So what've we got so far? - a proposed map of the album

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PolarCamel

The Fly
Joined
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Sorry, this is a long one, but I think it'll be helpfull for anyone trying to map all the material that leaked (whether intentionally or not) from the sessions for the upcoming album, especially if they have some musical background.

So we got a lot of musical information in recent months but it's messy, confusing and spread across a dozen different threads, I tried to put it all together 'cause I figured out we keep getting different parts of the same songs and sometimes different takes of the same parts of the same songs, so here is my conclusion, you can agree or disagree, musical training might help, but attentive ears may just as well suffice.

so what've we got now? 13 bits of music from 3 different types of sources:
2 from fans outside HQ (I don't count 'scales'), 4 from Lanois' film, and 7 from Adam's u2.com clips.


Here Is what Is trailer (exclusive version shared by u2.com):

YouTube - U2 work for the new album in Fez by U2Place.com

HIWI#1 (2:28-3:34) Pentaonic bluesy riff over 6/8 rhythm pattern including Lanois on telecaster
HIWI#2 (3:34-4:01) Bono singing next to Lanois and strumming along to Eno's clapping
HIWI#3 (4:01-4:26) Powerfull group singing over a 6 bar long harmonic pattern
HIWI#4 (4:26-4:45) Spacy atmospheric bit with Bono on guitar and lanois on Pedal Steel

Adam videos (shared by u2.com):

http://media.u2.com/flash/highlights/larrydrumming_april08.swf
Adam's pentaonic bluesy riff over 4/4 rhythm pattern

http://media.u2.com/flash/highlights/greentea.swf
Adam's pentaonic bluesy riff over 4/4 rhythm pattern changing groove halfway through

http://media.u2.com/flash/highlights/edgeback.swf

edgeback1 - Edge playing a folky riff and tuning a white unplugged hollowbody electric guitar.
edgeback2 - (0:48) Edge repeating a 6 bar long harmonic cycle for Eno's request
edgeback3 - (1:30) Edge playing a 3 note riff reminiscent of The Fly
edgeback4 - (2:50) Edge playing a jingling note sequence

http://media.u2.com/flash/highlights/adambass.swf
Adam recording a fuzzy sounding intro/break section to a song

2 fan clips - partial recordings of songs:

NLOTH (HQ fan clip from February) - muffled sound, Bono shouting his lungs out in the intervals between the choruses that go "oooh, oooh there's no line on the horizon..." and a guitar solo near the end
some people hear the line "I'll teach the world to love" in this one.

U2HQclip (HQ fan clip from May, MP3 posted on this forum in May and still shared by email through the MP3 clip thread) http://www.u2exit.com/2008/05/beach-clip-minus-the-beach.php
Better sound, although very faint and with noise from vehicles passing by.
A - Large sounding anthem with a melodic line in the verse that brings Mysterious Ways to mind.
B - soaring Chorus where some might hear the line "..to the surface of your love" which leads into
C - a short transition section where one can hear group singing with the lyrics that sound like "Get up, Get up!!!"

this structure reapeats 3 times, then there's a short guitar/keybord bridge that leads back to the chorus and group singing section.

Eno comment about Moment of Surrender

Lanois comment about "hand played and electro"

now after some listens and atention to harmony and melody I can be fairly sure that we can define at least 4 songs that appear on several sources:

1 - No Line on the Horizon

HIWI#3, and edgeback2 are identical, they share the same sequence and tempo, but different in scale - where HIWI#3 has the sequence start with a Dm in edgeback2 the sequence starts with a Gbm, maybe due to instrumentation, vocal properties or some other reason. they both contain the same sequence that appears on the NLOTH fan clip. NLOTH fan clip and HIWI#3 even share the same tuning, though NLOTH's chorus in the fan clip is a couple of bars shorter, I belive the three pieces are all parts of No Line on the Horizon but maybe the song has two slightly different chorus sections based on the same chords (like in arabic music where e certain motif or musical theme reoccurs a couple of time in a brief version and then in more epic style)

2 - some big Anthem /Love song

edgeback3 fits perfectly over section C of U2HQclip both go F#-E-E6/c ("Get up..."), its crunchier darker fly-like quality contrasts with the lavish chorus preceding it and the uplifting mantra sung over it. very U2.

