New Album Discussion

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I want a shoegaze album. Kind of like Your Blue Room but then Edge transforms his guitar into a vacuum cleaner.
 
LemonMirrorSky said:
What you just described there applies well to a song like Magnificent. Same old chiming guitar but with interesting chord progression. And I certainly don't consider Magnificent to be a reinvention! lol. So they'd have to do more than that!!
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Yeah, i guess you're right. I mean, they certainly made it dancey, and the chords were a little unusual for them, but the chiming guitar definitely 'reeled it in' as a proper u2 song.

But if they go far enough in that direction (in terms of writing songs with unusual progressions/structures) but keeping the trademark chime, it could still be a reinvention, just not to the sonic extent of AB... it would be a sort of 'new-but-still-them u2'.

I certainly think it's plausible. Personally, i'd like to see Edge explore more sounds - the guitars on the Fly and Mysterious ways are astonishing, and really define the feel and catchiness of those tracks, and they really show how versatile the band is, and how great they sound when they explore. I really want Edge to do that again. NLOTH felt different, like for many songs they had crazy soundscapes and structures, but maintained Edge's classic sound, perhaps because they didn't want to completely lose their identity. But maybe it would be good for them to 'lose their identity' in order to make progress.

More importantly though, i just hope the songs are there. The effects only matter so much...
 
The name of the album will be: Bringing Peace To Interlanders , Especially The Ones That Fight About Pop And Invariably Bitch And Moan At The New Music, The New Tour, What Just Arena's? Not Playing Acrobat Or Promenade or Heartland Would It Kill Them To Play This One Song The Night I Am Seeing Them
or BPTI,ETOTFAPAIBAMATNM,TNT,WJA?NPAOPOHWIKTTPTOSTNIST
 
Nick66 said:
:lol:

But that's nothing. I knew people who torrented Bomb who felt cheated. :)

Seriously though, I don't really care about the "Deluxe Editions" and the inserts that I'll look at once and never see again. For the next record I'd just just prefer inspired, non-brickwalled music to a glossy book of the band's finger paintings. But that's just me.
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But if you didn't buy the super deluxe reverse za be da version you would have missed "banjo Vertigo" :|
 
U2girl said:
:up: Figured they were finished when they started playing the music to others...so Mouse all the way, down to mixing.

U2 4.0 phase is about to begin. Without the usual three midwives -

https://twitter.com/Sillywhite/status/339272529220882432
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This is perhaps the best news of all, and the best indicator that they're doing things different this time around, at and least will avoid the "too many cooks" syndrome.

Not bringing in the usual suspects at the finish line = less second-guessing

Nick66 said:
What is it with all this people hoping it's going to be another "experimental" record? No one has ever been able to tell me when this so-called "experimental" stage of U2 occurred. Passengers is the closest U2 came to doing something truly experimental, and that's a record most people on here hate and call "boring filler music". I'd imagine if they did something like that the next time around the reaction would be similar.
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Compared to the rest of pop music in 1993, Zooropa sounded pretty damn experimental. I don't recall hearing anything like Numb released on the radio.

Also, Achtung Baby's blend of hip-hop/trip-hop beats with industrial sounds and Manchester guitar bounce sounded damn unique at the time. One can still operate within the verse-chorus-verse structure and still be experimenting, simply in the way that influences and sounds are blended together.
 
Registered Dude said:
to experiment is to test and try something new. it ain't complicated.
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"New" to who? Under that pretty broad definition (which isn't really applicable anyway) you could call all of their records experimental. Which is of course absurd.

If I've been baking a certain cake using cinnamon, and one day I decide to add nutmeg, have I really created an "experimental" cake? Well, it was certainly an experiment for me, but no one would describe the cake as anything "new" or "experimental".

U2 may, in the past, have experimented with, and combined different sounds from well-established genres (dance, electronic, whatever), but that doesn't make the music experimental.
 
Look! Achtung Baby was a radical departure from Rattle and Hum. Maybe we should use the words "radical departure" instead. :wink: Will the new album be a radical departure from NLOTH? The Ex:censored:al word is misunderstood too easily on this forum.
 
