New Album Discussion 10 - Songs of Sir, this is a Wendy's, durr

[trevgreg]

In the Letterman doc, Edge revealed he had something like 6000 recordings on his phone, and played the 40 foot man for Dave.

Bono probably considers each recording a finished song and therefore the band has 300 albums worth of music ready to be released

With any songwriter or songwriting group, you have dozens and dozens of songs that are more or less "complete" at some point (i.e., a full lyric or arrangement). If you count incomplete ideas like a riff or title idea, those gather up even more quickly over a period of time.

Whether they're any good or not is another question altogether. And more often than not, they're average or pretty bad, honestly. Or they sound good for awhile and then when you listen to it more often, you realize it really doesn't make the grade, and you try to write something better.

SOA and Guitar Album are nothing more than ideas at this point, tho I’m willing to bet there are SOME completed songs for the former.

Pretty much. I'm sure each of those album "ideas" has 10+ songs that could potentially make up such a concept. But like everything other album they've done, they'll continue to work on those at some point (if they choose to), tweak stuff here or there, write a few new songs to fit the rest better, and then release it if they feel like there's not much more they can do.

 

[prbiker15]

So, first impressions.

Approaching this album with a "almost new U2 songs" mindset instead of the "direct re-recording of old U2 songs" mindset makes a difference. This is better than what I was expecting.

I'm enjoying the arrangements the most. Never been a fan of lyric changes, but for a change I don't think it's dampening the project. Bono's voice is not in bad shape, we've heard worse.

The only song I won't be returning to is Get Out of Your Own Way. Christ, the Songs of Experience version is a masterpiece compared to this one.

 

[iota]

Retirement it is then

I think Bono and Edge will keep going, no matter what Larry does. If 40 foot man is any indication, they can still create great music.

 

[JamietheEdgefan]

In the Letterman doc, Edge revealed he had something like 6000 recordings on his phone, and played the 40 foot man for Dave.

Bono probably considers each recording a finished song and therefore the band has 300 albums worth of music ready to be released

Adam has always been the most grounded with expectations and current work.

SOA and Guitar Album are nothing more than ideas at this point, tho I’m willing to bet there are SOME completed songs for the former.

They definitely won’t record or tour a proper U2 album until Larry is healthy enough. When that is, and does Larry actually want to, is the unknown.

Oh absolutely, we know Bono likes to talk about finished songs and how it typically means rough phone recordings.

I was referring more to the reports from u2songs - of course they're not right 100% of the time, but they clearly have an inside scoop (e.g. they reported on Songs of Surrender way back in April of last year), so if they hear that an album has been largely completed it's probably not unsubstantiated.

But in this instance it's clearly at odds with what Adam has said. Maybe they did have some material, but are starting again...

 

[Hewson]

Edge is always working on stuff,” Clayton notes, “but until we get the Sphere shows out of the way and we know what’s going to be happening with Larry, it’ll be very hard to organize what we’ve got and figure out what the plan will be.”



Well that sounds ominous

2027 it is.

 

[clerks]

My favorite Disc is 5 -- the forty foot man!

 

[ascender_RS]

I took this part more to mean that they're waiting for Larry to be better before going full steam ahead with the next album, which seems pretty positive (even if Larry's recovery time is unclear).

The talk of only very minimal recording is a bit of a bummer. Presumably they can't start in earnest until Larry is better, so they might not even properly start recording until the end of the year or even 2024.

Kind of flies in the face of u2songs reporting the album is largely done, and that Edge was working on final mixes in autumn '22. Of course they're not right about everything, but this seems like a much bigger contradiction than getting a few details wrong.

(It wouldn't surprise me if more work is done than Adam is letting on, but who wants to put an album out and say "oh we actually finished this ages ago, it's not really that new anymore but we had to wait for our drummer")

Could that album they were talking about have been the mythical Songs of Ascent? Did Bono not recently mention that it’s finally finished?

I assumed from the recent comments that the new guitar-focused album hadn’t been recorded, so would be done this year, with the tour next year. But I guess there’s SOS, followed by more solo Bono shows than rehearsing and planning the Sphere shows.

Meanwhile, nobody knows how Larry’s recovery is going. Would they juggle the Sphere rehearsals and writing/recording sessions if Larry is ready for those? We all know they need a lot of rehearsing for live shows, so the cynic in me thinks this new album isn’t going to be ready for longer than we’d like.

I know everyone is on board with it, but its still a bit strange seeing Bono & Edge doing all the promo for SOS on their own.

 

[iota]

My favorite Disc is 5 -- the forty foot man!

Youtube to mp3, put it in the SOS playlist, now you have SOS Deluxe Edition.

 

[super fly guy]

Streets doesn't do it for me,far to sparse. That and WOWOY are the weakest tracks imo.

