Danger Mouse being secretive about U2 production...

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Listen to the Shins, and then Broken Bells. Broken Bells is a collaboration between the Shins singer and Danger Mouse. If you listen to the Shins first, you'll see how DM has sort of 'stepped up' or redirected that sound/feel without taking away from it. If you don't like Broken Bells, you probably won't like the Shins, but you'll see my point, and that is how I imagine it will be with U2.

And its not in any way an indication of his sound overall, only that you can easily recognise his fingerprints on it, if you know his stuff well enough. A lot of people name-checked Broken Bells immediately simply because it is a widely liked, very recent album. His resume is pretty wide. I could imagine a U2 album with him having a song or two that leans in a way in the BB direction/sound/feel, but certainly not over the whole thing.

I'm excited about it because it represents to me the possibility that they've hooked up with someone who they can work with in a similar truly creative/collaborative fashion as they did with Eno/Lanois (which I think they need), but, well, new and different. I would expect it to be similar to Eno/Lanois in as much as it will be distinctively U2, just replace the 'colours' of the sonic foundation Eno/Lanois brought with new ones. To what degree - no idea, obviously, but it's nothing to worry about.

Their 'rock edge and ambient brilliance' as you describe it, could be - and likely will be - there by the bucketload. Easily. I can imagine very crisp, bright, clear rock singles, if that's what they have or want. Or I could just as easily imagine more complex, dark, stormy material too. It could be a pretty straight forward U2 album with a new twist, or it could be a wholly new turn in sound and style. But it's certainly nothing to fear.
 
Earnie Shavers said:
Listen to the Shins, and then Broken Bells. Broken Bells is a collaboration between the Shins singer and Danger Mouse. If you listen to the Shins first, you'll see how DM has sort of 'stepped up' or redirected that sound/feel without taking away from it. If you don't like Broken Bells, you probably won't like the Shins, but you'll see my point, and that is how I imagine it will be with U2.

And its not in any way an indication of his sound overall, only that you can easily recognise his fingerprints on it, if you know his stuff well enough. A lot of people name-checked Broken Bells immediately simply because it is a widely liked, very recent album. His resume is pretty wide. I could imagine a U2 album with him having a song or two that leans in a way in the BB direction/sound/feel, but certainly not over the whole thing.

I'm excited about it because it represents to me the possibility that they've hooked up with someone who they can work with in a similar truly creative/collaborative fashion as they did with Eno/Lanois (which I think they need), but, well, new and different. I would expect it to be similar to Eno/Lanois in as much as it will be distinctively U2, just replace the 'colours' of the sonic foundation Eno/Lanois brought with new ones. To what degree - no idea, obviously, but it's nothing to worry about.

Their 'rock edge and ambient brilliance' as you describe it, could be - and likely will be - there by the bucketload. Easily. I can imagine very crisp, bright, clear rock singles, if that's what they have or want. Or I could just as easily imagine more complex, dark, stormy material too. It could be a pretty straight forward U2 album with a new twist, or it could be a wholly new turn in sound and style. But it's certainly nothing to fear.
Click to expand...

Absolutely.

I like almost every word you said!

I saw a Shins show in May 2009 and get your analogy entirely.

I didn't mean to come across as not wanting to give DM a chance, or even as me saying anything negative about him as a producer.

Thank you for your more detailed explanation of things here, I always enjoy your well written, well thought out and concise posts:up::up:
 
I agree about DMs production. I'm a huge fan of the Gnarls Barkley albums, and think that he could bring a lot of new things to U2. Specifically, I think he'll get them working off of loops such as Eno does, but as stated above, loops of different "colors."

Also, there tends to be a lot of background vocals, harmonies and vocal layers in his work, and I'd love to see him push them there. He also tends to mix up instruments in interesting ways, such as old hammond organ type sounds with modern drim sounds.

