Is there an album on the horizon? (AKA New Album Speculation)

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Agreed. The whole greatest hits things makes them end up like Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, and the sort. Not relevant in today, despite them being a HUGE act.
 
U2 peaked for me during the Rattle and Hum era, at least in the live act sense. Any thing since has been a bonus for me. I would love a new album sooner than later but the chances of them impressing me more than they already have are slim to none. I've decided to not be bitter about their decision to push things back because I dont expect anything ground breaking anymore. Theyve had their best days already, in my opinion.
 
Gonna Run 2 U said:
U2 peaked for me during the Rattle and Hum era, at least in the live act sense. Any thing since has been a bonus for me. I would love a new album sooner than later but the chances of them impressing me more than they already have are slim to none. I've decided to not be bitter about their decision to push things back because I dont expect anything ground breaking anymore. Theyve had their best days already, in my opinion.
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:huh:

ZooTV! PopMart!

As recording artists it's Achtung Baby. Now, everyone can say JT is their peak, but despite the opinion of JT being better than AB, they're around the same time and they're essentially on the same level.
 
LuckyNumber7 said:
And they're almost exactly the same. And considering that the guitar sets the melody, both song's melodies are very similar.

Go back to my post, did I talk about anything other than the guitar (arguably the most recognizable part of a song)?
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They're somewhat similar, I'd hardly say exactly the same. And one is the song's main riff, whereas the other is the chorus part. When you say HMTMKMKM and talk about its riff, you're talking about the power chord sequence that opens the song up. That's its riff. The chorus is separate. The verses are completely different, too. HMTM has the wah pedal verses with a couple blues licks at the end live, whily BFFTS has arpeggio verses and chorus.
 
Like I said. I'm not a musician. At first you pretend you've got no idea what I'm talking about. Then it shifts to vaguely similar, and then only similar with the guitar and now somewhat similar.

So... now it sounds to me as though you knew exactly what I was talking about.

At that point, it's an opinion.
 
No, I'm here to pass out chocolate milk and cookies, and comforting hugs.

And sometimes, a helping of random bitchiness!
 
re. all the complaints about seeing the same show...

fwiw, i saw practically the same show in Europe in 2009 and 2010 as well... i guess because these NA dates are rescheduled i'm not expecting massive changes tbh, especially since there's been no evidence of new material so far this year

plus what with B and Edge more than likely having to check back into the spidey production in the tour break before the NA kick-off, prior to the broadway opening, looking at the timing of these things, i would be surprised if they will have much time to make drastic changes to the 360 set... sadly...
 
Vlad n U 2 said:
That's nice to hear that from you. :wink:
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ha. i actually wonder if bono isn't actually completely innocent in this latest arse up. nearly losing everything should give you a new lease on life. he's either going to live in the moment or care about his legacy.

depending on how much you like bono, you'll decide which way he's gone. all things considered....i can't really make a judgement on if it's his fault or not.
 
LuckyNumber7 said:
Agreed. The whole greatest hits things makes them end up like Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, and the sort. Not relevant in today, despite them being a HUGE act.
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...and 5 of their huge live songs are being played considerably less this tour.

They do play less of NLOTH, but they compensated for it with the new songs in Europe in 2010. And the mini Rattle and Hum revival in Australia, with Scarlet and OTH in the set in NZ. S. Africa had just two dates, so no major changes were expected. S. American dates will get Mothers no doubt.

Despite the "new show" comment (within the May 2010 release plan) now outdated, American dates can't be the exact same 2009 show and they know it...Glastonbury as a single ? Bullet the blue sky ? NLOTH and Breathe back in the set ? The DM material ?
 
mama cass said:
re. all the complaints about seeing the same show...

fwiw, i saw practically the same show in Europe in 2009 and 2010 as well... i guess because these NA dates are rescheduled i'm not expecting massive changes tbh, especially since there's been no evidence of new material so far this year
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I think the main caveat to all this disappointment is they bring it on by talking about things that never happen. The new albums being one thing, and your above point being another.

Most of the songs / setlists on past tours were very similar too (at least the ones i saw) but the difference this time is they straight up said they'd be bringing a different show when they come back to North America. So seeing what they're rehearsing and playing now, although it could change, doesn't show much promise.

Normally i'd just think "ooh i get to go see the tour again, fun" but because of their comments i'm more "they better change the setlist or i'll be upset"

It's all about the expectations they set, i think.
 
coolian2 said:
when your crutch in the show is 5-10 year old (and i'm giving them credit here) material, you're not a band that matters today.
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I suppose that's precisely why they're so jittery and indecisive about releasing new material.

