what do you (right now) expect the new album to be like?

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If WITS is anything to go by we're probably in for another safe, commercial, middle of the road album - which to be honest, from my perspective, means that it will not be their best.

I'm hoping U2 can re-explore their roots and give us something dark with a bit of balls to it. Now that would be interesting!

Ahhh well, I guess we'll find out in a year or so, won't we?!!!
 
I actually think once they played WITS live they realized they couldn't pull off a whole album and tour of that.
It just doesn't have gravity or power.
I love the single on the radio but not live and not in large doses.
 
"It just doesn't have gravity or power"

thanks i always thought the opposite, but jeesus how wrong i was

thanks for pointing out my weakness

i mean suprise suprise, who in there right mind expected this thread to go anything but negative?
 
it's abudently clear that some posters know better than the band which direction they should go in.

this is different than expressing preference for one "period" over another -- this is saying, "i know what's best for you."

since U2 obviously have no idea how to manage themselves.
 
Aygo said:


Plus, I've said one thing once or twice here in the forum, but nobody payed attention to it. I'd really like to see on the next tour the U2 members getting in the stage dressed as The Beatles (Sgt Peppers' era, eg.) like claiming that they're "the new Beatles" and maybe getting megalomaniac and presumptuous again, but in a daring and controversial way. That'd be just great!:drool:

Will they be able to do that though? I mean in the 90s everyone thought they were cool, and they had the freedom to do it, knocking down the barriers, now, in their 40s I think half the population would say "oh that's so cool, awesome idea" the other half might go "they're too old to be doing that"

:shrug:

No more wacky tobaccy
 
COBL_04, I don't think they'd last 3 minutes on stage dressed as the Beatles. It would easily, easily be the most ridiculous and foolish thing they'd ever done.
 
Earnie Shavers said:
COBL_04, I don't think they'd last 3 minutes on stage dressed as the Beatles. It would easily, easily be the most ridiculous and foolish thing they'd ever done.

Exactly!

As it is, they're posing on Abbey Road and composing overly beatlesque melodies!
 
Earnie Shavers said:
COBL_04, I don't think they'd last 3 minutes on stage dressed as the Beatles. It would easily, easily be the most ridiculous and foolish thing they'd ever done.

Some of you have forgotten the Zooropa days...what the hell do you think those matching suits were? Coincidence?:huh:
 
I can say one thing about the new album. I will like it a lot, just like I have with every u2 album. It will be good to great.

But let me tell you something else about it....there's no way it will be better than Achtung Baby or Joshua Tree.

Just won't happen, they don't have another one of those in them. And its not like I'm bashing the band, we're talking about two albums that are on top 10 albums of all time lists on a regular basis.

At this point in their careers, they are making great music.

it will be a pop album. It will sound a little different with Rubin producing it, more fresh. It will be better too, I think, but we won't get anything crazy or in a total new direction.
 
BonoVoxSupastar said:


Some of you have forgotten the Zooropa days...what the hell do you think those matching suits were? Coincidence?:huh:

No, of course not, but Aygo isn't suggesting a nod to the Beatles, but actually hitting the stage dressed AS the Beatles. Full Sgt Pepper get up. Could you imagine the reaction?
 
Caroni said:
I hope there are a lot of songs like Vertigo and elevation!!!! :giggle:

11 songs on the new album all along the lines of Elevation and Vertigo means lots of whoooooo hooooooos and yeah yeah yeah yeah yeahs :happy:
 
You know Bono is going to spend all of next summer frustrated, trying to come up with a new one. It will be the biggest challenge of this whole album:
"Yaaahoooo!!" No. Copyright. Dammit.
"Wooheee!" No. Too wussy.
"Yeahohohohohohiiiiiieeeeeaaayyy" Fuck, how am I going to hold that every night?
"Oingo! Oingo! Boingo! Boingo!"

Fuckin' hell!!! How will we have a hit single and still be the biggest band in the world if I can't come up with a new one?
 
Earnie Shavers said:
COBL_04, I don't think they'd last 3 minutes on stage dressed as the Beatles. It would easily, easily be the most ridiculous and foolish thing they'd ever done.

I'm a pretty pro-U2 fan if I don't say so myself, and I even I agree with that.
 
