Stars Don't Go - U2 & Avicci Track

[ascender_RS]

"Stars Don't Go" seems to have been leaked on Youtube overnight. Apparently stuff like this has been happening in the years since Avicci passed.

On YouTube here:

https://youtu.be/X93u1ZR_x2c

How do you embed videos?

 

[dan_smee]

Stars Don't Go - U2 & Avicci Track

I was about to post this as well. So Edge didn’t disappear 15 years ago. That last minute 20 is great. The song is generic EDM nonsense for the most part, nice to hear an early take on Iris melody etc. love the outro.

 

[super fly guy]

Very nice outro,some more of this please Mr The Edge.

 

[ascender_RS]

So htf does some great guitar playing like that turn up on a track with Avicci when he has been sounding neutered in anything they’ve actually released over the last how many years? I love that outro section.

The other thing is, and this might be because it wasn't a finished track, but the overall sound, especially of Bono's vocals, doesn't seem like its been processed to within an inch of its life. It sounds quite natural for him and unlike some of the production we've heard on other times.

Its one of the more successful tracks of this type I've heard as it lets both styles of music "breathe" if that makes sense?

 

[dan_smee]

Best part about it is that it’s raw and has some flub notes and reality to it. Sigh

 

[pacemaker]

It's like a supercharged Love Is Blindness solo sent through time to the SOI era. I think Edge's playing from SOI gets overlooked in the conversations about "where he's gone", but featuring more scrappy, shabby takes like this going forward would be awesome. Raw playing, even on an inevitable Coldplay/Adele type track would really... elevate things.

 

[DeVaul]

Thank you, youtube to MP3…

 

[zoocarolina]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! This was great and I know I’m hearing lyrics from Iris in there, any other snippets of SOI songs missing?

 

[ascender_RS]

Best part about it is that it’s raw and has some flub notes and reality to it. Sigh

100%

No glossy sheen of over-production, in the quest for the perfect sound. The instruments have real weight to them. This is what they should sound like….

Can’t believe I’m saying this about U2 on a track with Avicci.

 

[Gonna Run 2 U]

Big “Disappearing Act” guitar vibes at the end there. It sounds unfinished but what a sound that could be when Edge actually plays guitar.

 

[Irvine511]

I quite like that. The heaviness of the lyrics give great balance to the lightness of the production, some how making it feel more emotional than the religious sternness of Iris. and I quite like Iris.

 

[dan_smee]

Stars Don't Go - U2 & Avicci Track

Like most earlier/demo-y u2 things, the unfinished lyrics are more natural and impactful too. I still don’t like the EDM generic stuff, and the chorus is a bit too cheesy/scratchy.

Once we are born we begin to forget
The reasons that we came
But I am sure it was you I met
Long before I had to name myself
To gain myself
I needed you to remain myself
I have seen the dark and I’m waking from that sleep.

Something in your eyes took 1000 years to get to here
The hunter in the skies can see our life becoming clear.

Bit of Invisible in the outro drums too.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

So assuming this is from the dance album they were considering before going down the SOI route?

 

[DeVaul]

Where’s the Red One shit?

 

[dan_smee]

Four years after he dies someone will leak it.

 

[DeVaul]

::checks calendar::

 

[cobl04]

The best thing I can say about it is that it's a million miles better than any song they've promoted in the past decade. If they're going to jump on any trend, which I don't want them to do, this would be the one that'd I'd tolerate. I could see a stadium rocking to this. Nice to get a reminder that Edge is actually capable of playing the instrument he uses. Bono sounds okay. This would not remotely approach my top 100 U2 songs.

 

[lazarus]

The best thing I can say about it is that it's a million miles better than any song they've promoted in the past decade.

Once again with the obnoxiously negative hyperbole. Try checking yourself before firing off these hot takes, it's embarrassing.

Anyway, to those actually discussing the song in a serious, level-headed fashion, sure, it's cool to hear The Edge shred, but it doesn't exactly go with the rest of the song that came before it.

A decent track, and better than the Euro Cup song collab, but not something I'd be reaching for often.

 

[cobl04]

Let's do the math.

Would I take this track over...

Ordinary Love - yes
Invisible - yes
The Miracle - yes
Every Breaking Wave - yes
Song for Someone - yes
Best Thing - yes
Get Out - yes
Blackout - maybe
Lights of Home - yes
Love is Bigger - no
Ahimsa - yes
Song Saved My Life - yes
We Are the People - yes

So, not an exaggeration.

 

[dan_smee]

Stars Don't Go - U2 & Avicci Track

Laz may have missed the “they’ve promoted” part of your post cobbler.

I would not take this track over a good chunk of songs they’ve inexplicably ignored though, and while your take on 2010s onward u2 isn’t exactly aligned with mine (though I’m plenty critical of some aspects), I’m not going to tell you you’re wrong. But the list you posted only serves to show how fucking awful they’ve been at selecting singles from their albums.

