U2's Next Album?/Songs of Ascent?

[BVS]

Was Soon slated for No Line or was it supposed to be for SOA but became a one-off because the follow-up was scrapped? Or was it always intended to be a intro to shows?

I don’t know if ever verified, but given the descriptions the educated guess was SOA.

 

[corianderstem]

Man, I love Soon. Those swoony descending strings!

 

[kiwilad]

Man, I love Soon. Those swoony descending strings!

So bigly agree. I feel Eno said at the time there was a bunch of stuff like this left off the album. I guess it's possible that stuff has become other songs since then.
But I do feel they've got a ton of stuff in their paint box for the next album.
North Star and All My Life too...

 

[georgemccauley]

Another album is probably like 4 to 5 years away - if indeed another one is coming. I really hope so. I love both SOI and SOE and SOA to cap a trilogy would be a dream.

We’ve been hearing about SOA since 2014 so who knows if some songs from SOE were intended for SOA or whether SOA is even a thing right now.

Great title though - SOI is the birth, SOE is the life, and SOA is the farewell.

At this moment I hope we don't see a SOA, I really want them to produce and put out a fresh album with a different title with new ideas, and nothing linked to the "Songs Of" pairing of Innocence and Experience.

This will enable them to be more free with their songwriting on a lyrical and sonic level

 

[georgemccauley]

I think U2 is hanging it up. And I'm perfectly fine with it. Songs of Experience is a great album to close their career.

Pat on the back for the boys.

No way, not just yet. The 50th Anniversary tour and the Achtung Baby anniversary in 2021 are huge milestones to look forward to.

I'm not having the end just yet, they will renew with Live Nation to get to their 50 years together

 

[Aygo]

When I first heard about SOA back in 2009, I can't remember if it was Bono talking about it or if it was something I read somewhere based on Bono's explanation about the "Ascent" concept... But I do remember about it being related with some reference from the Bible about 15 steps needed for some spiritual release... Or something like that.

Well, if this isn't something I dreamt about and then believed being true...
...If U2's next album is the 15th, and if that "15 steps stuff" is actually true, maybe SOA will eventually come out.

If it comes out as the final piece of a trilogy, I'd rather have a full album (even if with 8-9 new songs only) than a collection of outtakes and never-released songs like "North Star", "Mercy", "All My Life" and the NLOTH version of "Every Breaking Wave" (which I'd rather see released in eventual reissues of U2's albums of the XXI century).
And I'm not entirely sure if I'd like to see more "mediative" stuff. I like when U2 goes mediative, but I've already had that. And sometimes I feel that for many fans, to go experimental and less comercial means mediative. I'd like to watch them exploring other kinds of soundscapes, other than the dichotomy pop-rock-commercial/mediative-electronica.

 

[BVS]

At this moment I hope we don't see a SOA, I really want them to produce and put out a fresh album with a different title with new ideas, and nothing linked to the "Songs Of" pairing of Innocence and Experience.



This will enable them to be more free with their songwriting on a lyrical and sonic level

I think the original concept of SOA being a more atmospheric piece would completely free them from this fear.

I think an SOA in the original vein, one they didn’t feel obligated to tour would be the perfect closing to this book.

Maybe they record more after, maybe not, but the way I envision it, it would be a perfect quiet(for U2) send off to their fans.

 

[Gonna Run 2 U]

SOE definitely isn’t their last album. This is U2. They will let us know when the last one is coming for the hype machine. This one was based around Bono’s health scare and his intimate letters. The last one is going to focus on it being their goodbye and all of the career spanning articles/interviews/tv specials to go with it. I think their next album is going to be the final one which probably will be out in 3-4 years with the farewell tour to follow. I’m sure Edge and Bono will do music and other things on the side. I just think Larry and Adam have had enough and by then it will be time.

 

[beLIEve]

SOA sessions

I think it would be best if we just remove Songs of Ascent from our minds. It hasn't been mentioned since NLOTH days.

And as far as that guitar part goes, I have to imagine U2 has hundreds of songs just sitting in a vault, and probably thousands of guitar parts that Edge has come up with.

I would be surprised if we ever hear that riff in a song.

I remember hearing about the whole trilogy idea in 2009, the year NLOTH came out and then the massive U2360 tour. JMHO, but I have a feeling that U2 pulled songs from that whole Innocence/Experience/Ascent trilogy forward and put them onto the NLOTH album.

