Bono: 'U2 album was too challenging'

[DevilsShoes]

Just pulled this off Digital Spy (it may have already been posted somewhere).


Bono: 'U2 album was too challenging'
Saturday, October 24 2009, 19:56 BST

By Catriona Wightman


WENN
Bono has admitted that he is disappointed with the lack of success for U2's recent album.

No Line On The Horizon was a number one album, but single 'Get On Your Boots' peaked at number 12 in the single charts and 'I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight' only reached number 32.

According to The Mirror, Bono is unhappy that the band didn't "pull off the pop songs".

He explained: "We weren't really in that mindset and we felt that the album was kind of an almost extinct species, and we should approach it in totality and create a mood and a feeling, and a beginning, middle and end."

The frontman added that the record might have been too complex for fans.

"I suppose we've made a work that is a bit challenging for people who have grown up on a diet of popstars," he said.


I'm not sure I'd necessarily agree that NLOTH was too challenging, I personally find the likes of AB and Zooropa far more difficult to gets to grips with. I don't think the lack of pop songs was the problem with this album either. It'd be hard pushed for Boots in particular to be more hook-laden.

I just don't think the singles were strong enough. Boots and Crazy Tonight are perfectly good pop songs but I don't believe there's anything truly great about them. Crazy Tonight strains towards something great but somehow ends up falling short IMO.

Magnificent on the other hand is a real triumph and should have been the song to launch the whole campaign.

I think it'd be easy for the casual listener to catch one of these songs in passing and conclude that U2 haven't really developed all that much since HTDAAB.

The band have always tended to work best when they have a clear vision for an album, whether it's wanting to be everything the old U2 were not on AB or getting back to the more stripped back simplicity on ATYCLB. Maybe it's a lack of focus that NLOTH suffers from. Whilst the title track, I'll Go Crazy, Boots, SUC, and Breathe are perfectly decent tracks they don't have that spark of magic than runs through Zoo Station, One, End of the World, The Fly, MW and Acrobat.

And I say this as somebody who thinks AB is overrated.

 

[coolian2]

i hope they decide to stay the course though, because i don't think i'll be hanging around for another atyclb.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

Pretty simple: They just aren't as good as they used to be.

Not a big deal, they're approaching their 50's. Can't keep it up forever. Everything has an expiration date.

 

[financeguy]

i hope they decide to stay the course though, because i don't think i'll be hanging around for another atyclb.

Indeed. It's a deeply troubling article, as it indicates U2 are mainly interested in popularity for its own sake.

 

[Screwtape2]

Bono has admitted that he is disappointed with the lack of success for U2's recent album.

No Line On The Horizon was a number one album, but single 'Get On Your Boots' peaked at number 12 in the single charts and 'I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight' only reached number 32.

According to The Mirror, Bono is unhappy that the band didn't "pull off the pop songs".

He explained: "We weren't really in that mindset and we felt that the album was kind of an almost extinct species, and we should approach it in totality and create a mood and a feeling, and a beginning, middle and end."

The frontman added that the record might have been too complex for fans.

"I suppose we've made a work that is a bit challenging for people who have grown up on a diet of popstars," he said.[/I]

First off, I find it a bit funny having that first line of the article and in the next line have it say that it was a number one album.

I personally found the line about the album possibly being too complex for fans a bit insulting and in bad taste. For a fanbase that bought Achtung Baby, Zooropa and Pop, I don't think the "failure" of NLOTH is a result of it being too complex. Fans are an easy scapegoat. The truth for NLOTH not selling as much as they hoped is not restricted to one scapegoat. It starts though with possibly unrealistic expectations.

I'm not freaking out but hearing this stuff is discomforting for SOA hopes. I don't think they'd go to this extreme but I agree with Coolian that I don't think I could take another ATYCLB.

 

[U2opra]

As much as I like NLOTH, I find it part of the trilogy that goes with ATYCLB and HTDAAB (certainly the tour setlist shows that). Some of the songs from NLOTH are certainly also what you might expect on HTDAAB, like Crazy tonight for example. I think on this basis, it hasn't really gave too much of a drastic change for average joe to go "that's interesting" and take notice. It's a shame because while we may see it, a lot of more casual listeners may not, and certainly casual listeners do indeed make an impact on sales too.

