New Music Rumors and Such, Continued

[Aygo]

Zoo station isn't a studio piece. Miss Sarajevo and UF aren't that hard to do live. Mofo/Daddy/Lemon had more work involved, but only Mofo worked live and arguably bettered the studio version.

Fez would be most likely somehing like Zooropa: cut down song, probably starting at Bono's howl that opens Being Born and skipping Fez. It could be done, it just isn't a live piece. COL is way too slow - think Your blue room or Miss Sarajevo bathroom breaks en masse. I like WAS and hope it makes the token acoustic song spot, but can also see why the band would rather stick to Stuck or Stay.

Why not give the Stand up comedy riff a chance instead ? It would work very well live and would be better than the studio version.

Well, I know that "Zoo Station" works great live. I really enjoy "Lemon" live as well. As "MoFo" does. But it doesn't erase the fact that they were heavily thought/worked in studio and the fact that it all shows up in their respective records.

Still it doesn't stop U2to think in a way to play it live. If not, what's the point of conceiving and to compose a song, record it and work it a lot in studio, put it on a record and not play it? Keep it in a window of a shop as a delicate piece?

 

[BVS]

I guess some haven't read the mods asking for people to stay on topic

 

[corianderstem]

I blame The Edge for saying they'd be playing new music in the upcoming shows. Where else did you think this conversation was going to go?

 

[BVS]

I blame Bono's back brace...

 

[lazarus]

I think ATYCLB peters off into mediocrity. Do the songs have a cohesiveness? Only in that half of them aren't actually good enough to be on a U2 album. When I Look at The World, New York, and Grace should have all been B-sides, and that's the last 3 tracks! (Peace on Earth should have been a good song, but Bono forgot to put any emotion WHATSOEVER into the performance....)

I'm not a big fan of this album, but I have two problems with what you've written. WILATW is a great song, one of the most underrated of the 2000's for sure. Fantastic guitar solo and a very good lyric compared to the rest of the tripe on the album. Had the band actually played it live and given it some more OOMPH I think this would have been a new classic.

Also, your claim about Peace on Earth is WAY off base. I think Bono's pain, sadness and bitterness are palpable. Listen to the way he spits out that final "peace on earth" in disgust. Another underrated track, one of the better vocals on ATYCLB.

HTDAAB is a great collection of songs written over a 4 year period and badly recorded. I like or love every song on the album, but they sound like they came from very different sessions. They should have called the Album "U2: Best of 2000-2004." Yes, there is a theme about dealing with the death of Bono's father, but that feels tacked on.

But I agree with every word you've written here.

NLOTH: a masterpiece! 3rd best U2 album ever. The second act is different than the first and third, but to me that doesn't mean it doesn't belong or doesn't flow. Rather it avoids the YAWN factor that befell ATYCLB. U2 shouldn't just write ballads. I LOVE Stand Up Comedy! The theme and meaning suffuses every song on the album

Unfortunately, we part ways again. No album with Crazy Tonight or Stand Up Comedy could ever be a masterpiece. No way. You demand thematic coherence AND song quality with the two previous album, but you seem to overlook it here just because the songs are upbeat. SUC and Crazy have nothing to do with the in-character writing on the rest of the album, and revert back to the cliched, pseudo-motivational bullshit that's polluted Bono's writing from ATYCLB onward.

 

[Mrs. Garrison]

so should we just start a new thread for new album speculation?

no shit! if this keeps going the way it is i might just start talking about beer and girls, sex and drugs, etc.

 

[Aygo]

I guess some haven't read the mods asking for people to stay on topic

At least, those "some" are discussing something that is interesting and pretty relevant and, indirectly, leads to the topic's theme... [Unlike other threads filled with childish posts with no content at all, filled with smileys and jokes, but the mods leave them opened too.]

 

[Mrs. Garrison]

Aygo, are you a hot chick?

 

[Niceman]

I'm not a big fan of this album, but I have two problems with what you've written. WILATW is a great song, one of the most underrated of the 2000's for sure. Fantastic guitar solo and a very good lyric compared to the rest of the tripe on the album. Had the band actually played it live and given it some more OOMPH I think this would have been a new classic.

Also, your claim about Peace on Earth is WAY off base. I think Bono's pain, sadness and bitterness are palpable. Listen to the way he spits out that final "peace on earth" in disgust. Another underrated track, one of the better vocals on ATYCLB.