I must admit that being an old school U2 Fan from War-era, my expectations have dropped since ATYCLB. reading some of the posts earlier in this thread brought up many points though. Expecting another JT or AB maybe impossible. We are measuring IMHO against a couple of the greatest albums of all time and at this point in thier musical lives U2 probably doesn't have the angst it once did. Possibly these guys are just really trying to solidify there place in music history by NOT experimenting with thre sound and making these disconnected hooky songs that will get radio (especially US) air time.

There's my .02

As for what I wish they would do. obviously these guys saw some connection of Bomb to earlier stuff especially from Boy. I think it would be great to get a more "atmospheric" TUF-type album again with huge landscapes of sound. My belief there's probably 2% chance of this happening but it's what I wish for.
 
U2Man said:
they've done that twice already.

:yes:

I don't think they can top JT or AB (I won't mind being proven wrong though!) but I do think they can do better than their post AB albums.
 
What I find interesting is what the Edge said when he was talking to Q mag'. He said that he didn't think that people would find U2 interesting unless they put their music through the mixing machine. Well, I find them not put their music through the mixing machine very, very interesting indeed. I think what Rubin will try and do with U2 is to get them to just put the songs together the best they can but without the mixing machine. So, I expect a very
Pop, punk, rock record but without a lot of slip stream but a lot of main stream.
:eyebrow: I love Pop but like all their albums they have ifs and buts; and of course they are my ifs and buts:wink:
 
About my Beatlesque-stage idea, I never said "They're going to" but "I'd like to".
I think it'd be a dynamic way to run to the unimaginative stage personas the band has been taking, plus it'd be another way to pull the media's attention from Bono's humanitary work and to focus in U2's megalomania (back).
 
neilm said:
If WITS is anything to go by we're probably in for another safe, commercial, middle of the road album - which to be honest, from my perspective, means that it will not be their best.
 
Found this review on amazon for Passengers...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

An open letter to U2, December 1, 2005
Reviewer: J. GARRATT "jgarratt" (Columbus, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews

Hey, members of the group Passengers, particularly Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr.: I have an idea. Go back to your mansions and try to find where you hid your copy of "Original Soundtracks 1." Remember that album? If you don't, shame on you. Go on, go through your walk-in sunglasses closets and see if you can find it. Now, pop it in the CD player.

Now, as it plays, can you remember how unrestricted you felt at the time you made it? You guys had it all: a huge canvas and an unlimited amount of colors with which to paint. You had Brian Eno in the same room encouraging you to take advantage of these tools AND helping you write and perform all of the songs. The sound just seemed to flow without resistance, and you know what else? It's ten years old! Yet it sounds as fresh as it did the day it was released. And all the while, there was no one there to wag their finger at you and scold you for not sounding enough like U2. Ten years ago, you realized that idea was rubbish. Now...?

Bono, listen to the song "Slug." Do you hear how your lyrics were more abstract? You gave us a better picture of things without saying too much. And with all of this subtlety, you didn't feel the need to explain everything to death. "Elvis Ate America," what on earth is the point of that song? I don't know, and I prefer not to know. "Your Blue Room" is a tease: keep it that way. Give our imaginations a chance again, like you did with "Zooropa" and "Original Soundtracks 1."

Mr. Edge, pay attention to "United Colours." Now listen to "Miss Sarajevo" and "Your Blue Room." Very different style you were attacking, weren't you? Yet you sounded like no one else. What's even more fascinating was that you didn't even sound like the Edge from long ago. You realized that you didn't have to recreate the beginning riff of "Where The Streets Have No Name" or "With Or Without You" every time you picked up your guitar. Instead you were running down a path were even the young guys couldn't keep up with you. And it was exhilarating. But you have since traded your big, wide canvas and paint brushes for a coloring book and some crayons.

All of you guys, listen to "Miss Sarajevo." Notice how is pulsates, how it drives creativity into the listening mind without being outwardly adventurous. Listen to the sly chords and how they slink around one another to a most dreamy force, marking your band's artistic peak. Listen to "One Minute Warning." Hear how cool all of that noise is in the beginning? Hear how that vocoder is more scary and modern than it is clich? Do you even remember how cool it was to record the ending of that song?

A special note to Larry Mullen Jr.: shut up. Yeah, you were bored with the Passengers album, but no one cares. You are an expendable member of the band and you really ought to go with the creative flow instead of settling for second best so that you can keep fans happy. I've heard what you did on "Original Soundtracks 1," and you were pretty good. But it's unfinished business. Time to make peace with your creative side.