NLOTH is a great album, (I know I'm gonna be blasted for this) but I must admit U2 were playing it a bit safe with some of the songs on the album and maybe could've done with a little bit more experimentation - there was a little bit too much of that familiar sound echoing from HTDAAB at times.

 

[rjhbonovox]

i hope they decide to stay the course though, because i don't think i'll be hanging around for another atyclb.

Amen to that brother. It is worrying how Bono has worded this article about their lastest album. Its a great album. Its their best since Pop, another flop. But when you are pushing 50 and yer album is not full of pop hits your not going to sell shitloads. It would be very embarrasing to see U2 go and create something similar to ATYCLB and break out another Beautiful Day. I like Beautiful Day but I just hope U2 don't go that route for the sake of selling records to the masses!

 

[coolian2]

Amen to that brother. It is worrying how Bono has worded this article about their lastest album. Its a great album. Its their best since Pop, another flop. But when you are pushing 50 and yer album is not full of pop hits your not going to sell shitloads. It would be very embarrasing to see U2 go and create something similar to ATYCLB and break out another Beautiful Day. I like Beautiful Day but I just hope U2 don't go that route for the sake of selling records to the masses!

exactly. the only thing that worries me about criticism of stuff like no line on the horizon is that is impacts their decisions on future work. i wish they'd just decide "fuck it, we're big enough and rich enough to do what we/the omg reel fans want" and go for it.

you saw them hinting at it with no line on the horizon and some of the 360 tour, but instead of stepping forward it feels like this attitude is regressing again.

 

[last unicorn]

What's Bono supposed to say? Wow, it's great we didn't sell many copies of our last album and didn't have hit singles? Come on, that would be stupid. Of course they are disappointed, we all are. Not because it's a bad album, but because we all expected it to do better. But Bono and the band even said that having hit singles wasn't on their mind when they made the album. Fans seem to hate the thought of the band making radiofriendly, mainstream music, but at the same time hate the thought of them not having hit singles.

And I don't think he meant the album is too complex for fans. It's more like: For people who are used to listen to the music that's in the charts today, and I kind of agree with that. Having hit singles isn't really about being good, it isn't about quality.

Articles like that will never be able to turn my opinion on the album around. I love NLOTH and hope U2 continue to follow this path. They have nothing to worry about with a tour like this going on. It's all about media negativity, I hope they won't stop believing in making exciting and even more innovative music.

 

[intedomine]

When casual fans buy albums, it's usually based on how much they favour the promotional singles. Did Boots fail to achieve this favourability? Yeah, probably, but I still wouldn't say it was a bad choice or too complex for radio listeners.

I can't help but feel that the commercial letdown of NLOTH is not due to a lack of pop sensibility, but rather that the commercial mainstream that U2 were selling to were just not really wanting U2 at the time. They've got their Kings Of Leon and MGMT and Pink at the moment, a new U2 release wasn't really that essential to their musical needs.

In Australia in particular, the radio stations rarely played Sexy Boots or Magnificent. There was other stuff going around that was already striking a chord with the masses, U2 weren't doing anything commercially essential.

Who knows, later in 2012 or back in 2002, Get On Your Boots could have been a smash hit number one single all around the globe, but it just wasn't gonna happen in 2009. That's just the way it is...


Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing U2 simultaenously release a Rubin album and Songs of Ascent. Radical thing to do, but the Rubin album can be the mainstream-targeting showcase of potential singles, while Songs of Ascent can be whatever it in fact actuallyis, something more for the harder core fans.

Indeed, a unique selling point for both albums is that they are two completely separate albums being released on the same day, that is bound to garner massive publicity.

 

[digitize]

What's Bono supposed to say? Wow, it's great we didn't sell many copies of our last album and didn't have hit singles? Come on, that would be stupid. Of course they are disappointed, we all are. Not because it's a bad album, but because we all expected it to do better. But Bono and the band even said that having hit singles wasn't on their mind when they made the album. Fans seem to hate the thought of the band making radiofriendly, mainstream music, but at the same time hate the thought of them not having hit singles.

