Album 13: Are We Gonna Wait Forever?

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I've been calling 2020 for the end of the band for some time. That's when their live nation contract ends. They'll be at an even 40 years, the members will be 60, and they said they can't imagine going past that. This album/tour cycle will take us into 2016. Allowing 3-4 years to make LP14, which will put the final album/tour cycle in 2019-2020. I can't imagine there being much to say after that.

Point being I don't think this is their last album, but were definitely circling the runway.
 
It doesn't take much time at all to write and record quality stuff. The only difference is the confidence you have in the material.

That's true for everyone. Including a band called U2 that wrote an album called The Joshua Tree in about 9 months. All the album tracks, all those B-sides. 18 or 19 full songs. Less than a year. Achtung was about twice that long, about a year and a half.

Now consider that Danger Mouse was first reported as working with U2 nearly 3.5 years ago. It's just that U2, these days, are agonizingly insecure.

I'm not complaining about this. They can wait until 2015 for all I care.
At this point, I think it's probably their last album anyway.


While I agree that u2 are a lot more insecure now, I think Bono's charity work and an understandably less music focused band should also be factored in. We underestimate how much quality time is lost by Bono's charity work imo. All those hours of study and preparation that he needs to put it to be as informed as he is will surely take a massive hit on the songwriting process, regardless of what the band says.

Factor into that the fact that all the band members are married guys in their mid 50s, with kids and other interests, and you can see why they are no longer as prolific. So when you mention nine months for the JT, I think it would have been nine months of fully devoted and quality time towards the album, whereas these days, three years could only translate to a year and a half of actual album time.
 
Plus there's also the added pressure of securing their legacy. It's not natural to consciously attempt a masterpiece. It either happens or it doesn't, and I believe it's only possible if everyone believes strongly in the creative direction being taken. Bono's charity work and the others' personal lives aside, I'm confident that a masterpiece is more than capable of being acheived...they just have to get out of their own way. They have to stop worrying about how the music can best represent this massive thing called U2, and just BE the massive band called U2 that made history by believing in their music.
 
They're not done.

U2 Open Up About New Album After Historic Rooftop 'Tonight Show' Gig | David Fricke | Rolling Stone

The Edge gets up to leave. The band is flying back to Dublin right away – they have an album to finish. When asked, as he is about to go out the door, if the album has a title, The Edge replies, "Not yet. We have a few." He laughs "That's the problem."

Yes, they have an album to finish, my ass :lol: Edge and Bono went straight to vacation in Switzerland and Bono went to the ONE summit in Washington after that with Edge remaining in the Swiss alps. So there you have your urgent work on the album. Doesn't look like they're in such a hurry.

But then again, they just might to need some holidays and some time off with family after all the promotional fuss in the last weeks and before the Oscar excitement. They'll be busy with the Ordinary Love rehearsals for the awards now and after the Oscars we'll see if we have an official album or single announcement soon or if they'll just disappear again.

Personally, I remain skeptical about the whole "We're not done" thing. They've been running around with that without giving specific album information for months now. I think they're more close to being finished with the album than the want the world to believe.
 
Have you noticed that each time Bono has short hair the album is a commercial fail? Pop then No Line... then maybe LP 13. It's a voodoo thing!
 
Um, Bono's hair is long right now, it's just slicked back. Do we have to write a new rule for the new haircut? ;)
 
Now we're back to the slow crawl of news.

Can't see an April release. We'd have to get a new single in a couple of weeks, if not already.

Dallas lies :)
 
I don't expect a new album until October/ November.

They have to complete 5 or 6 more songs.
They have to do the finished mix on the 5 or 6 songs that are done.
They need to choose the right running order for the tracks.
They need to choose an album title.
They need to choose an album cover artwork.
They need to choose artwork for the back cover, inner sleeves and booklets.

IMO, that's a hell of a lot to get right before summer. Even if they do finish by summer, why release it then when a fall release means greater album sales? They might as well release it in the fourth quarter.
 
I don't expect a new album until October/ November.

They have to complete 5 or 6 more songs.
They have to do the finished mix on the 5 or 6 songs that are done.
They need to choose the right running order for the tracks.
They need to choose an album title.
They need to choose an album cover artwork.
They need to choose artwork for the back cover, inner sleeves and booklets.

IMO, that's a hell of a lot to get right before summer. Even if they do finish by summer, why release it then when a fall release means greater album sales? They might as well release it in the fourth quarter.

I tend to agree with ya.
 
