Next Album Rumours Thread V - Your Song Ruined My Life

[DeVaul]

Pop as in popular, fine.

As a musical genre? Not exactly. Pop as a genre typically signifies Top 40 radio. Radiohead isn’t being played on Z100.

There’s an argument to be made that the streaming charts have replaced radio as the reveal of what’s truly popular, as it’s largely driven by users choosing to play (or not skip) the songs. Unsure how they grade there.

 

[Hollow Island]

I was in a crowd of 90,000 on an album that featured a heaping turd about footwear as the lead single. What's your point?

that they're very far from simply being indie hipster darlings who deliberately catered to pitchfork's audience. that they're a big rock band.

 

[Hollow Island]

Radiohead is Arena Pop with a fan base that has deluded themselves into thinking they’re some hidden, sophisticated art rock gem.

yes! exactly!

 

[Hollow Island]

Is it “classic rock”? Perhaps not.
Modern/alternative rock? Sure.
If we’re going to classify anything U2 did in the 90s as rock, absolutely.

https://youtu.be/wozwbfY2p1Q

https://youtu.be/Fe6X9fLLp0Y

i don't see how a band that made

optimistic
in limbo
national anthem
i might be wrong
dollars and cents
2+2=5
there there
where i end and you begin
bodysnatchers
jigsaw falling into place
weird fishes
bangers and mash
mr magpie
separator
ful stop
identikit
burn the witch
these are my twisted words

and so on can be considered anything other than rock. You're right - if 90s U2 is rock, then so are Radiohead. I classify them as a psychedelic rock band. Their live show is an extravaganza of rock. They rock at least as hard as U2, and some would say they're not even a rock band!

 

[the tourist]

i don't see how a band that made

optimistic
in limbo
national anthem
i might be wrong
dollars and cents
2+2=5
there there
where i end and you begin
bodysnatchers
jigsaw falling into place
weird fishes
bangers and mash
mr magpie
separator
ful stop
identikit
burn the witch
these are my twisted words

and so on can be considered anything other than rock. You're right - if 90s U2 is rock, then so are Radiohead. I classify them as a psychedelic rock band. Their live show is an extravaganza of rock. They rock at least as hard as U2, and some would say they're not even a rock band!

Yeah, you know, when I really want to rock out, I put on these guitar-based songs, since that’s what Radiohead apparently does still:

Everything In Its Right Place
Kid A
Tree Fingers
Motion Picture Soundtrack
Pyramid Song
Pulk
Like Spinning Plates
Life In A Glass House
We Suck Young Blood
I Will
15 Step
Nude
Videotape
Bloom
Codex
Give Up The Ghost
Daydreaming
Desert Island Disk
True Love Waits
Glass Eyes

If you want to cherry pick songs that have some semblance of distorted guitar that might have been rooted in some form of rock, then I can go the other way.

To compare 90s U2 in genre to post 2000 Radiohead is laughable. Completely and utterly. Unless you ignore Achtung Baby, Pop, Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me and The Sweetest Thing absolutely.

 

[the tourist]

All of this to say, U2 absolutely should not do this. Especially anything Radiohead has done since their last good record In Rainbows.

And to clarify what genre I consider Radiohead, I’d say psychedelic electronica with some elements of trip hop that is infrequently-but-occasionally guitar based. And that’s a mouthful because Radiohead defy typical genres. But I’d never consider them rock post OK Computer.

 

[Hollow Island]

Rock bands make slow songs too, you know.

Radiohead are in no way electronica - every song is rooted in bass-drums-guitars-vocals. There are electronic dressings but they don't make electronic music by any stretch. A lot of the synthy sounds are guitars. And the last record was largely acoustic.

 

[the tourist]

Rock bands make slow songs too, you know.

Non rock bands can use guitar, you know.

Radiohead are in no way electronica - every song is rooted in bass-drums-guitars-vocals. There are electronic dressings but they don't make electronic music by any stretch. A lot of the synthy sounds are guitars. And the last record was largely acoustic.

Tell me, where is the guitar in Everything In Its Right Place, or Kid A, or The National Anthem, or Treefingers, or Idioteque, or Motion Picture Soundtrack? Or Packt Like Sardines? Pyramid Song? Pulk? Like Spinning Plates? Life In A Glass House?

I could go on but can’t be bothered. This conversation is dumb because neither of us will be convinced of anything.

 

[Irvine511]

I wonder how many music forums devolve into Radiohead arguments.

I bet quite a lot.

 

[lazarus]

How many music forums devolve into food puns though?

 

[super fly guy]

On The Today Show today Bono said that the band is enjoying working "without a purpose" and that no one is pushing them for an album or a tour, and they are enjoying that freedom. They are excited to work together again as a band, and there will be some recording work done in "the next few weeks."