 

[DeVaul]

Streets doesn't do it for me,far to sparse. That and WOWOY are the weakest tracks imo.

I thought that the first time I scanned through on my phone. When I played it on my main home setup, the nuance came through and I liked it a lot more. It’s subtle but not simple, if that makes sense

 

[JamietheEdgefan]

Could that album they were talking about have been the mythical Songs of Ascent? Did Bono not recently mention that it’s finally finished?

I assumed from the recent comments that the new guitar-focused album hadn’t been recorded, so would be done this year, with the tour next year. But I guess there’s SOS, followed by more solo Bono shows than rehearsing and planning the Sphere shows.

That sounds plausible based on what's been said, but as mentioned above, Bono isn't necessarily that reliable when it comes to how far along albums are - so when he says SoA is nearly finished, he could just mean he has 11 sketches recorded on his phone.

They've been talking about doing a rock album since 2019, so it's unlikely none of it's been recorded yet; all the talk (especially from Adam) about wanting to capture a raw, spontaneous sound that rejects technological polish makes we wonder if they had the rock album ready to go (there were rumours it would be out around now), they realised they'd have to postpone because of Larry, and they're planning to use the delay to re-record the songs with that raw sound.

 

[gvox]

BRILLIANT.

I'm just here for the people who have always said Bono's falsetto is done.

Where you at? lol

 

[JWR1992]

If you listen to the first 10 seconds of EBW with good headphones you can hear wave noises?

Also, that new dark Radioheadesque synth sound is a nice touch. I wonder if it was taken from the original 2009 recording that was supposed to be on No Line on the Horizon.

 

[ascender_RS]

The version of Invisible in the Disney+ documentary is stupendous.

I know 40 Foot Man was basically just a demo song but there’s a very nice chord progression & melody in there.

Over the last year or so Bono has been sounding as good as he has done in a very, very long time and its great to see the falsetto back.

 

[super fly guy]

I thought that the first time I scanned through on my phone. When I played it on my main home setup, the nuance came through and I liked it a lot more. It’s subtle but not simple, if that makes sense

I'm listening on vinyl with decent speakers,just not feeling it. Even the vocal delivery is not doing it for me.

Electrical storm and Vertigo are rising up the rankings now.

 

[TinKnight]

Oh thanks for saying hi

Were you there??

 

[dan_smee]

I'm listening on vinyl with decent speakers,just not feeling it. Even the vocal delivery is not doing it for me.

Electrical storm and Vertigo are rising up the rankings now.

I love ES - the only thing I’m not quite into is the key change when Edge starts singing the third verse. It’s a great idea, but it’s just a little jarring.

 

[BEAL]

BRILLIANT.



I'm just here for the people who have always said Bono's falsetto is done.



Where you at? lol

Which songs does he really nail it ?

I was happy to hear a better voice at the end of SYCMIOYO, the “fake” it on the album was very rough where SOS version was more pleasant.

Seems like Edge did most of the very high falsetto no??

The middle of The Fly seems like a older recording of Bono or a lot of studio magic

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

were you there??

 

[clerks]

I was in Ireland once and a band got up and played U2 songs which I loved, but not sure it was a full cover band. My question has always been -- how come you can have cover bands, but comedians get mad if you have a similar joke.

I'd like to see a cover comic do George Carlin now that's he dead.

 

[clerks]

Oh thanks for saying hi

Oh hi, Mark.

 

[zoocarolina]

OK with everything you said except picking out pasta at Walmart!

Ha Ha! Tough times take tough choices.

 

[DeVaul]

Oh hi, Mark.

Speaking of, how’s that May 3rd ticket procurement going?

 

[womanfish]

I was in Ireland once and a band got up and played U2 songs which I loved, but not sure it was a full cover band. My question has always been -- how come you can have cover bands, but comedians get mad if you have a similar joke.

I'd like to see a cover comic do George Carlin now that's he dead.

Can I just say how happy I am that you are back in the forum regularly. Carry on.

 

[clerks]

Speaking of, how’s that May 3rd ticket procurement going?

Scheduled right now to go to 1 show April 17. Is that first one. I think so.

 

[clerks]

Can I just say how happy I am that you are back in the forum regularly. Carry on.

All it takes is something to chat about. I don’t know what you kids talk about between albums or tours.

 

[DaveC]

it's mostly fat bono puns

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

it's mostly fat bono puns

This isn't true.

We also do fat Bono song rewrites.

 

[DeVaul]

This isn't true.

We also do fat Bono song rewrites.

And occasional photoshops

 

[dan_smee]

Hi all - just finished adding the promo stuff to my icloud for listening in the car, thought I'd share:

The zips has:
- 40 foot man
- Piano Room, all three tracks - BBC haven't uploaded One so I grabbed it as a screen record on my phone. Not quite the quality of the other two
- NPR Tiny desk

https://www.sendspace.com/file/m9n1sb