Album 13 Talk: Insert cori .gif Here

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ClaytonsKitten said:
You people are never fucking happy, are you?
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Back on the album/non-album, for me the penny dropped with their Songs of Ascent nonsense. Thats when I realised that putting out records had become harder than it ever was for them, and I guess it is tied to the relevance issue -- the older and farther away they get from radio the harder it becomes for them to stay relevant. Before people start deconstructing the term 'relevant' and arrive at the conclusion that it is meaningless I will say that it is full of meaning in U2's context. I think Edge's recent assertion that they want to be part of the conversation is much more to the point than vague references to relevance. So are Bono's words about being at or part of the zeitgeist (in from the sky down?). This should not alarm anyone, U2 have always been that band. They have always been eager to be part of the mainstream, not necessarily by adhering to its principles but you know, part of the wider musical conversation.
What is more readily alarming are the 'delays'. But really, after the SOA fiasco why are we surprised? This is a band that wants to be mainstream and probably wants one last shot at it. Now, I am not a fly on Church Studio's wall but I would guess they want that one song that has crossover appeal. I dont think its as impossible as many here think it is. U2 is still a big brand and if Coldplay can deliver hits then, although it will be much harder because of their age, so can our guys.
And the delays are only affecting us the hardcores, who will be there come hell or high water. The rest of the world dont care whether U2 have been unproductive for the last five years. They will take a bit single or ditch them altogether.
For better or worse this is what has driven this band the past 30 years. And this is what they are doing now. I am not sure they know any other way to go about it. If they do experiment it comes on the back of a massive success like AB. The assertions around here that the band is done and we will not see anything new from them are at best a product of immense frustration. My feeling is that they are just doing what they do before every major release, it's just that it takes longer the older they get, because they become more and more unsure of their currency

Sent from my GT-I9300 using U2 Interference mobile app
 
At this point, surely they won't include Ordinary Love and Invisible on the album?
Right? Right???
One can only hope...
What do you think guys?
 
CMIS said:
Back on the album/non-album, for me the penny dropped with their Songs of Ascent nonsense. Thats when I realised that putting out records had become harder than it ever was for them, and I guess it is tied to the relevance issue -- the older and farther away they get from radio the harder it becomes for them to stay relevant. Before people start deconstructing the term 'relevant' and arrive at the conclusion that it is meaningless I will say that it is full of meaning in U2's context. I think Edge's recent assertion that they want to be part of the conversation is much more to the point than vague references to relevance. So are Bono's words about being at or part of the zeitgeist (in from the sky down?). This should not alarm anyone, U2 have always been that band. They have always been eager to be part of the mainstream, not necessarily by adhering to its principles but you know, part of the wider musical conversation.
What is more readily alarming are the 'delays'. But really, after the SOA fiasco why are we surprised? This is a band that wants to be mainstream and probably wants one last shot at it. Now, I am not a fly on Church Studio's wall but I would guess they want that one song that has crossover appeal. I dont think its as impossible as many here think it is. U2 is still a big brand and if Coldplay can deliver hits then, although it will be much harder because of their age, so can our guys.
And the delays are only affecting us the hardcores, who will be there come hell or high water. The rest of the world dont care whether U2 have been unproductive for the last five years. They will take a bit single or ditch them altogether.
For better or worse this is what has driven this band the past 30 years. And this is what they are doing now. I am not sure they know any other way to go about it. If they do experiment it comes on the back of a massive success like AB. The assertions around here that the band is done and we will not see anything new from them are at best a product of immense frustration. My feeling is that they are just doing what they do before every major release, it's just that it takes longer the older they get, because they become more and more unsure of their currency

Sent from my GT-I9300 using U2 Interference mobile app
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Great post. You hit quite a few nails on the head. This is the longest time U2 have ever been on hiatus, yet there really isn't an overwhelming sense that they are being missed by the world at large. If anything, there's apathy. For a band like U2 (who presumably want to provoke strong feelings in people of one kind or another), apathy is tantamount to a death sentence. Even worse, Coldplay have effectively filled the "U2-shaped hole" that always seemed to exist when they weren't around. How did this happen? Did U2 play it far too safe in the last decade, and are now deemed far too vanilla and predictable? Do they now push the envelope ala the 90s, or become more U2ey than they've ever been before? I think it's actually quite admirable how they've put up a united front that everything is rainbows and puppies in the studio, and they are just "polishing" the songs. The reality could be they no longer know where they fit into the music climate, and - even worse - they don't feel missed.
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
Do some of you actually so daily twitter searches for anything u2 related?
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Twitter, Tumblr, and hell, Facebook as well. It's certainly a better source of news than the band's website. :lol:

In fact, most of my first sightings of all the new Adam pictures have been courtesy of tracking #adamclayton on Tumblr.

