U2: The Next Era

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dr. zooeuss

dr. zooeuss

War Child
Joined
Apr 14, 2007
Messages
810
Location
Austin, TX, US
So, I've been thinking about U2's next era lately, probably because I've been reading a lot of "U2 by U2," which I got when it came out, but haven't had much time to read until recently.

I've been looking for the right site to find a good discussion on this topic, and I think interference.com is it! I just joined up yesterday, and I'm really impressed with the types of discussions I see here.

I have some ideas about what their next era might be; my personal theory is//was that they are due for a big reinvention on the order of what "Achtung Baby" was in the early 90s, but then I read that article here on interference which quotes Bono as saying they're going to take it to the next level. Bono doesn't say directly that taking it to the next level precludes a "reinvention" but the article seems to imply that.

So, I have some theories and ideas about what teir next move might be, but wanted to see if other people would like to share their ideas first?
 
I think three options are possible:

a) a pop album Beatles style; with songs like OOTS or WITS mixed with the more acoustic songs like Summer rain or Flower child, maybe even piano based songs due to Bono's lessons, "Thank you" from the beach clips

b) more ethereal but still U2; sound like Ground beneath her feet, Stateless, Falling at your feet, "402" from the beach clips

c) a more guitar based album, based on them saying they deliberately kept off rocking songs off Bomb, think ABOY, Native Song, Electrical Storm, "All my life" from the beach clips
 
U2girl, I quite like your b) option. :yes:
More accoustic, more voice, more lyrics, more atmosphere, less noise.
That would be great.
 
I too think its time to shake things up a bit for next album. i base this on the fact that, to my ears, the last two Albums have been very similar in feel. U2 need to take another risk, not unlike Pop or AB. Thats not to say they need to go that direction, just they need to take a sharp turn and go off on a creative tangent and push the envelope a little. I dont get this Beatles thing with WITS. Its a zillion miles from beatlesque. I really hope that WITS wasnt a guide for what is about to become the next direction, as i think I could have problems handling that.
 
I hope they aren't too comfortable and flip it around completely like the change from JT to AB, Bono's lyrics remain strong as ever for the most part but we need some more dark, and rock material. They also need to know when they've got something brilliant and not toss it aside ala Mercy and turning Native Son into Vertigo.

I've always wanted to see U2 do a concept album :drool: , not that I expect to see that.
 
I must confess that I would love the Beatlesque (post 1966) sound. OOTS and WITS gave great clues of what it could sound like if U2 followed that path.

However, they could expand that "beatlesque" sound, mixing it with several other elements.
For instance, building a many-parts song (like "Paranoid Android" or Zooropa") and add studio or electronic elements that U2 has learned to work with in the past. It would be like putting in practice the 1990's lessons and mixing it with the 1960's feel.

No need too all songs being mid-tempo. U2 lives for up-tempo tunes...
I can figure out something like that...

Oh, and Bono, bring back new themes for the lyrics that can be more daring again.
 
I think U2's next album will be slower than past ones. The Beatles sound will be felt but more in the vein of All Because Of You and Crumbs. Look for a return to rock like Silver & Gold and Mercy but slowed down and badly produced.

Bono: Don't expect any impressive lyrics from him. Who knows what his vocals will be like. :shrug:
Edge: Less soundscapes and more straight forward rock. Expect more vocals from Edge.
Adam: The bass will be pretty unimpressive.
Larry: Every song in 4/4.
 
!!!--- THE NEXT ERA OF U2 ---!!!

spiderman_skyscaper.jpg
 
i would be surprised if the next batch of songs arent completely different to what were used to in the 2000s. I think bono has had enough of this show and hes eaither ready to go back to being true bono or maybe another alter ego is in order. who knows, but i swear from 2005 on i could just tell hes been holding back. If they waste another record on this lite sound ,as evidenced by the beach clips, it would be alright but they better not sit on it. The longer they wait the harder it will be to forgive them.
 
