New Album Discussion 1 - Songs of..... - Unreasonable guitar album

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So is a new U2 album on the way?
“Larry has recovered from his back injury. He, Edge and Adam are 100 metres away from where we are now and they are making amazing music. As if their lives depended on it... And they are because music, like football, is not a matter of life and death, it is much more important. We have experimented a lot in the last few years. Edge and I have been immersed in a folk world that we have been following for a long time. Then we worked on some stuff with Brian Eno and when we make music he and I always end up in another place...”.

Nothing much new vs the previous article, but more mention of Eno here (page was translated so might not be 100% accurate). Still cool to see him (and the folk element) mentioned again.

Hopefully in the coming months we start to get more snippets of new album work. Even if new music is a while away, hell even if the descriptions don’t end up being too accurate, the lead up to a new album and previews we get along the way are always good fun.
 
I'm allowing myself to get really hopeful for this, just because I reckon there was a lot of weird stuff left over from No Line that *must* be weird good. After all, Soon was terrific, and those sessions also gave us this twenty seconds of music - which I've been waiting to hear more of for almost 17 years.


(Links to an archived version of 'Larry Studio', one of the U2.com videos from the No Line recording sessions.)
 
Assume for Bono’s birthday ? Actually makes more sense since it’s Mother’s Day
 
Overall, I'm left with a hopeful feeling about the band after reading the Observer article.

Cons: The typical no news is no news platitudes "Writing another reason to exist..". The use of the phrase "Laying the groundwork" as if we're still on the front-end of the process.

Pros: Eno, Bono refocusing his calling as an artist before time runs out

Could mean there's a flood-gate just waiting to be opened. Again, I'm not expecting as much. As I've said before, I think they've been doing a lot of work, but it's going to result in an amalgamation of 10-12 ideas they feel are best on one album.

I feel like this means he wants to make music until he can't anymore and I could see that going either way (but let's face it, I'm leaning toward the latter here) 1. They get the next album out and now there's momentum and it's not long until we have another after that, etc. 2. The "egos in the way" that he referenced still causes them to take an incredibly long time on the work and we still only get maybe two more albums that are separated by a space of 5-10 years.
 
I think he's a bit in shock of all of his life's work (outside of the band) being destroyed in less than 4 months, and with the collaboration of the very people he worked with to get it done.

I got the sense of just a bit of defeat in the interview....and maybe lamenting more now that he's realized the years away from the band meant not getting "the song" they (he) so desperately chase
 
I think he's a bit in shock of all of his life's work (outside of the band) being destroyed in less than 4 months, and with the collaboration of the very people he worked with to get it done.

I got the sense of just a bit of defeat in the interview....and maybe lamenting more now that he's realized the years away from the band meant not getting "the song" they (he) so desperately chase
new trope: Larry was right
 
Imagine telling 2004 interference that the band will outlast almost every active poster
I’ve been silent for a while. Lots of good replies typed out but wanted to get the message just right before hitting send. I often wonder what has happened with the Slow Loris.
 
I just can't see the flood-gates opening unless something dramatic changes (health, attitude, life etc) or if we get a final send-off tour and then Bono & Edge release more music with "guest" spots by Adam and Larry.

Just feels like it's the whole commitment to a 2/3 year cycle of recording, promo and touring which is the big issue and if Edge in particular is being that productive with ideas piling up (and all the work he's done on the reissued tracks recently), they will find a way to release them.
 
The HtDAAB box and shadow album gives them an avenue. I think significant anniversaries will include a broader selection of lost songs going forward and not just for the landmark albums. Their vaults are bulging and they seem to have let go of any realistic chance of returning to ideas and carrying them forward.

Get them out there in a lower risk/scrutiny environment as companions to major works. This could easily be:

Boy - all the early demos and studio outtakes we haven’t yet heard
October - probably not a lot we haven’t heard
War - will we get an official release of be there? Sessions from early recording
TUF/JT/R&H - demos and other lost songs
AB already done
Zooropa - not sure what else is there, but maybe there’s some demos?
Pop - early version of the album and leftover tracks
ATYC - novelty act? Other demos and sketches similar to Bomb
NLOTH - 2006 sessions and original album concept
SOI - 2013 version of the album
SOE - 2016 version

Add to this RedOne, mid 360 recordings of North Star etc.

Maybe there’s scope for a HTDAAB style box for every album, plus some
Era specific lost recordings?
 
An incomplete, talked-through version of quite possibly the worst song U2 has ever committed to tape if I pre-order?! Sign me up! :rolleyes:
 
Really strange that the Stories of Surrender version of With or Without You isn’t on there - that seemed to be a stand out track, they even performed it in isolation while promoting the tour, so they must have felt that way too.

I suspect they’re holding it back for a different release, though can’t imagine what.
 
Really strange that the Stories of Surrender version of With or Without You isn’t on there - that seemed to be a stand out track, they even performed it in isolation while promoting the tour, so they must have felt that way too.

I suspect they’re holding it back for a different release, though can’t imagine what.
saving it for the Tiesto remix
 
not even close in a world where American Soul, Stand Up Comedy and Big Girls Are Best exist
...let alone "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight."

That said, if I had to choose the single worst song U2 has committed to tape, it's easily "Your Song Saved My Life." It's the only song in the catalogue I can't even sit through. It's truly dreadful. Being for a kid's movie doesn't mean it has to suck as much as it does.
 
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It’s…. Odd.

Sort of lounge-y and slow. Seems liveish because Bono calls out to the band chord changes etc.

Like - it’s not the worst thing they’ve done, but it has no real reason to exist at all.
 
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