beachball
Refugee
I was the one who mentioned end of the leg, because I was in panic, then hoping he meant have it finished by then, and release it in May.
New album in the works while in NZ and Australia
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corianderstem
Blue Crack Distributor
beachball
Refugee
dan_smee
ONE love, blood, life
Earnie, voice of reason
JamietheEdgefan
Refugee
nirniva
Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
Here's the deal.
U2 had several dozen songs left over from the Horizon sessions. Most of which were of a meditative character. Kingdom is an example. As is North Star and Breaking Wave. They considered releasing those songs as a low-key, Zooropa-was-to-Achtung-type follow up to Horizon which they would've called Songs of Ascent. Bono's back surgery and subsequent tour cancellation forced them to re-think that plan. Releasing a followup while you're on tour makes sense; releasing a followup while your singer is laid up in bed does not. Arguing further against its release was the disappointing performance of Horizon.
Faced with some unexpected time on their hands, they wrote several rock and roll songs to go along with a song called Glastonbury, which they'd written specifically to debut as a stand-alone single at their now-cancelled appearance at the Glastonbury Festival. And, as they so often do, they also followed a thread of music at this time that is more in line with what they are currently listening to. This is a more club-sounding group of songs. The Return of the Stingray Guitar is an example.
For a time, they thought that each group of songs represented a different direction, requiring a separate release. However, in part upon the advice of Chris Martin, who suggested they immediately release the best of everything they had, and in part because the songs from Horizon (now over 2 years old) probably could no longer sustain them in America, they decided that it made more sense to launch the American tour with the excitement and energy of a new major release. So they're combining the more rock-oriented songs with the best songs from Ascent into a more traditional U2 album to be released just days before their tour kicks off in Denver. This album is being produced by Danger Mouse (listen to Broken Bells) and will include Glastonbury, Stingray and more conventionally structured versions of the songs from SOA. Its release will be supported with all hype, promotion and fanfare of a major U2 release. I don't know what it will be called. Probably not Songs of Ascent.
They will revisit the rest of the club songs with Will.i.am after the tour. It may be released as a quick, Zooropa-like follow up; it may be their always-delayed next major release; it may never materialize at all. My hunch is that the club sounding songs will be combined with yet-to-be-written songs and be released as a "club-ISH" sounding album in the fall of 2012.
I know I wrote this as if I have inside information. I don't. This is just my take.
U2 had several dozen songs left over from the Horizon sessions. Most of which were of a meditative character. Kingdom is an example. As is North Star and Breaking Wave. They considered releasing those songs as a low-key, Zooropa-was-to-Achtung-type follow up to Horizon which they would've called Songs of Ascent. Bono's back surgery and subsequent tour cancellation forced them to re-think that plan. Releasing a followup while you're on tour makes sense; releasing a followup while your singer is laid up in bed does not. Arguing further against its release was the disappointing performance of Horizon.
Faced with some unexpected time on their hands, they wrote several rock and roll songs to go along with a song called Glastonbury, which they'd written specifically to debut as a stand-alone single at their now-cancelled appearance at the Glastonbury Festival. And, as they so often do, they also followed a thread of music at this time that is more in line with what they are currently listening to. This is a more club-sounding group of songs. The Return of the Stingray Guitar is an example.
For a time, they thought that each group of songs represented a different direction, requiring a separate release. However, in part upon the advice of Chris Martin, who suggested they immediately release the best of everything they had, and in part because the songs from Horizon (now over 2 years old) probably could no longer sustain them in America, they decided that it made more sense to launch the American tour with the excitement and energy of a new major release. So they're combining the more rock-oriented songs with the best songs from Ascent into a more traditional U2 album to be released just days before their tour kicks off in Denver. This album is being produced by Danger Mouse (listen to Broken Bells) and will include Glastonbury, Stingray and more conventionally structured versions of the songs from SOA. Its release will be supported with all hype, promotion and fanfare of a major U2 release. I don't know what it will be called. Probably not Songs of Ascent.