I guess its a matter of taste. I find Bono's performance on POE sad, pathetic....he's capable of so much more....

I also think WILATW is mediocre. I don't hate it, but I wouldn't be any poorer if I'd never heard it. U2 is better than this.

I am of the opinion ATYCLB is their worst record, a few gems aside. Don't get me started on how crap I think Walk On is! In a Little While is the best song on the album IMHO.

But I agree with every word you've written here.

Very wise of you!

Unfortunately, we part ways again. No album with Crazy Tonight or Stand Up Comedy could ever be a masterpiece. No way. You demand thematic coherence AND song quality with the two previous album, but you seem to overlook it here just because the songs are upbeat. SUC and Crazy have nothing to do with the in-character writing on the rest of the album, and revert back to the cliched, pseudo-motivational bullshit that's polluted Bono's writing from ATYCLB onward.

I submit that you and I don't understand the thematic links that tie the tracks on NLOTH the same way. The lyrics throughout the album are about geometry: up, down, across, through; about limits, borders, shapes, about linear verses non-linear thought, experience, etc.
(See my interference article There is a Line on the Horizon, and we want to draw your attention to it! : U2 Interference – U2 Fans, Pop Culture Webzine, & More)

I think Stand Up Comedy, especially, fits this as well as or better than any song on the album.
Now, you can say that you don't like the song. I can't debate that. I think it's a great song, and if you look at the lyric and meaning it fits 100000000% on NLOTH.
Yes, Bono experiments with in-character writing on the album, but that's hardly a theme! I don't think that's the meaning or the message of No Line on The Horizon.

 

[coolian2]

Aygo, are you a hot chick?

certainly is temperamental enough to be

 

[powerhour24]

Oh my goodness, I think I just had a virtual bonding moment with laz after he defended POE, this is quite a surprising night.

 

[last unicorn]

I guess some haven't read the mods asking for people to stay on topic

What was the topic again?

 

[MikeyJB]

What was the topic again?

Something about Coldplay's new album I think...

 

[An Cat Gav]

Lemon definitely worked live. Better than about 90% of anything they've ever played on stage.

 

[An Cat Gav]

Aygo, are you a hot chick?

Agreed, more power to you aygo.

 

[Steved1998]

At least, those "some" are discussing something that is interesting and pretty relevant and, indirectly, leads to the topic's theme... [Unlike other threads filled with childish posts with no content at all, filled with smileys and jokes, but the mods leave them opened too.]

Get on Your Leaks

 

[U2girl]

If not, what's the point of conceiving and to compose a song, record it and work it a lot in studio, put it on a record and not play it? Keep it in a window of a shop as a delicate piece?

The point is to write and record songs, just like any other band. Not everything will get played live obviuosly (has there been a U2 album where every single song got played in full ? Even the early, pre-Eno-keyboards albums didn't manage that). Even moreso, not everything played live will work live.

And... Better than about 90% of anything they've ever played on stage. That might require dropping some serious percentage but that's just me.


Let's see if U2/Santorini really happens, though. We need some U2 news. The Euro leg does end in Italy in Rome so maybe they intend on hopping onto the island...would be a nice change from France recording of the most of 00's U2.

 

[digitize]

Get on Your Leaks

 

[Mrs. Garrison]

i think its going to rain tonight

 

[An Cat Gav]

Get on Your Leaks

First his back collapses, now Hewson's about to go blind! Not to mention the wrist strain...

 

[Aygo]

Aygo, are you a hot chick?

No, I'm a hot male (it's not me on the avatar, I swear eh eh). Sorry disappoint you if your question wasn't ironic.

 

[Blue Room]

Lemon definitely worked live. Better than about 90% of anything they've ever played on stage.

Lemon was Bono singing live and Larry on drums (and I think there was a drum backtrack underneath his actual drumming also) and mainly backing tracks for the rest. Edge might as well not even have been on stage, Edge didn't even sing, he lip synced his part! For me, it was one of the most embarrassing "live" moments for U2 ever.

I think they could actually play Lemon "live". But they really haven't previously even though it was in the setlist on Zoomerang. To call it great live is a stretch as a result to me.

 

[MikeyJB]

Edge might as well not even have been on stage, Edge didn't even sing, he lip synced his part!

