What if the NEW single...

[onyourkneesboy]

I'd like to share two thoughts with you:

1.
There's a lot of discussion here how "new" and "surprising" the new album will sound..

Imagine, now after ATYCLB an HTDAAB, you never heard STATELESS before..!
Wouldn't this be some kind of a new sound we are all hoping for and Bono is constantly promising?
The song has a weird structure, strange-not-quite-logical chords, sounds dark and a bit underground... Whether you like the song or not: one has to agree that it wouldn't fit anywhere on ATYCLB and sure as hell not on HTDAAB!

Anyway, with the latest release (HTDAAB) we got a good rocking song as a first single, Vertigo.. But like a lot of people stated here before: the song borrowed a lot from Elevation and the I Will Follow-era! I instantly liked Vertigo (and still do), but I think when U2 were to release a song like Stateless as a new single, they would live up to the promise of sounding "new" a lot more! And yes, the track is totally NOT radiofriendly but who cares? If radiofriendly is still an issue these days then we are really going the have a HTDAAB III, I fear...

2.
I think U2 really reached the "Acrobat-point". ("..what are we gonna do now it's all been said, no new ideas in the house and every book has been read..")
That's the reason why they got Lanois and Eno on board as full band-members in the writing process! (IMO)
When you listen to HTDAAB one can easily hear that new ideas and especially sound were already very rare:

70% is recycled material or clones from previous songs or fillers:
- Vertigo (Elevation/I Will Follow)
- Miracle Drug (With Or Without You)
- Sometimes (good song but no lasting power and too bombastic with in-your-face-emo.)
- Love Peace Or Else (Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode!)
- City Of ... (the worst U2-cliché ever! U2 imitating U2!)
- All Because Of You (a wanna-be-rocker but in reality just a mess with no direction or point, so: a filler..)
- One Step Closer (nice lyrics but musically a filler, too simple)
- Crumbs (the most obvious copy of a previous U2 song: Walk On)

Best songs on the album:
- A Man And A Woman (great structures, great singing by Bono, real passionate feel, new original sound!)
- Yahweh (it just works! musically hard to disect, beautiful original chord structures, very passionate, with a bit of that "Joshua-Tree-Highness", goosebumps..)
- Original The Species (good song)

So now with Eno and Lanois on board as full bandmembers I have hope that there's really something new going on!
But the more I hear Bono already using al kinds of terms like "molen metal" or "punk rock from venus" or whatever, the more I fear...
Usually, the weaker a track or an album is, the more Bono feels he has to back it up with a lot of blah-blah..!

So I just hope for not too much promises, hints or fague terms from Bono (or the band)... just give the world a BLOWAWAY-album that's NOT radiofriendly and has to appeal to everybody!

 

[Yahweh_OMG]

I think that Bono talks a lot less about the new album than he used to do with the 2 previous ones.... where during every single interview he was saying that it was their best album ever and that Edge was on fire.....
So, I believe it is very promising if he shuts up....

 

[U2girl]

1. I'd like to know where that MDH material went - I presume they recorded more than Stateless and Ground beneath her feet...I'd like to hear more in that vein. I guess Mercy is somewhat similar.

2. Yes, I'm reminded of the 1987/88 era. First everyone loves U2 (ATYCLB/JT), big tour and after that more backlash, especially aimed at Bono. (HTDAAB/Rattle and Hum) Like then, the band is accused of being preachy. And like after Rattle and Hum and Lovetown, all reports indicate a change. I believe the "pop/classic U2" era is over.

I agree Bomb borrows from previous U2 eras though personally I'd link them like this:

Vertigo - Boy (and that "your love is teaching me how to kneel" ending reminds me of Gloria)
MD, COBL - UF
Sometimes - maybe One in the quiet intro
LAPOE * unlike anything U2 ever did before
ABOY - if Desire and EBTTRT had babies they would sound like this
AMAAW, OOTS - ATYCLB
Crumbs, Yahweh - JT
OSC - 90's U2 (First time)

That said, for me the best songs are COBL, OOTS and Sometimes.

 

[onyourkneesboy]

I think that Bono talks a lot less about the new album than he used to do with the 2 previous ones.... where during every single interview he was saying that it was their best album ever and that Edge was on fire.....
So, I believe it is very promising if he shuts up....

Well said !

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

punk polka... from uranus.

 

[ahittle]

The m.o. for at least the last two records has been "we have to have a hit song right out of the box." They worked the hell out of BD and Vertigo. Maybe they'll be a little more subtle this time around - much like they did with AB (The Fly) and Zooropa (Numb) - neither are obvious single choices.