3 - Rocking riff-o-rama piece
HIWI#1 shares the same musical scale and riff with larrydrumming_april08 and greentea (Am), but they vary in rhythm, perhaps having LAPOE in their recent repertoire, pushed them to reshape HIWI#1 into a solid 4/4 pattern.

4 - a wild guess - with Eno referring to Moment of surrender as a very atmospheric piece I can't help but thinking of HIWI#4 as it's the only bit we got from them lately which isn't downright rock n' roll.

5 - another guess - when Lanois said the album is hand played and electro he definitely had adambass in mind, with some very Eno'esque elctro toys in the background there. it mjay fit with the feel of larry's drumming clips and HIWI#1 but they're just in a different scale (adambass has a C intro to a G chord) and both greentea and adambass sound like intros so I guess they're two different songs.

so we got 5 songs for the album so far, 1 ambient, 2 anthems, 2 rockers.

now we only don't know where did HIWI#2 go, and where will we find edgeback1 and edgeback4.

so what do you think?
 
Last edited:
I think the powers that be should make this a sticky. Great point of reference.
 
great post mate. I agree with this being a sticky as long as when the next clip leaks we don't have 300 pages of people asking for the mp3. We should keep a clean thread for actually discussing rather than begging, imo of course...
 
I think that as long as there isn't any problem with copyright violation we can keep updating links here.

let this be the dynamic version of atu2.com's new album info
 
The speculated names of the songs - based on comments from Eno, Bono and others - should be added to this thread too.

Then when the album is released, it would be interesting to come back to this thread to see how much info. gathered in May/June (and earlier in some cases) proves to be correct. :hmm:
 
:up:

Great post, and extremely helpful. I've got a collection of articles that I've been saving for the past year from various sources that relate to the recording of the new album that I'll try and put together when I get time - really busy at the moment - and put up too if it's of any use.
 
Nice thread, as long as any links posted are not mp3's and/or copyright violations. You can link to other websites (as I see you have). If they have copyrighted material on their page that's their problem not ours.

I agree with this being a sticky as long as when the next clip leaks we don't have 300 pages of people asking for the mp3. We should keep a clean thread for actually discussing rather than begging, imo of course...
Click to expand...

Agreed.
 
Dublin, Ireland 2007-2008
Moment of Surrender - U2valencia report, June 2008
No Line On The Horizon - USAToday interview, January 2008

Fez, Morocco summer 2007
For Your Love - Interview telquel-online.com, June 2007
One Bird - Same as above, June 2007

2004->
Thank You/Thank You For The Day - Bono/Lanois collaboration, Beach Clip July 2006
If I Could Live My Life Again - Bono in Conversation with Michka Assayas.
Love Is All We Have Left - NBC interview, May 2006

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb leftovers:
Mercy - leaked 2004-2005 (?)
North Star - Interview with organ player Michael W. Smith, March 2005
Lead Me In The Way I Should Go - Grammy Magazine interview 2003
You Can't Give Away Your Heart - First mentioned in SPIN Magazine interview 2001.

Thanks to Edge_89 for making this list.
 
This really should be included as well, shouldn't it?
http://forum.interference.com/f194/fez-sessions-u2-com-trailer-transcript-179879.html

Has anyone mentioned the Ultra Violet Brazil clips, yet?
Two Larry drumming clips and a very vague recording of what is claimed to be Moment of Surrender.

Here's the clips I've gathered so far:
Fan recordings
2008:
U2Neat clip - No Line On The Horizon, Hanover Qauy February)
Irishteen Clip + a cleaned up version of the same clip.
DOL13 clip - The clip currently being shared in the mentioned MP3 thread, as well as a cleaned up version by U2DMFan. (Possibly For Your Love?)
Ultraviolet Brazil U2 fan forum, Hanover Quay recordings - 2 clips of Larry Drumming (running time 0:39 and 0:47 respectively, recorded on the 12th of June 2008) and a possible recording of Moment of Surrender (0:59, recorded on the 6th of June 2008).
(Youtube clip "U2 rehearsels the new sound" - same as the first u2.com/Adam clip but slightly different though)

Earlier fan leaks
Beach Clips 2006 - Thank You For The Day and two songs with fan working titles: "All My Life" and "I Believe"

Official recordings
U2.com - Audio from the .swf clips from Adam (Larry Drumming, Green Tea, Edge Back & Adam Bass)
U2.com Here Is What Is Trailer - Four songs as mentioned in the first post.