They will revisit the rest of the club songs with Will.i.am after the tour. It may be released as a quick, Zooropa-like follow up; it may be their always-delayed next major release; it may never materialize at all. My hunch is that the club sounding songs will be combined with yet-to-be-written songs and be released as a "club-ISH" sounding album in the fall of 2012.
I know I wrote this as if I have inside information. I don't. This is just my take.
corianderstem
Blue Crack Distributor
Hey, I was saying "don't panic" too, just in a different way! 
dan_smee
ONE love, blood, life
Seems logical LPU2,
The constant delays, as many have suggested, can't just be them second guessing. They know by now that they take a long time to do things, Bono isn't cruel enough to keep willingly stringing us along. Extenuating circumstances (back injury etc) have to be considered
The constant delays, as many have suggested, can't just be them second guessing. They know by now that they take a long time to do things, Bono isn't cruel enough to keep willingly stringing us along. Extenuating circumstances (back injury etc) have to be considered
nirniva
Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
Or...is he?
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Seriously, though, I expect a new album by early June at the latest. Now that they're playing the new songs, they kind of have to have something planned...
bonocomet
Blue Crack Distributor
And I still believe.
i know... i just cant' help myself. i'm a sucker for logic.
mrex
The Fly
LPU2...what you wrote makes sense.
However, I wonder how much of SOA was really done. I know that EBW was mentioned when NLOTH came out as "pulsing electronica" or something like that, but when they played it live they seemed like they were still figuring out the melody.
There's that great moment from the first performance when Bono asks Edge to play something again, so he can resing it. They were still finding the song. ( I love seeing them work like that.)
Anyway, SOA might actually have been much sketchier than they let on.
Either way, if Danger Mouse produces EBW, I think it cold be just amazing. I'm really looking forward to what they do next.
However, I wonder how much of SOA was really done. I know that EBW was mentioned when NLOTH came out as "pulsing electronica" or something like that, but when they played it live they seemed like they were still figuring out the melody.
There's that great moment from the first performance when Bono asks Edge to play something again, so he can resing it. They were still finding the song. ( I love seeing them work like that.)
Anyway, SOA might actually have been much sketchier than they let on.
Either way, if Danger Mouse produces EBW, I think it cold be just amazing. I'm really looking forward to what they do next.
This does make sense for sure.
What I am curious to know is what will become of North Star, Every Breaking Wave, Glastonbury, Mercy, Stingray and (??????)Boy Falls(??????)...do we even include Boy Falls?
What happens?
-Do we think they were road tested this year by U2 only to be shelved in favor of things they became so interested in during the European tour? There was a lot of talk about how they had jetted off between gigs and recorded entirely new songs with an eye toward Danger Mouse producing them.
-Or will these songs be re worked and made a substantial part of the next U2 album, probably produced by Danger Mouse and hopefully released in May 2011?
Not trying to hijack this thread, people can and should discuss whatever the hell they want.
However, there has been so much baseless speculation and false choices presented(commercial or quality, new direction or keep the chimes, etc) and remarkably little discussion of what we think will happen to songs that have actually been road tested.
I would really love to see as many opinions as possible on what I put in bold.
This is a major question and really could be argued very convincingly and ultimately go either way when the final product is done!
I personally think that there is more evidence suggesting the 1st possibility, but there is still a huge question to be answered: why the hell did they road test these songs, then?
That question becomes a bit smaller in my mind when I consider that North Star, Mercy and EBW at a minimum were leftovers that maybe they were just interested in getting out to their fans and gaging how certain types of songs go down.
Mercy was, in all likelihood, done simply to shut people like us up
powerhour24
ONE love, blood, life
I think a lot of us were giving opinions on exactly what you're talking about over the past couple pages. We've gone back and forth between whether we think the DM album contains reworked or entirely new material, whether SOA or the club album will ever see the light of day, etc. In the end, we're all forming our opinion on very minute threads of information from the band and those close to them, we really won't know until they start talking.
I gotta say though, if they were playing Mercy to shut us up/appease us, they wouldn't have changed it so much! Clearly we haven't shut up about it yet!
I gotta say though, if they were playing Mercy to shut us up/appease us, they wouldn't have changed it so much! Clearly we haven't shut up about it yet!
I think a lot of us were giving opinions on exactly what you're talking about over the past couple pages. We've gone back and forth between whether we think the DM album contains reworked or entirely new material, whether SOA or the club album will ever see the light of day, etc. In the end, we're all forming our opinion on very minute threads of information from the band and those close to them, we really won't know until they start talking.
I gotta say though, if they were playing Mercy to shut us up/appease us, they wouldn't have changed it so much! Clearly we haven't shut up about it yet!
Apologies if I didn't read the last few pages too closely and went on what I've been seeing in this thread overall.
Didn't mean to come across as whacking people upside the head for discussing non sense.
As for Mercy, good point regarding the reworking, but I still don't see them bringing it out into the light without the iconic status it has taken in fan circles.
Inner El Guapo
War Child
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2004
- Messages
- 609
Here's the deal (with respect to LPU2 and that nice piece of speculation).
The truth is...they don't know what they want to do.
As an artist, be it a sculptor, a writer, a musician, etc.; It's very easy to talk about your next project and say that you expect to finish it by XYZ. Or even give it a working title you love that no longer fits, or a theme that you abandon...whatever.
It's only complete when they stop working on it.
Recent history says (to me, at least) the sooner the better for U2.
Agonizing months in the studio have never been good for U2...or anyone else, really.
The truth is...they don't know what they want to do.
As an artist, be it a sculptor, a writer, a musician, etc.; It's very easy to talk about your next project and say that you expect to finish it by XYZ. Or even give it a working title you love that no longer fits, or a theme that you abandon...whatever.
It's only complete when they stop working on it.
Recent history says (to me, at least) the sooner the better for U2.
Agonizing months in the studio have never been good for U2...or anyone else, really.
They were talking about releasing it as a quick follow up to NLOTH...that doesn't sound finished enough ? But a back injury of your singer does not sound like a good time to release a new record...
Yes, we know. Half of the band said no to the Chris Thomas recordings. No such thing ever happened to SOA.
U2 never said SOA was cancelled.
Aren't we all assuming ?
Yes, that is my understanding: they had SOA very close - if not - to done, and then Bono's back (and to a smaller degree the cold reception NLOTH got) got in the way. They might have gone on with SOA but Lanois had that motorcycle crash and is now busy touring his band, Eno's busy with Coldplay and Lillywhite is busy with Beady Eye.
My bet is DM has picked up the rock oriented songs - new songs like Glastonbury, possibly Mercy, the Spiderman song ... along with possibly the best of Rubin leftovers and entirely new stuff they talked about and they are pushing ahead with the "rock" album. Has more potential live, and can still include that song they're looking for that will connect to the masses. (Spiderman song ? Mercy ?) Will it include a song or two originally meant for SOA ? Sure, very likely. But is the DM stuff simply SOA taken over or a mash up of SOA and the rock stuff ? I don't buy that.
This does make sense for sure.
What I am curious to know is what will become of North Star, Every Breaking Wave, Glastonbury, Mercy, Stingray and (??????)Boy Falls(??????)...do we even include Boy Falls?
What happens?
-Do we think they were road tested this year by U2 only to be shelved in favor of things they became so interested in during the European tour? There was a lot of talk about how they had jetted off between gigs and recorded entirely new songs with an eye toward Danger Mouse producing them.
-Or will these songs be re worked and made a substantial part of the next U2 album, probably produced by Danger Mouse and hopefully released in May 2011?
Not trying to hijack this thread, people can and should discuss whatever the hell they want.
However, there has been so much baseless speculation and false choices presented(commercial or quality, new direction or keep the chimes, etc) and remarkably little discussion of what we think will happen to songs that have actually been road tested.
I would really love to see as many opinions as possible on what I put in bold.
This is a major question and really could be argued very convincingly and ultimately go either way when the final product is done!
I personally think that there is more evidence suggesting the 1st possibility, but there is still a huge question to be answered: why the hell did they road test these songs, then?
That question becomes a bit smaller in my mind when I consider that North Star, Mercy and EBW at a minimum were leftovers that maybe they were just interested in getting out to their fans and gaging how certain types of songs go down.
Mercy was, in all likelihood, done simply to shut people like us up
Good question. If I had to guess, I'd say Mercy and the Spiderman song have the most potential in their eyes and might end up on the next U2 album. Yes Mercy is on WAIE but it is a live version which doesn't exclude a studio version of Mercy possibility.
Glastonbury has a chance too, especially given that they are scheduled to play the place.
I'm less convinced for the others, mostly Bono-and-Edge acoustic style songs. Those were tried and dropped for now IMO.
Earnie Shavers
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
Aren't we all assuming ?
Yes, that is my understanding: they had SOA very close - if not - to done, and then Bono's back (and to a smaller degree the cold reception NLOTH got) got in the way. They might have gone on with SOA but Lanois had that motorcycle crash and is now busy touring his band, Eno's busy with Coldplay and Lillywhite is busy with Beady Eye.
My bet is DM has picked up the rock oriented songs - new songs like Glastonbury, possibly Mercy, the Spiderman song ... along with possibly the best of Rubin leftovers and they are pushing ahead with the "rock" album. Has more potential live, and can still include that song they're looking for that will connect to the masses. (Spiderman song ? Mercy ?) Will it include a song originally meant for SOA ? Sure, very likely. But is the DM stuff simply SOA taken over or a mash up of SOA and the rock stuff ? I don't buy that.
Yes, assuming/blind guessing. But it's fun.
I just think you assume/guess they work in a more compartmentalised or neat way than they probably do. And that the process is more orderly than it probably really is.
I actually think the Danger Mouse album will be, in its structure, a pretty standard U2 album. It won't be exclusively one thing. So it will have some rock/energetic/singles, some anthemic/ballad/melodic, some left field/experimental/interesting. As per most U2 albums. And where that material comes from - all I'm saying is that I don't think U2 put anything away on the shelf as untouchable, being conclusively 'finished'. I would think everything is open for business. For another look, another rework, or just for stripping for parts. Fluid ideas, constantly evolving. And not just 'finished songs'. They drop ideas and pick them up. Steal riffs and lyrics and rough sketches and redevelop them into different things.
Maybe the DM/Bono On His Arse sessions were wholly new. They hit on something very new and very different and it was a rich enough vein that they never looked 'back'. But there's no reason why they wouldn't look back either. No reason why they wouldn't give a 'finished/complete' song another shot if it also fit the new direction. No reason why Edge wouldn't lift a cool sound for a new song from some old stalled Rubin song. No reason why a rough sketch from the No Line/SoA sessions could not suddenly have it's light bulb moment in the context of a new DM sonic territory.
And the stupid thing about this topic is, in all likelihood, we'll never know. We'll only know if it's a complete song (e.g. Every Breaking Wave, Mercy etc) or if it's one of the few where they do talk about it's lineage. Mostly, you never know 'the story' of where stuff really comes from.
kkaider
Acrobat
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2005
- Messages
- 363
Bono’s back got in the way of SoA? Has anyone in the band talked specifically about SoA at all after those initial Bono comments right after NLOTH came out? Wasn’t Bono’s back injury over a year and a half after those comments? And as a counter-argument that SoA was remotely close to being “finished” I’d point to the Larry eye-roll in that interview when the reporter asked him about it and the Adam comment about Bono hearing two notes and thinking it’s a finished song. I think they had a few mostly finished songs (like Every Breaking Wave), and then a bunch of concepts, demos, and pieces of music left laying around after NLOTH - ideas that may have had a more mellow, meditative feel to them, and they considered putting those together and finishing them as SoA. But it seems they abandoned that.
Lead singer hurting his back mid-tour has no bearing on a alleged follow-up album release ? Really ?
I'd point to McGuiness' analogy of AB/Zooropa and NLOTH/SOA and his several estimations about SOA release. Bono's comments on a "Spring single" and EBW being the lead single. And the various comments other U2 members made about SOA over the months...
Larry probably rolls his eyes 99% of the time with U2 related questions.
Earnie : We might know - songs might have hints like "original production by Eno/Lanois" or "original production by Rick Rubin" in the credits. I for one will be surprised if the DM album is, in fact, SOA and that they would consider a brand new producer better/more fitting than the most long-term producing team of their career. Unless he's the new Eno and they genuinely have something groundbreaking on pair with the UF and AB reinventions.
I'd point to McGuiness' analogy of AB/Zooropa and NLOTH/SOA and his several estimations about SOA release. Bono's comments on a "Spring single" and EBW being the lead single. And the various comments other U2 members made about SOA over the months...
Larry probably rolls his eyes 99% of the time with U2 related questions.
Earnie : We might know - songs might have hints like "original production by Eno/Lanois" or "original production by Rick Rubin" in the credits. I for one will be surprised if the DM album is, in fact, SOA and that they would consider a brand new producer better/more fitting than the most long-term producing team of their career. Unless he's the new Eno and they genuinely have something groundbreaking on pair with the UF and AB reinventions.
ok... obviously they did say "no" to where ever the rest of the songs from the no line recording sessions were going, because they have a new producer, and we've seen songs that were allegedly "songs of ascent" songs played on tour.
i just don't fucking get it... why? honestly people... why? they were talking about releasing a quick follow up to all that you can't leave behind as well. how'd that work out?
SONGS OF ASCENT NEVER HAD A RELEASE DATE! IT WAS BONO BEING BONO! WHY CAN'T YOU FIGURE THAT OUT?
i will now go bang my head against a wall for a half an hour, because i don't have the proper equipment to give myself electroshock therapy.
djerdap
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2004
- Messages
- 7,603
I did warn ya...
i know 
U2NativeSon
Refugee
2 albums are in the works for release in 2011... one is the fan club cd : Duals, with re-recordings of Grace, Scarlet, All I Want Is You, etc. ,second is The Best Of 2000-2010, with obvious tracks being performed and worked out on the 360 Tour like Mercy, Every Breaking Wave, North Star, Glastonbury, etc.
Don't look for a new studio album until this tour has finished completely , .....
pure speculation of course
Don't look for a new studio album until this tour has finished completely , .....
pure speculation of course
BVS
Blue Crack Supplier
2 albums are in the works for release in 2011... one is the fan club cd : Duals, with re-recordings of Grace, Scarlet, All I Want Is You, etc. ,second is The Best Of 2000-2010, with obvious tracks being performed and worked out on the 360 Tour like Mercy, Every Breaking Wave, North Star, Glastonbury, etc.
Don't look for a new studio album until this tour has finished completely , .....
pure speculation of course
Usually speculation is based on SOMETHING, you're basing yours on internet rumours that have been proven false.
U2NativeSon
Refugee
I wake up sometimes wondering what's going on at Interference, so I log in to check it out, add my own opinion about something, and almost always get this negative vibe from here, anyway, no one knows anything, it's all rumors
back into my box now, thanks BVS
BVS
Blue Crack Supplier
I wake up sometimes wondering what's going on at Interference, so I log in to check it out, add my own opinion about something, and almost always get this negative vibe from here, anyway, no one knows anything, it's all rumors
back into my box now, thanks BVS
Actually it's not "all rumors". The band has talked about the new album, they haven't talked about re-recording any old songs and there hasn't even been a hint of a new best of...
No negative vibe, my whole point is that some speculation is more grounded than others.
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