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IMO, it's that difference in the two parts that makes Lemon so perfect. All the shifts between the two are the songs sweet spots.
 
Earnie Shavers said:
IMO, it's that difference in the two parts that makes Lemon so perfect. All the shifts between the two are the songs sweet spots.


Agreed. :yes: It's the same thing with Zooropa the song. By the time you get to the end, you can't quite remember exactly how the start of the song took you to where you finished, but you know that the trip was something great.
 
Ditch Rubin. Just have the good ole boys produce the damn thing again. We'll all be much happier when all is said and done.
 
Lancemc said:
Ditch Rubin. Just have the good ole boys produce the damn thing again. We'll all be much happier when all is said and done.

I don't agree, but I don't disagree.

It sounds like they are doing something really cool now.

I fear what Rubin will do to it. Even if he keeps the songs essentially the same and just Rubinises them, ie makes them overcompressed and fucking loud, I don't like that idea. If he tears them to shreds and turns them into radio songs, I will cry and post it on youtube for you all to see.

Still, I have no specific reason to say 'No' to Rubin, I just hope that if they do still go with him (a) that the working stuff from these Fez sessions never see the light of day, for I fear I will forever regret hearing them versus the finished material, and (b) they have learned something from the production mess that is HTDAAB and they get Rubin to ease up on the noise.

BUT if they ditched Rubin and just went with Eno/Lanois for the whole thing, I'd be more than happy.
 
Pretty amazing news, this. It's taken me quite awhile to read through the whole thread, and now I'm not sure what I have to say... too much or nothing at all.

They really seem to know what they're doing- that's what my intuition tells me at least.

They really seem to have Bono back on the musical page in a way that hasn't been in perhaps nearly a decade-
 
U2girl said:
:bow: Utoo.

I think the militant wing would actually only get more ammo if we get Passengers part II. You know..."so they CAN do music like this ! They deliberately made cash on the last two albums!".

:ohmy:

:lmao: :lmao:



commercial dosen't always = bad/boring etc :wink:

and what I'm readind so far sounds pret-tee exciting to me......


and i love a whole panoply of U2 mousic/sound-styles........

overall Uber favs in total aspects: songs/music/singing
WAR, JT, AB/Zoo, POP & HTDAAB

wi th a few Uber favs from eAch of these ATYCLB/UF/BOY/OCt


:( with out real easy acess.....to downloading etc [yet] (and no net @ home) I have heard almost none of the way less available songs.ie X&W, NS, Mercy, etc etc..........:)

so i can't comment on all THESE pontials for album or B-side works
 
Utoo said:



Agreed. :yes: It's the same thing with Zooropa the song. By the time you get to the end, you can't quite remember exactly how the start of the song took you to where you finished, but you know that the trip was something great.


:scratch:
I didn't have trouble "following " Zooropa {the song} :)
one of my real favs
 
Utoo just means how the song changes so much from beginning to end.

It's a musical journey. :wink:
 
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here it is :

The Mysterious Ways of Arabic Music


U2.Com have been in Morocco with Brian Eno, Danny Lanois and U2. During June we’re bringing you the inside track on the Fez songwriting sessions.
In Part 1 Larry explained that ‘Sometimes you just have to get away in order to write the songs.’
In our second Fez story, the band check out one of the headline acts at the Festival of Sacred Music and Brian Eno muses on why Arabic music is so distinctive. (Apparently its ‘teleological.’ )

‘The Moroccan policeman is apopletic. Outside the house in the centre of Fez, where U2 are songwriting with Danny Lanois and Brian Eno, the driver of the van who taking us to see legendary Iranian vocalist Parissa perform, is receiving a serious ear-bashing from the local constabulary.
Judging by the disinterest of people making their way to the nearby market, this is an unremarkable episode even though the debating point seems to focus on the convoy of cars which has recently passed by carrying Queen Rania of Jordan - in Fez as a guest of the King of Morocco, and on her way to the same gig. With a peaceful resolution unlikely in the immediate future, most of U2 and a small band of companions reluctantly abandon the van and head off on foot through the medieval streets to find Parissa.

