SOE 19: Back To The Studio Part II

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Wherever The Joshua Tree is in the set, how would you prefer it to be played?


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[*]U2 rehearsing Songs Of Experience material to rerecord some songs live in the studio next month with Steve Lillywhite.

[*]New Lillywhite mix of Red Hill Mining Town, featuring new vocals by Bono, due this month.

I haven't been paying attention at all lately but that is the worst U2 news I've read since...I don't know. Maybe the Apple debacle. Lillywhitebread adds nothing to their sound and worse, IMO, subtracts. Maybe that was okay in 1983 but HTDAAB sounds awful and those songs should take him to court for the way they were presented. I'd rather Ryan Tedder produce the entire album. Though in fairness the band has to take some blame for HTDAAB...still, bland and disjointed. The lack of sonic cohesion is stunning. IMO mostly due to rerecording. Ugh. And Red Hill rerecorded with new vocals? I'm not even gonna bother. Bad idea top to bottom. Especially a rumor i saw that theyre gonna add horns. Horns AKA the sounds of Satans bowels. Fuck horns. That all reads like satire from a longtime interference member.

That said, I am excited about TJT being performed (EXIT!!). And even with Lillywhite involved, I remain optimisic SOE will not suck ass.

I just can see it now...like the top two-thirds of SOI and the 'middle three' of NLOTH. People are probaly gonna dislike those Lillywhite tracks the most. Mostly it is about atmospherics. They don't exist with Lillywhite. So if its Vertigo, fine. But who wants more 'direct rockers' from U2? I want atmospherics if nothing else. Their batting average on rockers ain't great over the last 20 odd years.
 
The band redoing RHMT is part damage control and part promotion for the tour. Bono's voice doesn't compare to that era (he can't sing like that anymore and he knows it) and it was a popular song that still gets rotation here and there on the old rock stations.

Bono couldn't even sing like that then, hence RHMT wasn't a single. :wink:

Red Hill, along with Streets and One Tree Hill is one of my favourites from the album and a constant in my all time U2 top 10.
 
I haven't been paying attention at all lately but that is the worst U2 news I've read since...I don't know. Maybe the Apple debacle. Lillywhitebread adds nothing to their sound and worse, IMO, subtracts. Maybe that was okay in 1983 but HTDAAB sounds awful and those songs should take him to court for the way they were presented. I'd rather Ryan Tedder produce the entire album. Though in fairness the band has to take some blame for HTDAAB...still, bland and disjointed. The lack of sonic cohesion is stunning. IMO mostly due to rerecording. Ugh. And Red Hill rerecorded with new vocals? I'm not even gonna bother. Bad idea top to bottom. Especially a rumor i saw that theyre gonna add horns. Horns AKA the sounds of Satans bowels. Fuck horns. That all reads like satire from a longtime interference member.

That said, I am excited about TJT being performed (EXIT!!). And even with Lillywhite involved, I remain optimisic SOE will not suck ass.

I just can see it now...like the top two-thirds of SOI and the 'middle three' of NLOTH. People are probaly gonna dislike those Lillywhite tracks the most. Mostly it is about atmospherics. They don't exist with Lillywhite. So if its Vertigo, fine. But who wants more 'direct rockers' from U2? I want atmospherics if nothing else. Their batting average on rockers ain't great over the last 20 odd years.

I agree, their batting average on atmospheric songs is seriously high.
 
And Red Hill rerecorded with new vocals? I'm not even gonna bother. Bad idea top to bottom. Especially a rumor i saw that theyre gonna add horns. Horns AKA the sounds of Satans bowels. Fuck horns. That all reads like satire from a longtime interference member.

The brass band was recorded back in 1987 but ended up very low (well, completely buried) in the original mix. You never know it might be great! :)
 
Mostly it is about atmospherics. They don't exist with Lillywhite. So if its Vertigo, fine. But who wants more 'direct rockers' from U2? I want atmospherics if nothing else. Their batting average on rockers ain't great over the last 20 odd years.

ehh I dunno..

