Scorpionac
War Child
That's despite the fact NLOTH doesn't have a Stuck in a Moment... In what world is Stuck beloved by U2 fans? And does he really think there are no pop songs on NLOTH? From what I recall, the band spent a good six months at production's end getting Crazy Tonight and SUC just right. Maybe what he meant to say is that NLOTH didn't have any hit pop songs.Bono said:That’s despite the fact that No Line doesn’t have a Beautiful Day and doesn’t have a Stuck in a Moment. There’s no pop song on No Line , but it’s still sold that amount. It’s been an amazing success for an album which is quite a complex piece of work and doesn’t have one pop song on it.
Wow, I can't believe Bono is still holding this song up. If I had to choose the one thing that likely doomed NLOTH (as much as it was 'doomed'; that is to say, not much at all - it's a U2 album, for heaven's sake), it would be the release of GOYB as first single. It's an extremely goofy, throwaway rock song, with Bono willingly throwing all caution to the wind and doing a white-boy rap about ice cream and sexy boots. One of U2's mantras this decade has been to not be afraid of being embarrassing (eg. Bono wanted to write a song called 'I Love You' for ATYCLB), and I admire that, but GOYB definitely takes the cake on that account. Why he or any of the band thought this song would go down well is beyond me.Bono said:People say Get on Your Boots was the wrong single, but it’s great live. Unfortunately, in the last few weeks of finishing the album, we didn’t have the objectivity. We figured out Get on Your Boots later, when we were on the road, and it became a much better song.
And what is this about the song improving live? From what I can tell it's the same live, except Bono can't keep up and is out of breath. Fine, if the song not being 'finished' is his excuse, whatever. I guess it would hurt badly to admit they just Discotheque'd themselves all over again.
Big music in big places... does he think people attended 'big' 360 shows to hear the 'big' music from NLOTH? No, they wanted to hear the 'big' music from their best albums. And small speakers, where people are living = radio and clubs? Right. Because radio doesn't reach everywhere, and clubs are so intimate. Nice & crafty way to spin his desire for hits into sounding like artistic integrity.Bono said:We can play the big music in big places. But whether we can play the small music, meaning for the small speakers of the radio or clubs, where people are living, remains to be seen. I think we have to go to that place again if we’re to survive.
With NLOTH, unfortunately, the band didn't so much use their position to puncture the mainstream and feed the public fresh, creative music as they did dive into the tried-and-tested U2 sound, then stare back through a glass wall at the interesting sounds they'd originally aspired to and left behind.Bono said:The whole point of being in U2 is that we’re not here to be an art-house band. Our job, as we see it, is to bring the art house to the mainstream; our job is to puncture the mainstream.
Bono, you annoy me. Please read my post carefully and think about what you've done.
Yup. People will buy it. U2 have a built-in audience, and someone is always listening. Bono doesn't seem to realize that. When you've got so many ears, why not give them something daring? Why not "abuse your position"? I think what people ask about a mammoth act like U2 is: have they still got it? Is the new album good, or not? Does it hold up to their best? Have they held on to their integrity? Not, is U2 hitting the pop charts... No-one cares about that. I bet if they'd released an uncompromising, daring album, word of mouth would have done wonders.and they don't need to worry about getting attention when they do come back....u2 has a sort of iconic status that any new release is going to be treated as an "event" whether it's in 2012 or 2013 or beyond. Whether it's good or not and can sell beyond that is another story of course.
So basically what he's saying is WE WANT HITS OM NOM NOM Who cares if a new U2 album doesn't set the world on fire? First and foremost I think it should set the band's world on fire. It should excite them, and if it's good work, then music fans will love it. That would place the band in a different kind of light, but it's a light nonetheless. And anyway, shouldn't they be excited to enter that stage of their career where they can do whatever they please and have an audience? Regarding being huge, they've been there, done that. If I was 50 and just come off the hugest tour, I'd jump at the chance to tone things down. Watching Bono and Edge w/ a string section at the Clinton fundraiser, I thought to myself: hey, maybe this could work. It's not the future of rock 'n' roll, but it could be the future of U2. It's a legitimate direction they could take. Time to relax and make the music they want to, without becoming complacent or resting on laurels.But even conceding that being "out of the limelight" is one path to irrelevance for u2, an even more direct path is to quickly release an album that no one really likes or buys...i think bono conceded as much when he said something along the lines of "we don't want the next thing the public hears from u2 to be an art record."
At this point, they can play the hit game. They can play the monster-reinvention game if they want, too. These two approaches might even coincide, if they adopt the sound of modern radio. (While that idea interests me, I'm sure it would be the death of U2 as people would finally get the chance to unequivocally cry 'sell-out'.) But with NLOTH, it's hard to tell if they even had a game.
Exactly (and much more succinct than I managed). =PIf they hadn't gotten cold feet before the end, and putting things like Crazy Tonight, Stand-Up Comedy on there, failing to complete Winter, and toning down some of the more exotic elements on something like Magnificent, we might have wound up with an album that, marketed correctly (and with better reviews, I'm sure) could have crossed cultural lines and shown a U2 to the public that wasn't retreading over the same ground.