Next Album Rumours Thread V - Your Song Ruined My Life

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Always good to read u2songs stories in full

https://www.u2songs.com/news/upcoming/

“Rumours shared with us suggest this follow-up to Songs of Surrender would be scheduled for a release in March 2023.

This album will also likely have a title which starts with “Songs Of…” but is unlikely to be Songs of Ascent – it appears U2 have been developing a second project instead…

The band was recently working on this album in the early months of 2022 in California, and the album is said to be “substantially complete”.
 
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Thank you for sharing.

It’s funny, twenty years ago this kinda of news would have elicited such joy and excitement.

Twenty years of delays and second guessing has made me really skeptical it will happen.

HTDAAB, NLOTH, SOI all were nearly finished and then blown up. SOE had a delay or two but didn’t seem to have the significant delay like those other three. They seemed to be content with the producers and direction from beginning

I think we’re all curious about who’s producing this next album. Collective groan if Teddy is involved.

For me it’s all on The Edge for this album. Can he come up with something memorable on the guitar (that he didn’t sample from another band), and really drive the music again. Songs of have all been BONO LOUDER THAN EVERYTHING ELSE BECAUSE HE SAYS HE FINALLY LEARNED TO SING SO WE MUST PROVE IT

Adam and Larry seem to be content with falling into session musicians. Let Bono and Edge write it all, we’ll come in when we need to.

Fingers crossed the next 12 months can be a productive one for U2 fans
 
Least excited by the “songs of…” still sticking around for a new album. That tells me it will be more of the same but we shall see.
 
Registered Dude said:
Just guessing here, but the two producers they’ve worked with who have studios in California are Jacknife Lee and Rick Rubin. Highly doubt the latter though
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well THAT would be interesting. i doubt it, too - but adam did mention the johnny cash recordings as one possible direction, and we know who produced that.


it's more likely that edge didn't want to leave california in late winter (and larry/adam DID want to leave ireland). also, let's be honest, may be an issue of having less to worry about in regards to covid restrictions in the US than in the south of france.

who knows.
 
Boy, I hope it's not Rubin. He does 'sparse' pretty well but when it comes to sonic landscapes (the thing this band does best), not so much.

For every Johnny Cash American Recording, there's a brickwalled, dry recording to match. Check out Metallica's Death Magnetic, which is a pretty good album that just got pummeled with bone dry, lifeless production.
 
Was just listening to …Infinite Sadness from The Smashing Pumpkins. Sign me up for the next record to be produced by Flood. Seems like he does both the landscapes and sparse production we all rave about.
 
I would take Flood or Eno.

Danny if he's on board for something ambient and dark.

My preference is for a darker U2 to emerge, much like the 90s. They can always come back with uplifting and pop songs to finish their career. But one more album of wanderlust, temptation, fear, regret.....with a tad bit of optimism that Bono can interject to keep it from being depressing.
 
Gonna Run 2 U said:
Was just listening to …Infinite Sadness from The Smashing Pumpkins. Sign me up for the next record to be produced by Flood. Seems like he does both the landscapes and sparse production we all rave about.
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He can do anything, but he was shattered by the time Pop was finished iirc. I'd be shocked if he produced an album by them again. He's the best choice to mix them, though. They sounded their best when he mixed them.
 
Gonna Run 2 U said:
Was just listening to …Infinite Sadness from The Smashing Pumpkins. Sign me up for the next record to be produced by Flood. Seems like he does both the landscapes and sparse production we all rave about.
Click to expand...

I think Flood has always been so pivotal to the bands sounds. That's why I've said that I wouldn't mind a newer (but actually good) producer that is teamed up with Flood. Like Flood/Barlow or Flood/Thomas. Have a seasoned U2 producer/engineer with someone that has some fresh ideas. Or bring in an alternative rock legend and have Flood/John Leckie.
 