It's just something to do in one tab whilst browsing/reading email in another. :shrug:
 
lemonfly said:
Great post. You hit quite a few nails on the head. This is the longest time U2 have ever been on hiatus, yet there really isn't an overwhelming sense that they are being missed by the world at large. If anything, there's apathy. For a band like U2 (who presumably want to provoke strong feelings in people of one kind or another), apathy is tantamount to a death sentence. Even worse, Coldplay have effectively filled the "U2-shaped hole" that always seemed to exist when they weren't around. How did this happen? Did U2 play it far too safe in the last decade, and are now deemed far too vanilla and predictable? Do they now push the envelope ala the 90s, or become more U2ey than they've ever been before? I think it's actually quite admirable how they've put up a united front that everything is rainbows and puppies in the studio, and they are just "polishing" the songs. The reality could be they no longer know where they fit into the music climate, and - even worse - they don't feel missed.
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1. This "hiatus" isn't any longer than that between bomb and NLOTH.

2. You can create this false narrative all you want but to call the worlds response as apathy is just ignorant. OL and Invisible both got very good response for an act U2's age.
 
That 'pop kids' thing was in a context in which Bono was opposing the hardness, the newness and the blast of the whole AB/ZooTV thing to the '80s hits and people adulating them just for those. It had very little to do with the mainstream of the era, if you ask me. So, even if your point about their 'courage' back then may be very well valid, I substantially agree with BVS.
 
Zoo Lemon said:
That 'pop kids' thing was in a context in which Bono was opposing the hardness, the newness and the blast of the whole AB/ZooTV thing to the '80s hits and people adulating them just for those. It had very little to do with the mainstream of the era, if you ask me. So, even if your point about their 'courage' back then may be very well valid, I substantially agree with BVS.
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This was very well stated.

Bono's statement was part of that "4 men chopping down the JT" type of thinking. He wanted fans that were willing to follow, not just those who hopped on the U2 bandwagon because of some hit songs.

Besides, Bono/U2 knew they had some great hits on AB. With songs as catchy as "Mysterious Ways" and as poetically powerful as "One", they had to know the album would do well.
 
BVS said:
2. You can create this false narrative all you want but to call the worlds response as apathy is just ignorant. OL and Invisible both got very good response for an act U2's age.
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"False narrative"? "Just ignorant"? Thats a pretty agressive response. Civil discourse doesn't seem to be your forte, does it? For the umpteenth time BVS, I'm politely requesting that you ignore my posts as it's clear that we'll never see eye to eye on anything. I find your (frequent) replies to my posts to be rude, disrespectful, obnoxious and just generally unpleasant. Please save me the trouble of having to report you to the mods again.
 
doctorwho said:
Besides, Bono/U2 knew they had some great hits on AB. With songs as catchy as "Mysterious Ways" and as poetically powerful as "One", they had to know the album would do well.
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:up:

And there's a reference in the book 'U2 - At The End Of The World', where Bono said that the 90's (but it could have been referenced to the late 80's too) was the time when people started to buy records to blast their stereos and enjoy the momentum of playing this loud music...Madchester, industrial music, rap, et cetera. In comparison to that, Bono and The Edge especially felt that their 80's hits sounded kind of 'thin' - I don't remember the right adjective now, but something like that.
 
lemonfly said:
"False narrative"? "Just ignorant"? Thats a pretty agressive response. Civil discourse doesn't seem to be your forte, does it? For the umpteenth time BVS, I'm politely requesting that you ignore my posts as it's clear that we'll never see eye to eye on anything. I find your (frequent) replies to my posts to be rude, disrespectful, obnoxious and just generally unpleasant. Please save me the trouble of having to report you to the mods again.
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I'm not asking for you to see eye to eye with me, I completely respect that we have different opinions. But what I try to call out are your incorrect facts. To call this the biggest hiatus and an oscar nom, gg win, and 2 charted songs as apathetic is false or at the very least bad hyperbole. So that's all I ask.
 
lemonfly said:
The reality could be they no longer know where they fit into the music climate, and - even worse - they don't feel missed.
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I would even say this began around NLOTH, as far as having a new record out.

However, the monumental success of the 360 tour indicates that people will still go see them live. In droves.

So, probably what they're fighting for right now is to have people WANT a new record from them, as opposed to just going on tour again with a record no one really cares about.

