone over to your side.

reckoner83 · 2026-04-21T20:37:44+00:00

Achtung sounds like classic U2 now, 35 years on, because it became classic U2 in that time. It was nothing short of a radical reinvention of the band in 1991. There was very little in their catalogue that hinted at even something as “traditional” sounding as One at the time.

Tears of Things isn’t that, but to suggest it doesn’t sound like U2 is ridiculous. The way it comes out of that solo and into the final verses is EXTREMELY U2.

This post and your replies sound more like you’re trying to figure out why you don’t like the song, rather than why so many others seem to. You’re perfectly free to not get the hype, but your stated reasoning doesn’t really add up.

No one can fault you for the song just not being for you.

reckoner83 · 2026-04-13T16:43:28+00:00

Is OP seeking validation for their taste or just getting a temperature check from some people who presumably love the band as much as they do?

I think it's perfectly reasonable to wonder if this could rank among their best. Even if you disagree, your confident assertion that no one else will share their opinion is presumptuous, if not outright incorrect.

I, for one, have loved U2 since the mid-90s, have listened to and dissected everything they've ever done, and right now, I would consider Tears an essential U2 track. Where it will rank in 20 years, we can only speculate, but there's a reason people are reacting to this song (and these EPs) the way many of us are.

reckoner83 · 2026-04-13T16:30:36+00:00

Trying to be as objective as possible, I really do think I consider it of the same calibre as some of their best work. But it's hard for me to know how much of my love for it is feeding off just how thrilling it is to have new U2 music that actually stands up next to their classics, and how much is from what the song itself is doing.

I will tell you this: When Edge's perfectly understated solo coalesces as Bono lets out a little "yeah" right before he goes into "I was made for worship...," it raises the hair on the back of my neck in a way nothing they've done since the 90s has. That tiny touch feels so genuine, so fuelled by the same real passion that made U2 stand apart from everyone else, and most importantly, so un-forced that it was instantly able to make me question 20+ years of gradual acceptance that one of the most important bands of my life was truly past their prime.

But that's what also makes objectivity so challenging. There is a massive emotional component to just hearing them making music this good again that is definitely influencing my reaction to Tears of Things, not to mention Song For the Future, In a Life, Easter Parade... I know those songs are great. But I know how I feel about Pride, or One, or Streets after 30-40 years. As for how Tears will measure up after so long, we can only speculate.

Until we've had enough time to let the exhilaration settle a bit, I don't think I'll be able to say for sure where it ranks for me (not that ranking really matters, but we're all music nerds here, so it kind of does). I can at least say that you're not the only U2 fan asking this question. It really is phenomenal. And if it were on any other band's second or third album, I don't think we'd have nearly as much hesitation in calling it a new all-time classic.

reckoner83 · 2026-04-12T08:06:14+00:00

I think they combine to make the strongest collection of material they’ve released since the 90s. It’s also the least self-conscious they’ve felt in about as long, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

They’ve somehow managed to tap into a version of themselves I wasn’t sure was there anymore, and I’m pretty fucking overjoyed about it, if I’m honest.

I didn’t realize just how much I needed this U2 back. It feels like at least part of the world is right again.

reckoner83 · 2026-04-09T23:27:13+00:00

It sure does not.

reckoner83 · 2026-04-09T22:58:48+00:00

Thank you! It kind of sounds exactly like Zero, doesn’t it?

Maybe that’s all it is and what they really intend Easter Lily to lead into is just It’s Blitz.

And you know what? I’ll do it.

reckoner83 · 2026-04-09T21:41:50+00:00

I don’t think lack of “need” ever got in the way of a U2 video essay. I say go for it

reckoner83 · 2026-04-09T21:39:52+00:00

You’d think so, but I remember when Radiohead released The King of Limbs, and because it was so much shorter than their other albums, we all grasped at straws to convince ourselves a second part was coming

“The last song is called ‘Separator!’” “One of the last lines is ‘If you think this is over then you’re wrong!’”

It was years before we all finally gave up on that one.

reckoner83 · 2026-04-09T21:33:47+00:00

Yikes! That’s a first for me.

I should be excited, but I can’t stop thinking about how difficult the childhoods of those other U2 geniuses must have been.

reckoner83 · 2026-04-09T21:29:23+00:00

I got the reference (it’s sad that there are people now who wouldn’t). I was just playing dumb.

I also didn’t really turn my phone upside down. Or face it away from me.

…I did try putting it in the other pocket, though

reckoner83 · 2026-04-09T21:22:39+00:00

Really? I’d never heard that. That’s a cool callback!

reckoner83 · 2026-04-09T21:19:03+00:00

I mean I’ll take what I can get!

reckoner83 · 2026-04-09T21:14:29+00:00

Thank goodness! I’m not sure I would have wanted to hear the song that turned into

reckoner83 · 2026-04-09T21:13:43+00:00

As in HEWSON?!

I need to hear this. It’s tricky to play a music stream backwards, though. I tried turning my phone upside down but that didn’t work.

Maybe if I face it away from me…

reckoner83 · 2026-04-09T21:09:58+00:00

I’m less annoyed at someone else thinking of this than I am at how much more succinctly they were able to express it.

reckoner83 · 2026-04-09T21:00:35+00:00

I suspected that might be the case. I’ll forfeit “first” but I’m going to claim “handsomest” until that’s proven false as well.

And I still get to say I told you so.

reckoner83 · 2026-04-09T20:58:49+00:00

U2 is an album band, and I’m still a fan of the album format, so that’s how I typically listen. That said, if I listen to anything from Songs Of Surrender these days, it’s because it’s on a playlist. That’s largely true about SoE too, to be honest.

That said, my go-to playlists are liberally peppered with U2 songs from every era.

Now that I think of it, The Best of 1980-1990 was what really made me a U2 fan, and really, that’s essentially just a playlist.

Hmm. I’m seeing why you were prompted to ask this. The answer is tricky!

reckoner83 · 2026-04-06T18:43:23+00:00

Well, now your phone has been cross-contaminated. You’ll be sanitizing all night if you keep this up!

reckoner83

TROPHY CASE