I hope the new album is a surprise again...

[Everlastinglove]

Well, don't get me wrong.
It's just that the last albums since ATYCLB were very similar. You could put one of the songs on another album and wouldn't have realised it.
They are all good and successful, but I miss the Wow-effect.
The wow-effect I had on Achtung Baby and Pop. From Joshua Tree till ATCLB sounded every album different...

I really hope to get that surprise feeling again.

Don't kill me, it's just my opinion, but maybe some share it...

Love and greets, Elli.

 

[Galeongirl]

IMO the surprise came with NLOTH. It sounded very little like ATYCLAAB.

 

[BVS]

I think if you believe NLOTH, MOS, WAS, COL, FEZ, or UC could be on ATYCLB or Bomb then you're listening to the wrong album.

 

[coolian2]

I think if you believe NLOTH, MOS, WAS, COL, FEZ, or UC could be on ATYCLB or Bomb then you're listening to the wrong album.

indeed.

maybe an itunes mistagging?

 

[ultraviolet92]

mmmm yess i dont think NLOTH is that similiar to the other two
but yeah it didnt have the WOW effect

 

[coolian2]

but yeah it didnt have the WOW effect

it did to me, i didn't think they had an album like that in them anymore.

 

[Gonna Run 2 U]

Should I be that guy who says "does this really deserve its own thread"?

 

[Tyagu_Anaykus]

Why should you?

 

[Rafiennes]

At this point, I just want them to surprise us WITH a new album.

 

[martha]

At this point, I just want them to surprise us WITH a new album.

This.

 

[BVS]

Should I be that guy who says "does this really deserve its own thread"?

Every fleeing thought deserves a thread.

 

[Earnie Shavers]

No Line is a foot in both camps, IMO. Some tracks very '00s' - even if they wouldn't quite fit on either other album, with others very much moving forward or beyond. Even within some individual tracks there's a bit of both (like UC.) The feel or mood of No Line is obviously very different. I'd say overall No Line is an evolution, not a departure. The OP clearly wants the big departure. The end to end holy shit. So umm,

 

[Everlastinglove]

@BVS: well... I didn't say that they were the same. But had a similar sound. So no, not every song could be on the other album but the style is most of the time the same.
Btw. I'm not i-tunes listener. I'm a CD buyer.

@ultraviolet92: thanks.

@Gonna_run_2_u: don't be mad, but you don't have to join the topic if you don't want to... Don't get it why people are so bored and post that they don't like this and that... Whatever.

@Rafiennes: HAA!! Yes, that's it.. Well, we'll see how long it takes them to release an album. But it would be pretty awesome.

 

[JoRu]

Overall NLOTH is a very different album from ATYCLB and HTDAAB if you ask me, but it's not a complete departure like Achtung Baby was. It didn't really surprise me, but it still had a different feel.

So I agree with the OP, this time I truly do want a "HOLY SHIT, THAT'S U2?!" album, or at least something that resembles a surprising album. U2's always sort of reinvented themselves with every new decade (AB and ATYCLB, which is a real departure from what they did before it if you think about it), so I'd be disappointed if they didn't do the same for this decade.

 

[stealthboy]

I'd like a song or two that makes me do the head-tilt "huh?" look. Something like Numb or The Fly, which were simply from left field - totally breaking any preconceived ideas about what U2 should sound like.

 

[ozeeko]

NLOTH doesn't have that shock of the new because it wasn't fully realized. It sounds a little unsure of itself. And 2 or 3 songs even sound like they're torn from another album. Taken by themselves, MOS and F-BB and WAS and COL sound pretty darn good out of context. Thrown into the directionless mess that is NLOTH, their power gets stifled, cuz I know it's only a tease.

That's how I feel about the album. It's like they threatened to do something new, and at the last second went "JUST KIDDING!"

I would call it a hesitant half-step forward. What we need is a full body LEAP forward.

 

[nirniva]

NLOTH doesn't have that shock of the new because it wasn't fully realized. It sounds a little unsure of itself. And 2 or 3 songs even sound like they're torn from another album. Taken by themselves, MOS and F-BB and WAS and COL sound pretty darn good out of context. Thrown into the directionless mess that is NLOTH, their power gets stifled, cuz I know it's only a tease.

That's how I feel about the album. It's like they threatened to do something new, and at the last second went "JUST KIDDING!"

I would call it a hesitant half-step forward. What we need is a full body LEAP forward.