U2girl said:
Dublin, Ireland 2007-2008
Moment of Surrender - U2valencia report, June 2008
No Line On The Horizon - USAToday interview, January 2008

Thanks to Edge_89 for making this list.
Click to expand...

You're welcome.
That is a list of possible (official) titles, not songs however.
Therefore, I didn't include the fan working titles of the beach clips in there.
I also didn't mention the "It's six o' clock..." song mentioned on the blog of that USA Today-journalist, which is "untitled".
 
I don't expect to hear any HTDAAB leftovers on the new album, unless greatly and unrecognisably reworked. They've made pretty clear they want something new.
 
Ok I can't edit my first message for some obscure reason, but I gave a listen to the brazillian fan clips from HQ (posted on UV-Brazil U2 em estúdio só em 2008. - Página 54 - Fóruns da Ultraviolet) and there are two clips of larry drumming a fast 6/8 rhythm (like in HIWI#1 but faster) but with a different acctentuation, sounds more like fast moroccan wedding songs (example: YouTube - Moroccan Wedding 2 ), and I guess that's where the moroccan influences come in. it does contradict my theory about HIWI#1 becoming larrydrumming+greentea, but the hostory of u2's writing process shows that while some songs change radically in structure and feel (Axtung Beibi's Salome versions=>Zoo Station), some retain most of their initial features (1998 Melbourne soundcheck=>Walk On).


On a note of agreement with u2search, Another thing I forgot to point out in the first post is that U2HQclip does bear distant resemblance to 2 of the Eze beachclips from the works for U218 with Rick Rubin. With band members quoting Rubin saying that they should have extraordinary songs first, before starting an album, and a following move to write with Eno and Lanois, I believe that Rubin convinced the band, that the material they've recorded with him cannot lead them to where they wanna go next, and that in order to acheive what they want to acheive they have to focus on original songwriting before starting to make an album in the traditional way, which led to 2 Eze sessions and the Fez session.
That's why I don't think we'll see any of the Old "Bomb"/Rubin material on this album, except for the traces we might find in U2HQclip and maybe another song.
 
Sorry, but I really started this thread to get all the information about the musical data comprising this upcoming album in one place. musical solely, not lyrical, and not titular, especially in order to prevent a situation where when someone wants to get a piece of info, he has to browse through shitloads of pages full of mutual bashing, and imaginative blather, which is legitimate and important, but there are enough threads for that, I really just wanted to do good.

plus, in my opinion the whole debate concerning title quality at this stage is stupid, because in 85% of U2 songs' the final titles and lyrics are dictated by the final vocal take, so names we hear up until 2-3 months before the album's release is usually working titles which may be just the first line of a song or a repeating mantra Bono sings just to convey a certain feel or vibe, so practically a song could be mentioned in an early interview as "how I used to lick my rosy lover's chick" and end up in the album as a song about accountants, and with a different title altogether, this so called "rumored titles" rarely reveal anything about the musical nature of an album.

as an opposite example, a band like R.E.M has greater link between working titles and final songs, like for example "E-bow the letter" a working title for a song which had an unsent letter to River Phoenix as the lyrics, and was dominated by a guitar line using the E-bow magnetic effect. the band liked the way the name rang and it stuck as the final title, but I don't think such cases are very common in the U2 camp except for "sometimes..." maybe
 
All very interesting stuff, but aren't we already going off topic and cluttering what was meant to be an information thread? We can have a conversation about song titles in another thread maybe? :hmm:
 
Those clips have made me, VERY, VERY excited about the new album! I think U2 ALWAYS does better music when they have a theme. :applaud: :hyper::hyper::hyper:
 
PolarCamel said:
Ok I can't edit my first message for some obscure reason, but I gave a listen to the brazillian fan clips from HQ (posted on UV-Brazil U2 em estúdio só em 2008. - Página 54 - Fóruns da Ultraviolet) and there are two clips of larry drumming a fast 6/8 rhythm (like in HIWI#1 but faster) but with a different acctentuation, sounds more like fast moroccan wedding songs (example: YouTube - Moroccan Wedding 2 ), and I guess that's where the moroccan influences come in. it does contradict my theory about HIWI#1 becoming larrydrumming+greentea, but the hostory of u2's writing process shows that while some songs change radically in structure and feel (Axtung Beibi's Salome versions=>Zoo Station), some retain most of their initial features (1998 Melbourne soundcheck=>Walk On).
Click to expand...

