Songs of Ascent: the lost album

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So, for the first time, U2 have apparently written an album, and chosen not to release it. unprecedented in their career.

or have they? was SOA ever anything more than Bono's pipe dream?

Adam cautioned us long ago that Songs of Ascent was an idea more than an actual work, though quotes from others seem to suggest otherwise. what will happen to Kingdom, Every Breaking Wave? ...songs we all but know were planned for this album.

The latest Q blurb asserts that the next U2 release will not be made of U2 leftovers; it will not be a sister album to NLOTH. fresh ideas, new sounds, a new frame, a new perspective...

discuss? remorse? celebrate? bitch?
 
Yeah, this is purely speculation on my part, of course, because I actually have no idea...but I get the feeling that the next full-length album will not be entitled Songs of Ascent and will not be composed of songs from those NLOTH sessions. Or as you called it a "sister album." I just don't see that happening. It will probably be a completely new project and, unfortunately, will not come out for quite a while.

Again, just my speculation based on gut feeling, etc.
 
A little premature, don't you think?

perhaps..

but all signs point to a dead concept, the Q quote in particular.

also, consider Edge's January interview from Hot Press

What's the feel of the songs you're working on at the moment?

It's too early to say, but because the last record was an experiment writing with Brian [Eno] and Danny [Lanois] in that kind of free-flowing workshop, Bono and I -- we're really kind of songwriting in a much more formal way at the moment. We've got some stuff, more abstract stuff that we could put together as a release, but right now what's really intriguing me is plain, old-fashioned songwriting, and we have some amazing stuff.
 
That's funny. I recently wrote a column for my website about how U2 seemed to have abandoned the idea of an album of spiritual hymns and instead have gone for electropop.:hmm: So, I can't really say I'm surprised if this turns out to be true, but at the same time it is of course a tad bit sad news.

Allow me to present some facts that indicate a change in sound for the next album - which probably won't be called Songs of Ascent then:

1) Possible lead single, Every Breaking Wave has influences of electronica. Could of course be scrapped now that the new album is said not to contain any No Line On The Horizon leftovers.
  • Q Magazine, December, 2008:
    With Or Without You-style pulser that builds layers of guitars over electronically enhanced verses before opening up into an expansice drop chorus and then, ultimately, exploding into an exstatic coda. Key line: "Every sailor knows that the sea/Is a friend made enemy"
  • Rolling Stone, January 22, 2009:
    A swelling soul-pop song, with bright synth sounds influenced by OMD and, Bono says, "early electronica". "You don't hear indie bands doing blue-eyed soul [like this]." he adds.

2) Edge admits U2 are working on electronica to Entertainment Weekly in January - but also traditional/folk music.

3) Bono tells us that Edge has been working on an electronic version of Winter during their early 2010 sessions in New York City.

4) The Edge’s pedal board from Eze Sessions, late 2009.
LAL Cyber Psychic Parametric Oscillation Filter
Two pedals from Synthesizer manufacturer Moog
Electroharmonix POG (Octave pedal used for Get On Your Boots and Magnificent)
DigiTech SynthWah
Digitech Whammy – pedalen used for Gone, MOFO, Even Better Than The Real Thing intros, middle-8 of Beautiful Day and When I Look At The World solo.

5) Rumoured "prototype guitar" being developed by Edge and Dallas
Possibly inspired by Muse's Matt Bellamy who creates all sorts of mad sounds using his custom-designed Manson guitars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po1ojCMBjPs

There might be other leads, but I can't think of them at the moment...
 
and Bono, a few days before, in Q

"We've been listening to material for [possible next album] Songs of Ascent. We haven't fully decided to press 'go' on that. But we're touring at the end of May and it'd be nice to have some new songs. Even if it's an EP or a single song."
 
March 3, 2009: The March 17 issue of Rolling Stone quotes Bono saying the next album will be called Songs Of Ascent, and that it will be released in 2010.

"Songs Of Ascent will be quieter than No Line in many ways, it's that ghost album of hymns and Sufi singing. We're making a kind of heartbreaker, a meditative, reflexive piece of work, but not indulgent."

RIP Songs of Ascent!
 
So where is this Q quote, online or print? New article?

We can take bits and pieces and speculate all we want...

But to say, "So, for the first time, U2 have apparently written an album, and chosen not to release it. unprecedented in their career." Is a bit of a stretch.
 
I think it sounded like a dream concept. And an amazing one considering where U2 are mostly at these days. It does now seem like it was too much of a dream. When I originally read that quote above, where Edge says that they've veered from the abstract back to "old fashioned songwriting", that was the nail in the coffin for me. All SoA excitement disappeared, replaced, unfortunately, by Rick Rubin produced All My Life style bombastic dread.
 
So where is this Q quote, online or print? New article?

We can take bits and pieces and speculate all we want...

But to say, "So, for the first time, U2 have apparently written an album, and chosen not to release it. unprecedented in their career." Is a bit of a stretch.

disagree! :wink:
besides, this entire forum is based on stretches.

it's in the new print issue..

they claim a new U2 album is due late this year, and that it's not made of material from the NLOTH sessions.
 
