U2 – Sing Your Heart Out (Godfather Records G.R. 417/418)

Sing Your Heart Out (Godfather Records G.R. 417/418)

Stade de France, Paris, France – July 12th, 2009

Disc 1: 73:59. Intro: Space Oddity/Kingdom, Breathe, No Line On The Horizon, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Beautiful Day/Here Comes The Sun, Mysterious Ways, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For/Angel Of Harlem/Man In The Mirror/Don’t Stop ‘Till You Get Enough, Stuck in A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of, Unknown Caller, The Unforgettable Fire, City Of Blinding Lights, Vertigo/I Predict A Riot
Disc 2: 76:03. I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy/Let’s Dance/That’s The Way I Like it/O Come All Ye Faithful, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Pride, MLK, Walk On/You’ll Never Walk Alone, Desmond Tutu Speech, Where The Streets Have No Name/All You Need Is love, One, Ultra violet(light My Way), With Or Without You, Moment Of Surrender.
Bonus Tracks: Stade de France, Paris, July 11, 2009. Desire/Billie Jean/Don’t Stop ‘Till You Get Enough, In A Little While, With Or Without You

Godfather’s continuous excellent work of documenting U2’s European 360° stadium tour continues with Sing Your Heart from Paris. It’s aptly titled because that is exactly what Bono attempts. He having more vocal problems on this night and barely able to really carry notes. but he and the band put in an energetic and inspiring rock and roll performance.

I believe this is an excellent audience recording, close to soundboard quality. I listened to this both in my car where it was incredibly good and at home via a Sony RCD-W500C Cd player, with out an amplifier. At home, lets just say I had to turn it up to “30”, 11 isn’t loud enough Tap fans, to get some really good volume out of it. While at the same time I would not say it is distant. Just the way it was recorded. It is an outstanding recording. The band is in full stereo with no instrument or vocal out weighing another. I also believe its an audience recording because of some clapping right into a microphone, either from the stage or by the tapper, during With or Without You. But that’s just a detail which doesn’t take away from another outstanding release from Godfatherecords. There’s no audience interference in any way and the whole stadium can be heard singing at times which really helps add to live feel of it all.

The taper once again caught the intro of Space Oddity. The set list seems to be the generic one they are using on the European leg. The only set list additives are Mysterious Ways, which has been inserted in various cities and Beautiful Day replacing Elevation, again the two standard inserts. It is obviously heavy with Michael Jackson lines, with his recent death. They never really play the full songs by these other bands, just a few lines here and there to pay tribute. Breathe isn’t played with the same opening intensity that it is with other shows, such as it is in the London and Sheffield shows. The intensity expected from a live act, does pick up with No Line On The Horizon, and at about 1:30 into the song the quality of the recording does step up a notch. Could be the amps warmed up, or the taper moved to a better location.

Bono lets the crowd know that the French Elvis, Johnny Holiday is in the house, and dedicated Mysterious Ways to him, announcing that U2 is “only renting the place from him”. Bono also screws some of the lyrics up, and thanks him later after With Or Without You. Bono has the crowd sing the first verse to I Still haven’t Found What I’m Looking for, kind of nice atmospheric effect. Maybe to cover for his vocal problems as well. Angel Of Harlem is dedicated to Michael Jackson, and lines from Man In The Mirror and Don’t Stop ‘Till You get Enough are sung. Bono really starts having vocal problems with The Unforgettable Fire, and it seems to get worse as the show goes on. They get back into a rock and roll mode with Vertigo, after a very mellow, almost listless  City Of Blinding Light, and merge The Kaiser Chiefs I Predict A Riot at the end of Vertigo. I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy is once again played for some dancing and start it out with Bowie’s Lets Dance, with Bono encouraging the Paris crowd to dance. Dancing’s fun, but  I hope disco isn’t making some kind of a comeback in Europe.

Enlight of Bono’s continuing vocal problems, which increase as the show goes on, it’s a great band performance overall. Once again, The Godfatherecirds provide some excellent bonus tracks, that sound like an excellent audience recording as well. They are very unique this time. An acoustic version of Desire/Billie Jean/Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough and In A Little While, With Or Without You/Rain is electric. If Bono’s voice issues aren’t much of a distraction, then this is highly recommended for any fan.