If you watch the ZooTV performance, Edge is playing the shimmer-effect guitar chords. Just because it doesn't sound like a guitar, doesn't mean its not Edge.

 

[Blue Room]

If you watch the ZooTV performance, Edge is playing the shimmer-effect guitar chords. Just because it doesn't sound like a guitar, doesn't mean its not Edge.

I know, but its not a major part of the mix. The main part of the mix is the backing tracks. It should be the other way around and it wasn't.

 

[Chill Mike D]

Not a major part of the mix? Edge's guitar is pretty forward in the mix even though it sounds like a keyboard.

 

[digitize]

Are we sure that Edge was lip-syncing? I've suspected that, but I've never been sure. His vocals at least sound different than the Edge/Eno vocals on the album.

Also, I'm not sure if I care that it was heavily backing-track-based. Lemon still sounded amazing live, and was an incredible performance piece for Bono.

 

[An Cat Gav]

Are we sure that Edge was lip-syncing? I've suspected that, but I've never been sure. His vocals at least sound different than the Edge/Eno vocals on the album.

Also, I'm not sure if I care that it was heavily backing-track-based. Lemon still sounded amazing live, and was an incredible performance piece for Bono.

One of the best Bono performances I have ever seen, I am a huge MacPhisto fan and that song was just made for him.

 

[U2girl]

Vertigo had 2 running themes.

1.)War and peace, life and death(Sometimes, Kite and One Tree Hill in 2006, Miracle Drug).

2.)Adolescence, innocence as compared to experience, maturity, humility. A hunger and drive remains throughout. This was evident in the connection U2 made between Bomb and Boy, and in all the Boy songs played on the Vertigo tour after the opening barrage of newer songs.

Look to the 5/28 Boston set list for how they best represented this theme. They started out with the Love and Peace, then went into the new punk sounding Vertigo(kick back to the early days), Elevation then Cry/Electric co and An Cat Dubh.

Now, after An Cat Dubh, with the innocence lost, boundaries/feeling explored theme, we are back to longing for that innocence- Into The Heart and then into reflecting on it after years of living life- City of Blinding Lights.

I could go on, but the Vertigo tour was much more cohesive and told much more of a story than 360.

1) Take out that LAPOE-SBS-Bullet-Miss Sarajevo-Pride-Streets-One stretch and there isn't much of that theme left. One tree hill was done because they were in New Zealand, it had nothing to do with the human rights theme. Kite was done due to the didgeridoo player, most likely. Sometimes isn't about this theme either. Same goes for Miracle Drug.

2) Only 3 or so songs in the set. Not really influencing the entire set.

Where does the barrage of randomly mixed new songs+oldies+hits and Zoo TV set they played on Vertigo tour fit with these themes ?
360 set has a bigger case for "space/time" IMO, and it flows much better especially after COBL/UF duo. Anyway, the tour still has (at least) two legs to go, it's too early to judge it up against the other tours.

If anything, they had a bigger case for HTDAAB being thematically about Bono after his father died. (ATYCLB was well on the way for "joy/pop" but tanked when they pulled the brakes after Wild Honey)

 

[Blue Room]

Are we sure that Edge was lip-syncing? I've suspected that, but I've never been sure. His vocals at least sound different than the Edge/Eno vocals on the album.

Also, I'm not sure if I care that it was heavily backing-track-based. Lemon still sounded amazing live, and was an incredible performance piece for Bono.

He is singing but its not coming out in the mix. The mix on the DVD is backing track vocal all the way. Same with his guitar, he is playing, but the backing track is being used higher in the mix than his guitar.

I'm kind of suprised so many think its great live when they had to use so much technology and backing tracks to even pull it off at the time. I'm more of purest I guess, I think backing tracks and sequencers should just enhance what they are doing live, not overtake it and I think it overtakes it on Lemon and even somewhat on Daddys Gonna Pay. I guess I'm in the minority. Each their own, not worth arguing about thats for sure.

 

[Salome]

I'm kind of suprised so many think its great live when they had to use so much technology and backing tracks to even pull it off at the time. I'm more of purest I guess, I think backing tracks and sequencers should just enhance what they are doing live, not overtake it

absolutely
Lemon was great as a Macphisto performance piece
it's one of my favourite U2 songs, but not a great live song

i can live with just having the zoomerang version