I love how when Bono says "we're writing punk rock from Mars" everyone knows to take it with a grain of salt, but when he says "ghost album" everyone all of a sudden takes him seriously. :lmao:
 
from here?

September 17, 2009: Bono talked about U2's new album plans in this interview with Canada's Sun Media:

BONO: We've got a few albums up our sleeves. We've got a whole album we started with Rick Rubin, which is a rocking club album with beats and big guitars, and I can't wait to get back to that.
 
So, for the first time, U2 have apparently written an album, and chosen not to release it. unprecedented in their career.

or have they? was SOA ever anything more than Bono's pipe dream?

Adam cautioned us long ago that Songs of Ascent was an idea more than an actual work, though quotes from others seem to suggest otherwise. what will happen to Kingdom, Every Breaking Wave? ...songs we all but know were planned for this album.

The latest Q blurb asserts that the next U2 release will not be made of U2 leftovers; it will not be a sister album to NLOTH. fresh ideas, new sounds, a new frame, a new perspective...

discuss? remorse? celebrate? bitch?

They keep pushing the "release date"...won't be surprised if the rumors go strong by May-ish.
 
Allow me to present some facts what indicates a change in sound for the next album - which probably won't be called Songs of Ascent then:

1) Possible lead single, Every Breaking Wave has influences of electronica. Could of course be scrapped now that the new album is said not to contain any No Line On The Horizon leftovers.
  • Q Magazine, December, 2008:
    With Or Without You-style pulser that builds layers of guitars over electronically enhanced verses before opening up into an expansice drop chorus and then, ultimately, exploding into an exstatic coda. Key line: "Every sailor knows that the sea/Is a friend made enemy"
  • Rolling Stone, January 22, 2009:
    A swelling soul-pop song, with bright synth sounds influenced by OMD and, Bono says, "early electronica". "You don't hear indie bands doing blue-eyed soul [like this]." he adds.

2) Edge admits U2 are working on electronica to Entertainment Weekly in January - but also traditional/folk music.

3) Bono tells us that Edge has been working on an electronic version of Winter during their early 2010 sessions in New York City.

4) The Edge’s pedal board from Eze Sessions, late 2009.
LAL Cyber Psychic Parametric Oscillation Filter
Two pedals from Synthesizer manufacturer Moog
Electroharmonix POG (Octave pedal used for Get On Your Boots and Magnificent)
DigiTech SynthWah
Digitech Whammy – pedalen used for Gone, MOFO, Even Better Than The Real Thing intros, middle-8 of Beautiful Day and When I Look At The World solo.

5) Rumoured "prototype guitar" being developed by Edge and Dallas
Possibly inspired by Muse's Matt Bellamy who creates all sorts of mad sounds using his custom-designed Manson guitars.

There might be other leads, but I can't think of them at the moment...

The_Edge89: super sleuth
 
Who said that SOA would be an album of "NLOTH leftovers"? I don't see why the album Q is talking about shouldn't be SOA.

Well, wasn't there songs recorded during the No Line On The Horizon sessions that would basically be the backbone to the next album? Otherwise, how come they have called it a "sister album" and "The Zooropa to the Achtung Baby" etc all this time? I mean, there was a Daytime/Night time theme proposed for a while right?
 
A song titled "Every breaking wave" is the only thing I remember being left off NLOTH, and at some point they said it would be on SOA. But from what we've heard in recent months I got the impression U2 have been writing new material.

Who knows if Q is correct; maybe the album will be a mix of new material and leftovers. I don't see them releasing a full new album this year.
 
Who said that SOA would be an album of "NLOTH leftovers"? I don't see why the album Q is talking about shouldn't be SOA.

the term leftovers wasn't used by the band, but the supposed songs were leftover from the sessions that resulted in NLOTH.

Songs of Ascent was first mentioned a month before NLOTH was released.

this thread is about the demise of this particular album.. borne of these sessions, one that was given a title, a single, that had a fully realized concept, and that had anywhere between 9-12 songs written (depending on which quote you choose)
 
Wow... look at this over-analysis of words.

The fact is most artists want to stay away from the word "left overs" when describing their next album. You'll never hear an artist describe their new album as a bunch of leftovers...

Come on guys.
 
Go back the same post you just quoted, I edited in the major clues from which I made this conclusion.

I guess we just have different ideas of what "electropop" is. Just because the band has used the word "electronic" in a song description doesn't mean they're making an electropop album. I think of electropop, in the 2010 landscape, and I think of La Roux and Ladyhawke, even Gaga. Now it would be fucking hilarious and awesome if they went down that road, but it's just not going to happen.

I don't even know why I'm in this section of the board. Everybody carry on.
 
what, in the recent history of this band, would lead ANY of you to believe that U2 actually planned on rehasing the zooropa idea and issuing a full album in the middle of a massive tour?

why would you believe any of this?



zooropa - 1993
pop - 1997
all that you can't leave behind - 2000
how to dismantle an atomic bomb - 2004
no line on the horizon - 2009
songs of ascent - 2010 ?????

come on... really? let's be serious.

u2 will finish out this tour... maaaaybe issue a song or two, and then we won't see another full album until at least 2012, likely 2013 or 14.

put it in the bank.
 
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