Twenty minutes later and we’re seated with 2,000 others inside a beautiful walled garden, as Parissa and the five-piece Dastan Ensemble, begin their set on a low stage under the shade of two huge trees. Turns out the Ensemble are the most famous classical Iranian group in the world and they deliver a virtuoso performance on the kind of percussion and string instruments rarely played in the West. Parissa herself is a mesmerising Arabic soul singer, totally lost in the music, hands raised heavenward in mystic praise even though no-one has a clue what she’s singing about.

‘Teleological’ is the word Brian Eno later uses to describe this Arabic musical tradition. It has little in common with the ‘verse, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge…’ construction of western rock’n’roll heritage. For a start they’re not big on the idea of the hit single – the first track alone lasts forty five minutes.
‘Can you believe this?’ asks Bono, as the audience rises as one to salute them at the end of their two-song, 70-minute set. ‘Isn’t that something else ?’
As Bono talks infectiously about the historical overlaps between Arabic music and Irish music, about ‘copts and celts’ and how he has come to Fez to experience the Sufi singing and storytelling tradition, Edge is amazed at the sheer musical dexterity of the players. Savouring music like this is one of the reasons the band chose this city to write music in, home as it is to the annual Festival of World Sacred Music. It’s a perfect setting to sample some indigenous North African music.
‘The Festival of Sacred Music was a big lure for us and for Brian who has been very interested in Arabic music for years,’ he says. ‘We felt we might meet some interesting musicians while here – and we certainly have.’

Eventually managing to negotiate a way through the crowds who are thronging for a picture with Queen Rania, an hour later it’s early evening back in the riad and work is starting on another song.
‘Briefly,’ says Eno, explaining the peculiar distinction of the Arabic musical tradition, ‘You could say that African-based music is generally cyclic – ideas that go round and round in a fairly straightforward way – but Arabic music generally isn’t cyclic. It’s generally a sort of narrative in that it starts in one place and ends up in another place… the proper word is ‘teleological.’
Towards a finish?
‘Yes, it has a definite trajectory and a narrative to it and it doesn’t repeat in the same way that most African-based pop music does. So in a typical pop song you will have ‘A B A B A B C A B B’ or something like that but in Arabic music you might have ‘A B C F B G F’ or something like that.
‘Basically it just goes off and what we’ve been doing here these past few days is enjoying things like that more and more, moving away from the simply cyclic way of writing things.’
So you’re trying to create a different sensibility in the songwriting here? Well, he says, put it like this: ‘Whenever there was an aesthetic decision to be made we’ve asked, ‘How would it be solved in Arabic music?’ So that gives us another frame to think in - it doesn’t mean we always do what an Arabic player might have done but it gives us a different frame of reference.’

In fact, he says, just coming to Morocco, after earlier periods writing in Ireland and France, has changed their approach to songwriting. ‘I’ve had this thing about Arabic music for ages, thinking that it’s where the next big future in fusion will come from – I’ve been saying that for about thirty years and finally I think it is coming true.
‘There are things I like a lot about Arabic music which are different to what we do in western music and so we have started trying to incorporate some of those elements. It is not a question of sounds so much but of different structural decisions about how things are made.’

As Larry gets set at his kit and Adam writes out some chords, Edge begins tuning a mandolin which is the signal for Eno to get back to his MacBook and keyboard and his own place in the songwriting circle. So, if pushed, how far along the way does he feel they have got so far ? ‘There’ll be some differences of opinion about which things will constitute a record,’ he says. ‘But we have a lot of pieces. My general rule is that I’m only interested in things I have never heard anything like before - and we’ve got plenty of those!’
For the next four hours, except for a short break for supper, the house reverberates to the sound of six musicians working on two more songs. It is detailed, repetitive, laborious work, each take followed by discussion on where it isn’t working or how it could change – and then by another take.
‘They say it’s like sausage making,’ laughs Bono, looking up from his battered copy of Minds At War, an anthology of First World War poetry. ‘If you saw what went into it you would never want to try it at the end!’ But these people have been here before – there are very few distractions in Fez and so the music takes all the attention. And by the end of the night, one of the songs is sounding like it's going to go the distance. Eno seems to agree. As another take begins he starts jogging with unconcealed glee at his desk, does a quick pirhouette and plays the first note on his keyboard… behind his back.