What they really need is that one huge mega first single ala Beautiful Day. Let's remember that U2, by 2000, were largely forgotten about as being a "current" band.....the POP thing was 3 years prior, Million Dollar Hotel was a mess, and the average person wasn't exactly holding their breath for something new.
....until BD came out and they did the whole MTV/VH1/Total Request Live/mega hyping it and the song became their biggest hit in almost 10 years.

They NEED that song now. Maybe they thought they had it with either Invisible or OL, but clearly those songs did not match BD's reception.
 
Registered Dude said:
:up: good point
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Trust me, I tend to forget it too. That, and I'm impatient. I'd want a tour every year if it was possible. "Too much is never enough", that sort of thing. And I'm eager to hear something new, as well. But meanwhile, I'm digging out the old bootlegs, dusting the concert dvds off the shelf, and re-reading the books. Why not?

In fact, re-reading things like the Flanagan book and U2 by U2 only further prove that the band isn't really doing anything all that different than their usual patterns. It's just that TECHNOLOGY has changed, thus making it easier to note their every move. In the 80s and 90s, no one really worried about each studio session or whether or not someone was tweeting, instagramming, etc. You went off and did your own thing and then it was like "oh, new U2. COOL!"

By us fans being able to overanalyze every move the lads make, it almost makes the time drag on slower.
 
ClaytonsKitten said:
It feels longer because of that gap year during the tour due to B's back injury. The last 360 tour dates were 3 years ago this summer. But yet 360 -started- in summer 2009.
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The gap feels long because of the promises. First there should be a quick follow up to NLOTH, SOA and that album was almost done (remember North Star, Mercy, Every breaking wave etc.). Since then we've gotten a lot of statements by bandmembers, press, Paul mcGuinness. So this is why it feels so long. The actually gap between albums is absolutely the longest ever, according to U2. Last week we were given the same statement we always get.
 
JOFO said:
They NEED that song now. Maybe they thought they had it with either Invisible or OL, but clearly those songs did not match BD's reception.
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It really makes me marvel at how evasive a song like this is. BD almost didn't happen; it was such a fluke.

In some parallel universe, U2's re-bid for relevance in 2000 sputtered out with "Always" and they quietly retired to the south of France.
 
lemonfly said:
Great post. You hit quite a few nails on the head. This is the longest time U2 have ever been on hiatus, yet there really isn't an overwhelming sense that they are being missed by the world at large. If anything, there's apathy. For a band like U2 (who presumably want to provoke strong feelings in people of one kind or another), apathy is tantamount to a death sentence. Even worse, Coldplay have effectively filled the "U2-shaped hole" that always seemed to exist when they weren't around. How did this happen? Did U2 play it far too safe in the last decade, and are now deemed far too vanilla and predictable? Do they now push the envelope ala the 90s, or become more U2ey than they've ever been before? I think it's actually quite admirable how they've put up a united front that everything is rainbows and puppies in the studio, and they are just "polishing" the songs. The reality could be they no longer know where they fit into the music climate, and - even worse - they don't feel missed.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they probably dont feel missed and I think it started with the somewhat muted reception of nloth, though I think that was a stellar record, even more so when I listen to it today. I think that was a bit of a hard pill to swallow and maybe we are seeing the effects of that. Having said that, as CK pointed out, this is not too different from their usual recording process. Yes the last 'delay' may be infuriating but its not too different from what happened pre htdaab.




BVS said:
1. This "hiatus" isn't any longer than that between bomb and NLOTH.

2. You can create this false narrative all you want but to call the worlds response as apathy is just ignorant. OL and Invisible both got very good response for an act U2's age.
Click to expand...

For an act U2's age may be the problem here. Again, I'm not privy to their innermost thoughts but for the kind of band U2 are/were and aspire to be they seem to want to be the talking point or at least one of the talking points outside their core base.
Personally, this seems to be about right for a band like u2. This kind of latter day turmoil fits the story of a band that sought to be heard and discussed far and wide. And frankly this earnest desire in them, in a way totally anomalous to rock culture, is why I have loved this band and wouldnt want it any other way. I am sure the album will come, what's a bit of delay after 30 years?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using U2 Interference mobile app
 
ahittle said:
In some parallel universe, U2's re-bid for relevance in 2000 sputtered out with "Always" and they quietly retired to the south of France.
Click to expand...

Nah, Passengers was a huge hit and POP was the pinnacle of their career, spawning the return of The Fly. :wink: And with that, came the glory of AB 2.0 and a return to the Zoo.

If you're gonna create a parallel world, at least make it interesting.
 
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