And I don't think he meant the album is too complex for fans. It's more like: For people who are used to listen to the music that's in the charts today, and I kind of agree with that. Having hit singles isn't really about being good, it isn't about quality.

Articles like that will never be able to turn my opinion on the album around. I love NLOTH and hope U2 continue to follow this path. They have nothing to worry about with a tour like this going on. It's all about media negativity, I hope they won't stop believing in making exciting and even more innovative music.

I second this post.

 

[U2387]

What's Bono supposed to say? Wow, it's great we didn't sell many copies of our last album and didn't have hit singles? Come on, that would be stupid. Of course they are disappointed, we all are. Not because it's a bad album, but because we all expected it to do better. But Bono and the band even said that having hit singles wasn't on their mind when they made the album. Fans seem to hate the thought of the band making radiofriendly, mainstream music, but at the same time hate the thought of them not having hit singles.

And I don't think he meant the album is too complex for fans. It's more like: For people who are used to listen to the music that's in the charts today, and I kind of agree with that. Having hit singles isn't really about being good, it isn't about quality.

Articles like that will never be able to turn my opinion on the album around. I love NLOTH and hope U2 continue to follow this path. They have nothing to worry about with a tour like this going on. It's all about media negativity, I hope they won't stop believing in making exciting and even more innovative music.

Agree with everything you said here.

I did not interpret Bono's comments as "stupid, unsophisticated fan base was not ready for this kind of material." I interpreted them exactly as you say- the 18-35 casual music listener crowd that buys albums, listens to radio, etc, was brought up on pop crap like N SYNC, Britney, Lady GaGa, etc and shit "rock" like Nickelback. They also were brought up in the whole mentality of the music industry today which seems to want to get a huge single out of, for example, Nickelback, and then ride the song for 4 years. Make a bunch of money, then they go away.

People seem to forget that when U2 are talking about their fan base, that they, unlike any other band EVER, are talking to alot of people who have become fans since 2000 and consider ATYCLB and Bomb their first albums. For this significant part of the base, brought up with 90s boy bands and Britney on the radio, NLOTH would be challenging.

Very few U2 fans my age will mention songs older than Beautiful Day. It is the rare U2 2000s new fan that actually goes back and explores and realizes how truly awesome albums like War, UF, JT and AB are.

ATYCLB and HTDAAB, though not "pop" in the sense of the artists mentioned above, went with this mentality and both albums were a collection of potentially huge singles as a result.

I too hope they continue in the NLOTH vein. I do not think commercial success and quality work focusing on the whole album as U2 envisions it now(more reflective, companion piece to NLOTH) are mutually exclusive.

I just think choice of lead singles but more importantly how they are promoted makes all the difference these days. Of course, U2 did a major NLOTH promo tour. However, where was the promotion for Boots 6 weeks earlier when it hit the radio? As much as people hate I-tunes U2, it got Vertigo out there, got peoples' attention and told them U2 had a new album coming out. I personally would have gone with NLOTH 2 or Magnificent as the first single, but Boots is the kind of song that could have been big if it had been promoted properly.

We can argue all day over whether this new age of the huge lead single and the technology gadget promotion is good or bad, but what we can not argue is that it is REALITY. That being said, U2 needs to adapt to these times and come up with innovative, forward thinking ways to promote material they release through the mediums used in the industry today. Otherwise, they will not have huge commercial success again. I think this is more the issue than whether the tunes are "radio-friendly" or not. Lets face it, no one would have called WOWY or Still Haven't Found radio friendly in 1987.

Any ideas on how U2 should go about releasing and promoting SOA in general or Every Breaking Wave in particular? Blackberry App early release and commercial? Let it leak out? Fan club members get it first? Download it from RED campaign?? Other possibilities.

 

[digitize]

As others have said before, I do not think it's impossible to have a hit single or two on an album without compromising artistic integrity. U2 have generally done this well over their career... they have some great catchy singles that get into great albums with much more depth without making the singles themselves mediocre or anti-artistic. NYD, Pride, WOWY, The Fly/Mysterious Ways/One, Magnificent, and even BD and Cobble are all good examples of this, IMO, even though the last one didn't have much of an album to support.