For me - I’d rather listen to Iris as a complete tune (but I prefer the melody and lyric of this song), EBW (yes, I am not as dark on it as most), RBW, Crystal Ballroom, Cedarwood Road, Reach Around, Invisible, Troubles, LIAWHL, LOH strings, Landlady, Blackout, RFD, Book of Your Heart, Love is Bigger and Little Things. But it’s better than pretty much everything else since NLOTH, and a damn sight better than a good chunk of it too.

 

[RUBIKSCUBE]

It's alright and interesting to listen to, but it's nothing great either. Iris was a clear improvement.

Imagine for a minute if this is what we got on SOI, and Iris surfaced today as an unreleased b-side. What would the reaction be on here? That's right, blind rage that they bastardised a decent song and turned it into derivative EDM fodder.

Can't believe people can honestly rate this higher than The Troubles, SLABT, LOH, MOS, Magnificent etc etc.

 

[dan_smee]

It's alright and interesting to listen to, but it's nothing great either. Iris was a clear improvement.



Imagine for a minute if this is what we got on SOI, and Iris surfaced today as an unreleased b-side. What would the reaction be on here? That's right, blind rage that they bastardised a decent song and turned it into derivative EDM fodder.



Can't believe people can honestly rate this higher than The Troubles, SLABT, LOH, MOS, Magnificent etc etc.

Other than Danny saying LOH, I don’t think anyone has said that…?

 

[RUBIKSCUBE]

Yeah my bad, misread another post. I'm gonna blame the hangover.

Still wouldn't put it above most of the singles in the last 15 years. Boots, Best Thing and the Euro song I'd say are worse.

 

[dan_smee]

Yeah my bad, misread another post. I'm gonna blame the hangover.

Still wouldn't put it above most of the singles in the last 15 years. Boots, Best Thing and the Euro song I'd say are worse.

Hangover is a good excuse ?

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

It's definitely in the top 2 songs to use those lyrics.

Top 3 if you only count the free yourself to be yourself part.

 

[Gonna Run 2 U]

Stars Don't Go - U2 & Avicci Track

What was written first A Sky Full Of Stars (released 2014) or Stars Don’t Go (Recorded 2013) I’m assuming U2 literally were trying to copy Coldplay’s success with Avicci, but it seems they were done around the same time?

 

[lazarus]

Laz may have missed the “they’ve promoted” part of your post cobbler.

I did catch that part, but I don't even know what "promoted" means. If he meant "singles" he should have said that. Plus, Lights of Home is on that list, and it wasn't a single.

Was the band "promoting" The Little Things... when they previewed it on the JT30 tour? I'd say so. This Avicci track sure ain't better than that. How about new songs that are played regularly on a tour, is that "promoting"?

Either way, it's still a hyperbolic hot take that's hard to take seriously, even if one agrees, as I do, that they've been bad at choosing singles. No way in hell is this better than Love is Bigger, The Blackout, Invisible, or that alt. version of Lights of Home (which became integrated into the live performance).

It's definitely in the top 2 songs to use those lyrics.

Top 3 if you only count the free yourself to be yourself part.

 

[wolbersu2]

What was written first A Sky Full Of Stars (released 2014) or Stars Don’t Go (Recorded 2013) I’m assuming U2 literally were trying to copy Coldplay’s success with Avicci, but it seems they were done around the same time?

I'm really glad they did not release this version. Pretty much coldplayish. The final version, Iris, is way better....

 

[dan_smee]

I did catch that part, but I don't even know what "promoted" means. If he meant "singles" he should have said that. Plus, Lights of Home is on that list, and it wasn't a single.



Was the band "promoting" The Little Things... when they previewed it on the JT30 tour? I'd say so. This Avicci track sure ain't better than that. How about new songs that are played regularly on a tour, is that "promoting"?



Either way, it's still a hyperbolic hot take that's hard to take seriously, even if one agrees, as I do, that they've been bad at choosing singles. No way in hell is this better than Love is Bigger, The Blackout, Invisible, or that alt. version of Lights of Home (which became integrated into the live performance).

Not sure why someone who has followed a band this closely doesn’t get “promoted”? LOH is there because there was a single release and remixes. I took it to mean singles and songs they’ve pushed to radio/released independently. I think you’re probably looking for a semantic problem (which ironically is the position you are rightly defending).

 

[ascender_RS]

So assuming this is from the dance album they were considering before going down the SOI route?

Bloody hell, I'd totally forgotten about all the chat about those more dance-inflected/inspired tracks.

That's exactly the sort of thing that they should just release in a "throwaway" manner if the tracks are considered to be finished. If they decide they're not good enough to be a proper U2 album, with a tour and all that stuff, why not release the tracks rather than just sticking them in the vault?

I guess we never know how much is hyperbole from Bono vs actual finished work.