But Edge said 6-7 are already mixed and ready, so it leads me to think that, if they started a mixing phase and even completed that for some songs, the others *may* be near to a similar treatment. Or maybe not. :hmm:
 
Personally, I remain skeptical about the whole "We're not done" thing. They've been running around with that without giving specific album information for months now. I think they're more close to being finished with the album than the want the world to believe.

This. A band "still in the studio" doesn't run off to make surprise appearances at ONE summits, vacation in Switzerland, or accept awards in LA. :up:
 
This. A band "still in the studio" doesn't run off to make surprise appearances at ONE summits, vacation in Switzerland, or accept awards in LA. :up:

They've supposedly been "in the studio" the past 3+ years, but that hasn't stopped them from running around the world doing all kinds of things. What makes you think now is any different?
 
They've supposedly been "in the studio" the past 3+ years, but that hasn't stopped them from running around the world doing all kinds of things. What makes you think now is any different?

Because they're dropping music on us, and saying there is an album "nearing completion"...and there doing the 'media' thing. That's a HUGE difference then just saying "we have 2 albums we're working on". They're actually saying they there is an end in sight...we'll see...:hmm:
 
I don't expect a new album until October/ November.



They have to complete 5 or 6 more songs.

They have to do the finished mix on the 5 or 6 songs that are done.

They need to choose the right running order for the tracks.

They need to choose an album title.

They need to choose an album cover artwork.

They need to choose artwork for the back cover, inner sleeves and booklets.



IMO, that's a hell of a lot to get right before summer. Even if they do finish by summer, why release it then when a fall release means greater album sales? They might as well release it in the fourth quarter.


I believe 7 songs are mixed and finished, according to Edge. Not sure if he's including Invisible in that. They really only need 3-4 more.

They are settling on a title, again according to Edge. Sounded like they were close.

Cover and other artwork was started last summer according to Steve Averill (at least they had a meeting). That could have been progressing along with the album. Various photo shoots that happened throughout the fall make me think that's well in the works.
 
Because they're dropping music on us, and saying there is an album "nearing completion"...and there doing the 'media' thing. That's a HUGE difference then just saying "we have 2 albums we're working on". They're actually saying they there is an end in sight...we'll see...:hmm:

:up: This.

The slow-drip-news-feed of Guy Oseary is also maddening. But in a good way. Every couple of weeks we have something new to fight about discuss.
 
This. A band "still in the studio" doesn't run off to make surprise appearances at ONE summits, vacation in Switzerland, or accept awards in LA. :up:

Because they've never been seen travelling around the world while working on music before ?
 
I'm pretty positive that the album drops in June. That gives them time to take their annual summer vacation before they start touring around October...

Edge said that they will be pretty busy by the end of the year. So to me that's very clear. :edge:

So 4-5 songs left to complete huh ?...give them 2 more months to complete the whole process, which is about 2 songs a month if they don't rush it. That brings us to end of May. We should have an an album title and release date around early April. They've been known the deliver the masters tracks the night before the Engineer does the mastering of the album.
 
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I'm not liking either change. The new "quote" change or the one where the 'recent threads' are on the right-side of the page. Both are distracting. The white boxes were cleaner and neater for quoting...the bold/italicized font looks somewhat messy and takes away the option to highlight certain parts of the quote :(
 
I rather like all the changes, and IMO all represent improvements.
I encourage everyone here to embrace change, and not be afraid of it.

And if you don't like it, remember, changes aren't permanent.

But change is.
 
I'm liking the quotes so far, but I haven't tried bolding or underlining yet. The white quotes popped a little too much IMO. Which means that the visual attention they demanded took away from the really important thing: my own posts. :D
 
I loved the quote box, with it's soft yellow it was a nice contrast to the blue background.
The BLACK against blue quote kinda annoys, and it just looks awful


the "recent threads" box it's not really a problem for me
 
I rather like the "recent threads" box. I had no idea there was such a variety of topics being discussed here at Interference...I don't believe I've ever posted anywhere except EYKIW.

Think I'll have to become a regular in the Random Music Threads. Finally a place to discuss Rush without harassment. Anyone like Nick Cave, Arcade Fire or Lotus Plaza There?

And what's this about "Feminism: Is it Still Relevant?" I actually do have an answer for that.

Bummer....Harold Ramis died?!!

Oh, and a Game of Thrones thread! Valar morghulis!
 
Have you noticed that each time Bono has short hair the album is a commercial fail? Pop then No Line... then maybe LP 13. It's a voodoo thing!

:doh:

we're not doing the hair thing again, are we?

Please for the love of god no.

Also +1 on the quotes looking odd now. Although I suppose in time it'll all look normal. It's been over a decade the old way, though..
 
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