Is there an album on the horizon? (AKA New Album Speculation)

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All the misleading info about a new album in May certainly helped boost ticket sales. We booked a trip to the US on the back of it - not to hear the same songs as in '09 and '10 but to hear some new album songs.

Oh well, won't be fooled again. :angry:

The Interference background screen colour should be black today.
 
How about an EP at least FFS

Yep. But even WAIE was soft. Mercy and then two live NLOTH songs...

I love those versions, but we all had them.

Again, they aren't being brave. That EP should have been:

Return of the Stingray Guitar
Mercy
Every Breaking Wave
North Star

Folloed by al album before the Auds leg with studio versions of all those songs, plus another 6.

Then Songs of Ascent or whatever was left of it after those songs were taken out released as a mini album directly after the tour while they regroup and work on the club material.

Even Paul McG is happy cos there is enough cash in that
 
Can't be lack of material. Worst thing you can do is claim you have bucketloads in that case, throws the spotlight on it. Especially when you haven't had less than a 3.5 year gap between albums in like 20 years. There's no expectation until they create it

I personally think it is the pressure they felt after NLOTH. They thought it was a flop and feel like people will say they're irrelevant if the next album isn't a barn burner.

Unfortunately, I don;t think they'e realised that worrying in that way forces them into repeating their errors. IE If we don't learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat it.
 
And so after this tour finishes and, inevitably, the band say they are exciting about working on new material and hope to get an album out soon, hopefully we have all learned to not be so naive.
It was a nice dream to have, the quick, mid-tour album release. But that's all it was.
 
Gutted to hear this. I'll echo the comments about just not being able to understand this slow decline into dangerous Rolling Stones territory that we are now witnessing. So what if you can't decide what direction to go in - just fucking release something and the direction will forge itself.
 
Everything Edge said in that interview was just so vague. He couldn't bring himself to say the tour ends in Moncton. Couldn't say no Songs of Ascent. Are they just wracked with indecision or past caring? Have they rid the room of all argument (something Bono has always been careful not to do in other areas) so those close to them don't point out to them the negative effect all this fannying about has?
 
They've never been this spoiled for choice before: Achtung came out of necessity t reinvent and a writers block. ALYCLB came out of trying to play the Pop songs without any of the effects.

They are forcing a new sound, and rather than release something different (SOA, Dangermouse, Will.i.am) they can't pluck up the courage to just throw one of them into the ether and see what it returns.

They created the situation themselves by making NLOTH when they should have just released the Rubin stuff 2 years before it. Now there are 4 or 5 bried projects, not organically moving from one to the next and having single songs bridge the divides
 
I guess they just didn't have enough faith in the songs they made. Kind of makes sense given they were working immediately after NLOTH, in the middle of a massive tour, at the same time as the musical... they simply weren't 100% committed, and they didn't really have to be to still be in the media spotlight.
They must not have had that 'killer single'. Odd, given they thought GOYB was good enough to be lead material :doh:

Sounds like new album in 2013 at the earliest... maybe we'll get an EP after the tour of those songs they debuted live, but somehow i doubt it.
 
I'd love to see them do something similar to what Damon Albarn did last year with The Fall: just quickly write/record some songs and release them to the public, critics be damned, no six-month hype cycle necessary.
 
I'd love to see them do something similar to what Damon Albarn did last year with The Fall: just quickly write/record some songs and release them to the public, critics be damned, no six-month hype cycle necessary.

they do not appear to have the guts to do something like this anymore. it would be nice if they did.
 
Sounds like new album in 2013 at the earliest... maybe we'll get an EP after the tour of those songs they debuted live, but somehow i doubt it.

The only U2 releases we'll get in the next two years will be the re-issues of AB, Rattle, and maybe one or two others. You know this. I know this. We all know this. Just don't want to admit it :sad:
 
I'd like to see them go "we can't decide, so we'll release an EP a month for 6 months.

36 songs, all from different projects we'll work on whatever songs buzz us at the time, and 3 days before they are due out draw a line, have them mastered and put up on itunes.
 
I'd love to see them do something similar to what Damon Albarn did last year with The Fall: just quickly write/record some songs and release them to the public, critics be damned, no six-month hype cycle necessary.

Exactly - the music has to be genuine and from an emotional place. Not overly-contrived.

The tragedy is they still have it - remember how good the loose sessions sounded capture on video cameras in the riad in Fez. Just tape some of those types of sessions and release them (in a low key way if necessary) and I'll die happy!
 
The sad thing is they probably really look enviously to Radiohead for having guts to release music the way they do. But somehow they won't bring themselves to follow their lead.
 
Everything Edge said in that interview was just so vague. He couldn't bring himself to say the tour ends in Moncton. Couldn't say no Songs of Ascent. Are they just wracked with indecision or past caring? Have they rid the room of all argument (something Bono has always been careful not to do in other areas) so those close to them don't point out to them the negative effect all this fannying about has?

I think it's a publicity thing - saying they're "not ready to commit to an album right now" is better than saying "there is absolutely no album, because we're scared it might fail". That would come off much worse in the headlines.
Plus, the ambiguity obviously breeds a bit more false hope - i'm sure many people who dip into u2 news every now and then will now believe there is an album coming out immediately after the tour (even though that wouldn't make sense and just wouldn't happen).
 
The analogy that keep popping into my head is like trying to teach your grandparents how to use the internet. They are so stubborn about how they "are not old, you don't have to treat me like a child", but can't make a conceptual leap to pressing a key and having it appear on a screen.

U2 aren't children, and we don't have to baby them, but then you hear them say in conversation, "what's that? a youtubes? what in heck is a youtubes?"
 
All the misleading info about a new album in May certainly helped boost ticket sales. We booked a trip to the US on the back of it - not to hear the same songs as in '09 and '10 but to hear some new album songs.

Oh well, won't be fooled again. :angry:

The Interference background screen colour should be black today.

look on the bright side, you get to see many of your friends from Anaheim last summer! :wave:
 
Its what is behind the decision that is truly fucked.

Its nice of Edge to say they have truckloads of material and its all so great and they just don't know what to do with it all, what direction to go in, but we all know that's complete bullshit, right? We know they did make a directional decision. And that they were happy enough with that material for a long, long time. Up until early February - and possibly later - that thing was on-target for a May release. The decision came after then. And had nothing to do with having too much material and it all being so confusing.

They'd made that decision and nailed it down. Then... so... do we actually release it? Why should we release it? Why should we hold back?

Think about that. Try imagining that conversation between the band. If you think that decision had anything to do with direction or quality of material or whatever, you're pretty naive. Enjoy your bloated biggest ever greatest hits tour and don't forget to re-up your annual $50 subscription to a meaningless website each year while you are on your long wait till your next $100 blown on four different super deluxe limited exclusive edition versions of a seriously underwhelming and massively compromised creatively stale album.

To be honest, there are five or six tracks on No Line that are starting to look more and more as though they were just a final twitch coming from a body that has otherwise been lifeless for some time.
 
Between continuing to play IALW, dropping all but two NLOTH tracks from 360, and delaying/canceling the new album, U2 should just change their name to UMAD. It'd be more fitting...
 
Its what is behind the decision that is truly fucked.

Its nice of Edge to say they have truckloads of material and its all so great and they just don't know what to do with it all, what direction to go in, but we all know that's complete bullshit, right? We know they did make a directional decision. And that they were happy enough with that material for a long, long time. Up until early February - and possibly later - that thing was on-target for a May release. The decision came after then. And had nothing to do with having too much material and it all being so confusing.

They'd made that decision and nailed it down. Then... so... do we actually release it? Why should we release it? Why should we hold back?

Think about that. Try imagining that conversation between the band. If you think that decision had anything to do with direction or quality of material or whatever, you're pretty naive. Enjoy your bloated biggest ever greatest hits tour and don't forget to re-up your annual $50 subscription to a meaningless website each year while you are on your long wait till your next $100 blown on four different super deluxe limited exclusive edition versions of a seriously underwhelming and massively compromised creatively stale album.

To be honest, there are five or six tracks on No Line that are starting to look more and more as though they were just a final twitch coming from a body that has otherwise been lifeless for some time.

I'm disappointed as much as everyone else, but don't act as if this is some "we're all doomed, U2 are doomed" thing.
 
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