LP15 - We're due for a break from the norm

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This happens between every album release since NLOTH. Guys...this is U2 we’re taking about. Don’t let “age 60” make you think they’re going to say “it’s time we experiment again with some ambient themes, go back to our roots, and give up on a hit song”. Depending on the events leading up to the next election, expect them to double down on chasing a hit song.
 
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Yeah, everything the Edge has said has indicated he has no desire to go back to pushing the envelope.

In some ways he’s really the most disappointing member of the band at this point.
 
Yeah, everything the Edge has said has indicated he has no desire to go back to pushing the envelope.

In some ways he’s really the most disappointing member of the band at this point.



Edge has irritated me more so than Bono during interviews if you can believe it.
 
Well, with everything being said here, I really hope U2 make an album that is not so focused on radio (what is that anymore...:scratch: )

Just make music, stop OVER producing everything,..rock, sway and sashay just a lil'...:yes:
 
Yeah, honestly, who knows? A break will be the priority given the constant touring they've done in the past 3 years. I'd like to think a less technological extravaganza would be ideal. However, that seems to be the one place where U2 keeps pushing forward. Obviously, I wish it was more so with the music. And while I did enjoy the current tour greatly (I missed a chance to see I&E), I'd like something more low key. That said, let's stick to arenas (of course smaller venues would be better, but it's U2 after all). The Apollo show this year and the Roxy show from 2015 showed how magical it can be, but getting tickets would be a nightmare (as if it isn't already).

I'm reminded of what Nigel Godrich was able to do with Paul McCartney on Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. He was quite blunt and adamant about how McCartney approach writing, which I think pushed him in the right direction. For example, less cheesy lyrics and it resulted in one of McCartney's finest albums in recent memory.

I'd like to think Godrich would possibly be able to do this with U2, though lord knows how often Eno has tried. They'd likely just bring in another 3 or 4 producers to tinker with it, like they did with Danger Mouse. I think Nigel or someone would have to be straight forward with them from the start and just say, either we do it this way or call someone else.

I'd like them to abandon the Rick Rubin approach of coming in with finished songs and experiment/improvise more in the studio (as they use to do) and of course, try to explore new sonic territory. You'd think as they get older, they'd stop the hit chasing. It's been about 20 years now, but I suppose there's something to be said of their perseverance (even though it's quite sad at this point).
 
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They should just put out records, retire from touring, and self-indulge with Brian Eno again.

I'd much rather the reverse. U2 in the studio represents greatly diminishing returns at this point.

I won't be shocked if they do a big 40th anniversary tour in 2020, which is also probably the best chance of them ever coming to Australia again. Then they promise an album for 2021, which inevitably comes out in 2022-23.

I've always kicked against the idea that the band are close to their last album and tour, because it's been a paranoia people have entertained before every damn album. "Oh this fretting again." But it's going to happen eventually, and there are enough health concerns that I'm starting to think that the day is coming. I can imagine the band consciously conceiving of the next album as "the last", and going all out for something special. I think they could achieve it too, for it would be a chase for a timeless statement rather than an immediate radio hit. But then they might fight the clock and not declare any album as such, in which case 2022-24 could be the bog standard album/tour cycle, with the tour destined to overshadow the album. Whether that would then prove to be their last, or just another step along the way, would be determined by the vagaries of health and motivation in the 2020s.
 
I dream of a world where the content of U2 albums doesn’t depend on our elections.
This.
And I can't see how SOE was affected by the election in the first place. I think they just used that as an excuse because the songs weren't good enough yet and they'd blown past their deadline.
 
I have zero interest in anything related to Ryan Tedder.

I have zero interest in anymore god damn songs about America.

I am very interested in Edge's guitar being the thing that drives songs again, and for the band to worry more about painting landscapes vs SONGS SONGS SONGS.

Otherwise I'm cool with just the occasional tour until they retire or shed their mortal coil.
 
Just go back to structuring songs around Edge's guitar riffs. SOI and SOE (albeit to a lesser degree) are sonically hollow to my ears. NLOTH gets criticised but at least the songs on there have a density to them. Edge needs a reawakening and having a dozen producers per song is clearly not the solution.
 
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Some improvements could've been made to SOI and SOE, but honestly, I think they're two of U2's best albums. Having a strict "theme" to the album seems to have focused Bono's lyrics and added extra weight to many of the songs.

So I'm certainly a lot more optimistic about the next record's quality than I was following No Line when I was wondering if U2 had lost the plot a bit, though it's just that U2 is now hamstringing itself with everything else about their albums. The promotional rollout, the iTunes release, the uninspired choices for singles....for a band so worried about "not sounding like U2," they sure pick the safest possible examples of the U2 sound for the singles market.

This.
And I can't see how SOE was affected by the election in the first place. I think they just used that as an excuse because the songs weren't good enough yet and they'd blown past their deadline.

I'm guessing the real reason was Bono's health scare, which obviously the band didn't want to make public at the time.
 
Some improvements could've been made to SOI and SOE, but honestly, I think they're two of U2's best albums. Having a strict "theme" to the album seems to have focused Bono's lyrics and added extra weight to many of the songs.

So I'm certainly a lot more optimistic about the next record's quality than I was following No Line when I was wondering if U2 had lost the plot a bit, though it's just that U2 is now hamstringing itself with everything else about their albums. The promotional rollout, the iTunes release, the uninspired choices for singles....for a band so worried about "not sounding like U2," they sure pick the safest possible examples of the U2 sound for the singles market.



I'm guessing the real reason was Bono's health scare, which obviously the band didn't want to make public at the time.
Quite possibly, but this health scare supposedly happened between Christmas and New Year, and less than 2 weeks later they announced the Joshua Tree tour! They wouldn't have announced it unless whatever Bono's problem was had been dealt with and Bono given the all clear VERY quickly.
Anyways I'm in the camp that expects zero new music for a couple of years.
 
