Pop-Up [Australian Import]
U2 - Live At Red Rocks - Under A Blood Red Sky [1983] 
List Price: ?12.99
Used Price: ?1.69
Customer Review: A rare look at the legendary band in their early days
People more familiar with the U2 of the “Achtung Baby” and “Pop” albums should check out this video for educational purposes alone. Filemd June 3, 1983 on a rainy night in Denver, Colorado, the band supports their groundbreaking “War” album with this hour-long concert video. People expecting to see giant TV screens and twenty foot Lemons may be a bit disappointed and should probably look into their latter videos of the ZooTV or PopMart shows. This is nothing more than a great band and unbeleivably great music. Visual aids are stripped down to nothing more than a white flag waved by frontman Bono during “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” And guitarist The Edge shows his truly unique style and technique on songs like “Surrender”, “Gloria” and “I Threw a Brick Through a Window.” By far, one of the best concert videos ever produced for the rock and roll medium, and a must-see for fans of great music.
Customer Review: Early U2 at It’s Best
This video captures one of U2’s finest performances of all time. Okay there aren’t scores of world-wide smash hits and giant TV screens, but what there is is plenty of raw stripped down music from one of the worlds greatest ever bands. This concert was shot at Red Rocks colorado in 1983. The rain poured throughout the show soaking the 4000 capacity crowd that had turned up to see ,then cult, heroes Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Junior. However the crowd were warmed by the passionate performance of 22 year old Bono. This video illustrates where U2 got the tag of being “Rock’s Consience” from. The highlight of the video being Bono’s flag waving antics during their biggest hit of the time Sunday Bloody Sunday. Other hits included are the UK no.3 song New Years Day and I Will Follow, but in the main the songs are probably much lesser known than hits of later days such as With or Without You. Nevertheless 11 ‘o’ clock tic talk and Surrender are sung with a passion and rawness that makes them instantly enjoyable. For U2 fans this is a must have album and I would highly recommend it for any rock fan.
You Could Have It So Much Better 
You Could Have it So Much Better, the second album from Mercury Music Prize winners Franz Ferdinand is pretty much everything a band’s second record should be: an assured, endearingly cocky return that builds on the strengths of its predecessor, and importantly, brings a few more tricks to the table. 
Beyond hipster quips and hedonism, however, Franz are busy expanding their emotional palette. “Walk Away” is a fragile indie soul piece, Alex Kapranos cooing “mascara bleeds into my eyes” over a tune reminiscent of London garage rockers The Flaming Stars (although it also features references to Mao-Tse Tung and Hitler, so don’t be too quick to pin this one as a love song). Meanwhile, “Eleanor Put Your Boots On” nods to Dylan and Revolver-era Beatles, suggesting an urge to capture hearts beyond the dancefloor. All the same, though, a fabulous return. –Louis Pattison
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See more Franz products List Price: ?11.99
Amazon Price: ?3.97
Used Price: ?1.10
Customer Review: Why settle for Kilimangiro…. When you can mount Everest?
Following swiftly on from their debut, it’s easy to think that Franz Ferdinand are striking whilst the iron is hot, rushing a new album in the law of diminishing returns. Not for them, the difficult second album. “You Could Have It So Much Better” seems to fall effortlessly from the same pot of gold as their debut. It isn’t a case of the Emporer’s new clothes, but of a new regime. Hopefully kicking out the imposters and the other talentless drip charlatans with their pathetic inner demons, drug implants, and talent transplants, Der Franz take the angular artrock of postpunk and make it sound very now (as well as very Next Year) in a way that probably won’t date. Chock full of hits (even the songs that won’t be hits sound like hits), from the pounding “Do You Want To?” to the closing “The Outsiders”, Franz tap into classic imagery and reset it in a new frame. Lyrics are both specifically personal and ambigiously vague. A sound that is both idiosyncratically unique and familiar enough to seem familiar to children of all ages, “You Could Have It So Much Better” reminds me of nothing as much as U2’s “October.” - the sound of potential becoming flesh. The sound of a band that is beginning to scratch the surface of its ambition, exploring a new world whilst remaining recognisable by its trademarks, and a band that will be absolutely stadium fillingly pantwettingly huge in five years time. Songs on here sound like old favourites the first time you hear them, so swamped in the air of familiarity and memorable melodies that “You Could….” sounds like another Greatest Hits album. And the feeling I get is that they haven’t written their first stadium anthem yet. Their first absolute, bona-fide, Live-Forever style classic that will outlive any and all trends and the trappings of the age. “You Could Have It So Much Better” … is practically a taunt to the competition - why settle for less, when you can have this?
Customer Review: A Witty and Entertaining Follow-Up
I’m somewhat disadvantaged in assessing this collection because I’ve never heard the first album - but believe me, it’s on my Christmas List! In my experience, second albums released hastily on the back of a successful debut are nothing to write home about. And Mercury prize winners are another cause for suspicion in my book. However, this one is a big exception. It’s imaginitive, interesting and (after quite a few listens) entertaining. But you’ve got to play it a lot of times and give it a chance! With the first hearing, I didn’t think I’d enjoy it. And I was right - I didn’t - apart from a couple of the more conventional-sounding tracks such as Eleanor and Walk Away. But that’s not the time to write a review, which I suspect is the problem with most of the negative reviews here. Giving an album one star because it’s not how you would like it to be misses the whole point of objective appraisal. Would you say Beethoven was rubbish because it’s not like Coldplay? To my mind this is an excellent album. The dry wit of the lyrics in particular reveals itself gradually the more times you listen. I wouldn’t normally resort to filling my review by quoting lyrics but I can’t resist including the phrases “I’ve watched you clean the filth off your phone dial” and “As you walk away, Radio 4 is static”. The melodies are unusual but they grow on you and are all the more satisfying for that. It may sound unlikely but at times the sound of the band approaches that of Captain Beefheart’s early 70’s Magic Band, with a driving bass, thumping drums and a relentless Telecaster rhythm, particularly on “I’m Your Villain”. I’ve not heard another band get near that sound before (and if you like it, get yourself a copy of the astonishing Trout Mask Replica). An original and clever album. Not dramatic enough for five stars but - buy it, give it time and it will reward you.
