This post shows a great lack of understanding about U2. Again, I don't mean this as a personal attack but this can just be attributed to what I shall call "album delay blues" which causes skeptical, cynical, violent reactions about U2's statements.
'We're still stuck in our 80's release methods , and still don't know about this iTunes program. Plus we still need time to ruin what could be a currently great record, but it needs to be over produced.
POP was released in early 1997, and Zooropa wasn't a pre-Christmas release either in 1993. Those are not 80's albums. Actually, to the fans who prefer quantity over quality, compromise over freedom, long winding guitar solos over a well played chord - then the 80's methods are actually better suited since it seemed like every year except for 85-86-89 they had some new material.
We've hit a rich songwriting vein, and we don't want to stop. Its taken us 4 years to get 5 songs down pat.
In the past four years, they have recorded The Saints Are Coming, Window In The Skies, Instant Karma, and Wave Of Sorrow. So you missed the mark by one song but it's still a pretty good assessment. However, I am more interested in the 50 to 60 new songs they are in the process of writing.
"With a new album release, its a chance for me to talk crap again" 'explains Bono, calling in from a six month break in recording sessions in the south of France. "We have what it takes, we just don't have enough songs, our rhythms are the same as the previous album, and a guitar player who hasn't rocked this hard since All That You Can't Leave Behind"
Bono is a master in using hyperboles, making enough hype that can make a dead man walk, and exaggerating. I don't consider this "crap." U2 aren't known to re-use old ideas. While All That You Can't Leave Behind rocked with the buzzing of Elevation, the stadium anthem that was Walk On, and the bombastic New York, I highly doubt that The Edge will go back to the same style. And with 50 to 60 songs to choose from, surely U2 would choose those styles who do not compromise their artistic integrity and are not rehash.
"It hasn't been that fun, its been maddening......there have been injuries (thanks larry) and I've cried like a baby, and I'm still recovering. "But this album, will be ready for the new millennium"
Surely, you must have missed what millennium means. Human life expectancy is certainly not that long if you literally mean millennium. Millennium is one thousand years. I think you mean decade which is ten years. The next decade starts at 2010, so I won't be surprised if recurring injuries will force the band to push back the release to 2010. They are older and there are now more recurring aches and pains in their bodies.
The band have been writing and recording the follow-up to ‘How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb’ since the last Ice Age, and the feeling is that they’ve hit a creative groove and there are plans to stop. Everyone, he says, is excited about where the recording is taking them. "We Just can't be bothered finishing it."
It must have been a typo. U2 did not start writing the follow-up in the last ice age. That would be around 1990 when a major volcanic eruption in Mt. Pinatubo cooled the earth for a year. HTDAAB was not around in 1990. Actually, the band started writing the follow-up to HTDAAB since the last Ice-melting Age.
‘When we set out on this record it was Larry who came up with the plan not to have actually release a record this century. He put up this idea that wouldn’t it be great just to make music for its own sake, not for the purpose of actually releasing it to fans
I am sure that since All That You Can't Leave Behind, U2 have been making music without compromise and for the sake of making music. Their music just keeps getting better. So Larry is not into releasing it for the sake of releasing. He wants to release something good to the fans. Again, your command of years is a bit misplaced. A century is 100 years, it is impossible unless there is human cloning, for U2 to live to 100 years. You surely must mean decade which is ten years.
It’s an idea that’s paid off. Following sessions in Morocco, in Dublin and through the summer in France, the band have written ‘fifty or sixty’ tracks. And counting. "But then we realised they were mostly made up of covers or our older songs, and some were only words "kneel" "soul" and "Heart"
In all the U2 books and literature I've read, the band start their music with the blank page approach, meaning they do not come into the studio with a concept in mind. They just start and jam. They have also been known to forget how to play their old songs, and they only practice it while rehearsing for the tour. U2 never play their old songs during studio sessions, if my sources and readings are accurate. As to those three words, they are very common in U2's vocabulary, but not as common as "love." But in recent years, Bono has also show lyrical flexibility with words like Yahweh, polyester, parapet, monkey, China, furniture, shackles, and other more uncommon words for a rock song.
‘We’ve hit a rich songwriting vein,’ he explains. ‘It gets a bit dark down here, and I'm scared of the dark, but we've found what looks like lots of coal, which is good, because I have a fire place...errr where were we? I thought a while back we might had Ali's Christmas present wrapped by now, but why now if there's more priceless stuff to be found?