You could say that U2 should just release music without caring for popularity, but the problem is that the music produced by the kind of band they are is not considered to be truly relevant without popularity.
 
U2girl said:
The irony of "teh $" attitude when U2 has, for the second time, said no to releasing a quick and easy buck, mid-tour follow up...

But the reasonable posts have it right for the main reasons:

1. Spiderman
2. The uncharted waters U2 is entering
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Saying spiderman delayed the album would mean that the album isn't currently done, thus it wouldn't be released anyways. So how is that reasonable?

As for the money? We'll see... if the tour ends and all of a sudden they're ready to release and add more dates? Then yea... they held the album back to make more cash. If they go away for a while then the greed angle holds no water
 
Clawgrabber said:
I think the main caveat to all this disappointment is they bring it on by talking about things that never happen. The new albums being one thing, and your above point being another.

Most of the songs / setlists on past tours were very similar too (at least the ones i saw) but the difference this time is they straight up said they'd be bringing a different show when they come back to North America. So seeing what they're rehearsing and playing now, although it could change, doesn't show much promise.

Normally i'd just think "ooh i get to go see the tour again, fun" but because of their comments i'm more "they better change the setlist or i'll be upset"

It's all about the expectations they set, i think.
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true... i guess if they hadn't said anything and raised people's hopes it wouldn't be so bad...
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
Saying spiderman delayed the album would mean that the album isn't currently done, thus it wouldn't be released anyways. So how is that reasonable?
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oh i think the album was done, but reckon they just got cold feet about releasing something right now what with the pounding spider-man is still taking, so maybe they're holding back a release til things calm down? who knows...
 
thinking about it a little more, this may be a good decision on U2's part. what if we had received a statement from The Edge that their first single would actually be a double A-side featuring "North Star" & "Glastonbury". would anyone have actually wanted them to release the album at that point?
 
coolian2 said:
the band has got themselves thinking that a football stadium of screaming fans equals relevance. that's not wrong as such, but here's the issue.

they somehow seem to have conned themselves into thinking a greatest hits show (alt: the elevation tour) to packed stadiums and excited audiences is equal to being relevant. it's quite the opposite, and i wonder if they know that and don't want to admit to it, or they just don't actually realise what they're doing.

when your crutch in the show is 5-10 year old (and i'm giving them credit here) material, you're not a band that matters today.
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exactly

It's stature, but I think they are in danger of becoming labelled [if they haven't already] as one of these legacy/heritage style acts who fair enough, tour huge venues based wholly on what came before...

I've seen the words rolling and stones in a number of the posts... with these acts the majority of the audience cares not a jot about your new material... I mean, 80k in Sao Paolo x 3 is great, but how many of them are there for who you are just now, buying NLOTH and wanting to hear a fair amount of it as the backbone of your show? if you play to arena crowds, underplay, you are probably playing to more who care about you and also a new album, more are turning up for who you are now...

...but them end of the year stadia boxscores sho do look pwetty..

Though I hope in all of this they are a few decades from starting up their versions of "The Great Amercan Songbook" Series...
 
mikal said:
thinking about it a little more, this may be a good decision on U2's part. what if we had received a statement from The Edge that their first single would actually be a double A-side featuring "North Star" & "Glastonbury". would anyone have actually wanted them to release the album at that point?
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No one would want them to release that single, never mind an album. Maybe they know that their new stuff isn't too good. An album featuring the new songs from this tour would be better than Bomb, but still pretty bad. Still, the longer they take, the worse the album will be. They need to be a full time band, writing and playing new songs, and not giving people what they think they want. Sadly, they're a part time group of guys with hundreds of millions of dollars who feel the need to be worshiped every five years for songs that they wrote 10-20-30 years ago. they're a greatest hits nostalgia act; they have turned into the Stones. It's sad. They could still be great, but for some reason they aren't. I think the next album will be out in 2015, and will be awful.

They should have just released Songs of Ascent! And put out NLOTH at the end of 08 with the Linear tracklisting, and continued to play them live.
 
They still seem to be that kid who just wants to be the most popular one in the class at any cost.

I think they had the best of both worlds round about the AB & Zoo TV era where suddenly they had commercial & critical success at the same time without much of the previous criticism they attracted because of Bono and the "message" in their live shows and songs.

They weren't afraid to experiment with their sound and while it sometimes didn't work, over the next 6/7 years, they released some really interesting music. I still remember that some of the reviews for Pop from publications/writers in the UK who were anything but fans of U2 gave them praise for still being relevant and not afraid to take a risk.

As someone who started to follow the band around about the UF, the AB to Pop era U2 is still my most fondly remembered & exciting era of the band imo, both in the studio and in their live shows.