The problem with Boots is that some of the fan base thought that they were making Vertigo 2.0, and rejected the single because of that, and some thought they were making Discothèque 2.0 or The Fly 2.0, and rejected it because of that. I love the song, considering that it actually has a strong lyrical position in the album, upholding the 'peripheral vision' theme of the album with ironic close-surroundings-centrism. I also love the Eno-tastic layered-ness of the production. But not a lot of people saw the single the way I saw it, so it kind of failed.

 

[financeguy]

exactly. the only thing that worries me about criticism of stuff like no line on the horizon is that is impacts their decisions on future work. i wish they'd just decide "fuck it, we're big enough and rich enough to do what we/the omg reel fans want" and go for it.

you saw them hinting at it with no line on the horizon and some of the 360 tour, but instead of stepping forward it feels like this attitude is regressing again.

Indeed. Plus, given recent album timelines, U2 will be in their mid 50s before the next one (discounting Songs of Wonder or whatever it's called)

I couldn't think of anything more pathetic than a bunch of fiftysomethings trying to write chart friendly pop hits. They weren't even very good at that in the 20s and 30s. Was With or Without You a chart friendly pop song? Hardly, it was completely different to most of what was in the charts in 1987, and yet did well in the singles charts precisely because of that.

 

[financeguy]

Very few U2 fans my age will mention songs older than Beautiful Day. It is the rare U2 2000s new fan that actually goes back and explores and realizes how truly awesome albums like War, UF, JT and AB are.

Maybe, but someone who owns two U2 albums is not a U2 'fan', they're just someone that owns a few U2 albums. No-one would claim to be a Bowie fan on the basis of owning two of his 1980s albums.

Neil Young still caters to his fanbase, sells out decent sized venues and releases new albums that do reasonably well, and probably even picks up new fans who have an interest in real music. Reason being he is not interested in compromising on his musical integrity and even if he was, rightly releases that it would be an utterly pointless exercise.

Granted, U2 will not be able to mount huge scale tours in the future if they lose the pop fans, but that's life.

 

[Utoo]

I'm surprised no one's commented on this:

Pretty simple: They just aren't as good as they used to be.

Not a big deal, they're approaching their 50's. Can't keep it up forever. Everything has an expiration date.

I can't say that I completely disagree. As a rabid fan, I want to say that there are some things that they're actually better at now than they were in the past----but if I sit back and honestly think about it, I can't come up with an example. Sad, but true.

It seems to me that they've oversimplified the idea of pop, yet have forgotten its simplest core: pop is about sex. And aside from a few examples (Streets, Beautiful Day, Pride), nearly all of their biggest radio-friendly hits during the band's pop-culture peak (easily recognized as JT through AB, perhaps extended to War through Zooropa) were about sex and relationships. First number one single in the US? WOWY. Steamy song, steamy video. Going back to NYD ("I will be with you again"), Two Hearts, WOWY, ISHFWILF, EBTTRT, One, Mysterious Ways, Ultraviolet-----nearly all of the songs that made the band a radio fixture had some feeling of sex & relationships about them. This is when the band's look & image had the most sex appeal, and Bono's voice was at is baritone peak. Perfect combination.

I love NLOTH, and I love ATYCLB, and I'm sure I'll love anything that they continue to put out because I'm a superfan. And it pains me to say this...but I've accepted it. The guys now look, act, and perform like 50-year-old rockstars eager to stay on top, not 20-something rockstars eager to get to the top. Hell, Beautiful Day was nearly 10 years ago! The Bono of that video still turns girls on. Bono's voice is still great, but it just plain doesn't have that sex appeal anymore---he'll never be able to sing anything from R&H or Achtung like he did on the album. Nor does their look ( The most striking relationship-oriented song is AMAAW---not quite a turn-on. Their lives are different & they're coming from a different place. To paraphrase Acrobat, "There was fire in their souls." There still is, but it ain't the same fire.

Maybe this is just a 29-year-old guy's oversimplification, but without the sex drive in the music & the lyrics & vocals, I can't expect another JT or AB to come. They'll still write amazing music that I'd kill to be able to put out, but JT or AB---not coming.


Meh, sad post.


ETA: I guess one chink in the armor of this theory is In A Little While----the sexiness is there, with a superbly appropriate vocal delivery...but not really the possibility of being a huge radio song, perhaps because while the music is appropriate for the song, it's not of 'huge' caliber.