A dark place with a lot of coal would be a good direction for U2. I was always disappointed that they didn't play Red Hill Mining Town live, and their cover of Springhill Mining Disaster wasn't exactly the best. I am hoping they will finally nail a sequel to Red Hill Mining Town, and perform it live.
For now, they’re keeping a promise they made to themselves when they started writing: ‘We said to each other that if we got to the great place then we wouldn’t stop…and we still haven't found...wait....we still haven't found what we're looking for....Edge, write that down’
For this album, they have found what they are looking for which is this "great place." Since they are there now, they might as well ride the creative wave and be in that place rather than leave it and wonder if it will ever come again.
So the writing and recording continues and while they now know what shape most of the album will take, they're not leaving the studio just yet. Meanwhile Back at The U2 Studio, everything remains quiet empty.
It really depends what time of the day you visit the studio. And only few hours are done with actual band playing and recording. Most of the stuff happen in the mixing room, or just single instrumentalists polishing their part.
‘We know we have to emerge soon but we also know that people don’t want another crap U2 album. So what’s the point ?’ We're only going to put out a crap record anyway.'
From the accounts I've heard, the band and the producers say that this will perhaps be their best album. In the end, it is the public who will ultimately decide it. Remember Bono's "two crap albums and you're out" statement? I doubt it is within U2's capacity to release a crap album. They are the leading activists against it.
They have no doubts that it will be as important a release for U2 as any. ‘It’s a brand new chapter for us, and everyone we’ve played the tracks to has said that musically it feels like another departure, so we've sacked Larry.
Departing musically from what the fans have come to expect has really been the norm for U2. They keep on improving musically and recording fresh new ideas. And if you know your U2 history, it was Larry who started the band with a note in the school bulletin board. They cannot sack Larry. On the contrary, it is Larry who can sack them.
‘The last two records were very disappointing personally, with a kind of old mans heart, like the faint beating of a drum But what we’re about now is of the same order as the transition that took us from All That You Can't Leave Behind to How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, We would also like to issue this to our fans Out Album Titles Will Be Getting Longer’
The only album U2 have publicly expressed disappointment over is POP, which they labelled as "unfinished" and even went on to tweak the songs to sound better in single releases and best of compilations. Yet, POP has a hardcore following among fans more interested in U2's incomplete work, such as the Hansa tapes.
He also mentions that the recording with Maracas, was the first time the band have worked with Maracas in open air: ‘On that track you can hear the sound of a Adam swallowing a sandwich in the room next to the studio - it’s beautiful.’
U2 have not been known to be audiophiles. Their recordings involve a lot of dynamic compression and they actually overlap and overdub played parts, so it is highly unlikely they can pick up small room noises, that would be unprofessional on their part. But U2 have done that in the past with the studio version of Ultraviolet. Larry drops a drumstick in the middle of the song but they let it go and it can be heard in the recording.
Longtime collaborators Danny Lanois and Brian Eno have joined the band at different times, and, more recently, Steve Lillywhite – usually a tell-tale sign that a record is going to sound exactly the same as the last one. ‘Steve has that ear for a top line melody and a good hook.’
I don't know where you get the basis for these statements, but all U2 albums have sounded different to me. But then again, this is really a very subjective issue and I don't want to personally attack your hearing. A top line melody and a good hook would also need a good selection of guitar chords.
While Bono is scratching an itch, he says early next it'll be early next decade when fans first get to hear the new songs.
This sound much better. You do know what decade means after all, and it is not the same as millennium or century. I hope you have googled that.
I’m always the one who underestimates how easy it is to simply 'put out the songs now', if it was just up to me they’d be out already! But Larry threatens us with violence if he is not ready for the album to be released. early next decade people will be able to start hearing what we’ve been doing. We want 2010 to be our year, so we’re going to start making an impression very early on …’
Larry needs to assert himself as the band leader. I really won't be surprised if the release drags as long as 2010. Remember, U2 only answer to artistic integrity and making the best work possible nowadays - regardless of how long it takes. Gone are the days when they needed to produce a lot of music or meet contractual or studio obligations. This album will be the final chapter in the trilogy of uncompromising U2 work. I am willing to wait for good quality.
Priceless.
So this is what boredom can do to you?!