The John Tree said:
Boy, I hope it's not Rubin. He does 'sparse' pretty well but when it comes to sonic landscapes (the thing this band does best), not so much.

For every Johnny Cash American Recording, there's a brickwalled, dry recording to match. Check out Metallica's Death Magnetic, which is a pretty good album that just got pummeled with bone dry, lifeless production.
Click to expand...

The brickwalling is done by the mastering engineer and approved by the band. Producers aren't responsible for brickwalling. The new Chilis album sounds great, as does the vinyl version of Stadium Arcadium, and Rubin can produce soundscapes...if the band has already written them. The problem is that U2 use the studio as an instrument and rely on producers to contribute music, and Rubin does neither of those things.
 
The John Tree said:
Boy, I hope it's not Rubin. He does 'sparse' pretty well but when it comes to sonic landscapes (the thing this band does best), not so much.

For every Johnny Cash American Recording, there's a brickwalled, dry recording to match. Check out Metallica's Death Magnetic, which is a pretty good album that just got pummeled with bone dry, lifeless production.
Click to expand...

if there was ever a U2 album that DOES make sense to be produced by Rick Rubin - it's this one - because the songs are already written.

i have no idea if it will be him - but hey, if it finally itches the damn scratch that their initial work with him set off (which has led to them questioning everything that got them to this point so far) - then perhaps that would be a really good thing.
 
It's pretty fun not really knowing anything about this next album (of new material, not SoS), even though it's apparently mostly done. Reminds me of the time leading up to SoI, when things were so quiet until the surprise release - although at least then we knew they were working with Danger Mouse and Ryan Tedder.

This time, outside of a few clues, we don't know who's producing, and we certainly don't know what kind of sound the next album will have. It's also unclear what theme it will even have - apparently this next album is separate from Songs of Ascent. So we really could be getting anything.

(Having said that, based on the acoustic reworkings of Songs of Surrender, and this next album rumoured to be titled with 'songs of' as well, I'd predict we'll get the same sort of emphasis on song writing, probably a lot of Bono and Edge acoustic promo appearances etc. U2songs have described the next album as being a hard rock album, however.)
 
Registered Dude said:
I forgot that they've been linked to Bob Ezrin as producer as well.. if the SOS approach is to work with the producers that did the originals, does that mean Ezrin has mainly been working on the new material?
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According to U2songs, the original producers are returning "in some cases" on SoS, i.e. not for every song. I could also imagine there being a central producer who helps tie all the songs even with old producers returning. Bob Ezrin also produced U2's orchestral BBC performance ahead of SoE, and if SoS is anything like that (which it could easily be), Ezrin could very likely be the SoS producer.

Having said that, there's no reason he couldn't also produce the next proper album; in fact, given the (planned) proximity of SoS to the next album, maybe it's quite likely he's producing both?
 
Odds on this other album getting last-second-guessed and delayed based on response to SoS?
 
High

Let's hope covid gave them cover and time to do this, versus hearing news in December that the band has hit a rich songwriting vein
 
Not sure about Bob Ezrin... I mean, he's old and other than Peter Gabriel and Lou Reed, he hasn't produced many that I care to listen to. Could signal they're going for the straight rock record that they said was one option they were exploring.
Only pro I see of it is maybe because he seems stuck in 70's guitar rock that he could be more of a champion for the Edge being front and center again.
 
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Whatever they write, I hope it's a departure from the tightening songcraft they worked towards on SOE. I really enjoyed SOE for its poppy tunes, but I've since longed for the layered, atmospheric, sonic playgrounds they explored with Eno and Lanois.

I wouldn't mind the Edge revisiting those sounds of old. I know he's always looking to do something new, but his palette hasn't been exactly breaking any new ground for the past decade.

And for further wishful thinking, I wish they would stop large-scale touring and long studio recording sessions altogether. Just hit the studio for 4 months, cut a record, and do a three month tour. Take a break. That is disciplined song writing -- going back to the days of their early years when they financially had to!
 
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