Bono interview in Australian Press - Danger Mouse

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Here's what scares me from the article. Bono is disappointed that NLOTH didn't have significant radio airplay. Hell, the best stuff on that album was the least radio friendly. (Getting a song on the radio) "That's our drug of choice now". If that's the case, my suggestion is go to rehab immediately and kick that habit. When the band focuses on getting airplay we get stuff like "The Saints are coming". While the song by itself is fine, I don't think it makes any new fans and it sure as hell doesn't give the established fan base (whether you are into Pre-Achtung U2 or Achtung/Post-Achtung U2) anything more than a sugar high. While I'm sure that subconsciously U2 was hoping for a killer single off of Achtung, I don't think it was their primary driver and at least they didn't let that want get in the way of letting the music speak for itself. During that time period we got singles like The Fly. While it ended up being a moderately successful single, it had an ulterior motive; get people talking and excited about U2 and what they're doing. Let's all be honest about this band, they put out their best work when they have motives outside of trying to chase top 40 radio. I know it's not the best parallel, but I'd much rather see the band grow old gracefully (like Springsteen or Dylan) by putting out music that challenges themselves and their listeners rather than ensure that they get a song out that Seacrest is going to play. Please, just let the music speak for itself.

Well said. They were in trouble the moment they conceived the 360 tour for NLOTH. NLOTH would have been better suited to a smaller more intimate setting. I don't understand why U2 feels as it has to chase those fans who only loved them in the JT-era. But I guess 'hits' sell tickets, which pays for a tour stage that is a monument to ego and excess. I love U2, and yes, I am going to shows, but I'm sad that NLOTH got the shaft.
 
I agree, however, I think that almost every song on AB was tighter, and, in structure, poppier, than the work on NLOTH. Big hooks, verse, chorus, verse, a big chorus. It's all there.

I think chasing a single is fine if that's what they want, and that's what keeps them moving. We wouldn't have BD, or Desire if they weren't chasing great singles.

Or Window In The Skies...
 
but I'm sad that NLOTH got the shaft.

But the problem is, U2 is not soley to blame for the shaft. It just wasn't well recieved by the audience as a whole, and what's the point of playing the songs if the stadium or arena sounds like crickets? It's a shame because 80% of the album is pretty amazing, yet even some of the most die hard in here just didn't "get" it.
 
He's probably the longest lasting troll we have in here...

About the last 10 or so comments I've seen from him have been to pop up out of the blue and piss on the positivity shown in the thread by making wild, unconnected and pretty base-level analytical statements designed to decrease the enjoyment and appreciation felt by others.

Or, quite literally:
Urban Dictionary: shart
 
About the last 10 or so comments I've seen from him have been to pop up out of the blue and piss on the positivity shown in the thread by making wild, unconnected and pretty base-level analytical statements designed to decrease the enjoyment and appreciation felt by others.

Or, quite literally:
Urban Dictionary: shart

And these are tame compared to his old days...
 
You gotta love the time inbetween tours and albums. I can't wait to find out what the coming month will give us for valuable threads and discussions.
 
The mention of the Club album after the Danger Mouse comment in the original article, lead me into believing that Danger Mouse produces the Rock album and then David Guetta/RedOne/Will.i.am are in charge of the club album.

If Danger Mouse is producing the Club album...is Rubin in charge of the Rock album and the other three guys that I just mentioned just guests on the Club album?

EDIT: Oh wait, this is what The Age said:

The second album is what he calls a "club" record, that will feature Lady Gaga collaborator RedOne, Black Eyed Peas rapper Will.I.Am and French superstar David Guetta.

They clearly make a distinction between the "12 songs" album (presumably the Rock album) and this second, or Club album, but that still doesn't clarify if Danger Mouse produces both albums or just the Rock album. :huh:
 
While I'm sure that subconsciously U2 was hoping for a killer single off of Achtung, I don't think it was their primary driver and at least they didn't let that want get in the way of letting the music speak for itself. During that time period we got singles like The Fly. While it ended up being a moderately successful single, it had an ulterior motive; get people talking and excited about U2 and what they're doing. Let's all be honest about this band, they put out their best work when they have motives outside of trying to chase top 40 radio.
I'm subconsciously hoping you're kidding
they went from the Salome sessions to Even Better ... and Mysterious Ways + chopping up one monster track into 3 different 4 minute songs
if they'd do that now some on this forum would claim they're top 40 horny, money hungry commercial hacks
 
I'm subconsciously hoping you're kidding
they went from the Salome sessions to Even Better ... and Mysterious Ways + chopping up one monster track into 3 different 4 minute songs
if they'd do that now some on this forum would claim they're top 40 horny, money hungry commercial hacks

Exactly...

The jester is whack.
 
But the problem is, U2 is not soley to blame for the shaft. It just wasn't well recieved by the audience as a whole, and what's the point of playing the songs if the stadium or arena sounds like crickets? It's a shame because 80% of the album is pretty amazing, yet even some of the most die hard in here just didn't "get" it.

Well they blew it with making "Boots" as the lead single.