Quite possibly, but this health scare supposedly happened between Christmas and New Year, and less than 2 weeks later they announced the Joshua Tree tour! They wouldn't have announced it unless whatever Bono's problem was had been dealt with and Bono given the all clear VERY quickly.
Anyways I'm in the camp that expects zero new music for a couple of years.



Where did we hear this timeline?
 
So I'm certainly a lot more optimistic about the next record's quality than I was following No Line when I was wondering if U2 had lost the plot a bit, though it's just that U2 is now hamstringing itself with everything else about their albums. The promotional rollout, the iTunes release, the uninspired choices for singles....for a band so worried about "not sounding like U2," they sure pick the safest possible examples of the U2 sound for the singles market.

Truth be told, I think the single choices were more or less the right ones for each album. A little bit too reliant on I–V–vi–IV or G-D-A-Bm chord progressions, but that’s not too different from what they’ve done in the past either (Streets, WOWY, Beautiful Day, Magnificent… same thing). Half the songs on SOI used them, but it was an album I was pretty happy with anyway, just on the song quality alone.

The Best Thing did somewhat respectfully on radio and probably was the best chance to get airplay anyway. I think I read somewhere that it usually takes a listener an average of seven seconds to determine whether they want to keep listening to a song or change the channel. Overall, I think there’s more going on hook-wise there than any other song on the album, whatever the lyrical quality or anything.

As for the other things that go into promo and releasing… it’s always fun to Monday Morning Quarterback that to an extent. But at this point, it’s hard for me to get too invested in what my favorite bands do or don’t. We’d have been doing that back in the “glory days” too if we had the Internet in the 80s or 90s… but whatever the case, I’ll either like the songs or I won’t and that’s really the end game in any case.

My own experience with writing songs in recent years kind of makes me look at it with a new perspective too. There’s just way too many decisions that go into writing something to really say “You have to do it this way, you have to avoid this… just do it in this styling.” Most contemporary acts, however different, probably latch onto songwriting in a similar way… you get an idea, you fine-tune in the instrument you're playing or the idea/lyric that comes in your head, and you keep at it until you have a finished product. Then when you have that finished product and sit on it for awhile, you sometimes come back to it and think “Hey, this isn’t that good” or “this could be better.” Then you fine-tune some more… and probably get accused of overproducing or trying to tune your music to radio-friendly material by people who aren’t even in the room with you! :lol: But 99.9% of the time, you're not ever happy with what you come up with anyway. You always think it comes up a tad short or could be better. Such is the life of a guy or girl who creates things a lot of the time.
 
Some improvements could've been made to SOI and SOE, but honestly, I think they're two of U2's best albums. Having a strict "theme" to the album seems to have focused Bono's lyrics and added extra weight to many of the songs.

So I'm certainly a lot more optimistic about the next record's quality than I was following No Line when I was wondering if U2 had lost the plot a bit, though it's just that U2 is now hamstringing itself with everything else about their albums. The promotional rollout, the iTunes release, the uninspired choices for singles....for a band so worried about "not sounding like U2," they sure pick the safest possible examples of the U2 sound for the singles market.

It seems like with NLOTH, Bono didn’t really have anything to say. He was making up these characters for some of the songs that didn’t really go anywhere, and the subject matter of the album is all over the place. Looking back, it looks like they just released NLOTH because it had been a while and not because they were happy with it. If the 360 Tour hadn’t been such a huge success, that whole era would have been PopMart II. I still blame Spider-Man.
 
Magnificent: Hold my beer.



Magnificent has a beautiful riff. Another memorable one is GOYB....song isn’t that good but it is a pretty cool riff.

I would also say Edge showed up on Crazy Tonight. The song suffers from some questionable lyrics and of course the voice cracks(why were they not corrected in production????) but the guitar is solid.

SOI and SOE....”classic U2 Edge” is almost nowhere to be found.
 
Magnificent is magnificently forgettable.

There. That's a better use of the word magnificent than the dopey song could ever come up with.

Eh... I still like it. :D

SOI and SOE....”classic U2 Edge” is almost nowhere to be found.

More so on SOE, imo. Outside of exceptions like Red Flag Day, he's not really driving the songs along there like he was for a lot of SOI, memorably riff or not.
 
SOE replaced SOI as my least favorite U2 album, so my expectations are in the cellar at this point. U2 showed some renewed creative spark with NLOTH, but there has only been about an EP's worth of really great material since, most of it on SOI.

Bono's eroding voice and blunt-force lyricism are significant issues, but Edge's complete lack of creativity is the biggest one. He hit what I perceive to be rock bottom on SOE. It hasn't been that long since he's had some highlight reel moments; he made some great textures on NLOTH, MOS, Fez, SLABT and The Troubles, but any copycat on YouTube could have brought what he did to the table on SOE, and that's sad.

I really feel that hanging out with Jimmy Page and Jack White made Edge insecure about the textural aspect of his sound. He's increasingly riff-oriented these days, which does a disservice to the multiple dimensions of his playing that come with experimentation. Generic riffs like Stand Up Comedy started creeping in around the same time as It Might Get Loud, which is a pretty big coincidence. Fuck, I want the old, inventive Edge back.
 
NLOTH
Magnificent
MOS
Unkown Caller
Fez
Every Breaking Wave -Outake version
Sleep Like A Baby
Troubles
Landlady
Little Things
Blackout

All have some solid qualities of that atmospheric/texture Edge Sound. Its not equal to his 90's stuff but its pretty good. But based on interviews with him/the band they just don't go for that type of sound anymore. Pretty sad because the world could use a guitar hero.

And who can forget Song For Someone & Get Out of Your Own Way......:wink:
 
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