Fez - being born, White as snow, & a different version of Crazy tonight could have improved SOI. As for SOE, I love it as it is, but it could have been viewed as U2's best album yet if slightly reworked versions of NLOTH, Unknown Caller, & Breathe could have been used for SOE, making the album perhaps their best ever.

I would not take away the songs already on SOE...especially tracks 3-13. But take away bonus tracks or fillers and you have U2's best album...maybe ever. Hold me, thrill me is another tune that could have been on POP or SOE.

Then finally, assuming SOA is the last chapter in U2's career, a spiritual album based on the title, would have been perfect if it started with Magnificent, Moment of Surrender, and the original 6+ min version of Mercy (would have been an incredible way to kick off SOA). Put Ordinary love on SOA, A U2 version of "Falling at Your Feet" with Lanois plus ,"Soon" and a less poppy version of Invisible could have easily been on SOA. Even Window in the Skies could fit on SOA. As well as Miss Sarevo.

But the great thing about U2 songs is that you CAN turn each song into a prayer, so I already have my own versions of SOI, SOE, and SOA. U2 songs can usually be interpreted multiple different ways, and U2 lets each listener hear what they want to in just about every song. I guess that's why they are the soundtrack to my own life. Every album/DVD has been an almost perfect chapter of my own life.

 

[Rachel D.]

I think their next album is going to be the final one which probably will be out in 3-4 years with the farewell tour to follow. I’m sure Edge and Bono will do music and other things on the side. I just think Larry and Adam have had enough and by then it will be time.

People have been saying that since HTDAAB came out.

 

[The Slow Loris]

I have this fantasy that Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois will produce one more album with newly recorded and produced versions of these songs:

1) All My Life
2) My Time Hasn't Come
3) Winter (the original concept)
4) Book of Your Heart (imagine this with the Eno/Lanois treatment!?)

They could realease even just those 4 songs as an EP, and it would go down as a classic. One can only dream.

 

[Iggy Fizz]

I heard it was going to be called Songs by Even More Better Producers Than Last Time

 

[Rachel D.]

The new Billboard interview says that Edge already has some ideas for the next album.

 

[Mac_Fly]

Then finally, assuming SOA is the last chapter in U2's career, a spiritual album based on the title, would have been perfect if it started with Magnificent, Moment of Surrender, and the original 6+ min version of Mercy (would have been an incredible way to kick off SOA). Put Ordinary love on SOA, A U2 version of "Falling at Your Feet" with Lanois plus ,"Soon" and a less poppy version of Invisible could have easily been on SOA. Even Window in the Skies could fit on SOA. As well as Miss Sarevo.

I've been thinking lately that if SOI/SOE was put out at the same time as a double album it would have gone over better.

 

[RoKKeR]

After its tour in support of Songs of Experience wraps later in 2018, U2’s schedule is wide open. “I think we will probably take a bit of time out from doing anything in terms of live shows,” says Clayton. The band might head back to the studio sooner than later; The Edge says he’s already “working on some new ideas and compositions,” although he’s not sure where those songs will end up, if anywhere. Perhaps U2 circles the year 2020 on its calendar and takes All That You Can’t Leave Behind out on the road at its two-decade mark. Maybe the band releases another project during the Trump era, and maybe it won’t.

They ain't done yet.

 

[An Cat Gav]

From Rolling Stone around 2014:


Rick Rubin, who produced a pile of mostly unreleased U2 songs a few years back, had a major influence on this album, despite not actually working on it. Rubin told Bono that U2 use their skill at sculpting unique soundscapes "to disguise the fact that you don't have a song." He pushed them to write traditionally structured tunes that would work with, say, voice and piano. "Someone like Adele makes better records than everyone else because her songs are better," says Bono. "In a great song, you can be as naked as a streaker singing a cappella. I'm embarrassed next to someone like Carole King, unless I can come up with something that's as raw as some of her great songs. So that was it. Songwriting school!"

This was unfortunate to say the least.

It's the beautiful soundscapes that make U2 unique. Making songs that can be sung acapella or around a piano is something U2 are very good at but not "great" at. it's largely down to those the soundscapes that U2 are a great band and doesn't Bono always say that he wants to be great, not very good.

Like quite a few others feel, it's this shift into trying to create finely crafted songs that has seen my interest in their output wain a little.