My biggest hope is that he might be able to make them feel comfortable with less. Again, I agree that it will be bright, crisp and clear. I can only imagine what he could do with EBW.
 
But also he's extremely talented. Surely one of the greatest rappers of all time...
Trying to make Jay Z comparable to Will.I.Am is about like substituting Kanye for Diddy.
Either you can spot the crap artist or you can't. They aren't all crap and they aren't all great. And if someone thinks its all crap...then, whatever, you could say you aren't a fan of the genre...but that doesn't excuse the ignorance of that blanket perception.

And quite frankly, Jay Z is nowhere near in his ballpark no matter what you feel. He's pretty much a 'legend' in his own time. And obviously, as stated above, not a producer.

But the point is...and the reason I am even bringing this up (not making a mountain out of a molehill by a single mention of Jay Z but a broader point...) like SO MUCH ELSE AROUND HERE...there are these Bullshit Strawmen tossed out left and right around here...the latest being "you can't predict the future" or it's B-side "you can't get into their heads!" (such as previous 'greatest hits' like 'U2 have never changed') and this is the latest in the attempt to squash any and all criticism with blanket statements...like this...you must hate all hip-hop or rap if you resist Will.I.Am! Like Jay-Z, I mean people would go ape-shit, wouldn't they? (pretending he was a producer) Maybe they would. But not everyone. Maybe we should look for the old thread from 2008. I am sure there are many close-minded people who write off genres of music in whole. I don't.

Speaking for myself, I'm not against Will.I.Am (as producer of U2 - in any respect) simply because of his genre but because he is a derivative hack within his own genre. Like any genre under the sun, there is plenty of great rap and hip-hop. And just like those other genres, many of the most popular acts are kind of hollow acts like BEP. I'd rather U2 roll the dice with any number of those hip-hop or rap folk. Will.I.Am is at the VERY bottom of that list. Maybe one slot above the worst of all time - P Diddy.
 
Inner El Guapo said:
Speaking for myself, I'm not against Will.I.Am (as producer of U2 - in any respect) simply because of his genre but because he is a derivative hack within his own genre.
Click to expand...

I would argue that Will.I.Am's genre is not really hip-hop (or dance) but simply pop. Whatever he does, it's pop. BEP dance, is pop. BEP hip-hop, is pop. His work with others, is pop - and outside BEP he works with pop artists, producing fairly straight pop. What he has done with U2 so far, is pop. What will he continue to bring to U2? Probably whatever they want, but it will come from the pop end of spectrum.
 
coolian2 said:
i'd still love to see kanye west produce a u2 album, but i think that ship has probably sailed.
Click to expand...

This. For the gazillionth time. :yes:

Earnie Shavers said:
I would argue that Will.I.Am's genre is not really hip-hop (or dance) but simply pop. Whatever he does, it's pop. BEP dance, is pop. BEP hip-hop, is pop. His work with others, is pop - and outside BEP he works with pop artists, producing fairly straight pop. What he has done with U2 so far, is pop. What will he continue to bring to U2? Probably whatever they want, but it will come from the pop end of spectrum.
Click to expand...

Exactamundo. And what does U2 want to make? Pop.

Let's give the guy some credit, he makes great catchy pop stuff. We can write "BEP sucks", "WillIAm sucks" all we want on an internet board, but at the end of the day probably hundreds of millions of people have sung along or bopped their heads to stuff he's either made or produced. Some of those millions did so at U2 shows when he opened for them. So he's far from a hack within the pop genre.
 
Inner El Guapo said:
But also he's extremely talented. Surely one of the greatest rappers of all time...
Trying to make Jay Z comparable to Will.I.Am is about like substituting Kanye for Diddy.
Either you can spot the crap artist or you can't. They aren't all crap and they aren't all great. And if someone thinks its all crap...then, whatever, you could say you aren't a fan of the genre...but that doesn't excuse the ignorance of that blanket perception.

