is this a concept album?

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Registered Dude

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Based on what we've been told so far...

- a record of "two halves"
- divided thematically into "darkness" and "daylight"
- numbers supposedly play a significant role in the songs
- an album+film, packaged together under one title, "No Line on the Horizon"
- lyrics feature a cast of characters, third person perspectives/narratives
- Bono envisions the album's narrative unfolding within 24 hours

sounds like a definite concept to me
 
oh yeah the concept of boots?? or the concept of crazy tonight? ..well i think this 2 tracks are enough to say that's not a concept..

:hmm:
 
I think it will be a concept album to some extent - I'd go further and speculate that a lot of the tracks will flow and segue into each other, possibly with little instrumental interludes... It's not something U2 have ever really done before but I think it's one of the ways that this will be a "real album" as Edge talks about and not just a collection of songs.
 
Rasden said:
oh yeah the concept of boots?? or the concept of crazy tonight? ..well i think this 2 tracks are enough to say that's not a concept..

:hmm:
Click to expand...

That's right. But there are some songs which could probalby fit together: Tripoli, the cedars of Lebanon etc. And this thing with the Corbijn movie (Amazon.com) and the Widget (mentioned in the Q-Magazin - probalby the same thing), the book etc. have to make some sene - so perhaps not a classic concept album but something near by.
 
I'd rather see it uphold a good, clear theme, unlike Bomb, than be a concept album, per se.
 
MrBTH said:
I think it will be a concept album to some extent - I'd go further and speculate that a lot of the tracks will flow and segue into each other, possibly with little instrumental interludes... It's not something U2 have ever really done before but I think it's one of the ways that this will be a "real album" as Edge talks about and not just a collection of songs.
Click to expand...

This would be pretty awesome, and it would make sense in light of the "very long" comments.

My guess is that while Bono's comments (and others') seem to imply that this could be a concept album, I don't think it will be so more than, say, JT or AB or UF.

I just hope it's atmospherically and musically cohesive like the 3 albums mentioned above. The connected lyrics would be a bonus.
 
Rasden said:
oh yeah the concept of boots?? or the concept of crazy tonight? ..well i think this 2 tracks are enough to say that's not a concept..

:hmm:
Click to expand...
And how about the concept of 'Babyface'? How about 'Stay'? Those two songs were also pop songs that fit the concept behind Zooropa. How about 'Mysterious Ways' from Achtung Baby? Pop songs can fit a theme as well.
 
Darkside of the moon is a concept , The Wall is a concept , Tommy is a concept.. Zooropa isn't a concept... !

maybe some u2 records have a common sound line that link every song like achtung baby or the early records... but there isn't a very concept album in their discography..

PS : sorry for my english..:D
 
Well to be fair here I think the question of whether or not it will be a concept album is valid judging by the evidence provided, and was a question that popped in my head as well...but I will share with everyone a quote that Bono said (in some interview a while back) regarding concept albums: (I don't have the direct quote, so I'll paraphrase) "EVERY album we make is a concept album...the concept it to make the best album possible!"

Of course he's been known to be coy about things in the past, so who knows? I will say this...concept albums are generally started with a clearly defined idea/theme which the artists then work towards. From the very beginning it was made public that U2 didn't have any clearly defined ideas/themes and were just letting the music happen. Now it is possible that somewhere along the way as songs came together that the whole darkness and daylight theme started to emerge, but I would argue that it was less of a contrived thing and more of an organic thing. Kind of what happened to be in Bono's head at the time, and it just happened to all relate.

I will also argue the other way too....especially after reading the Q article. Bono said something about him creating characters in a story that takes place over the course of 24 hours. Well shit, if that ain't a concept then I don't know what is! :wink:

If this album is a clearly defined concept album then great, but if not then it might fall in the same realm as Achtung Baby. That album didn't have a clearly defined concept, but instead more of a subtle theme: birth to death (Zoo Station - BIRTH ...I'm ready for push to Love is Blindness - SUICIDE...a little death without warning, baby a dangerous idea that almost makes sense) and everything that happens in between. Brilliant...just brilliant!

I for one am hoping that its more subtle....but we'll see. One thing that I've learned from this band is to expect the unexpected.
 
Rasden said:
oh yeah the concept of boots?? or the concept of crazy tonight? ..well i think this 2 tracks are enough to say that's not a concept..