Yeah, pretty much this.

(I do love NLOTH, mind, but it's definitely the final section of the '00s Trilogy. It seems like a dead cert that the new album will have a cool new direction, though: if you want to sound like you did in the '80s, you don't hire Danger Mouse.)

 

[mrex]

On the other hand, there's always the chance that you might hate, or not get, the new direction.

I saw early U2 fans quit when UF came out. I saw others that thought TJT was totally commercial, and a sell out. And I know many, many casual fans, who never followed the band past Zooropa. It was just too "weird."

 

[ozeeko]

If MOS and F-BB was the direction they were headed, I totally get it and understand it and totally do NOT hate it. Point is, if that was the direction they were headed, then obviously they got lost when you consider the end result of that album. There were 2 different directions, and neither were fully explored.

 

[Rafiennes]

But part of the problem with NLOTH (and to some extent, the previous two albums) is that there is a start/stop mentality to the track listing. You start to go somewhere and then bring it down to a mid tempo. Moments where the albums should be soaring, they’re crawling.

I say this, however, knowing that there are some really fantastic moments on all three of those albums, but (as Bono has said) the sum was never the total of the parts for me or some other math thing that I don't remember. Numbers aren't my strong area.

 

[BVS]

@BVS: well... I didn't say that they were the same. But had a similar sound. So no, not every song could be on the other album but the style is most of the time the same.
Btw. I'm not i-tunes listener. I'm a CD buyer.

I have no idea what this means. The songs are now not interchangable, but they are the same "style"?

@Gonna_run_2_u: don't be mad, but you don't have to join the topic if you don't want to... Don't get it why people are so bored and post that they don't like this and that... Whatever.

It's not about not liking this or that. It's just that some people think that every thought they have deserves a whole new thread. This could have easily fit in one of the existing discussions about the new album. Can you imagine if everyone made a new thread about what they wish for this new album? We'd had 50 new threads a day.

 

[BVS]

But part of the problem with NLOTH (and to some extent, the previous two albums) is that there is a start/stop mentality to the track listing. You start to go somewhere and then bring it down to a mid tempo. Moments where the albums should be soaring, they’re crawling.

Can you elaborate on this? When does it crawl when it should soar? And what U2 album doesn't do this?

 

[purpleoscar]

I'd like a song or two that makes me do the head-tilt "huh?" look. Something like Numb or The Fly, which were simply from left field - totally breaking any preconceived ideas about what U2 should sound like.

That's when I got into the band.

I saw early U2 fans quit when UF came out. I saw others that thought TJT was totally commercial, and a sell out. And I know many, many casual fans, who never followed the band past Zooropa. It was just too "weird."

I think they can lose those people.

 

[Rafiennes]

Can you elaborate on this? When does it crawl when it should soar? And what U2 album doesn't do this?

I’ll elaborate and before everyone gets panties in bunches this is MY opinion and while you may disagree, no need to attack. Also know that while we have different opinions, one of us is wrong and it’s most likely not me

It’s all about pacing. Like any good movie or novel or anything with artistic merit. You need to keep the pacing going. Otherwise you’re meandering. Also, your opening is everything. It lets you know the type of (for lack of a better word) journey you’re gonna be going on.

So when NLOTH sneaks in (quite possibly one of the best songs U2 has written in a long time) and attacks you with this beautifully bombastic sound (not one, not two, but THREE separate drum parts) a helluva melody and it just lets you know that you are in for some energy.

And then…Magnificent starts and it’s kind of plodding ahead and then it slowly builds to…a bit of a mid-tempo song with some tremendous singing but it kind of sounds like the guys are tuckered out. The guitars are great, the synths are great but it doesn’t have that second punch we need (i.e. Zoo Station / EBTTRT or Discotheque / DYFL or ASOH / Pride) If you start out strong, don't follow up with the immediate slow down (BD / SIAM or Vertigo / MD)

Then, while they’ve got you slowed down, they give us Moment of Surrender (and here’s where I’m gonna get shit) MOS, while a beautiful song, doesn’t go anywhere. It goes on and on and never really ascends at any point. It’s got a great melody, a fantastic slide solo, but it’s kind of…just…there…

Based on every interview everyone on this board has most likely read, I’m sure to be in the room while that song arrived must have been an other worldly experience. But we’ll never be in that room at that moment. (so badly want to make a Stuck In A Moment Of Surrender joke but I can’t really formulate it right now) So while the songs MOS were compared to (WOWY and One) eventually get to a crescendo, this song does not.

