How many more albums left?

[zootvc15]

"I think there will be one more. Thats been my gut feeling since ATYCLB was released. Bono seemed to be setting the stage for it when he kept mentioning two crap albums and we're done. That always made me think that if the critics panned the next two it would give them a nice excuse to be done.

When you figure that they tend to make albums in groups of three thematically, the last trilogy ended at Pop. The new one began with ATYCLB. It just seems to work out to me. They'll be close to 50 by the time they release the next one if they continue on their current pace. Anyway, thats my feeling on things though I'd like them to make music forever."

This has been my feeling too. And even if they don't stop after the next one, I think there will be some kind of very significant change, say, far longer between albums, or going in a much less rock direction.

 

[coach]

And what about Slane and Boston?? Do those enter in the six album contract???? Or not because they are DVD's???

 

[starsgoblue]

I love U2, but i don't know if i want to see bono and the edge duking it out on Until the end of the world when they're 70, like the rolling stones. I think they will stop before they become a long running joke.

Stones schmones...I don't really find the comparison equal. I think the life had left the Stones a long ago....and I do like the RS. There's is just a different force that seems to propel U2... besides jet pack powered wheelchairs

 

[U2_Guy]

It certainly is funny to see all you kids "predicting" stuff...

There's no way to know ppl... give it up...

Some ppl elaborate it to the level of even giving dates of future releases! Oh my...

And btw, both Zooropa & Pop are top U2 albums. They didn't sell great in "America" (USA that is) but they were huge huge hits all over the world. But i guess if you are not happening in "America" you are simply not happening, right yankees?

After a long while i listened to ATYCLB again and i must say: this one is a crappy album. Everything about it is halfass, musically and lyrically speaking. Bono's voice (specially on WILATW) is embarassing... The Edge is not even trying... Larry and Adam are hiding somewhere in the back... The only 2 good songs are In a little while and New York. The rest is boring adult contemporary stuff...

I hope this new album isn't ATYCLB part II...

 

[RademR]

Unless the 6 songs we haven't heard are a-la-ATYLCB, were not in for part II. the 5 that we've heard don't sound like anything like ATYCLB.

 

[starsgoblue]

It certainly is funny to see all you kids "predicting" stuff...

Definetly fun to be silly.

After a long while i listened to ATYCLB again and i must say: this one is a crappy album. Everything about it is halfass, musically and lyrically speaking. Bono's voice (specially on WILATW) is embarassing... The Edge is not even trying... Larry and Adam are hiding somewhere in the back... The only 2 good songs are In a little while and New York. The rest is boring adult contemporary stuff...
[/B]

I don't know about all that....

 

[Zoocoustic]

I think when Bono was referencing "crap" he was sort of pandering to the critics who didn't like Pop.

Every U2 album has been met with near unanimous critical acclaim except Pop. I liked Pop. I'm sure Bono & the band liked Pop. But that doesn't change the fact that critically, the album and tour were the low point of U2's career.

Bono recognizes this and thus the "two crap albums and you're out" comment. He was in a way addressing the mixed reaction to Pop, perhaps saying, "I know a lot of you didn't like it, so we won't put you through that again."

 

[bcrt2000]

It certainly is funny to see all you kids "predicting" stuff...

There's no way to know ppl... give it up...

Some ppl elaborate it to the level of even giving dates of future releases! Oh my...

And btw, both Zooropa & Pop are top U2 albums. They didn't sell great in "America" (USA that is) but they were huge huge hits all over the world. But i guess if you are not happening in "America" you are simply not happening, right yankees?

After a long while i listened to ATYCLB again and i must say: this one is a crappy album. Everything about it is halfass, musically and lyrically speaking. Bono's voice (specially on WILATW) is embarassing... The Edge is not even trying... Larry and Adam are hiding somewhere in the back... The only 2 good songs are In a little while and New York. The rest is boring adult contemporary stuff...

I hope this new album isn't ATYCLB part II...

I like his vocals on ATYCLB because they sound very down to earth, he doesn't sound like an american idol, but more like your regular joe.. i think that connected with a lot of people and thats why ATYCLB did well

 

[strannix]

After a long while i listened to ATYCLB again and i must say: this one is a crappy album. Everything about it is halfass, musically and lyrically speaking. Bono's voice (specially on WILATW) is embarassing... The Edge is not even trying... Larry and Adam are hiding somewhere in the back... The only 2 good songs are In a little while and New York. The rest is boring adult contemporary stuff...

I hope this new album isn't ATYCLB part II...

I don't wholeheartedly agree, but I can see where you're coming from. I think "Walk On" is a classic, but I think "Stuck", "Wild Honey" and "WILATW" drag the album down a lot. And while I know a lot of folks will disagree, I think "Stuck" in particular meets the definition of "boring adult contemporary stuff".

I, too, would be disappointed if the new one were ATYCLB 2. But even that album inspired a great tour and some wonderful songs, so I figure that if that's the worst-case scenario, things are looking pretty good.

And, I think "Vertigo" is better than anything on ATYCLB, so I'm hopeful.

 

[starsgoblue]

I don't know why Wild Honey wasn't so appreciated....it has a wonderful wistful and whimsical quality to it. It makes me think of a lazy summer day...

