Zoomerang96
ONE love, blood, life
U2 return to stadium rock, roots on new disc
by Tedd Connors
With less than two months to go before the world's biggest band launch their latest offering to the masses, a select few journalists were allowed entry to a private listening party for U2's No Line on the Horizon.
The scene is a small meeting room in a posh London hotel and it's four days until Christmas. Sitting comfortably against a wall are Bono, drummer Larry Mullen Jr., and co-producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. The purpose of today's preview, later admitted by Bono, was to drum up further excitement for the album launch in March.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we're here today to unveil our latest rocketship," Bono said tongue firmly in cheek. "Two scientists (referring to the Edge and Adam) weren't able to make it tonight, but the rest of the lab workers are and we're excited to give you just a little glimpse as to what we've worked on."
With that brief introduction came a blitz of short song bites, the equivalent of about 20 second song snippets played back to back.
After these were played in a loop two or three times over, I came to the quick realisation that from all audio evidence, U2 are about to deliver the ultimate soul-rock album.
"We wish we could play the whole songs for you, but alas the record company wouldn't have any of it just yet," Larry said. "But as you heard, we were keen to come out with our most refined sound yet.
"We were aiming to fuse the soul we delivered on All That You Can't Leave Behind with the directness of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb."
From the clips presented, that would certainly be the case. It all sounded like U2 in full gear... a mish mash of the basic elements that saw U2 come together in the first place - vox, guitars, and drums.
"There are no reverse gears in this rocket ship or in our band, as I've said many times before," Bono said. "But we really feel like we've made the record we always wanted to."
The lead singer went on to describe the lyrical themes of the album to be "varied", drifting from the point of view from a man who's "experiencing a midlife crisis", to "showcasing Africa's plight through the eyes of a rockstar".
"We wanted to reach a very large audience with this record, and while we've always said we wanted to move forward, sometimes Brian pushed us a little too far to the left," Mullen Jr. conceded. "We wanted to focus on the music, and not get too distracted by beeps and whistles."
Eno readily admitted that as being the case.
"We scrapped a number - most if not all the more adventurous song structures in favour for a more familiar 4/4, 3/4 and kept away from the Pro Tools," Eno said. "It was quite frustrating for me, throughout, because I felt we had a great chance to do something unique and special, but they collectively insisted they wanted to make this record 'universally appealing'."
Further and more inclusive listening parties are expected in the immediate lead up to the new album's release, but for now, the little sneak peak given will hopefully be a true indication of great things to come on the charts and award programmes.
No finer proof than the stockpile of Grammy's Bono is expecting the band to receive in 2010.
"We're on a bit of a roll there, and it's been a true indication of how well our recent music has been received," said Bono. "We've always felt they've got their fingers on the pulse of the music industry, and raking in a few more Grammy's in the face of the world's best bands like the Killers, Coldplay, and Green Day is like winning the World Cup of music."
And whilst it may be too early to tell if Bono hopes of further Grammy success will come to pass, early indications are 2010 may well be a banner year for No Line on the Horizon.
by Tedd Connors
With less than two months to go before the world's biggest band launch their latest offering to the masses, a select few journalists were allowed entry to a private listening party for U2's No Line on the Horizon.
The scene is a small meeting room in a posh London hotel and it's four days until Christmas. Sitting comfortably against a wall are Bono, drummer Larry Mullen Jr., and co-producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. The purpose of today's preview, later admitted by Bono, was to drum up further excitement for the album launch in March.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we're here today to unveil our latest rocketship," Bono said tongue firmly in cheek. "Two scientists (referring to the Edge and Adam) weren't able to make it tonight, but the rest of the lab workers are and we're excited to give you just a little glimpse as to what we've worked on."
With that brief introduction came a blitz of short song bites, the equivalent of about 20 second song snippets played back to back.
After these were played in a loop two or three times over, I came to the quick realisation that from all audio evidence, U2 are about to deliver the ultimate soul-rock album.
"We wish we could play the whole songs for you, but alas the record company wouldn't have any of it just yet," Larry said. "But as you heard, we were keen to come out with our most refined sound yet.
"We were aiming to fuse the soul we delivered on All That You Can't Leave Behind with the directness of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb."
From the clips presented, that would certainly be the case. It all sounded like U2 in full gear... a mish mash of the basic elements that saw U2 come together in the first place - vox, guitars, and drums.
"There are no reverse gears in this rocket ship or in our band, as I've said many times before," Bono said. "But we really feel like we've made the record we always wanted to."
The lead singer went on to describe the lyrical themes of the album to be "varied", drifting from the point of view from a man who's "experiencing a midlife crisis", to "showcasing Africa's plight through the eyes of a rockstar".
"We wanted to reach a very large audience with this record, and while we've always said we wanted to move forward, sometimes Brian pushed us a little too far to the left," Mullen Jr. conceded. "We wanted to focus on the music, and not get too distracted by beeps and whistles."
Eno readily admitted that as being the case.
"We scrapped a number - most if not all the more adventurous song structures in favour for a more familiar 4/4, 3/4 and kept away from the Pro Tools," Eno said. "It was quite frustrating for me, throughout, because I felt we had a great chance to do something unique and special, but they collectively insisted they wanted to make this record 'universally appealing'."
Further and more inclusive listening parties are expected in the immediate lead up to the new album's release, but for now, the little sneak peak given will hopefully be a true indication of great things to come on the charts and award programmes.
No finer proof than the stockpile of Grammy's Bono is expecting the band to receive in 2010.
"We're on a bit of a roll there, and it's been a true indication of how well our recent music has been received," said Bono. "We've always felt they've got their fingers on the pulse of the music industry, and raking in a few more Grammy's in the face of the world's best bands like the Killers, Coldplay, and Green Day is like winning the World Cup of music."
And whilst it may be too early to tell if Bono hopes of further Grammy success will come to pass, early indications are 2010 may well be a banner year for No Line on the Horizon.
there are many ways I WANT to respond to this...all of them are violent.
I can't believe you all fell for this. 