What's really strange is that I remember U2 talking about their contract renegotiations round about Zoo TV and they were one of the bands who realised that the way we buy and listen to music was changing and that they were determined to make sure their contract reflected it. Since then we've heard them rave about all the great ways you can now reach fans and release music, yet they've not really embraced it. Their business and release model doesn't seem to have changed one bit, while other artists (who are often in much less of a position to be able to take risks from a financial point of view) have tried different things to take advantage of the new opportunities available to them.

After the ATYCLB and Bomb albums and tours, it was really exciting to hear them talk about Songs of Ascent and seeing some of the video clips from the NLOTH sessions in Fez. Hearing that they were actually working and recording with different producers while touring got me excited about the prospect of an album being released quickly a la Zooropa. Or even an EP. Or even maybe a solitary song?

Maybe the legendary Songs of Ascent would appear. Um, well, maybe its not actually as finished (or as good) as we thought, seems to be the message now. So who knows what happened there.

In a time where its never been easier for a band to release new music, quickly to their fans, while they have complete control over how much they want to charge and when to release it, we've got absolutely nothing from them. Its really not difficult to see them becoming the new Stones in terms of constantly just touring greatest hits shows off the back of mediocre albums. In fact given how quickly the 360 tour dropped a number of NLOTH songs, I'm starting to think this tour has marked the point where they are now that band.

They've already made more money than any of them could hope to spend in their lifetimes. Surely now is the time where they can try something different and really try to express themselves as the artists they claim to be?

I agree with the sentiment of so many of the above posts, as a long-term fan its very sad to see how this last couple of years has panned out.
 
Hollow Island said:
No one would want them to release that single, never mind an album. Maybe they know that their new stuff isn't too good. An album featuring the new songs from this tour would be better than Bomb, but still pretty bad. Still, the longer they take, the worse the album will be. They need to be a full time band, writing and playing new songs, and not giving people what they think they want. Sadly, they're a part time group of guys with hundreds of millions of dollars who feel the need to be worshiped every five years for songs that they wrote 10-20-30 years ago. they're a greatest hits nostalgia act; they have turned into the Stones. It's sad. They could still be great, but for some reason they aren't. I think the next album will be out in 2015, and will be awful.

They should have just released Songs of Ascent! And put out NLOTH at the end of 08 with the Linear tracklisting, and continued to play them live.
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maybe it's time to move on? :shrug: i'm just saying.
 
Remember when Jon Bon Jovi had a little bit of a dig at them about their 09 tour gross? He said something like "they'll pay attention that we beat them". I know it was all fun and games, but still, there is an element of dick measuring amongst the dinosaur supergroups.
It's like a mini league between U2, the Stones and a few others, and our boys don't like not being top of the list when tour grosses are announced...hence the stadium tour and belting out the old(er) numbers. After all these years they still like having their egos stroked with headlines like "U2 have the highest grossing tour blah blah".
And of course the same argument can be applied to the new album (or lack of). They ain't releasing squat until they have what Bono said they wanted with ATYCLB: "...singles. We want 12 singles". Sigh.
 
Hollow Island said:
No one would want them to release that single, never mind an album. Maybe they know that their new stuff isn't too good. An album featuring the new songs from this tour would be better than Bomb, but still pretty bad. Still, the longer they take, the worse the album will be. They need to be a full time band, writing and playing new songs, and not giving people what they think they want. Sadly, they're a part time group of guys with hundreds of millions of dollars who feel the need to be worshiped every five years for songs that they wrote 10-20-30 years ago. they're a greatest hits nostalgia act; they have turned into the Stones. It's sad. They could still be great, but for some reason they aren't. I think the next album will be out in 2015, and will be awful.
Click to expand...

Thats the most retarded thing I've ever read. :doh::doh::doh:
 
Hollow Island said:
No one would want them to release that single, never mind an album. Maybe they know that their new stuff isn't too good. An album featuring the new songs from this tour would be better than Bomb, but still pretty bad. Still, the longer they take, the worse the album will be. They need to be a full time band, writing and playing new songs, and not giving people what they think they want. Sadly, they're a part time group of guys with hundreds of millions of dollars who feel the need to be worshiped every five years for songs that they wrote 10-20-30 years ago. they're a greatest hits nostalgia act; they have turned into the Stones. It's sad. They could still be great, but for some reason they aren't. I think the next album will be out in 2015, and will be awful.

They should have just released Songs of Ascent! And put out NLOTH at the end of 08 with the Linear tracklisting, and continued to play them live.
Click to expand...
Overreaction maybe?
 
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