I'd rather see that (spidey) than Bono's current look :giggle:

I think it will be very slow, boring, cheesy lyrics, overrated, and high selling.
 
I think they will have a complete turnaround from the last two albums. I do think they're ready to move on.

They've gotten tired of their own sound before. After War, after Rattle and Hum, after Pop. They sound like they want to try some new things.
 
It seems like there are two directions they can take:

1) follow in the footsteps of slightly older (yes, they are older) artists like Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton and the Who did on their latest albums. They'll win praise from critics and sell to their diehard fans but offer nothing for younger fans to hook onto.

2)draw some inspiration from all the younger artists they have worked with -- Kings of Leon, Arcarde Fire, Franz Ferdinand, Green Day, Keane -- and catch some of their fire. It might offend the fans who think U2's day ended with JT, but it might bring in the people who discovered them with Saints.

U2 has a huge advantage over these younger bands in polish, maturity and skill -- and a really hot, good U2 album will land them on the cover of every music magazine in the world. There must be some kind of happy medium between overthought slickness and raw enthusiasm, and I'd love to see them hit the sweet spot.

After Spiderman, of course.
 
Some really cool thoughts here. Thanks everyone!

I agree with those who think they must be ready to move on. If you read the history of the HTDAAB recordings, it seems the band was perhaps ready to move on then, but Bono was gone from the studio so much, I think they ended up doing things a little more conventionally.

In the end, it is hard to compare the work of a band even as great as U2 with the plight of millions of hungry, diseased and indebted whom he truly was able to help through his efforts. God bless him for that.

Still, I think many of the newer fans who are only familiar with their 2000s work think of them as the band that made ATYCLB, HTDAAB and Joshua Tree, maybe with One and Pride (In the Name of Love) thrown in.

U2's younger fans today don't know what it was like in the early nineties to see Achtung Baby and ZooTv hit on the heels of the mainstream success (albeit coincidental and not as the result of "selling out") of the Joshua Tree.

Then to see ZooTV followed up with Passengers OS Vol. 1 and then Pop, it was truly disorienting and troubling and fantastic, all at once. ;-)

While they may not pull something as jarring as that, if they continued down the path of ATYCLB and HTDAAB, in my mind, they would almost cease to be U2, and instead become the pale shadow of themselves, less relevant, and too predictable, which is apparently (if Bono is to be believed) one of their biggest fears, and biggest sources of motivation.

Achtung Baby was a venture into irony and personal issues whereas prior to AB they had dealt with big political and social themes in a very idealistic and almost-but-not-quite-naive way. U2, Bono especially, had been attacked by the skepticism of the media for the success of the Joshua Tree, and AB and the ZooTV tour were his//their way of turning the tables on the media, poking fun at themselves and any shroud of self-righteousness, beating the skeptics to the punch, and beating them at their own game. No celebrity had successfully done that before (to my knowledge at least) but Bono and U2 pulled it off brilliantly.

It's also interesting that the medium of TV was chosen to convey this whole concept. In the early 90s, TV was undoubtedly the most influential, and also often a very negative, medium for information and entertainment (and everything in between). The ZooTV tour put the medium on trial and skewered it on spears of irony and sarcasm.

Today, as we end the first decade of the 21st Century, I can see some of the same traits in the internet- the most influential medium- however although there is negativity on the internet, I see much more that is positive than I saw in TV in the early 90s. That could easily just be my perspective though.

In any case, I've wondered lately if the next U2 tour might take back the weapon of irony and apply it to cyberspace as it did to TV in the early 90s. The time seems right, but I'm not sure there's the same need that there was in the early 90s for someone to put TV on trial. And that speaks only to the tour, not to the music itself.