 

[the tourist]

I disagree with Stateless as a single. It's just not good enough. Don't get me wrong, I like it. But it's no single.

 

[phillyfan26]

70% is recycled material or clones from previous songs or fillers:
- Vertigo (Elevation/I Will Follow)
- Miracle Drug (With Or Without You)
- Sometimes (good song but no lasting power and too bombastic with in-your-face-emo.)
- Love Peace Or Else (Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode!)
- City Of ... (the worst U2-cliché ever! U2 imitating U2!)
- All Because Of You (a wanna-be-rocker but in reality just a mess with no direction or point, so: a filler..)
- One Step Closer (nice lyrics but musically a filler, too simple)
- Crumbs (the most obvious copy of a previous U2 song: Walk On)

Best songs on the album:
- A Man And A Woman (great structures, great singing by Bono, real passionate feel, new original sound!)
- Yahweh (it just works! musically hard to disect, beautiful original chord structures, very passionate, with a bit of that "Joshua-Tree-Highness", goosebumps..)
- Original The Species (good song)

I'm not a huge fan of HTDAAB, but I think your analysis of that album is nuts. The comparisons you make from those songs isn't even close. By reading this, I doubt you've even heard the album.

 

[Rob33]

Re: Re: What if the NEW single...

I'm not a huge fan of HTDAAB, but I think your analysis of that album is nuts. The comparisons you make from those songs isn't even close. By reading this, I doubt you've even heard the album.

i would have to agree with this...

i don't know how "One Step Closer" qualifies as a filler...that is one of the best tracks on the album...

 

[Earnie Shavers]

The m.o. for at least the last two records has been "we have to have a hit song right out of the box." They worked the hell out of BD and Vertigo.

Last three - Discotheque was definitely meant to be the first of them, before they took it further with Beautiful Day and then even further with Vertigo.

Stateless obviously wouldn't be a single, but I do hope any new album from U2 has room for songs like that in there, as HTDAAB certainly did not. Stateless and Ground Beneath, IMO, are 2 of their 5 best of this decade. Musically brilliant, creatively unique, lyricaly great. Not available in Bomb mode, not hooktastic, rifftacular, stadium ready enough. Fine for that album, but it would be shame if the curtain has gone down on these kinds of U2 songs. I really hope, as U2girl says, they're out of this phase and there's a bit more attention paid to the details next time around.

To me, if you are talking to a non U2 fan who's not convinced that they're all that great, they'll generally defer to a stereotype of Bono out there screaming a big Pride type song, and you generally argue back convincing them that that in reality is only a very small part of U2, and you're making the case for, in part, the general wide range of songs/styles, but also for the opposite of a big bombastic Pride, that they do songs like Stateless that I think hold up well against virtually anything else out there.

 

[LemonMelon]

punk polka... from uranus.

Never heard that one before...

 

[onyourkneesboy]

Re: Re: What if the NEW single...

I'm not a huge fan of HTDAAB, but I think your analysis of that album is nuts. The comparisons you make from those songs isn't even close. By reading this, I doubt you've even heard the album.

Oh, I've heard the album already and I know U2 very well:

U2 is the same band that recorded:
* I Would Do Anything For Love
* Everything I Do I Do It For You
* Living On A Prayer
* The Final Countdown

So now you can see I know very well what I'm talking about here !!!

B.t.w. I'm not that narrow minded when it comes to music! I also listen to: Acrobat by The Bee Gees, Walk To The Water by Celine Dion, Kite by Hanson and Your Blue Room by Dolly Parton!

There!!

 

[Muad'zin]

U2's not really a band, it's a business. And I don't mean that to criticize them. But let's face it, there's a limit to what they can do. If Pop taught them anything its that making an album that's to far ahead of the masses will cost jobs somewhere in the U2 enterprise. They were lucky that AB was well received otherwise there wouldn't have been a Zooropa and a Pop but a Joshua Tree II and III. They had to play it safe twice to make up for Pop. So if there's going to be some experimentation (which I hope) they're going to make damn sure there are some hits among them. And certainly the first single.

 

[the tourist]

In all honesty I'd like to see U2 release an album without releasing a single. Let the radio stations themselves decide what they want to play; make the entire album flow and make it all top notch.

 

[Needle_Chill]

U2's not really a band, it's a business. And I don't mean that to criticize them. But let's face it, there's a limit to what they can do. If Pop taught them anything its that making an album that's to far ahead of the masses will cost jobs somewhere in the U2 enterprise. They were lucky that AB was well received otherwise there wouldn't have been a Zooropa and a Pop but a Joshua Tree II and III. They had to play it safe twice to make up for Pop. So if there's going to be some experimentation (which I hope) they're going to make damn sure there are some hits among them. And certainly the first single.