 

[Mack_Again]

also apparently Rick Rubin isn't even in the studio or only gives very minimal opinions when producing, so, i don't think he's that good as a producer. he just helps someone polish the songs they've got, rather than shaping the songs with them from rough ideas, which is something U2 has done since they worked with Eno and Lanois.

also I've heard James Hetfield talking about working with Rick Rubin and James said that Rick asked the band to analyze their past catalogue and use whatever worked in these songs, which just seems like.....he straight up asked to emulate their "good" past, which just doesn't seem like a right idea to me

(here's Metallica talking about the making of song "Moth Into Flame" from their last album: http://songexploder.net/metallica)

 

[PopFly]

Everything I've read about Rubin's production habits and U2's writing habits made their collaboration sound like it would be an enormous clash of styles, and sure enough, it was. Obviously I've largely loved the music U2 has continued to make and release since they worked with Rubin and Bono apparently took his criticisms to heart, but part of me wonders if the band should've just gone "agree to disagree" and continued to make music like they always had.

 

[Mack_Again]

i mean, look at this shit. he's lying in the bed in a different room from one they're tracking.

 

[BVS]

I've been thinking lately that if SOI/SOE was put out at the same time as a double album it would have gone over better.

No one in 2017 is going to give a flying f about a double album.

 

[Mack_Again]

No one in 2017 is going to give a flying f about a double album.

*cough* Big Krit *cough*

 

[TheGeekyU2Fan]

If u2 could release those songs from the Rubin sessions as well as demos and unreleased songs from SOE...

 

[MattD]

This was unfortunate to say the least.

It's the beautiful soundscapes that make U2 unique. Making songs that can be sung acapella or around a piano is something U2 are very good at but not "great" at. it's largely down to those the soundscapes that U2 are a great band and doesn't Bono always say that he wants to be great, not very good.

Like quite a few others feel, it's this shift into trying to create finely crafted songs that has seen my interest in their output wain a little.

Absolutely agree.

The only thing this proves is that Rick Rubin has a narrow conception of what music is and that Bono is stupid enough to take his advice on board.

It's basically an insult to Brian Eno also - but tell me this, would Rick Rubin, or Paul Epworth, or Ryan Tedder - the 'conventional' producers (conventionally dull some might say) have been able to produce an album as great as Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, Zooropa?

Never in a million years have they even come close.

 

[Hollow Island]

The difference between Eno and Rubin, Epworth and pretty much everyone else is that Eno is a genius artist and is also skilled at getting the best out of his collaborators. He's an amazing guy.

Epworth is a good producer though: Thurston Moore's new one sounds great, and if U2 want to record a live sounding album he'd be a good choice.

 

[YBORCITY]

Man, I love Soon. Those swoony descending strings!

Wow I forgot about Soon.... Whatta great song hopefully it will show up in the future.

 

[Hollow Island]

As the opening track to a resequenced No Line reissue with alt takes and unreleased songs

 

[YBORCITY]

As the opening track to a resequenced No Line reissue with alt takes and unreleased songs

 

[AtomicHorizon]

Since it will more than likely be at least 5 years before the next album with all new songs, I hope that after the E&I tour ends that U2 releases at least an EP of 5 or 6 songs to holdover the hardcore fans until the next album.

If the EP is released at the end of 2019, it will help bridge the waiting. U2 could look at all of the songs it has created but not released and throw 6 of them on a record without worrying about how they fit together or their various production styles since the release would not be considered the next big thing from the band.

Potential candidates that may please many hardcore fans could be the following:
1) A Boy Falls from the Sky (U2 version)
2) Mercy (original 2004 version). This would please Mercy fans and Mercy haters alike by bringing joy/closure since fans would have to stop wondering/whining about when the band would officially release this version.
3) North Star (not the Transformers version)
4) I'll Believe Her When She Sings (the song Bono raved about that was produced by RedOne)
5) Treason (if it really exists, the long-rumored Dr. Dre collaboration)
6) Andy Barlow said that the band had about 60 songs either done or nearly done for this album. There must be one or two songs that U2 could part with.

What do you guys think?

 

[YBORCITY]

I like ur ideas but Soon must appear.

 

[superchuk5]

I think we could get a new album as early as 2020. Assuming they finish the e+i tour in H1 2019 (gut says it will end up being 60-70 shows)