Songs of Ascent VI and the Half-Blood Prince

[zoocarolina]

I just don't think they can promo SOA now and re-rehearse for the tour at the same time.

 

[zoocarolina]

4th qrter releases are better for U2 and NLOTH in Nov 2008 would have been strong with NLOTH as a lead single like you guys were saying as well!

 

[BEAL]

Where do you find bigger riffs than GOYB, SUC, or Breathe?!?!?!?!?!

Yeah, but they don't really do much for me like the riffs of the past. Not bad songs, but I can admit only GOYB is the only one that'll stick in my head.

 

[Tim Wallach]

i disagree with your notion that The Edge could play guitar in his sleep. i don't think any human could actually play guitar in their sleep.

No, it's true.. he can. While on fire.

 

[mikal]

No, it's true.. he can. While on fire.

so he only plays when he has spontaneous combustion?

 

[nielsgov]

i disagree with your notion that The Edge could play guitar in his sleep. i don't think any human could actually play guitar in their sleep.

I had a big LOL-moment reading this.

 

[Tim Wallach]

so he only plays when he has spontaneous combustion?

Mostly. But he's also known to play if a volcano erupts nearby and he's covered in molten lava.

 

[Tyagu_Anaykus]

so he only plays when he has spontaneous combustion?

I''m dying with laugher here!

 

[mikal]

by the way, GOYB sounds so much like Vertigo. i mean, 2 songs with crunchy distortion? what was the band thinking?

 

[Registered Dude]

by the way, GOYB sounds so much like Vertigo. i mean, 2 songs with crunchy distortion? what was the band thinking?

exactly!

I mean, whoever heard of a rock guitarist using distortion?

 

[Salome]

though some of the guitar sounds are familiar Edge has taken the intecracy of his work to a new level

 

[The_acrobat]

1) The Fly wants its riff back. Luckily Eno synths keep it somewhat fresh.
2) Effective, but mostly because of Larry and Adam's work. He can do this in his sleep.
3) Brilliant, effective and fresh. More please.
4) Overfamiliar. (ES, err, Crumbs, errr, Walk on called to say hi)
5) He can do this sound in his sleep.
6) Vertigo called to say hi this time.
7) Perhaps generic but new to Edge, I'll take quasi Led Zeppelin/Chilli peppers teritorry over chimes of infinity.
8) Again, he can do this in his sleep. Eno saves this one.
9) See no. 3.
10) Familiar, but effective.
11) Effective, and understated.

Really ? Love the solos on NLOTH, but AB is still his best solo-ing album.

Now that I think about it looks like his sound of choice for much of this decade is either "plug in the chime" or "let's ROCK". The former is getting too repetitive, and he too often sounds too generic with the latter.

Good questions from a poster earlier: Would a different producer challenge U2 ? Yes, I believe Rick Rubin could do it. Would they listen to someone new ? Yes. They did with UF when they brought out Eno and Lanois.

Agree with all this. Especially the last part. Rick Rubin has produced some great records, and I really feel he didn't get a fair crack in 2006, since U2 were in some sort of "In Limbo" period in the middle of the Vertigo tour. While a lot of those songs from the beach clips were very early on in their development, I find 3 of those songs to be very good. I'm a big fan of "Window in the Skies", and I also really like "All my life" and the song that eventually became a Spiderman song. I wish they would release Songs of Ascent sometime in 2010, but then get back in the studio with Rubin and release it in the fall of 2012 (with an arena tour in 2013!)

 

[AEKU2]

though some of the guitar sounds are familiar Edge has taken the intecracy of his work to a new level

Define "intecracy" for me

 

[U2387]

Agree with all this. Especially the last part. Rick Rubin has produced some great records, and I really feel he didn't get a fair crack in 2006, since U2 were in some sort of "In Limbo" period in the middle of the Vertigo tour. While a lot of those songs from the beach clips were very early on in their development, I find 3 of those songs to be very good. I'm a big fan of "Window in the Skies", and I also really like "All my life" and the song that eventually became a Spiderman song. I wish they would release Songs of Ascent sometime in 2010, but then get back in the studio with Rubin and release it in the fall of 2012 (with an arena tour in 2013!)

I agree that Rubin has produced some great records, I think it is difficult to dispute that.

However, I think the overwhelming concern with U2 was he runs counter to their style of letting things develop in the studio. This is what U2 has always done.

I don't dislike Window In The Skies, but I really don't want it used as a template for anything.

The way I see it, Rubin has them going back in the ATYCLB-HTDAAB direction, in fact if Window is any indication, it settles at a point smack dab between these 2 albums.

I love both of them, but don't think U2 needs more albums like them.

I would like SOA to continue in the vein of NLOTH. After that if they are looking for "solid songwriting" and "big hits," then they need not look to Rubin and the 2000-2006 period.

They need to look at the 1980s, and not just invoke the work in that decade, but actually go back and LISTEN TO IT. I would much rather see the same U2 that wrote I Will Follow, Out of Control, Electric Co, Gloria, Surrender, Refugee, Seconds, 2 Hearts, Unforgettable Fire, MLK Wire, Pride, ASOH,Bad, One Tree Hill, In God's Country, Streets, Still Haven't Found, WOWY, Trip Through Your Wires, Running to StandStill, Heartland, Desire, Hawkmoon, the list goes on!

Especially the early 80s. Bono always talks about "updating" these albums why not make new albums with the same ideas but different songs with all their current abilities. U2 underestimates, in my opinion, the popularity of material from this period. Was it not what first got them noticed? Seriously, this was the biggest off blue crack, on street complaint I heard about 360: where is I Will Follow? Gloria? Seconds? Bad? Or anything really from this period.