So then you’re now really chugging along and we get…Unknown Caller. A good tune, still in the mid-tempo range, though. From there it’s three tunes – one slightly faster, the next really faster, then slow fast tunes. And the last three tracks, acoustic-y ballad, bluesy, dark rocker and then moody ender. It just sounds disjointed to me. I can’t even listen to the album in its current track listing. I rearrange it and make it more enjoyable for myself (one of the bad side effects that iTunes has had on The Album)

Hopefully that answered your question and angered next to no one.

 

[powerhour24]

Can I be the first person to say that the Bomb also doesn't sound like ATYCLB? Sure they both have that stripped-down idea instead of wall of sound or distortion on most tracks, but they do not sound like two sides of the same coin.

 

[LemonMelon]

Then, while they’ve got you slowed down, they give us Moment of Surrender (and here’s where I’m gonna get shit) MOS, while a beautiful song, doesn’t go anywhere. It goes on and on and never really ascends at any point. It’s got a great melody, a fantastic slide solo, but it’s kind of…just…there…

I don't want to give you shit for this, because I understand where you're coming from with it, but I don't agree, no. As much of a meme as I TAIGHGHGHT MASELLAFF WIT WIIAYAHAYHAGHGHGHGH has become, Bono's delivery on MOS is the key to understanding what makes it so special. The song is inherently isolating, targeting the universe less and the individual more, to the extent that the protagonist doesn't even notice others around him. In doing so, Bono naturally drags the listener into a very intimate place without being lazy and using the words "alone," "lonely," "isolated," "detached," and so on.

The lyrics share an attitude with the music that emphasizes subtle changes in melody (note the final 30 seconds or so, in which Edge carefully spreads sunlight over the proceedings) and mood. This sort of harmony is an example of excellent songwriting, and when it's sung with the conviction Bono brings to the table (he wails "I've been in every black hole" as if he were being torn apart by one at that very moment) it doesn't matter that it lacks a ridiculous Bohemian Rhapsody-style payoff. The fact that MOS makes you want to hang on to its every word without ever rising above a whisper is an amazing trick, and the message behind the lyrics (particularly refreshing for the hell-bent-on-universality U2 of the '00s) makes it one of their recent classics.

 

[Gonna Run 2 U]

It's not about not liking this or that. It's just that some people think that every thought they have deserves a whole new thread. This could have easily fit in one of the existing discussions about the new album. Can you imagine if everyone made a new thread about what they wish for this new album? We'd have 50 new threads a day.

The same discussions generally just find their ways in 4 different threads as it is.

 

[Irvine511]

if they want to avoid the glue-factory, they do need another face lift.

 

[purpleoscar]

The same discussions generally just find their ways in 4 different threads as it is.

+1

 

[Rafiennes]

I don't want to give you shit for this, because I understand where you're coming from with it, but I don't agree, no. As much of a meme as I TAIGHGHGHT MASELLAFF WIT WIIAYAHAYHAGHGHGHGH has become, Bono's delivery on MOS is the key to understanding what makes it so special. The song is inherently isolating, targeting the universe less and the individual more, to the extent that the protagonist doesn't even notice others around him. In doing so, Bono naturally drags the listener into a very intimate place without being lazy and using the words "alone," "lonely," "isolated," "detached," and so on.

The lyrics share an attitude with the music that emphasizes subtle changes in melody (note the final 30 seconds or so, in which Edge carefully spreads sunlight over the proceedings) and mood. This sort of harmony is an example of excellent songwriting, and when it's sung with the conviction Bono brings to the table (he wails "I've been in every black hole" as if he were being torn apart by one at that very moment) it doesn't matter that it lacks a ridiculous Bohemian Rhapsody-style payoff. The fact that MOS makes you want to hang on to its every word without ever rising above a whisper is an amazing trick, and the message behind the lyrics (particularly refreshing for the hell-bent-on-universality U2 of the '00s) makes it one of their recent classics.

The fact that you got all of that out of that song is a wonderful thing and the pure beauty of a song.

I hear the song and I get it – I feel the isolation, I see the self-abuse by the song’s story teller. But to what end? And maybe the point of the song is that it’s supposed to drift along but at least (for me) arrive somewhere in the end.

I honestly don’t think it makes a great show closer – everyone leaving on a bit of a sour note. But that’s for a whole other thread.