Sunday, February 2, 2025

U2 - BBC Sessions, Volume 10: U2 at the BBC, Abbey Road Studios, London, Britain, 11-16-2017

Here is the tenth, and last, album of U2 performing for the BBC. At least the last so far, since they may well give more such performances in the future. This is a short but full concert. And it's one with a twist, since they are backed by a BBC orchestra.

This contains all the music from this concert, but it isn't entirely complete. You see, there was a BBC DJ who led lengthy question and answer sessions with the band members between some songs. In my opinion, those interview sections are good for one or two listens, but not the hopefully many repeat listens one could have of the music. So I cut most of that out. I only kept some of the answers if they fit as lead ins to the next song that was being played.

Also, the BBC has broadcast this multiple times, and included different songs, and different song orders, on different occasions. I consulted a U2 fan website and discovered a list of the true order the songs were played in, which was different from any of the BBC broadcasts. So I rearranged the songs to match the true order. This probably isn't the complete concert. For instance, one of the songs was played twice due to a filming problem. And some of the banter probably got edited out. But it has at least one version of every song that got performed.

As U2 likes to do, there are little snippets of other songs included in some of the songs. I didn't mention the snippets in the set list, because they're pretty short. But they included references to "Starman" by David Bowie, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division, "Invisible," "Father and Son" by Cat Stevens, "All You Need Is Love" by the Beatles, and "Walk to the Water."

The concert happened shortly after the release of the band's 2017 studio album "Songs of Experience." Five of the eleven songs played are from that album. I think that album is a lesser work compared to most of their earlier albums, but they chose the best ones and they sound pretty good here mixed with some older classics.

As far as I know, everything here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.

This album is 56 minutes long.

01 talk (U2)
02 Beautiful Day (U2)
03 talk (U2)
04 Lights of Home (U2)
05 talk (U2)
06 You're the Best Thing about Me (U2)
07 talk (U2)
08 Every Breaking Wave (U2)
09 With or Without You (U2)
10 talk (U2)
11 Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of (U2)
12 talk (U2)
13 Get Out of Your Own Way (U2)
14 One (U2)
15 Love Is Bigger than Anything in Its Way (U2)
16 13 [There Is a Light] (U2)
17 All I Want Is You (U2)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Boa8RUbZ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/dn17aGnNDZBa8yR/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. Sorry to bassist Larry Mullen, since I couldn't find a way to crop the picture without cutting him out, due to him being way off to the side.

1 comment: