New Album Discussion (Will it be bigger than Zeppelin? Rush? Bon Jovi? Jesus? Allah?)

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gvox said:
I guess if Nexus had that out a year and a half ago, it might have worked for me. I went through something like 3 years of modding, new phones, upgrades, etc etc, all because I didn't want to be an Apple fan-boy. Finally threw in the towel and got the iPhone and have done jack shit all to it since. And it's showing no sign of giving up, either. If and when it dies, maybe I'll have a reason to reconsider other platforms but for what I need it for, I'm golden. I like tinkering yes but I never really wanted to be so involved in that modding culture that it became such a necessary part of my week...day, even lol
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Oh it's definitely addicting. I'm currently in a "no flashing" detox because I flashed 4 roms in a day last week. It's so fun but at the same time it's easy to lose sight of just having fun with the devcie for what it is.
 
Nexus 5 is my first Android phone (though I had a couple Android tablets before that). It's worked beautifully since the day I bought it, I haven't had a single issue. It's the fastest phone I've ever put my hands on. And I was someone who had every Apple phone from the first one through the iPhone 5.

But since I buy all my phones unlocked, SIM-free and off contract, and do pay go, Apple's crazy prices for the iPhone just aren't worth it to me anymore. Paying 550 pounds (or whatever it is in dollars) for a 5s, or any phone in my book is just insane. What you end up paying for it if you get it on contract is even more insane. I got my Nexus 5 for less than half that and it does everything the 5s does, just as easily and smoothly. Well, everything except take my fingerprint that is. And it's not even about the money, I'm not short of cash...I just have no interest spending that much on a phone that I don't need to. That and Apple's little walled garden eco system really started to annoy me. It's a beautiful garden, but it's still all walled up.
 
Hollow Island said:
I don't know, they did that with Achtung Baby and it worked out pretty well. That's been the MO since then, with the exception of Passengers and Zooropa, so it really depends on how strong the song is, how good the arrangement is, and just what culture they want to be relevant with. The last is the most important thing.

I hope that they're given the chances of a band of guys in their early-mid 50s releasing a record 34 years (!) after their debut being toppermost of the poppermost a realistic assessment. If they've done that they'll know which culture they're not going to get in with, and they'll leave a bunch of bad ideas unrealized.
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Certainly Achtung Baby was painstaking, but I don't think the goal was to be "culturally relevant" or hip. If anything, they wanted to destroy their own image. The cultural impact was a welcome surprise because the album was astonishingly good and because the Zoo TV concept blew everyone's mind. But it was a huge risk.

When I talk about being over-thought and over-analyzed in the quest for "relevance," I'm talking about calling people like will.i.am in at the last minute just because, well, I guess because his name looks cool in the liner notes? Or having 2,063 different producers on HTDAAB. Those kinds of decisions made the albums suffer IMO, and yet those are exactly the kinds of decisions they'll be likely to make in order to justify a Super Bowl ad, etc.
 
morgan1098 said:
Certainly Achtung Baby was painstaking, but I don't think the goal was to be "culturally relevant" or hip. If anything, they wanted to destroy their own image. The cultural impact was a welcome surprise because the album was astonishingly good and because the Zoo TV concept blew everyone's mind. But it was a huge risk.
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:up:

True, hope they found a sweet spot and rode it through in this new album...:pray:
 
omg i seriously have no clue what you boys are talking about? modding? ROM flashing? what?
/end old lady moment :D
 
morgan1098 said:
Certainly Achtung Baby was painstaking, but I don't think the goal was to be "culturally relevant" or hip. If anything, they wanted to destroy their own image. The cultural impact was a welcome surprise because the album was astonishingly good and because the Zoo TV concept blew everyone's mind. But it was a huge risk.

When I talk about being over-thought and over-analyzed in the quest for "relevance," I'm talking about calling people like will.i.am in at the last minute just because, well, I guess because his name looks cool in the liner notes? Or having 2,063 different producers on HTDAAB. Those kinds of decisions made the albums suffer IMO, and yet those are exactly the kinds of decisions they'll be likely to make in order to justify a Super Bowl ad, etc.
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One of their goals was to be culturally relevant and hip; that's made very clear in U2 At The End of the World. The main difference is that they were influenced by some of the best bands around at the time (and ever, I'd say - Stone Roses, MBV, NIN...) whereas lately they've been playing a totally different game.
 
Hollow Island said:
One of their goals was to be culturally relevant and hip; that's made very clear in U2 At The End of the World. The main difference is that they were influenced by some of the best bands around at the time (and ever, I'd say - Stone Roses, MBV, NIN...) whereas lately they've been playing a totally different game.
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So by that you mean they were influenced by bands you liked so it was cool to you?
 
U2 talks of new album in the works, Nelson Mandela - latimes.com

Full page story: http://www.latimes.com/entertainmen...a-ordinary-love-20131219,0,1139652,full.story
A moment later the U2 frontman had cranked up a track from the band's work-in-progress album, an anthemic number about leaving one's hometown titled "Invisible." As the song played, he spiritedly played air guitar to it, also belting along with the track's vocals — Bono performing a duet with himself.

The 53-year-old rock star's self-mocking demeanor is enjoyably at odds with his self-serious public image, a sign of an icon who knows when not to be iconic. But similarly surprising is his approach to the music, a kind of boyish giddiness suggesting that, even after 12 studio albums and thousands of shows, that's what matters, perhaps more now than in a long while.

After years of being known as much for activism as rock 'n' roll — the day after the studio session, Nelson Mandela will have passed away, and an essay from Bono recollecting his impressions of the South African leader and close friend will have appeared on Time.com — U2 had perhaps its most commercially disappointing album in decades with 2009's "No Line on the Horizon." So now they're shaking things up.

The band, which also includes guitarist Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullens Jr., came up with the concept of a collection of songs told partly from the perspective of an innocent and partly from a seasoned veteran. And they brought on the electronic dance music producer Danger Mouse to help them craft it. The album is set for an April release.

Told that some fans were still puzzling over how that collaboration would work, Edge, 52, laughed. "I think we're still figuring that out ourselves," he said.

On this December evening the band moved between studio rooms. In one, engineers tried different mixes as Bono sang along and gave notes in equal measure. In another, Mullens, Edge and several others were tinkering with some rhythms. "You're seeing a little bit of creativity as it happens," Mullens said. "Like penguins in the wild."

From the few tracks of the new album heard that night, it has traces of the Clash and Sex Pistols and Kraftwerk — "stuff we were really listening to when we were younger," Bono said. But it also comes laden with soul and old-school R&B, genres Bono said he and friends were listening to in the 1970s "but once punk came along, no one admitted it."

Lyrically, the record will center on the collision between hard-earned wisdom and youthful hunger. For U2 at the moment — at once trying new experiments even as it returns to its roots, still vital even as it stands barely two years shy of its 40th anniversary — that tension couldn't be more fitting.

The band has reportedly been entertaining corporate suitors for a Super Bowl ad to introduce the new record. But Bono waves aside a question about those plans. There's still the album to fine tune. So engineers continued to tinker with Bono's vocal chord-straining falsetto that has defined him as far back as albums like "War" and "The Unforgettable Fire."

"There's just something about a bloke who sings like a chick," Bono said. And then he turned, took the mike and unleashed another one of those vocals.
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This is all very exciting, because we've never heard any of THIS before!:

the record will center on the collision between hard-earned wisdom and youthful hunger.
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at once trying new experiments even as it returns to its roots
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now they're shaking things up
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"stuff we were really listening to when we were younger,"
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I thought they were supposed to shake things up on NLOTH? Now more shaking? Even more shaking than the mysterious Moroccan vibes from the last record? That's a whole lotta shaking goin' on. Sounds like they're really going in a new direction with this one. And the punk rock thing is interesting...I wonder if they'll manage to make the record sound even more punk than Bomb.
 
I'm not sure anything could be more punk than Miracle Drug. But if anyone is going to get them there, it's Danger Mouse.
 
So there back in NY recording? Thought they were finishing up in Dublin? Also, any reason why the 'LA Time' are the first to really talk about the new album?

Its coming people..
 
The supposed concept behind the record has really got me cuuuurious. And first title revealed! Bring it on!
 
zoopop said:
So there back in NY recording? Thought they were finishing up in Dublin? Also, any reason why the 'LA Time' are the first to really talk about the new album?

Its coming people..
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The interview was done some weeks ago, in very early December, before Mandela died and Bono flew off to South Africa. There were several pictures taken of the band members in NY where they gave a press conference about Mandela and Ordinary Love. After that, Bono was in South Africa for the memorial service and now it seem as if all of them are back in Dublin for Christmas. Fingers crossed that the album recording is really nearing the finishing line.
 
Registered Dude said:
so, does this mean the silence embargo is off? that's an excellent sign.
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I'm glad to hear the news. And it's nice to at least have another source confirming the release date and Super Bowl rumours.

But crikey, PLEASE BRING BACK THE SILENCE EMBARGO! I was really happy with how quiet they were being about this record. For once...once...I'd love for them to just drop a record without all the "Getting back to our roots/Punk rock/shaking it up/new direction", etc., etc., etc. hype that comes with EVERY record. I know this is U2, so perhaps that's expecting too much. But for crying out loud, just put your music out there and let people decide for themselves what it sounds like. If the record sounds like punk or trance or techno it should be apparent from listening to it without telling us that months in advance.

Anyway, sorry, yeah, all good news. I imagine we'll be seeing a lot of this the next few months. At least it gives us something to talk about besides mobile phones and Led Zeppelin.
 
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