Larry speaks about new album

[drt4]

He didn't like Moment of Surrender?

Sounds like he didn't like the album as a whole, despite the work he did on it, based on his "don't get me started on the last album" comment.

 

[djerdap]

It seems like they managed to piss of all of the producers after the shit they pulled with No Line on the Horizon. I'm pretty sure - based on the interviews with Eno and Lanois before and especially after the record came out - the end product was far away from what they originally intended to do.

 

[BloodRedSky2k5]

It seems like they managed to piss of all of the producers after the shit they pulled with No Line on the Horizon. I'm pretty sure - based on the interviews with Eno and Lanois before and especially after the record came out - the end product was far away from what they originally intended to do.

I'm sure it always is. Lillywhite didn't like Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses. That tells you all you need to know.

 

[djerdap]

Sure, but I meant that this time the end product was far away from the original intent in a bad way, unlike records in the past where the sound had "evolved". From these snippets and from the hype that was created by Lanois especially, it seems to me that the early vision of No Line on the Horizon would have sounded much more interesting to these ears.

 

[Registered Dude]

It seems like they managed to piss of all of the producers after the shit they pulled with No Line on the Horizon. I'm pretty sure - based on the interviews with Eno and Lanois before and especially after the record came out - the end product was far away from what they originally intended to do.

yeah I think you're right. I'd be pissed off too.. these guys spent years writing and recording songs with them.. not just producing this time around.

I met with Lanois a couple of months before the album delay was announced in fall 2008, and he was talking about how they were really taking their time making something unique, making their masterpeice. he believed in the material, and was clearly excited by it.

the result? not the same album.

 

[BEAL]

I do recall an interview with Eno where he was asked about the African inspired sounds not really being featured on the album.

He said after having a chance to revist the material after they came back to Dublin, he said it just didn't work in the way they had hoped. So there's very little sound or influence that can be heard on the record.

I think Eno was annoyed with some of the choices of songs they put on the record, probably the middle three. I believe it was the same interview where Eno was pushing really hard to get the song Winter finished and the band said no, which he may have been annoyed.

I think had they pushed forward with the original theme, it would have been an interesting album, but probably would be along the lines of Pop....sounding a bit undercooked. That being said, I adore Pop, but that may have more to do with the time in my life when the album came out, versus the actual material. But no real control over that, Pop was something extremely unique to me.

Where NOTH had elements, I think U2 of the 2000's have tried very hard to polish every song, where in the past some of the best U2 material IMO is the obvious unfinished or raw power.

 

[djerdap]

I do recall an interview with Eno where he was asked about the African inspired sounds not really being featured on the album.

He said after having a chance to revist the material after they came back to Dublin, he said it just didn't work in the way they had hoped.

You have a link or anything? I'm really curious about this now.

 

[bonocomet]

You have a link or anything? I'm really curious about this now.

Here is the video where he says that. (Not the exact words BEAL used, but the same idea I think.)

Brian Eno on Recording NLOTH with U2 in the Studio - YouTube

 

[Moony]

Thanks for the video! I hadn't seen it before.

 

[bonocomet]

Thanks for the video! I hadn't seen it before.

No problem.

 

[powerhour24]

Well Eno's certainly not infallible either, given his treatment of Streets, and if he was pushing for Winter and it was the version on Linear I'd say he was wrong there too (the Brothers version is a lot closer to being something special). But I agree with the overcooked/water-down mentality in general.

 

[mikal]

I think I might be the only person here that loves the Linear version of Winter.

 

[Registered Dude]

I think I might be the only person here that loves the Linear version of Winter.

I'm with you... a little polish and that'd be a classic U2 song..

I just wish Bono didn't talk over that beautiful bridge

 

[BEAL]

You have a link or anything? I'm really curious about this now.

I will search for it tomorrow. I know it was a written interview.

And I know it has to be buried in this forum somewhere.

 

[The John Tree]

Beal - I think I know what you're talking about and I'm pretty sure it was a Rolling Stone interview. Unfortunately, I can't remember which one. I believe it was the same interview where Eno reveals that he has a "U2 diehard's wet dream" of unreleased U2 material.

 

[An Cat Gav]

I think I might be the only person here that loves the Linear version of Winter.

No, I love it too.

Should definitely have been on the album. Didn't even need that mush twaeking really, maybe edit out a line or two. The band must have felt at one point that it was more or less ready as they commissioned the Linear video for it, which is beautiful by the way.

 

[BEAL]

Beal - I think I know what you're talking about and I'm pretty sure it was a Rolling Stone interview. Unfortunately, I can't remember which one. I believe it was the same interview where Eno reveals that he has a "U2 diehard's wet dream" of unreleased U2 material.

yeah, that sounds about right. The article went into Eno searching on his computer, and going through a ton of U2 tracks....along with Coldplay.

I believe he even called U2 a bunch of "Cunts" for going against his wishes for excluding Winter (or some other song). It was stated that he was laughing when he said it, so don't want people to think there was some giant rift.

I'm hoping DM is a good break for the band, as I think U2 have fallen into too familar and comfortable phase with their Eno/Lanios/Lillywhite.

But we'll know in a few months just how successful DM is/was working with the band, cause if we hear the usual suspects are coming in, especially some current Pop Sensation of the time....then we can probably expect a similar outcome as the last few albums.

 

[jay canseco]

I thought the linear version of Winter was very good as well. Had some urgency to the music that gave it some tension. I liked the outro too. Unique for U2 and special.