We've updated our story about "what comes next" with Bono's quote from The Today Show about the band's future plans. The rest of the interview discussed Sing 2 and U2's new music in the film as well as Bono's work in Africa.

More here: https://www.u2songs.com/news/what_comes_next_recent_interviews #U2

 

[DeVaul]

How many music forums devolve into food puns though?

Amen.

 

[Gonna Run 2 U]

I think Bono’s statement of that they will be recording in the next few weeks tells us their corporate machine has told them ok boys Covid vacation is over, we’ve got some ticket sales to make soon. Get your asses in there now since you tinker for a year.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Somebody is in promotion mode

Clean the shit out your eyes, color the plugs, put down the cake - there's a movie to push

 

[DeVaul]

Somebody is in promotion mode

Clean the shit out your eyes, color the plugs, put down the cake - there's a movie to push

His hair color looks less realistic than the movie CG.

 

[DeVaul]

There, fixed.

 

[lazarus]

Is he trying to match the tint on those awful sunglasses?

 

[womanfish]

How long must we suffer the worst eyewear choice he has ever made. Put on some aviators and instantly takes 10 years off.

 

[BEAL]

Or even just regular glasses. No more of this Bono.

Where are his family and friends to intervene !!?

 

[Hollow Island]

A man with friends and family willing or capable of intervening doesn't use the word "refujesus." Bono's been abandoned.

 

[Hollow Island]

Non rock bands can use guitar, you know.




Tell me, where is the guitar in Everything In Its Right Place, or Kid A, or The National Anthem, or Treefingers, or Idioteque, or Motion Picture Soundtrack? Or Packt Like Sardines? Pyramid Song? Pulk? Like Spinning Plates? Life In A Glass House?

I could go on but can’t be bothered. This conversation is dumb because neither of us will be convinced of anything.

Some of those songs have guitars and almost all of them are pop/rock songs. Very few of them are primarily electronic. Treefingers is all guitar iirc. All effect, no dry signal. I wish they had more ambient tracks.

Radiohead are considered by everyone except you to be a rock band. In the press they're always referred to as a rock band. Maybe there's an alt or art prefix, but the rock is always there. They're never referred to as an electronic act because they're not. Watch a live show - they're obviously a rock band. It's baffling to me that you don't hear what the rest of the world hears.

Speaking of Pakt Like Sardines, when I saw live it rocked real good.

 

[the tourist]

Edit: nevermind. Don’t really care enough.

 

[mikemiller48]

Sunglasses are taking on political connotations and that's the sort of detail that doesn't escape the notice of the U2 organization. The Lennon/Gandhi sunglasses may be the only safe choice.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

Do you mean to tell me that if Bono starts sporting Oakleys we might start to believe he’s a Republican?

Those Lennons do not fit that man’s face. He should’ve either stuck to his Bonoglasses or, as previously mentioned, just gone to aviators. But more importantly than the glasses is the hair. Dude, it’s okay to wear a toupee, it’s okay to get hair transplants, but that hair color is… so brown it’s ginger? Like, why?

 

[Irvine511]

I mean, he was talking to a Bush.

But these days, not even the Bushes are fanatical enough to be considered Republicans by other Republicans.

 

[lazarus]

George W. Bush would probably be kicked out of the current Republican party just for signing off on AIDS relief to Africa.

He's still a war criminal, but...yeah.

 

[wolbersu2]

So the band is recording some new songs next week according to the interviews. And this without the pressure to put them on an album.... hmmmm.... Time for...... some experimentation then! I feel a new Unforgettable fire/AB/Zooropa/Pop is in the pipeline!

 

[LuckyNumber7]

I mean, he was talking to a Bush.

But these days, not even the Bushes are fanatical enough to be considered Republicans by other Republicans.

Am MSG show as recent as maybe 2015 featured “senator Ted Cruz in the house!”

 

[DeVaul]

So the band is recording some new songs next week according to the interviews. And this without the pressure to put them on an album.... hmmmm.... Time for...... some experimentation then! I feel a new Unforgettable fire/AB/Zooropa/Pop is in the pipeline!

Until they bash the spark out of it

 

[Hewson]

Do you mean to tell me that if Bono starts sporting Oakleys we might start to believe he’s a Republican?

Those Lennons do not fit that man’s face. He should’ve either stuck to his Bonoglasses or, as previously mentioned, just gone to aviators. But more importantly than the glasses is the hair. Dude, it’s okay to wear a toupee, it’s okay to get hair transplants, but that hair color is… so brown it’s ginger? Like, why?

He should just look more age appropriate....artist's rendering of the true 61 year old Bono....