 

[subnet]

so bono wants pop?

does bryan adams still live in vancouver in the month of november?

 

[angelordevil]

Very thoughtful post, U2387.

Any ideas on how U2 should go about releasing and promoting SOA in general or Every Breaking Wave in particular? Blackberry App early release and commercial? Let it leak out? Fan club members get it first? Download it from RED campaign?? Other possibilities.

The promotional game has changed so much these days -- it's hard to rise up and get something heard in the midst of so much market fragmentation.

I was actually surprised that NLOTH wasn't more of the same, in terms of the band's recent marketing and musical approach. It seemed to be a refreshing, (and somewhat deliberate) retreat from that. I believe they likely thought this was a very special album, in the same vein as Achtung -- and that it would find its way through the all crap on the charts based on merit. It's a shame that hasn't happened, because it's easily their best output since Pop.

In hindsight, and in a world where sales matter for a huge touring act like U2, I think NLOTH should have been released in a different quarter. Last Christmas would've been ideal, had the album been ready. The holiday season marks a huge sales potential for a veteran act -- casual fans, along with their grannies and aunts, are out in full force, looking for familiar brand names during a very intense shopping stretch. Boots is actually a pretty great song...it deserved more attention. "Get it in Your Stockings" could have been a marketing angle...maybe.

Getting back to your SOA promotional question. Christmas 2009 is looming -- get a single out there and spark some interest for the casual fans while the tour is ongoing.

The hardcore base will welcome the release whenever it happens, but if you're U2 and concerned about the numbers, timing is everything.

 

[purpleoscar]

NLOTH is a great album for me but I seriously don't care about massive sales and U2 should realise that most bands don't have 30 year careers with hit singles ALL THE TIME.

They basically made a Radiohead album and got the typical decent sales from it. In fact the sales are quite good for the time it was released and during a recession.

What all artists should know is that an artist's work doesn't lift itself up; the consumers of the art lift up what they want and desire. If U2 are projecting a mature band with an intellectual angle that fan base will likely be smaller than they're used to. The Joshua Tree was exactly what people wanted in the '80s so many people lifed it up very high. If the zeitgeist today is Lady Gaga then I hope U2 avoids the zeitgeist like a plague. NLOTH is a very dreamy beautiful album and I'm glad it's not mainstream. What I love about U2 is the new soundscapes you get to hear. The more innovation they discover the more precious those albums become overtime. AB still sounds fresh today. Even old songs like Drowning Man seem timeless and classic.

U2 spy planes can crash. I hope that U2 crashes with a big bang, fu*ks up the mainstream one more time and disappears off the map. With so many U2 albums they are competing against themselves and creating U2 inflation. The great songs (which are many) crowd out the good songs that lose value. It's usually when artists die or retire and there's no new material coming that the art starts increasing in value in the general public again.

 

[OrARoundabout]

At least Bono admits NLOTH was a fail...not an epic fail...but a fail none the less

Pretty simple: They just aren't as good as they used to be.

Not a big deal, they're approaching their 50's. Can't keep it up forever. Everything has an expiration date.

 

[Saracene]

I don't think that NLOTH was in any way "challenging". It just lacked strong signature songs to lure in the casual listeners, and Boots was a terrible choice for the lead single that turned off many people right off the bat. Plus the age factor is a bitch - at this point U2 could come up with their greatest song ever but it simply would not get played on the mainstream radio here.

 

[corianderstem]

Are U2 as good as they used to be? No.

Do I still enjoy the music they're making and the concerts they perform? Hell, yes.

Works for me.

 

[Screwtape2]

I think the mainstream audience (which the band seems to be targeting) is capable of artist fatigue. I think the media is too. Rattle & Hum and Pop are often citied as among the band's most polarising. They both came off of peaks in U2's popularity. This decade the mainstream audience has probably heard Beautiful Day and Vertigo everywhere. They've heard them on the radio, TV, sporting events and so on. The band was at a peak in popularity. The mainstream audience has probably gotten tired of them. Anyone be it musician, politician, athlete or actor can start to get overexposed and have people grow tired of them.