 

[bsp77]

I don't know why Wild Honey wasn't so appreciated....it has a wonderful wistful and whimsical quality to it. It makes me think of a lazy summer day...

I love it too. Kinda Beatlesque folk pop.

 

[starsgoblue]

I love it too. Kinda Beatlesque folk pop.

 

[allkub]

These boys have given their fans more of themselves than most bands have ever done in every way. I'm just grateful for every piece of new music we hear from them.
NEWS FLASH!!! They're all gonna get old (or not) and die some day! U heard it here first..........But right now they are living legends and still making amazing music........
I guess I don't get all this speculation about how much life there may be left in them...........feels kinda Morbid

 

[strannix]

I don't know why Wild Honey wasn't so appreciated....it has a wonderful wistful and whimsical quality to it. It makes me think of a lazy summer day...

Hmm ... maybe that's what my problem is. Summer days are hot, humid misery for those of us in Texas. I hate summer.

 

[starsgoblue]

I always kinda thought it was strange seeing people mourning and crying about the loss of a rock star or movie legend... But I know I'm going to cry alot when that day happens, I would seriously consider going to Dublin to pay my respects......guh what an awful thought (running for the safe haven of PLEBA)

 

[starsgoblue]

Hmm ... maybe that's what my problem is. Summer days are hot, humid misery for those of us in Texas. I hate summer.

How about a lazy cool spring day?

 

[strannix]

How about a lazy cool spring day?

{thinks hard}

Well, see, even spring kinda sucks, because it's still pretty humid, and there's always the feeling in the back of your mind that it's about to get REALLY miserable outside. So I hate spring, too (I really need to get my ass out of Texas).

Autumn, or what there is of it anyway, isn't too bad. Really, it's my favorite time of year, although of course this year we're experiencing an unseasonably warm period this week and it's 90 or so outside.

But "Wild Honey" doesn't evoke any kind of nice autumn feelings for me, sorry.

 

[starsgoblue]

Geez...what a grumpmonster....

Portrait of strannix----->

 

[Needle_Chill]

I just hope they use the momentum that they gain from this release/tour to write and release some new material immediately after HTDAAB, and keep things going solid until 2007. I say they take a 6 month break after the HTDAAB tour, then they seclude themselves somewhere ala Achtung Baby and crank out an album in about a year. No 5 year wait, just get on a role and keep rocking, PLEASE!!

 

[kevink]

Hopefully we will see albums in 2007 and 2010.

 

[bsp77]

Hopefully we will see albums in 2007 and 2010.

It is sad that we now hope for 3 years between albums.

 

[Teta040]

The band has been operating like this a long time. It used to be the proverbial Edge's Plastic Garbage Bag Full Of Tapes, before samplers arrived, that he stashed studio doodlings in and dug into sometimes years later for ideas. Sometimes things popped out that were far ahead of their time. Flanagan's book has some great stuff on this. The Sweetest Thing was actually written around the time just after War, and it ended up as as a RAH B-side, and it STILL sounded so different than anything the band had done up to that point that the band later plucked it out for their only remake of one of their own songs.

Some of the AB songs had skeleton guitar sections dating from the JT days. Go back and listen to the AB Bootlegs (otherwise known as the Salome Tapes) and see if you can pick up anything familar. "Out Of Control", which appeared on Boy when Bono was turning 21, was written on his 18th birthday. The band never discards its old stuff. They'll tell you they're going to burn all their unreleased stuff when they stop recording but it's a load of bull. I recall that Bono lost some old recordings, studio and otherwise, in a house fire in 1999.

 

[quadcaster]

Just wondering out loud. I think I remember the last time U2 re-upped their recording contract, it was 1992, and right after they released Zooropa. So at the time it was the biggest recording contract, something like six albums for $70 million, until, I think that looney twit Mariah Carey suckered some knob to pay her $80 million for seven albums. (Can anyone say "Glitter.")

So, by my count -- and we know the Best Of's are not part of the new album contract -- U2 has put out: zooropa, the Passengers album (which I think counts toward their album commitment, though maybe not), Pop, ATYCLB and now HTDAAB. So they, presumably, have one or two albums left, depening on how you count Passengers.

If that's the case, I hope they have enough steam to fulfill the order, because -- and this is a tifle point, I know -- when I read that City of Blinding Lights was a song that had been kicking around since the days of POP, it makes me wonder whether they still have the time/inspiration/dedication/drive to do what they used to do: sequester themselves in Berlin or the Southwest American desert or wherever and come up with new material that inspired them.

Just seems odd that a song that was toyed with like eight years ago would make it on the album. You figure they had moved beyond it, whatever inspiration they were on about back then. Is there a dearth of fresh ideas?

Well, despite my rhetorical masturbation here, I do think the song is excellent. Simply the best since Gone, if not the AB era. So, in that respect, makes me wonder how much it changed or if in its previous incarnation during the POP sessions it was deemed too U2-like and trashed. And for whatever reason, trashed again during the ATYCLB sessions.

But you know what they say. You can lead a horse to water, but that doesn't make it a duck.

U2 have been doing that for years, wake up the dead man was around before achtung baby

theyre loving every minute of this new album thing i can promise u that