More from Fez coming up.
 
:hi5:

Sounds very good. I really hope they continue to get lost in the music. And I personally find it encouraging that Bono is possibly going towards a more poetic style of lyric writing this time. Or maybe being influenced.

Can't wait for the next update!
 
:)

It sounds as though this an inbetween, noncommercial side project album they could release fairly quickly without a supporting tour....
 
I don't know, it's beginning to sound like another reinvention, not such of sound but of structure. And it also sounds like Bono is paying a lot more attention to how to use his voice. Learning to do the opera part of Miss Sarajevo has probably steered him to more controlled and structured singing and he mentions studying Sufi singing and also mentioned something else earlier about some other singers and how they used breathing. He could be on the verge of another leap forward in vocal technique.

Dana
 
i sense a reinvention, too, though i would love the idea of an organic side project with Lanois/Eno that's more accessible (or, simply, better) than Passengers.

it seems that we're getting something analagous to the immersion into industrial house music in the early 1990s and the immersion into european techno in the mid-1990s. one resulted in what is, most likely, their consensus best album, and the other resulted in a mixed-up, misunderstood album that didn't do for anyone -- the band included -- what it was supposed to do.

to venture a guess, i'm wondering if U2 aren't really into music now, and music only. that might sound odd, but i've always felt as if music was simply the vehicle that U2 used to communicate. i think they've always seen themselves more as artists than straight-up musicians, and music/tours/albums are all part of a greater quest for meaning. they use music the way an artist uses paint, imho.

i'm wondering if they're not trying to become genuinely superlative musicians, innovating and daring in a purely musical sense, to truly make popular music that hasn't been heard before.
 
Sounds interesting and I'm cautiously optimistic about it. This latest article sort of reminds me of the interviews and the sort of vibe there was in 1990 while they were writing Achtung Baby. So that is definately a good thing IMO. I agree with what a few others have said. Sounds like instead of going with different sounds they are going for different structures in the music.

I for one hope this isnt a side project like Passengers. Even if it was more accessable than Passengers (which I might enjoy, cant stand Passengers personally) it would still most likely not be a U2 album per se. So it would put the next official U2 album and tour even further out than 2008/2009. That being said I dont think this is a side project. I think they went in wanting to try something a little different to see if it worked. If it didnt they could just say they were messing around and it wasnt for the new album. I hope it stays Eno and Lanois or just Lanois producing (if the are even producers at this point).
 
Irvine511 said:
i sense a reinvention, too, though i would love the idea of an organic side project with Lanois/Eno that's more accessible (or, simply, better) than Passengers.

it seems that we're getting something analagous to the immersion into industrial house music in the early 1990s and the immersion into european techno in the mid-1990s. one resulted in what is, most likely, their consensus best album, and the other resulted in a mixed-up, misunderstood album that didn't do for anyone -- the band included -- what it was supposed to do.

to venture a guess, i'm wondering if U2 aren't really into music now, and music only. that might sound odd, but i've always felt as if music was simply the vehicle that U2 used to communicate. i think they've always seen themselves more as artists than straight-up musicians, and music/tours/albums are all part of a greater quest for meaning. they use music the way an artist uses paint, imho.

i'm wondering if they're not trying to become genuinely superlative musicians, innovating and daring in a purely musical sense, to truly make popular music that hasn't been heard before.

