On the one hand, the lack of timelines has made me suspect they could be starting from scratch, which I think would be fair enough - everything written in the past few years would likely be coming from a very different creative space, one closer to the ‘songs of’ era/mindset. I could imagine Eno throwing in entirely new and distinctive chord progressions, melodies, philosophies and musical and lyrical themes to explore. I would have thought he’s a producer who’d be there from the start, informing the very nature and foundations of the music - though perhaps I’m wrong, and this time they’re working with Eno to get a half-formed album over the line.
For a band that has a varied catalog of sounds and types like this one, I would have no doubt that a lot of the later albums go through a lot of changes in overall thoughts or sounds. By that, I mean it wouldn’t surprise me if at one point they’re saying “Wow, this material is shaping up like our
War material!” or “Hey, what if we did some stuff in the
Zooropa vein of songwriting?!” I’d even go as far to suspect that happens for
every single album they do now. Particularly since they have long gestation periods that go on years and years.
But like you hinted at, you cannot determine what the final product is going to sound like at all. That’s part of the fun in songwriting too is just going in, throwing stuff at the wall, and just seeing what sticks. I’d hate it if I could just walk up to a DAW and know how it’s all going to come out.
And yeah, it is hard work - and a lot of time devoted to nothing with concrete results. Give it a few months or years, and sometimes you just bang your head against the wall wondering why the 10-20 songs you’ve worked up to a certain point just don’t sound “right” at all.
So then suddenly, the
War-leaning or
Zooropa-leaning album doesn’t sound as exciting or right, and you call in Brian Eno or Steve Lillywhite to come in and suggest some things for those songs. Or work on a few new or unfinished ideas to finally get up to that 10-12 songs. For me, that’s strikes me as normal, especially for a band of four guys and a few other interests and not some solo artist.
… and then in that Rolling Stone interview, Bono says:
“And even some of our music we have assembled, and we’ll do that again, but to try and capture a moment of a rock & roll band in full flight is at the heart of this record that we’re making that we’ve recorded, but we are not finished.“
Funnily enough, didn’t he say the same thing about Songs of Ascent? Something like “we completed it, but didn’t put it out. We want to do a rock album first”.
And they’ve scrapped the rock album idea…
Bono’s said the ‘songs of’ era is behind them - but perhaps it’s the material they (according to him) recently completed for Songs of Ascent that they’re picking up with Eno? If I had to guess what SoA might have sounded like, “sci-fi folk with Brian Eno’ wouldn’t have been far off.
After all, Songs of Ascent was originally a follow up to NLOTH, the last album U2 worked on with ENO. Perhaps things are coming full circle.
I mentioned it before, but I re-watched the band’s BBC special they did for NLOTH not too long, and Bono talked about how they had 60 ideas they were happy with and had to narrow down to that 12 or 13. In the context of other albums, it probably makes sense that it’s something that happens every time nowadays. For all the criticism the disjointed nature of that particular album gets, I think every album is about some sort of compromise anyway. Bono may have replaced the middle 3 with some esoteric material from SOA, or Larry might’ve included more of the guitar heavy stuff to replace White as Snow or Cedars, and so forth.
Even then, an album is never completed by a musician until it’s released and put out there. And even after that, it’s not above critique, but you just pushed them to a point where you didn’t feel you could do much more or do better than them.
So yeah, it doesn’t surprise me that Bono talked about 10+ songs he was excited about from a prior project, but wants to look ahead to the next thing. If they were happy enough with Ascent, it would’ve been put out by now. But most likely, they’ll either incorporate some of those ideas into a future album (a la Every Breaking Wave for SOI), or come back to it and put some changes and overdubs on it to make it releasable in their eyes (a la Re-Assemble or Disappearing Act, et. al.)
That said, I would never object to Eno coming in and doing some work with them! If it's old stuff or new, for that matter.
So are the Jacknife Lee sessions still going on?
I hope not. I really wish they'd just put their lot into one singular vision / idea (ie this one with Eno) rather than have 'multiple' albums floating about that eventually gets condensed into one ultra processed, safe and boring 45 minute LP.
I’ll respectfully disagree here. For one, if they truly started from scratch with Eno, it’d be another few years before they’re even anywhere close to done with an album. You can always translate bits and parts of prior songs to whatever project you’re doing now too. Or add on to whatever ideas that were already near the finish line anyway. I think Eno did something similar for Love or Peace or Else off HTDAAB?
Be brave, be daring and explore just because they still can. An effort that misses the mark but shows ambition and difference will always be more admirable than much of their output the last 20 years
Again, as a songwriter, you can’t really walk into a room and say “I’m writing a
Passengers-type song and it’s absolutely making this album - no matter what happens!”
Inspirations for sounds or ideas, sure. Edge probably already has a few dozen instrumentals that aren’t just Bm-G-D-A - or have some sort of “unsafe” song structure and/or interesting effects on it. But like I said in a prior post, it really does no good if he and Bono can’t come up with a decent melody or lyric over the track. So naturally, you’re going to work on all sorts of ideas - until you come up with 10-20 songs where you can listen to them in three months and say “I don’t hate that.” or “I can’t do better than that.”
If those unusual type of songs don't make an album, then more often than not, that tells me that any they had weren't very good in the first place.
For me personally, I just want some songs that I enjoy listening to. I don't care if it was recorded in Mali, or with an unusual key and song structure, or had a guitar solo recorded while Edge was hanging upside down from a ceiling. A good song is a good song. And plenty of people did like some of the output from the past 20+ years, so obviously something is working out, even if it doesn't hit for me every time.