LemonMirrorSky said:
Look! Achtung Baby was a radical departure from Rattle and Hum. Maybe we should use the words "radical departure" instead. :wink: Will the new album be a radical departure from NLOTH? The Ex:censored:al word is misunderstood too easily on this forum.
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Actually, you've swerved into the truth here, and I think "radical departure"...or just "departure" is probably a good term. "Departure" at least creates context from where they've been before, rather than implying they're creating some kind of new or unique form of music.
 
Based on Adam's haircut the new album will be experimental & U2 will verify their status as a 'NEW WAVE' band.
 
U2 are in competition with their past,not with other bands.And their past has some re-invention in their sound in various moment of their carrer.So if they don't come up with a new sound with this album,they will be accuse of rehashing the same thing.
 
Nick66 said:
"New" to who? Under that pretty broad definition (which isn't really applicable anyway) you could call all of their records experimental. Which is of course absurd.

If I've been baking a certain cake using cinnamon, and one day I decide to add nutmeg, have I really created an "experimental" cake? Well, it was certainly an experiment for me, but no one would describe the cake as anything "new" or "experimental".

U2 may, in the past, have experimented with, and combined different sounds from well-established genres (dance, electronic, whatever), but that doesn't make the music experimental.
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it's one of those terms like "pop" that could be dissected and debated ad nauseum. there's little point to hashing out what is or isn't experimental.

if they're trying a new approach with this recording, something they havent done before, than they're trying to grow as artists. what more can we expect?
 
Registered Dude said:
if they're trying a new approach with this recording, something they havent done before, than they're trying to grow as artists. what more can we expect?
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Well, I agree with all that. But what you've described here isn't making "experimental" music or putting out an "experimental" record.

And if they do something they haven't done before and it works, great (e.g. Achtung Baby), I'm all for that. But if they give us a "new" sound that doesn't work, doesn't connect, etc., then I suspect people won't think it's so great. They've had mixed success with changing up their sound. Having said that, I'd rather them try to do something different with the possibly of failure than playing it safe and coming up with something that sounds like cruise control (Bomb). But when most people here say they want a "fresh" "new" sound from U2, they really don't mean a Passengers level departure (no pun intended). And whether any fresh, new sound works is going to be purely subjective...but new and fresh don't always equate to better, just as doing the same thing doesn't mean just as good.

But as I said, the only time U2 made a truly radical departure in sound was Passengers, which most people around here hate. They've departed somewhat from what came before in the past....TUF and AB (and that was as much a reinvention in image as sound), for example, but those records still maintained the traditional pop structure and the basic U2 'sound". Passengers was a truly radical experiment (for them)...and they would't even put their name on it.
 
A depature to me will sound like they're not trying SO hard to have a #1 single. While they've always wanted their songs played, it almost seemed like accident when they came up with one of their big hits.

I just want a more natural sounding record, not some BIG OHHHH OHHHH OHHHH middle section (though to be fair a lot of U2 songs tend to follow this formula, even on their classic albums) and loads of chimey Edge guitar.

Those things can still be there of course, but maybe not in such a calculated way.

Oh, and if Edge is going to use the slide, give us something a little more fun. His solos the last few albums have been lacking (I'm not that big of a fan of Unknown Caller either).
 
Nick66 said:
:lol:

But that's nothing. I knew people who torrented Bomb who felt cheated. :)

Seriously though, I don't really care about the "Deluxe Editions" and the inserts that I'll look at once and never see again. For the next record I'd just just prefer inspired, non-brickwalled music to a glossy book of the band's finger paintings. But that's just me.
Click to expand...

No reason we can't have both, inspired music AND finger paintings.
 
When did they last keep things this quiet, this close to what seems to be a complete album? Hardly any of the sound bite quotes, no updates from the studio on their site, no interviews with the music press? Between this, the recent tweets and the fact they've not drafted in the old guard to "tweak" things, I'm really excited and optimistic about what we're going to hear.

All we need now is a very un-U2 approach to releasing it so we don't have to wait until the autumn to hear it.
 
Glad to see all of the usual pre-album hype happening. Within a few months, it should be out there and everyone here will be saying it's one of their best.

Can't wait to come back here in about two years and see what people actually think of the album. :lol:
 
atu2 ‏@atu2 5m
We’ll have a full report soon, but U2 band members are back at Electric Lady studio right now. With Edge’s guitars.
 
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