The truth is they shouldn't care about the mainstream anymore. How many artists can you name that had huge selling albums in their 50's? They've reached a point where they can do anything. They should be trying to create thier best work. They should try to make albums that they feel are among their best. Until they stop forcing singles, I have to agree with GAF and Utoo. I think they aren't as good as they once were. I think though that if they threw caution to the wind they could make an album that would change my mind. They should stop sounding like a band that is desperate to stay relevant and start sounding like a band at the peak of their ability with important things to say.

 

[digitize]

Hmm, I personally consider NLOTH their second-best album, and really love the current era. Kiss the future?

 

[kassandra]

I think the mainstream audience (which the band seems to be targeting) is capable of artist fatigue. I think the media is too. Rattle & Hum and Pop are often citied as among the band's most polarising. They both came off of peaks in U2's popularity. This decade the mainstream audience has probably heard Beautiful Day and Vertigo everywhere. They've heard them on the radio, TV, sporting events and so on. The band was at a peak in popularity. The mainstream audience has probably gotten tired of them. Anyone be it musician, politician, athlete or actor can start to get overexposed and have people grow tired of them.

The truth is they shouldn't care about the mainstream anymore. How many artists can you name that had huge selling albums in their 50's? They've reached a point where they can do anything. They should be trying to create thier best work. They should try to make albums that they feel are among their best. Until they stop forcing singles, I have to agree with GAF and Utoo. I think they aren't as good as they once were. I think though that if they threw caution to the wind they could make an album that would change my mind. They should stop sounding like a band that is desperate to stay relevant and start sounding like a band at the peak of their ability with important things to say.

Well said.

 

[Ladera Heights]

NLOTH is their best work since JT, they've no need to worry. Its one of the best all around albums in the last few years, and I think they need to continue in that direction. I'm OK with experimental pieces with a few out-and-out catchy sell-out tunes. We've hit the wall with respect to pirated downloads, so they should be happy with what they've sold.

Relevance is not album sales anymore. Its 90,000 roaring fans and the Claw.

 

[Rachel D.]

I wish they wouldn't care so much about the radio or the charts. I don't know about the rest of the world, but the radio and the charts here in the US are full of really low-grade, manufactured drivel. Of course U2's songs won't make it up the charts here! They'd have to stoop pretty low to "fit in" with the stuff that's out there now. I hope they don't; they're old enough and successful enough now to just go for it and make whatever kind of music they want. If the general public has such bad taste that they can't appreciate it, then that's their fault, not U2's! (That might sound snobby, but it's the truth!)

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

personally, i wasn't disappointed by the album at all. i was disappointed by the inclusion of boots, only because it didn't fit on the album and it tried way too hard to be another vertigo. it was too fast, too loud, it didn't even sound like u2, but not in a good way like it was in the past when they changed sounds.

i just think it was a poor choice of a first single and gave casual fans the wrong impression about the album. if they hated the song, then they didn't buy the album because they thought that's what the album was like. if they liked it, maybe they went to itunes or something to listen to samples of other songs and was disappointed by none of the other songs sounding like it.

 

[Super Yo]

I agree with Bono, i really think that the music of "NLOTH" could be not easy for the listeners of actual radio.

Seriously, we are listening to mediocre teen pop artists or bands that sounds all the same all the time. Or someone could tell me that people are ready to listen to songs like "WAS", "COL" or "MOS" ?

Come on guys, radio has more wallpaper music now than ever.

 

[BonosSaint]

Neil Young still caters to his fanbase, sells out decent sized venues and releases new albums that do reasonably well, and probably even picks up new fans who have an interest in real music. Reason being he is not interested in compromising on his musical integrity and even if he was, rightly releases that it would be an utterly pointless exercise.
.

And Neil Young isn't afraid to fail. You meet him on his terms.

Doesn't mean everything was gold. A lot of it wasn't. But what is gold is ravishing. But as far as I can see, he considers himself a working musician first, which means he is putting himself out there all the time in the recording studio, on the road. You see what he is working on all the time--good or bad (and some of it is atrocious)--use it as you will.

But he's made his career on that (and that transcendent guitar). He doesn't create expectations. He demolishes them. He disappoints, sure, but you always knew that was part of the price.