I guess my point is, and has always been that they would not have to play to a stunned audience in a stadium if they tailored the tour to the album. Smaller, intimate. Instead they went for bigger, thinking it would make them closer...hence you have to sell seats and the only way to to that is by playing hits, and making hits. I know---I saw it when I was at the Raleigh show, people sitting during most of the NLOTH songs, standing for all of the war horses. I don't know---thats boring to me. What does this mean for any new music? I just wish U2 would stop acting like they have to be liked by everyone in Top 40 radio---does that s%it really even matter anymore?

Next tour should be like this:

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueFTz3owufQ
 
NLOTH
Magnificent
Breathe
MOS

There's a much better marketing campaign for NLOTH, damn I wish we could go back in time.
 
I don't want U2 to make music that can be played on radio. I want U2 to define what can be played on radio. ;)

Which is what they did in the JT-Zooropa era, they made hits out of things that sounded absolutely nothing like anything else in the mainstream.
 
I guess my point is, and has always been that they would not have to play to a stunned audience in a stadium if they tailored the tour to the album. Smaller, intimate. Instead they went for bigger, thinking it would make them closer...hence you have to sell seats and the only way to to that is by playing hits, and making hits. I know---I saw it when I was at the Raleigh show, people sitting during most of the NLOTH songs, standing for all of the war horses. I don't know---thats boring to me. What does this mean for any new music? I just wish U2 would stop acting like they have to be liked by everyone in Top 40 radio---does that s%it really even matter anymore?

While I agree completely about the problems with the live show, I think it's unrealistic to expect a band that has spent all of its career at the top to suddenly decide not to care about being the best. Success just doesn't work like that, and makes it very hard to accept being second best. It goes against the reason for the band's existence in the first place.
 
Well said. They were in trouble the moment they conceived the 360 tour for NLOTH. NLOTH would have been better suited to a smaller more intimate setting. I don't understand why U2 feels as it has to chase those fans who only loved them in the JT-era. But I guess 'hits' sell tickets, which pays for a tour stage that is a monument to ego and excess. I love U2, and yes, I am going to shows, but I'm sad that NLOTH got the shaft.
I've been saying this for ages, claiming that 360º has zero connection to the album because it's pretty clear that NLOTH is a product post-360 conception. But when I say that, I'm always the bad guy.
 
T
They clearly make a distinction between the "12 songs" album (presumably the Rock album) and this second, or Club album, but that still doesn't clarify if Danger Mouse produces both albums or just the Rock album. :huh:

I would say that U2 are working on the next U2 album with Danger Mouse, and the material on that album will be the same as most/all U2 albums (with, hopefully, a new/different sonic spin via DM) in as much as it will have some big songs, some quiet songs, and maybe a couple of more left field songs. Like all U2 albums do. So in reality it's probably stolen a bit from the original SoA material, stolen a bit from the 'rock' material, wrapped together with new stuff that has been wholly created along the way - hopefully some of it coming from moments where they've let Danger Mouse wander them off into somewhere very, very new. I don't think it would be a case of Danger Mouse producing just one of those groupings of material, and the other/s left aside. It's not how they work.

I mean, I could quite literally see a new album opening with something that really announces where they're at (a track that screams "A Danger Mouse Production"), followed in Track 2 by a 'big', catchy, perhaps first single track (i.e. likely coming from the 'rock' material - very possibly Mercy, so from Atomic Bomb FFS), followed in Track 3, always a slower song, by Every Breaking Wave (i.e. the SoA material). All worked on with and produced by DM in the last 12 months, but all originally coming from different points, projects and material.

The 'club' material - being perhaps too different or difficult to wrap together into a cohesive album with the other material - I bet, they struggle to do anything with? Similar to the original Songs of Ascent idea, I would think it could only be released as a whole, singular thing if it were in the immediate shadow of something much larger and very, very successful? So who knows.

All U2 'songs' are fluid until they are released. I don't think anything from the original Songs of Ascent material (No Line hangovers) or Rubin sessions or any newer 'rock' or even earlier 'club' material would ever be 'finished' and locked up on a shelf as a complete thing awaiting it's moment to be released. I'm sure any and all of that material is raided and re-worked continually. I'm sure there's some Rubin in Danger Mouse, Songs of Ascent in the Club etc, if you know what I mean. Whether that's a complete song overhaul or just the theft of a chorus or riff or something, I think its easy for them to sort all of this material into strict 'projects' or 'albums' but the reality is or will be that they all sort of blur a bit in the end.

I really can't see anything coming from work with David Guetta or Will.i.Am (might be wrong of course, but it makes me think bouncy and bright-ish) mixing well with songs that have likely evolved from Rubin through SoA into Danger Mouse. Apart from that, I don't think any distinction between the material will really mean anything in the end. I mean, it might. I could be totally wrong and they really do see these as wholly separate albums (as opposed to material, or projects - not just albums worth), and they might, say, release a DM produced album and still be banging on about a rock album, or Rubin material or whatever, but I doubt it. I would like that - as it suggests for starters that the DM material is truly, really, very different to the norm for U2, but my bet is that it's a DM spin on a fairly normal U2 album, and that the conception of that album follows a fairly normal U2-pattern.
 
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