I have some theories about the music as well, but will save those for another time. I can see how U2 are in some ways embracing the sound and the legacy of the Beatles and other classic rock acts, but I think U2 will feel the need to stop doing that, and get more experimental again. They can always get back to being classic rockers in the 2020s. ;-)
 
U2girl said:
I think three options are possible:

a) a pop album Beatles style; with songs like OOTS or WITS mixed with the more acoustic songs like Summer rain or Flower child, maybe even piano based songs due to Bono's lessons, "Thank you" from the beach clips

b) more ethereal but still U2; sound like Ground beneath her feet, Stateless, Falling at your feet, "402" from the beach clips

c) a more guitar based album, based on them saying they deliberately kept off rocking songs off Bomb, think ABOY, Native Song, Electrical Storm, "All my life" from the beach clips
Click to expand...

I think U2girl is pretty spot on with these 3 predictions. I can't see any change being too drastic. Not of the R&H to AB, or Pop to ATYCLB level anyway.

As for these, my worst fear is (a). An awful proposition. My greatest hope is (b). I'm happy with (c) as long as it's not songs like ABOY & Electrical Storm, which are really more suited to option (a), ie a Diet U2 pop album. Option (b) is where the potential is to keep both distinct U2-Fan Camps happy. They can put some tuneful songs in there that include some Great Classic U2 Moments to keep Camp A happy, but give them the depth and thought that Camp B are craving after so long swimming in the shallows. The two don't have to be distinctly different things. It wouldn't be hard to incorporate both.
 
majid23 said:
A rap album :drool:
Click to expand...

You may not be as far off as you think... IMHO in the 00s they've nodded toward punk, soul and hiphop like they nodded to folk, gospel and R&B in the 80s.
 
Last edited:
U2girl said:
I think three options are possible:

a) a pop album Beatles style; with songs like OOTS or WITS mixed with the more acoustic songs like Summer rain or Flower child, maybe even piano based songs due to Bono's lessons, "Thank you" from the beach clips

b) more ethereal but still U2; sound like Ground beneath her feet, Stateless, Falling at your feet, "402" from the beach clips

c) a more guitar based album, based on them saying they deliberately kept off rocking songs off Bomb, think ABOY, Native Song, Electrical Storm, "All my life" from the beach clips
Click to expand...

a) :yikes: :yuck: :no: :shame:

b) :yes: :drool: :hyper: :pray:

c) :hmm:
 
I would like them to venture into the lansdcapes of Million $ Hotel and Stateless again, sort of darker and more jazz inspired. Don't expect them to though...
 
I think they have a real fear of seeming "old." Hence the rock-ier parts of the last two records. It will be interesting if the "rock has to go" where they will end up.

I think they will explore more complex song structures (OOTS) and arrangements.
 
I think they have a chance to make a great album if they turn around and face their age head-on...

...the way the faced their self-rightous eighties romp with Achtung Baby

...the way they acknowledged the timeliness for a return to basics in the early part of this decade. (the last 2 albums were not masterpieces, but they were timely. It would be a mistake to continue in this vein for a third consecutive time)

I think that this would be a great opportunity for the band to poke fun at themselves again, make some funny videos (a music video of a ninety year old Bono doing their angriest rock song rolling around in a wheelchair at a nursing home, dragging a large wooden cross along route 66, etc.)

When I say that I want them to experiment again, I don't mean a return to Achtung Baby or Pop.

I mean that I want them to take the chance at pissing us off again. U2 trying to please its fanbase will be what eventuall kills off this band. I wanna see Bono do what Bono wants to do onstage...

Say what you will about Popmart but I recently saw a videoclip of the band during the troubled days of Popmart. This was when they were getting accused of selling out, of losing their sense of self, etc. It made me nostalgic to see the band fight their way out of a corner the way they did. Popmart ended with some of the band's most memorable shows and it came from a fire in the belly. If there is a band that is in a financial position to take the risk of being brutally honest it is this band.

The Bono I believe in isn't short of cash, Mister!
 
Bono is at his best when he is kicking ass and not kissing it.

Screw Oprah and the Pope...

I long for the days when he stuck out his middle finger "F___ you salute" to George Harrison.

There is no doubt that plenty of frustration comes from his political pandering. I wanna hear some of this come out not just in lyric but in sound...like the way Edge "put El Salvador into Bullet the Blue Sky".
 
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