Do we know that those drumming clips are actually from a song? It just sounds like someone messing around on the drums to me. And the clip thats supposed to be Moment Of Surrender just sounds like a phone ringing far away and someone talking a little bit.
 
Jimmy Jazz said:
Do we know that those drumming clips are actually from a song? It just sounds like someone messing around on the drums to me. And the clip thats supposed to be Moment Of Surrender just sounds like a phone ringing far away and someone talking a little bit.
Click to expand...

the guitar clip was indeed bearly audible so I didn't even mention it (although listening to it was difinitely a "moment of surrender" - to super ridiculous geeky u2 fandom)
I agree that the drums are not a recording of a track, but to me it definitely sounds like someone trying an Idea - different ways to shift between two patterns of 12 8ths, and since we already have something like that in Lanois' trailer, and given the fact that Lanois said that all is pretty much finished except vocals, I doubt that if these clips were recorded recently it would be someone just messing around, probably they were just considering altering one of the drum takes. at this stage of the work, I guess that the weight lies on the subtleties of the songs - different phrasing here, slight sound and texture changes there, so most of what we'll hear coming out of the studio will be either full songs in mixing stages, or small bits of ideas to add on top of already recorded stuff.

but then again it could be just Larry or Sam soundchecking or repeating some drum pattern just for fun. but I guess that if you're in the studio working on your own music you'll soundcheck with something that haunts your mind at the moment - either sources of inspiration or recently worked material.
 
"Cedars of Lebanon" is the one inspired by Jimi Hendrix according to Lanois.
 
A new clip on u2.com shows larry entering the studio and sitting down to drum, at one point a short bit of folk music is heard in the background with fast acoustic guitar. the bass sound shares some features in common with edgeback2 (refer to first post on this thread) and say Grace, sounds to me like the typical fruit of a clayton-Lanois encounter.
I don't find harmonic similarities to anything we know already and mentioned above, but in terms of the style of bassline and sound, it could be a different part of edgeback2/NLOTH (got the same hollowbody/acoustic sound with a somewhat staccato bass, remember Bono comment about trying to go Arabic in song structure - A B C D E F instead of Verse Chorus V C Middle 8ths V C C)

http://media.u2.com/flash/highlights/larryinstudio.swf
 
YouTube - Walk Out Into The Streets Main Version

well, there goes another songs in 12/8 it maybe HIWI#1 slowed down and transposed to a different scale, that's what it sounds like to me, it carries the same dark vibe and same guitar sound, and basically same rhythm pattern, but the verse-chorus structure have been altered and some chords were added.

sounds good anyway.
 
Now, these folks are really into teasing us!

Maybe only five days after the audio above was posted on youtube by U2only, we get this bit:
http://media.u2.com/flash/highlights/adam_fans.swf

adam playing a different chord sequence to the same groove of the song above (fan-titled "walk out into the street"), sounds like a middle section or an outro of the same song, in the background there's some synth-provided melodic line, in vein of the synth cue opening New York on some early Elevation shows. quite an intense piece. I'm pretty much convinced that both are pieces of a slowed-down-tempo incarnation of HIWI#1 (refer to 1st post in this thread), the rhythm is 6/8, like Window in the Skies and Acrobat. playing style is like WITS, but the general atmosphere is darker and moodier more like Acrobat. also reminds me a little of Depche Mode's "I Feel You".

Also just to get things straight, there are 2 other files on youtube,
uploaded by InBloom74, this fellow is obviously using some sound software for the clips mentioned below, but I'm convinced that they're authentic U2:

YouTube - U2 rehearsels new sound 2008 - this is "larrydrumming" originally posted by u2.com, slowed down and edited by user to amplify the melodic instrument in the background of the drums. people on this forum have been bashing it as fake due to its inferior quality, but that's obviously because they're either deaf or unfamiliar with sound editing software.

the other is YouTube - U2 rehearsels new sound 2008 2
sounds like a slowed down and artificially amplified recording of Edge jamming or maybe even providing some additional guitar to some obscure track. Uses a sound somewhere in between the one he uses on "Are You Gonna Wait Forever" and the one he uses for the solo on NLOTH recorded by fans outside HQ in February. it might be the clip posted on the Brazilian forum "Ultraviolet" and presumed to be "Moment of Surrender" by some fans (refer to previous posts on this thread, one minute clip of really faint electric guitar playing).

ok that's all for now. hope I've been logical and helpful.
this is becoming like archeological excavations...
 
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