I agree with this. The only issue I have is that after the massive worldwide success of Beautiful Day, ATYCLB as an album, and the Elevation Tour, I don't think HTDAAB came out of trying to recover and play it safe for financial reasons, or because they were forced... we're talking 7-8 years after the Pop underachievement. I think they got too comfortable with the mainstream success that ATYCLB received, and fell into a sense of complacency on HTDAAB. I mean, you look at all the interviews or read U2 by U2 and it sounded like they genuinely thought they had something spectacular and fresh. U2 needs to push themselves or the music suffers. ATYCLB could be strongly argued as a reaction to Pop, and for them was most likely something they needed as a band (a reunion with Eno/Lanois and a return to their U2 trademarks), but they needed something a lot more inspired last record, and it wasn't there.

I hope there are hits, but not hits for the sake of hits. I know U2 has always put a great deal of emphasis on single potential of an album, but I hope this time around they serve the music a little better.

 

[Cooper_Pariah]

Dude, you picked the weakest three songs (except maybe Original) of HTDAAB, and claimed they were the best. I like Stateless and other unique song structures (Pop's my favorite record), but other songs like LAPOE have undeniable individuality. They're catchy too,

 

[Mr. V]

just give the world a BLOWAWAY-album that's NOT radiofriendly and has to appeal to everybody!

um...

 

[CrashedCarDriver]

i just hope that the first new song i hear isnt going to be something ive heard before and it has been recycled. because who needs that?

 

[WITS]

I don't believe the songs have been "Recycled", the base of each song may be familiar. It's abit like saying that the Empire State Building is a recycled version of the Big Ben when it isn't, their base structure is the same.

On the new song note, I believe it will be different to anything they have done, thus far.

 

[Zoocoustic]

I'm not sure about the original song-by-song analysis of HTDAAB, but CLEARLY Crumbs From Your Table is a complete RIP OFF of Walk On. The chord progression is identical. You can sing either song over the top of the other.

To take four years and have the results be that one of your final tracks is just an updated version of a song from a previous album is a very poor effort indeed.

 

[darkhorsemusic]

I always thought Original was closer to Walk On than Crumbs.

 

[ludvic]

but CLEARLY Crumbs From Your Table is a complete RIP OFF of Walk On.

I can't believe some people as still trying to peddle this.

 

[the tourist]

I can't believe some people as still trying to peddle this.

Even if it was true, it's silly. Bands are allowed to rip themselves off.

 

[BVS]

I'm not sure about the original song-by-song analysis of HTDAAB, but CLEARLY Crumbs From Your Table is a complete RIP OFF of Walk On. The chord progression is identical. You can sing either song over the top of the other.

To take four years and have the results be that one of your final tracks is just an updated version of a song from a previous album is a very poor effort indeed.

You need to brush up on your music theory...

 

[The_Edge89]

In my opinion, yes there's similarities between Crumbs and Walk On. But as much as I like "All My Life" it really sounds like a twin to Walk On although a bit slowed down and possibly Dirty Day as well for the last solo.

 

[Zoocoustic]

I can't believe some people as still trying to peddle this.

Ummmm...I teach guitar lessons and have a degree in advanced music theory. Have been playing piano and guitar since the age of seven.

Your comment clearly demonstrates your lack of knowledge of music. I've demonstrated the similiarities in these songs to music professionals as well as casual listeners, and they all find it very obvious.

You can make all the comments you like, but you can't change the chord progression...it is what it is - IDENTICAL for both songs.

 

[Zoocoustic]

You need to brush up on your music theory...

See my post above this response...don't tell me I don't understand music theory. A beginner guitarist can read a basic chord progression. They are the same for both songs.

I think several people's blind obsession with U2 is getting in the way of common sense here. So I don't expect to convince you of anything so obvious.

 

[shart1780]

Even if it was true, it's silly. Bands are allowed to rip themselves off.

And I'm allowed to eat my own vomit.

 

[SleepyDeadMan]

i didnt read all of this, nor will i, but i think the best songs from htdaab werent even on htdaab... xanax, mercy, smile... songs like that give me hope

 

[BVS]

See my post above this response...don't tell me I don't understand music theory. A beginner guitarist can read a basic chord progression. They are the same for both songs.

I think several people's blind obsession with U2 is getting in the way of common sense here. So I don't expect to convince you of anything so obvious.

I know both the chord progressions and they are not "identical".