And quite frankly, Jay Z is nowhere near in his ballpark no matter what you feel. He's pretty much a 'legend' in his own time. And obviously, as stated above, not a producer.

But the point is...and the reason I am even bringing this up (not making a mountain out of a molehill by a single mention of Jay Z but a broader point...) like SO MUCH ELSE AROUND HERE...there are these Bullshit Strawmen tossed out left and right around here...the latest being "you can't predict the future" or it's B-side "you can't get into their heads!" (such as previous 'greatest hits' like 'U2 have never changed') and this is the latest in the attempt to squash any and all criticism with blanket statements...like this...you must hate all hip-hop or rap if you resist Will.I.Am! Like Jay-Z, I mean people would go ape-shit, wouldn't they? (pretending he was a producer) Maybe they would. But not everyone. Maybe we should look for the old thread from 2008. I am sure there are many close-minded people who write off genres of music in whole. I don't.

Speaking for myself, I'm not against Will.I.Am (as producer of U2 - in any respect) simply because of his genre but because he is a derivative hack within his own genre. Like any genre under the sun, there is plenty of great rap and hip-hop. And just like those other genres, many of the most popular acts are kind of hollow acts like BEP. I'd rather U2 roll the dice with any number of those hip-hop or rap folk. Will.I.Am is at the VERY bottom of that list. Maybe one slot above the worst of all time - P Diddy.
Click to expand...

Jay-Z is my favorite rapper of all time. I love the guy. He shits on will.I.am as an artist. But he doesn't produce records, so its silly to even discuss the possibility and/or compare him to will.i.am or danger mouse, who are producers more than artists.

Frankly id love to one day hear "treason", the song they allegedly did with dr. dre.
 
Inner El Guapo said:
But also he's extremely talented. Surely one of the greatest rappers of all time...
Click to expand...
2ujte0m.jpg

OF ALL TIME!
I'm so sorry. :reject:
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
Frankly id love to one day hear "treason", the song they allegedly did with dr. dre.
Click to expand...

:yes:

I'm surprised with all their (ie Bono's) professed love for hip hop, having Kanye and Jay Z and Public Enemy open their shows, recording a song with Dre and the band not being shy to work with various sound loops/samples before....why has there not been a U2 album produced by a hip hop artist so far ?
 
Earnie Shavers said:
I would argue that Will.I.Am's genre is not really hip-hop (or dance) but simply pop. Whatever he does, it's pop. BEP dance, is pop. BEP hip-hop, is pop. His work with others, is pop - and outside BEP he works with pop artists, producing fairly straight pop. What he has done with U2 so far, is pop. What will he continue to bring to U2? Probably whatever they want, but it will come from the pop end of spectrum.
Click to expand...

This is what I don't want, radio-friendly pop from U2. But Bono said he wants to be on the radio again, so that's probably what they'll try to do with their Will.I.Am club/pop album. Like I said before, my expectations are low for this project, but there's always the Danger Mouse album, too. I'm expecting that one to have more depth and complexity to counteract whatever comes out of the club project in the event that it's terrible. And there's always the possibility that they will both be amazing and we'll have two awesome U2 albums to drool over in a (hopefully) short span of time.
 
I'll echo what Ernie was saying. A lot depends on what U2 brings to these producers.

Nevertheless, I am pretty curious to see what Will.I.Am will do. Just hope it's not a bunch of CT's. (not that i hate that song...it's a lot like Ernie said, nothing objectionable, but nothing really amazing either)
 
Earnie Shavers said:
Listen to the Shins, and then Broken Bells. Broken Bells is a collaboration between the Shins singer and Danger Mouse. If you listen to the Shins first, you'll see how DM has sort of 'stepped up' or redirected that sound/feel without taking away from it. If you don't like Broken Bells, you probably won't like the Shins, but you'll see my point, and that is how I imagine it will be with U2.