:hmm:
Click to expand...

We don't know enough of these songs to say they wouldn't fit into a "concept" (I believe every album has a concept).

"Get your boots on" could be a "morning song" - you usually get your boots on in the morning when leaving the house. :wink:

"Crazy Tonight" is obviously a "night song".

Btw, I was surprised to find Bono writing in first person again because I thought he'd write more in third person, but the lyrics quoted in Q contain almost exclusively an "I" perspective. What exactly does that mean now? Bono has always been emphatic as a writer and it was clear that many songs weren't autobiographical, but I was under the impression that the storyteller/narration/novelist kind of approach would contain more third person perspectives. That's just interesting for me because I am a writer myself.
 
This might be a bit off-topic, but do we have any more info on the Corbijn film? Will it be a documentary or a narrative movie? And will it be available for seperate purchase for people who want to see the movie but don't want to spring for one of the megapacks but are still curious?
If not...well, looks like I'm buying the Digipak.
 
Rasden said:
oh yeah the concept of boots?? or the concept of crazy tonight? ..well i think this 2 tracks are enough to say that's not a concept..

:hmm:
Click to expand...

Just because the songs don't all have long and pretentious names doesn't necessarily mean that the album isn't long and pretentious.
At the end of the day we haven't heard these songs and we don't have a list of lyrics to analyse yet, either.
So it could go either way in my opinion.
 
last unicorn said:
We don't know enough of these songs to say they wouldn't fit into a "concept" (I believe every album has a concept).

"Get your boots on" could be a "morning song" - you usually get your boots on in the morning when leaving the house. :wink:

"Crazy Tonight" is obviously a "night song".

Btw, I was surprised to find Bono writing in first person again because I thought he'd write more in third person, but the lyrics quoted in Q contain almost exclusively an "I" perspective. What exactly does that mean now? Bono has always been emphatic as a writer and it was clear that many songs weren't autobiographical, but I was under the impression that the storyteller/narration/novelist kind of approach would contain more third person perspectives. That's just interesting for me because I am a writer myself.
Click to expand...

That's not exactly what Bono meant when he was talking about writing in third person. The word might be first person but the person who is saying them is not Bono. In other words, like acting, the idea is that it is not Bono singing the song but a character that Bono is portraying.

Dana
 
Any speculation on the nature of it being a concept shouldnt be based on song titles.

To say it wont be because there is a song called crazy tonight is just silly.

We have no idea what this song is about. I dont know f u2 would ever make a proper concept album, rather opt to have an album of identifiable separate songs that collectively are a great album with certain themes running through it. Not one overiding story.
 
FuruftUta said:
take a look here:

http://www.u2interference.com/forums/f196/anton-corbijn-film-featuring-new-music-of-u2-191654.html
Click to expand...

Thanks! :D
*reads info*
:drool::hyper::drool:

rihannsu said:
That's not exactly what Bono meant when he was talking about writing in third person. The word might be first person but the person who is saying them is not Bono. In other words, like acting, the idea is that it is not Bono singing the song but a character that Bono is portraying.

Dana
Click to expand...
Well, this is quite the departure. Has the band ever done anything like this besides "The Fly"?

BonoVoxSupastar said:
What? Because you've heard them? Or are we back to judging by titles again?
Click to expand...
"Back to?" :wink:
 
Michael Griffiths said:
And how about the concept of 'Babyface'? How about 'Stay'? Those two songs were also pop songs that fit the concept behind Zooropa. How about 'Mysterious Ways' from Achtung Baby? Pop songs can fit a theme as well.
Click to expand...


There's pop songs, and then there's pop songs. Vertigo is closer to latter day Bon Jovi than it is Mysterious Ways.
 
If Vertigo is latter day Bon Jovi, then latter day Bon Jovi is one of the best things I've ever heard.
 
Mysterious Ways (my least favorite song on that album) had the funky wah guitar (certainly unique for Edge at the time) and the drumming was certainly not what you would call 'standard fare'. Also you have the trippy ass video which IMO served to accentuate the song nicely. Vertigo (a song I might prefer over MW if comparing studio versions) is pretty much vanilla rock and roll, power chord, big catchy chorus and an ultra chessy CGI effect-laden embarassment of a video. Oh, and the lead singer mugging up in the camera's grill.

One of those is much more like Bon Jovi than the other one.
 
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