An Cat Dubh/Into the Heart, The Ocean, October, Scarlet, Surrender, Drowning Man, 40, Endless Deep..

I wouldn't blame Lillywhite if we get an album full of crap

If the band want a big rock song, they'll tell him. If they want a modern, glossy sounding pop song, they'll tell him
 
Yeah, people need to realize that the producers are only there to help... U2 are the ones writing the songs. Despite what they say, every U2 album (including POP) came out exactly the way they wanted it to.
 
U2 rely heavily on the producers though. Ultimately it depends upon the material they bring, but they rely on the producer for composition advice and contributions. Jacknife Lee's involvement is not encouraging. Why the fuck can't they just stick to one producer, or one team? Their hodepodges never work.
 
U2 rely heavily on the producers though. Ultimately it depends upon the material they bring, but they rely on the producer for composition advice and contributions. Jacknife Lee's involvement is not encouraging. Why the fuck can't they just stick to one producer, or one team? Their hodepodges never work.

So true. I hope they got a lot done with the more interesting producers early on, and now it's more tweaking.
 
I just can see it now...like the top two-thirds of SOI and the 'middle three' of NLOTH. People are probaly gonna dislike those Lillywhite tracks the most. Mostly it is about atmospherics. They don't exist with Lillywhite. So if its Vertigo, fine. But who wants more 'direct rockers' from U2? I want atmospherics if nothing else. Their batting average on rockers ain't great over the last 20 odd years.

I don't exactly think they should be a full-time ambient band anytime soon, but these days, I find myself more willing to wait until the finished product before judging anything really. Aside from that, Jacknife has done good work with other bands in the past, and while I don't come back to HTDAAB too often these days, it's not exactly my least favorite record by this band either.

In terms of the "top two-third of SOI" argument, I've mentioned the I–V–vi–IV chords on here a few times before. And I just realized the other day that Song for Someone uses that as well. So that makes the first four SOI songs and Volcano that use it to some extent, and it makes me wonder if people who aren't feeling those songs might be for the sake that it uses something you might here in half of the commercial songs or singles today. Anyways, thought that was interesting...

So true. I hope they got a lot done with the more interesting producers early on, and now it's more tweaking.

Maybe it's just me and my recent bouts with (probably not so good) songwriting, but 'tweaking' isn't necessarily the worst thing in the world. I don't think it justifies delaying a new record for 4-5 years again, but you're your own worst critic and if something doesn't sound right, you're either not going to release it or do something different until it does. We only get brief glimpses into their songwriting process over the years (and maybe that's part of the problem for us and our expectations, haha). But they did something right last time by playing around with different keys on certain songs, and many people liked the final version of The Troubles as a result. And until we actually do here "early" final versions of NLOTH or SOI songs, if ever, then it's hard for me to think that working on something for a few months and never touching it again is always the best decision.
 
who knows with this band.

maybe SOE is really TJT with the new mixes
 
if they really intended on having the new mix of red hill mining town as a single, wouldn't it be on more than just the super duper uber special edition hand delivered by leo box set?

it's an interesting question.

People say now that a song/single sells tickets, not albums.
But if TJT tour is already, largely, sold out, than they dont need to push tickets. So, it's designed to sell albums again?
 
it's an interesting question.

People say now that a song/single sells tickets, not albums.
But if TJT tour is already, largely, sold out, than they dont need to push tickets. So, it's designed to sell albums again?
Yea re-releasing an album in June for a tour that's mostly sold out seems like much more of a cash grab than the tour itself.
 
selling lavish box sets with remixes of old songs that don't need remixing
next thing you're going to tell me that Donald Trump was elected President
 
I can't believe they're also including a 30 minute comedy routine by Bono titled "Just Joshing You".
 
I saw this on iTunes just now, but I can't see any thing when I click on the new deluxe edition.
i5xlp5.jpg
 
Boring, irrelevant, lame questions, no info


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference



And clearly Larry wanted nothing to do with it since he was on his phone most of the time. Even Adam didn't seem to care much. Edge did have some funny lines
 
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