And its not in any way an indication of his sound overall, only that you can easily recognise his fingerprints on it, if you know his stuff well enough. A lot of people name-checked Broken Bells immediately simply because it is a widely liked, very recent album. His resume is pretty wide. I could imagine a U2 album with him having a song or two that leans in a way in the BB direction/sound/feel, but certainly not over the whole thing.

I'm excited about it because it represents to me the possibility that they've hooked up with someone who they can work with in a similar truly creative/collaborative fashion as they did with Eno/Lanois (which I think they need), but, well, new and different. I would expect it to be similar to Eno/Lanois in as much as it will be distinctively U2, just replace the 'colours' of the sonic foundation Eno/Lanois brought with new ones. To what degree - no idea, obviously, but it's nothing to worry about.

Their 'rock edge and ambient brilliance' as you describe it, could be - and likely will be - there by the bucketload. Easily. I can imagine very crisp, bright, clear rock singles, if that's what they have or want. Or I could just as easily imagine more complex, dark, stormy material too. It could be a pretty straight forward U2 album with a new twist, or it could be a wholly new turn in sound and style. But it's certainly nothing to fear.
Click to expand...

I think it'll be both. If you listen the Broken Bells album, there are songs on there that are classic Shins. But then there's a song like Ghost Inside, that has Danger Mouse written all over it. And, in fact, if I were to come up with one characteristic of Danger Mouse, it's that he loves falsetto and a strong back beat. Think Curtis Mayfield meets Prince. And we KNOW Bono loves falsetto.

Listen to these three DM-produced songs. He directly produced the first two, didn't get the credit on the third, but was present and you can definitely hear the influence. My guess is U2 could sound a bit like the following....My guess is a bit like these songs, a bit like Lemon, a bit like Numb...

YouTube - Broken Bells -- The Ghost Inside -- Video/Chords/Lyrics
YouTube - Gorrilaz - Dare
YouTube - Everlasting light - The Black Keys
 
I'd be really happy if he pushed Larry and Adam to the front. That alone would be a big sound change for the band. I love NLOTH but the drums just sound so distant some of the time. Granted, that's the mood that they were going for with Eno/Lanois, but I think that DM could challenge Larry to carry some songs.
 
DM may push Edge out of the band. That's my only concern. The reason for the concern is that he write all of the music.
 
I love how you say what he's going to do with such confidence as if it's preordained. The Edge is the core trademark of U2, he'll be prominent no matter what.
 
LPU2 said:
Listen to these three DM-produced songs. He directly produced the first two, didn't get the credit on the third, but was present and you can definitely hear the influence. My guess is U2 could sound a bit like the following....My guess is a bit like these songs, a bit like Lemon, a bit like Numb...
Click to expand...

I really, really like this theory. By all means, bring back the falsetto. The more Lemon the better.

Being pedantic, however, Danger Mouse only produced one song on the new Black Keys record, and it wasn't 'Everlasting Light'. Though whether he influenced their sound for this record having previously worked with them is another question completely. Edit: scrap that, I've just re-read your post and see that you've explained his influence on that track. Sorry!
 
scottyT said:
DM may push Edge out of the band. That's my only concern. The reason for the concern is that he write all of the music.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't worry about that. I'd be more inclined to be very positive that Danger Mouse might take the Edge by the lapels, shake him and say 'Why did you drop those interesting guitar sounds on Pop and drop them for that awful chiming sound that has been so irritating for 12 years now?' Then Edge will head off to the keyboards and pedal shop to produce something as interesting as 'I'm Not Your Baby'. Is it any coincidence that the greatest U2 song since 'Please' (and one of their best of all time), 'Moment of Surrender', has hardly any Edge guitar to the forefront, except that stabbing solo and wonderful woozy sound at the end?

I don't buy the Coca-Cola trademark sound, classic Edge nonsense of the last decade. We've had enough of it by now. If that's Edge 'on fire', then we're gonna need a bigger furnace.
 
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