Q Magazine snippets[SONGS]
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The 11 tracks to date are as follows:
Stand Up
Rousing groove-based rocker with shades of Led Zep and Cream. Edge mentions that they're trying to keep Stand Up in a rough state and not overproduce it by putting it through Pro-Tools which cleans up imperfections.
Edge - "Stand Up is just a great gutsy performance from everyone. Stand Up is a swaggering rock and roll song with a real groove.........there's some dirt in what your playing...............Yes, its totally unreasonable. If you're going to do a big guitar song I think you need to push it all the way. It started with a Moroccan rhythm and gone rock n roll."
Magnificent
Slow building anthem with the ambience of the Unforgettable Fire and laced with the wide eyed wonder of U2's earlier albums. Edge here is at his most dynamic. Features the line:"Only love can reset your mind".
Get Your Boots On
Formerly titled Sexy Boots this demented electro grunge employs a proto-rockn'roll riff, but propelled into the future, with a hip-hop twist in the middle. Feature bono in flirtacious, self depreciating mode: "I dont wanna talk about wars between nations".
Momement of Surrender
Georgiously melodic 7 minute song that already has the air of the U2 classic about it, with lyrics about dark stars and existential crises:"I did not notice the passers-by/And they did not notice me". Recorded in one take. This album's One.
Unknown Caller
Opens with the sound of birdsong recorded live in Fez. A middle eastern flavoured percussion loop drives this tale about a man"at the end of his rope" whose phone bizarrely begins texting him random instructions: "Reboot yourself","Password, enter here","You're free to go".
Dallas Schoo describes the song as "one of Edge's major solos in his life - you wont hear better than that on any other song".
No Line on the Horizon
Began life as a slow paced Eno-esque ambient treatment, before being dramatically reworked in the Olympic Sessions into an abrasive punk-rock tune akin to Vertigo, with its "No! Line!" chorus chant.
Bono - "It's the Buzzcocks meets Bow Wow Wow", reckons Bono.
Crazy Tonight
Upbeat pop track with distinct echoes of 60's era Phil Spector, particularly the moment when its chorus disappears into a wash of reverb. Centres around the line: "I'll go crazy If I dont go crazy tonight",
Bono - "Which sounds like a T=shirt slogan to me" notes the singer. Brian Eno said that Crazy Tonight was in a bad way which surprised Larry.
Every Breaking Wave
Lillywhite cues up the track, a slow burning track called Every Breaking Wave that gradually builds to a climax brimming with passion and intensity. Bono begins to sing rocking forward and backwards on his studio chair............he performs a note perfect vocal that employs the movement of the ocean as a
metaphor for the human struggle, before building to the plaintive line "I dont know if I'm that strong". Two takes and 10 minutes later its done. Key line "Every Sailor knows that the Sea/Is a friend made enemy"
Breathe
Arabic cello gives way to joyful chorus. Brian Eno says this is U2's best ever song. It's 8pm and Eno, Bono and Will.i.am are on Olympic Studio 1 writing a cello part for a song called Breathe that U2 - a touch ambitiously - are only beginning to record in ths final fortnight, never mind mix.............the singer belts out a rollicking vocal featuring door-to-door salesman, a cockatoo and a chorus that begins "Step out into the street.......sing your heart out".
Winter
6 minute ballad. Echoes of Simon & Garfunkel in this poignant, acoustic string laden ballad about a soldier in the snow of Afghanistan. Will appear in the new film 'Brothers' starring Tobey Maguire about the emotional fallout of the war. Edge on backing vocals with Bono for Winter.
Cedars of Lebanon
Daniel lanois instigated closer that finds Bono imagining himself as a weary, lovelorn war correspondent "squeezing complicated lives into a simple headline". Ends with the possibly telling line "Choose your enemies carefully cos they will define you"
Nice job. Thanks a bunch.
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