 

[Registered Dude]

Interviews: Brian Eno | Features | Pitchfork

Brian Eno: You know what? It's very funny, because on the last U2 album we spent time in North Africa, recording.

Pitchfork: In Morocco, right?
Brian Eno: In Morocco. And the reason none of that really appeared on the record, even though we did quite a lot of stuff there, was because it sounded kind of synthetic. It sounded kind of like "world music" add-on. I'm sure it would have got a few people saying, oh, how interesting, they've broken out into North African music, but actually it just didn't sound convincing. We were very impressed by the music while we were there, but there was no realistic or emotionally satisfying way of marrying it using the music that we were doing, so in the end not very much of it at all showed through. But influences aren't always in terms of sound. As I was saying earlier, they're in terms of how you approach music and what you use it for. I think that was picked up, and it was absorbed.

 

[Blue Room]

I think I might be the only person here that loves the Linear version of Winter.

Nope, I like it as well. Wish it had made the album. In fact if I burn a copy of the album or playlist it, I include it.

 

[gvox]

I burn a copy of the album

I've alerted the authorities.

 

[Nick66]

I have mixed feelings about Eno and Lanois coming back. One one hand, I think it would be good for U2 to get some new blood in there and doing something really fresh.

Having said that, though U2 has made some good records without them, they've never made a truly great record without Brian and Danny. And I tend to love what they bring to the studio, and I almost always agree with their choices and think they tend to push U2 in the right direction. And I like and respect both artist's work both with and without U2. Oh, and Eno's comments on Winter and the choices U2 ended up making on that record in general were dead right.

Anyway, whoever ends up producing this thing they'll probably just panic at the end and bring in Lillywhite in the hopes of getting something on the radio.

 

[LemonMelon]

I love Eno's work as a producer and his solo work has some incredible heights (Taking Tiger Mountain, Another Green World), but if he thought the version of Winter we received was finished, he's out of his damn mind. The lyrics are hideous, high minded yet lacking flow or grace, and the music goes nowhere special. It feels like several rather dull songs carelessly stapled together. Replace Crazy Tonight or SUC with it, but that's all.

 

[trevgreg]

I think I might be the only person here that loves the Linear version of Winter.

I don't mind it, but I definitely prefer the Brothers version too (mainly the better ending). With that being said, the Linear version is an improvement over a lot of songs that did make the album though.

 

[Nick66]

I love Eno's work as a producer and his solo work has some incredible heights (Taking Tiger Mountain, Another Green World), but if he thought the version of Winter we received was finished, he's out of his damn mind. The lyrics are hideous, high minded yet lacking flow or grace, and the music goes nowhere special. It feels like several rather dull songs carelessly stapled together. Replace Crazy Tonight or SUC with it, but that's all.

I really can't argue with any of this. Though I do like Winter, I think I like the concept and mood of it more than the execution, and I agree it sounds like an unfinished good idea (which I what I thought Eno really meant about it). I'm not sure I'd describe the lyrics in either version as "hideous"...I don't think they're particularly strong, but no worse than Bono's other run of the mill lyrics from this era.

Either way, it definitely should have made the record over either of the songs you mentioned.

 

[U2girl]

Interviews: Brian Eno | Features | Pitchfork

Thanks, this is likely more accurate than the sellout theory about U2 dropping Morocco sound because it wasn't "commercial" enough.

 

[U2girl]

I thought the linear version of Winter was very good as well. Had some urgency to the music that gave it some tension. I liked the outro too. Unique for U2 and special.

Edge on the bigggest autopilot of his career ?

U2 ripping off Coldplay intro ?

Unfinished lyrics ? Strike three and you're out of NLOTH, Winter. Plus WAS, borrowed melody or not, is much better and is also about the two brothers story.

Thanfully none of that made the radio. On that subject, if the best "radio" song Eno and Lanois can give U2 is Vertigo part 2 Boots or SUC, Crazy tonight is superior to both.

 

[Registered Dude]

I love Eno's work as a producer and his solo work has some incredible heights (Taking Tiger Mountain, Another Green World), but if he thought the version of Winter we received was finished, he's out of his damn mind. The lyrics are hideous, high minded yet lacking flow or grace, and the music goes nowhere special. It feels like several rather dull songs carelessly stapled together. Replace Crazy Tonight or SUC with it, but that's all.

Eno was upset that they spent so little time on Winter, compared to the other songs. It's not that he thought it was finished, but that it held so much promise.

In the basement of London's Olympic Studios, armed only with a MacBook and a Nord keyboard, Brian Eno is leading a doomed, one-man insurgency. It's early December and U2 are wrapping up their sessions for No Line, the track listing almost finalised, but Eno is still pushing for prayerful, moody songs that were long ago abandoned. He's most passionate about Winter, which sounds like no other U2 song. It begins with fingerpicked, chiming acoustic guitar and falsetto backing vocals, and once Bono hits a key line -- "Summer sings in me no more" -- Eno's dramatic strings kick in. "Listening to the silence, the deaf and dumb roar of white noise/Your voice," Bono sings at one point, followed by a choral chant. "Beautiful, isn't it? They're bonkers to leave it off," Eno says with real sadness, as the tune winds up with soaring, dissonant strings -- they're synthesised, played on his little keyboard down here in the basement.

NUMB VIEW with regina's words

 

[U2girl]

Sounds like U2 realised it wasn't working, and did the song justice in the Brothers's version.

 

[Registered Dude]

from later on that same interview

"It’s too long, it needs a bit of work," he says of Winter. "But, you know, they won’t spend time on it. They’ve spent months working on the ones that are supposed to be the radio singles. Months! This: played, put aside."