Adam Clayton: all I can really tell you at this point is to talk some sense into your band mates. Help them realize that there is a difference between making "art" and making jingles for iPod commercials. You and your bad have come so far, you need to keep pushing further. We need to know what's on the other side of pop music and you guys were leading the way. Then you had to back off, because you're all wimps and you want to be 19 again.

So gentlemen, please, listen to what you were doing 10 years ago. No more of this "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" nonsense. "Original Soundtracks 1" may not be flawless, but it shows a creative spark that could've carried you guys far beyond superficial pop stardom. Stop settling for less.

(...)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Haha!
 
Zootlesque said:


A special note to Larry Mullen Jr.: shut up. Yeah, you were bored with the Passengers album, but no one cares. You are an expendable member of the band and you really ought to go with the creative flow instead of settling for second best so that you can keep fans happy. I've heard what you did on "Original Soundtracks 1," and you were pretty good. But it's unfinished business. Time to make peace with your creative side.

:lol:
 
Zootlesque said:
Found this review on amazon for Passengers...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

An open letter to U2, December 1, 2005
Reviewer: J. GARRATT "jgarratt" (Columbus, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews

Hey, members of the group Passengers, particularly Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr.: I have an idea. Go back to your mansions and try to find where you hid your copy of "Original Soundtracks 1." Remember that album? If you don't, shame on you. Go on, go through your walk-in sunglasses closets and see if you can find it. Now, pop it in the CD player.

Now, as it plays, can you remember how unrestricted you felt at the time you made it? You guys had it all: a huge canvas and an unlimited amount of colors with which to paint. You had Brian Eno in the same room encouraging you to take advantage of these tools AND helping you write and perform all of the songs. The sound just seemed to flow without resistance, and you know what else? It's ten years old! Yet it sounds as fresh as it did the day it was released. And all the while, there was no one there to wag their finger at you and scold you for not sounding enough like U2. Ten years ago, you realized that idea was rubbish. Now...?

Bono, listen to the song "Slug." Do you hear how your lyrics were more abstract? You gave us a better picture of things without saying too much. And with all of this subtlety, you didn't feel the need to explain everything to death. "Elvis Ate America," what on earth is the point of that song? I don't know, and I prefer not to know. "Your Blue Room" is a tease: keep it that way. Give our imaginations a chance again, like you did with "Zooropa" and "Original Soundtracks 1."

Mr. Edge, pay attention to "United Colours." Now listen to "Miss Sarajevo" and "Your Blue Room." Very different style you were attacking, weren't you? Yet you sounded like no one else. What's even more fascinating was that you didn't even sound like the Edge from long ago. You realized that you didn't have to recreate the beginning riff of "Where The Streets Have No Name" or "With Or Without You" every time you picked up your guitar. Instead you were running down a path were even the young guys couldn't keep up with you. And it was exhilarating. But you have since traded your big, wide canvas and paint brushes for a coloring book and some crayons.

All of you guys, listen to "Miss Sarajevo." Notice how is pulsates, how it drives creativity into the listening mind without being outwardly adventurous. Listen to the sly chords and how they slink around one another to a most dreamy force, marking your band's artistic peak. Listen to "One Minute Warning." Hear how cool all of that noise is in the beginning? Hear how that vocoder is more scary and modern than it is clich? Do you even remember how cool it was to record the ending of that song?

A special note to Larry Mullen Jr.: shut up. Yeah, you were bored with the Passengers album, but no one cares. You are an expendable member of the band and you really ought to go with the creative flow instead of settling for second best so that you can keep fans happy. I've heard what you did on "Original Soundtracks 1," and you were pretty good. But it's unfinished business. Time to make peace with your creative side.

Adam Clayton: all I can really tell you at this point is to talk some sense into your band mates. Help them realize that there is a difference between making "art" and making jingles for iPod commercials. You and your bad have come so far, you need to keep pushing further. We need to know what's on the other side of pop music and you guys were leading the way. Then you had to back off, because you're all wimps and you want to be 19 again.

So gentlemen, please, listen to what you were doing 10 years ago. No more of this "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" nonsense. "Original Soundtracks 1" may not be flawless, but it shows a creative spark that could've carried you guys far beyond superficial pop stardom. Stop settling for less.

(...)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Haha!

Yeah okay, usual:|
 
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