Why can't they get in that mindset again? I would prefer to hear some 90s type work again, but if they are so obsesses with getting back to making big hits, why not go back to the era when they had BIG HITS AND GREAT SONGS.

So many people here seem to think that going back to commercial success necessarily entails another ATYCLB.

 

[ndmaxfield]

Yeah, but they don't really do much for me like the riffs of the past. Not bad songs, but I can admit only GOYB is the only one that'll stick in my head.

What I think sucks is that some of U2's best recent sounds aren't making their albums but we've had to listen to them anyway. They released this video early'ish during the making of NLOTH - http://media.u2.com/flash/highlights/larryinstudio.swf - and I was all excited to hear the full version of this glorious piece of strumming guitar (this exact version, not a distant cousin), but it disappeared and so has the video from U2.com's website = They'd have taken home a Grammy if this version of whatever this was (and other things like it) had made the final cut IMHO.

 

[lazarus]

1) The Fly wants its riff back. Luckily Eno synths keep it somewhat fresh.
2) Effective, but mostly because of Larry and Adam's work. He can do this in his sleep.
3) Brilliant, effective and fresh. More please.
4) Overfamiliar. (ES, err, Crumbs, errr, Walk on called to say hi)
5) He can do this sound in his sleep.
6) Vertigo called to say hi this time.
7) Perhaps generic but new to Edge, I'll take quasi Led Zeppelin/Chilli peppers teritorry over chimes of infinity.
8) Again, he can do this in his sleep. Eno saves this one.
9) See no. 3.
10) Familiar, but effective.
11) Effective, and understated.

Really ? Love the solos on NLOTH, but AB is still his best solo-ing album.

I agree with your assessments here, and I'll even add that POPPYCOCK has better (and more varied) solos than the most recent album.

 

[Niceman]

I agree with your assessments here, and I'll even add that POPPYCOCK has better (and more varied) solos than the most recent album.

Why are you always talking about cock?

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Why are you always talking about cock?

Yeah, I sometimes wonder about that, too.

 

[U2DMfan]

The muted guitar during the wailing (oooh's) in Fez is the guitar highlight for me of NLOTH. The master of the delay at work.

 

[PookaMacP]

What I think sucks is that some of U2's best recent sounds aren't making their albums but we've had to listen to them anyway. They released this video early'ish during the making of NLOTH - http://media.u2.com/flash/highlights/larryinstudio.swf - and I was all excited to hear the full version of this glorious piece of strumming guitar (this exact version, not a distant cousin), but it disappeared and so has the video from U2.com's website = They'd have taken home a Grammy if this version of whatever this was (and other things like it) had made the final cut IMHO.

Agreed that this short clip was the one I was most disappointed not to hear on the album, although given what they did to the music on that short 'Dallas' instrumental video when they stuck it into the Linear version of Winter, it's hard to know what might have happened. It's certainly one of the most uplifting pieces of music I've heard from U2 in a long time.

By the way - on Rick Rubin. 'Window in the Skies' is a fantastic song, and I'm convinced it would have been a huge single had it led an album rather than a lowly contract-fulfilling greatest hits. If that's what it means to work with Rubin, then more of this please. But as for the other beach clips, Window in the Skies was the only one that stood out for me as being anything other than the same old 2000s boredom, so it's very hard to know from this remove what they might come to.

 

[discothequeLP]

By the way - on Rick Rubin. 'Window in the Skies' is a fantastic song, and I'm convinced it would have been a huge single had it led an album rather than a lowly contract-fulfilling greatest hits. If that's what it means to work with Rubin, then more of this please. But as for the other beach clips, Window in the Skies was the only one that stood out for me as being anything other than the same old 2000s boredom, so it's very hard to know from this remove what they might come to.

i agree. the more i listen to this song, the more i think about how much better it sounded than most anything on HTDAAB and how big it should have been.

 

[MikeyJB]

Why does no one know anything about what they are doing? Someone stalk them and find out what is going on? Are they in the studio, do we even know that? I visit this page after a spell away and all anyone seems to be talking about is cock.

 

[digitize]

Why does no one know anything about what they are doing? Someone stalk them and find out what is going on? Are they in the studio, do we even know that? I visit this page after a spell away and all anyone seems to be talking about is cock.

We have, for all intents and purposes, no idea whatsoever what is happening.

 

[mikal]

Why are you always talking about cock?

there's a very small group of individuals here that sub "Cock" for "U2" and U2 song names. i'm not sure where it originated from.

 

[Registered Dude]

there's a very small group of individuals here that sub "Cock" for "U2" and U2 song names. i'm not sure where it originated from.

at first I was annoyed with this group, but then I realized that these comments are evidence that U2 really is appealing to that sought after 12-15 year-old market.

a good thing I suppose, despite the inane jokes. two shots of happy, one shot of lame..

 

[Niceman]

there's a very small group of individuals here that sub "Cock" for "U2" and U2 song names. i'm not sure where it originated from.

Maybe they're really substituting U2 for Cock????

 

[lazarus]

Shuttlecock - Home

 

[Tyagu_Anaykus]

WTH?

 

[Tyagu_Anaykus]

2. I Still Haven't Found The Cock I'm Looking For

brilliant!!

 

[mikal]

so back on topic...i have pretty much prepared myself for a late 2011 release. that way, if the band surprises me with something sooner, i'll go all cock crazy.