Yes and no really. I don't see it as a change in their desire to communicate through music but rather as learning new languages within music. They've explored English both American and Continental versions, dipped their toes in Irish and African (through R&B and Blues), now they are perhaps going deeper into African and adding in Arabic. Bono has always seemed to me to be a bit of a linguist in his interest in languages other than English even admitting after leaving school that he regretted rejecting Irish and since revisiting it. For Bono music is language as well. From the beginning he spoke of music communicating directly to the heart and bypassing language as a means to reach people. His lyrics in the beginning were less about words in a specific way and more about sketching feelings brought up by the music. I've always thought this is one of the reasons for U2's global appeal. The music communicates effectively even when the language is not understood. Sometimes it seems to communicate better when the language is not understood. Sometimes the non english speakers get it better than the english speakers. While that may sound like Bono's lyrics aren't important that's not really what I mean. Sometimes when we can understand the lyric we tend to focus on it too much and that detracts from the overall meaning.

This getting lost in the music is like when they were exploring America and diving into the music, literature and culture. Bono especially likes to go and to see and to immerse himself in other cultures. He brings back with him the essence or spirit of what he has experienced and it influences his lyrics and sparks musical ideas as well. Edge's work with Music Rising has had him hanging out with New Orleans musicians with the strong African roots there. Lanois has lived and recorded in New Orleans and is well immersed in that. Years ago there was mention of Edge listening to a lot of Nigerian guitar music I think around JT era. Bono has been spending loads of time in Africa and has I'm sure been absorbing African culture and music and he spent time in Isreal and Palestine I think sometime in the 90's because I remember him commenting on the treatment of the Palestinians on the West Bank being like Aparthied (sp?). Eno has been exploring Arabic and African music for years as well.

I think the best sign here is Larry's excitement with the experimentation. Everyone sees Larry as a stick in the mud. Often because of his hate for Passengers and comments about experimentation at that time but what most seem to forget is that all that took place at a time when Larry was also in a lot of pain playing and trying to find ways to cope with that and adjust his playing to minimize future damage. Larry's recent comments have shown that through the last two tours he has finally been able to enjoy and feel comfortable with his playing. That will be a big factor I think in where the band can go from here. If he has finally managed to solve or at least manage the physical difficulties that will effect where he can go with his playing. Maybe it is only now that he can start to really explore more exotic timings without feeling overwelmed.

I think they have broken through a barrier in regards to their own musicianship or even just in their perception of it. Maybe they finally have found some confidence in their playing that they didn't have before and that will allow them to stretch in new directions more easily and comfortably. If you look back at JT era they were almost embarrassed by their success at that point because they still felt like they were really incompetant as musicians. Even during the Vertigo tour in interviews they would regularly state that they didn't really feel like musicians. When you look at what they have accomplished without confidence in their musicianship it is mind boggling. If they have now discovered a belief in their ability how much farther can they potentially go? That's what is exciting me now.

Dana
 
KUEFC09U2 said:
‘But we have a lot of pieces. My general rule is that I’m only interested in things I have never heard anything like before - and we’ve got plenty of those!’

:drool:

i do think we have some sort of reinvention coming up. I wish the album wasn't so far away because this all sounds fascinating!
 
rihannsu said:
I don't know, it's beginning to sound like another reinvention, not such of sound but of structure. And it also sounds like Bono is paying a lot more attention to how to use his voice. Learning to do the opera part of Miss Sarajevo has probably steered him to more controlled and structured singing and he mentions studying Sufi singing and also mentioned something else earlier about some other singers and how they used breathing. He could be on the verge of another leap forward in vocal technique.

Dana

Yes, I think its time from him to use his voice in full force, all things that he did with his voice on 5th leg of Vertigo proved that he got a lot to show.
 
Wow, nobody's on fire! :lol:

But seriously though, not only is it encouraging that they seem to be GENUINELY re-inventining themselves, it's also good that they're no going so public with it. I dont seem to be finding these stories on newspapers or anything unlike the last time. This shows that they are taking it seriously
 
Westport said:
Here's a link to Amazon and to hear clips from Parissa and the five-piece Dastan Ensemble:

http://www.amazon.com/Shoorideh-Par...4512716?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1182350694&sr=1-1

That u2.com article incorrectly describes her as an Arabic singer - she's in fact a Persian singer.


rihannsu said:
I don't know, it's beginning to sound like another reinvention, not such of sound but of structure.

The mandolin and working with local musicians suggest a variation in sound as well.
 
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