New U2 Album in 2012?

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yeah, i don't even see 2012 as a remote possibility......unless they pulled a shocker and decided not to tour.

actually, that wouldn't be a bad idea. at their age, it might almost be easier on their hips to tour every 2 albums.
 
Hmm not sure if releasing another album would be a good idea, LOVE U2 and don't crucify me for saying this but their last album for me and the wider public in general considered it disappointing and did not live up to golden albums like achtung or Joshua. So really what I'm saying is I'd love U2 to go down in history as a solid rock band with a handfull of timeless albums.

Having said that, they did make a massive comeback from their album pop with ATYCLB and HTDAAB
 
Loco23 said:
Having said that, they did make a massive comeback from their album pop with ATYCLB and HTDAAB
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i'm sure many here would beg to differ LOL

(not me necessarily- i LOVE ATYCLB, but i also adore POP, so it wasn't so much a comeback as such to me, but just more great songs!)
 
I love all of their albums. Personally, none of them are 'comebacks' to me.

But I think we can all agree that ATYCLB in the public eye was a huge turnaround/reinvention/whatever. It kept them relevant.

I know it's a common debate here, but anyone who claims that ATYCLB wasn't a massive comeback is probably examining the question at hand from a personal point of view.
 
I definitely hope they continue what they started with NLOTH. Songs like MOS, Fez-BB, yeah I want to hear more of that!

Then again, I hope they won't release anything the next year. :lol: My bank account can't handle another tour! Give me at least two years to start saving again.
 
Danny Boy said:
Iwant2believe.jpg
Click to expand...

That pretty much sums it up.
 
Loco23 said:
Hmm not sure if releasing another album would be a good idea, LOVE U2 and don't crucify me for saying this but their last album for me and the wider public in general considered it disappointing and did not live up to golden albums like achtung or Joshua. So really what I'm saying is I'd love U2 to go down in history as a solid rock band with a handfull of timeless albums.

Having said that, they did make a massive comeback from their album pop with ATYCLB and HTDAAB
Click to expand...

NLOTH was a great U2 album - most fans and critics agree.

The problem with NLOTH was the same problem with "Pop" - weak first single. The weak first single led to poor album sales. There's no way a U2 album in 1997 - pre-download era - should have sold just 1.5M copies in the U.S.

However, flip the first single to "Staring at the Sun" and there's a good chance "Pop" takes off. Likewise, flip the first NLOTH single to "Maginficent" and perhaps NLOTH takes off.

While ATYCLB was a nice change from "Pop" and the 90's in general, by HTDAAB that "adult contemporary" style was already getting old. There are some great songs on HTDAAB, but others that I'm happy never hearing again. NLOTH was a much needed respite from that. If NLOTH has a weakness it's that U2 tried to throw in a few more "adult contemporary" songs, like "Crazy Tonight", which didn't really flow with the album (IMO).

However, the brilliance of songs like MOS, "Breathe", NLOTH (song), "White as Snow", "Cedars...", and "Magnificent" make me anxious for new U2 - provided they stay in this general direction (or even new direction) and not return to ATYCLB territory. That was a good album at the time, but just like JT and AB, I really don't want another one.

As for when any new album will be issued - I'd love to see fall 2012. That will be 3.5 years, holiday season and a good time to release (with a strong first single). But knowing U2, I wouldn't be surprised to see fall of 2013.
 
doctorwho said:
NLOTH was a great U2 album - most fans and critics agree.

The problem with NLOTH was the same problem with "Pop" - weak first single. The weak first single led to poor album sales. There's no way a U2 album in 1997 - pre-download era - should have sold just 1.5M copies in the U.S.

However, flip the first single to "Staring at the Sun" and there's a good chance "Pop" takes off. Likewise, flip the first NLOTH single to "Maginficent" and perhaps NLOTH takes off.

While ATYCLB was a nice change from "Pop" and the 90's in general, by HTDAAB that "adult contemporary" style was already getting old. There are some great songs on HTDAAB, but others that I'm happy never hearing again. NLOTH was a much needed respite from that. If NLOTH has a weakness it's that U2 tried to throw in a few more "adult contemporary" songs, like "Crazy Tonight", which didn't really flow with the album (IMO).

However, the brilliance of songs like MOS, "Breathe", NLOTH (song), "White as Snow", "Cedars...", and "Magnificent" make me anxious for new U2 - provided they stay in this general direction (or even new direction) and not return to ATYCLB territory. That was a good album at the time, but just like JT and AB, I really don't want another one.

As for when any new album will be issued - I'd love to see fall 2012. That will be 3.5 years, holiday season and a good time to release (with a strong first single). But knowing U2, I wouldn't be surprised to see fall of 2013.
Click to expand...

I think there's a lot of factors that played in there besides those things. The first single certainly didn't have the flair that "Beautiful Day" or "Vertigo" had on initial listens, but yet again that's sort of hard company to follow too. Plus, it's fair to say that many people don't even buy CDs anymore, which is another factor for sales not matching the previous two albums.

It's arguable to say that most U2 fans were fans of NLOTH as well. Certainly, you find people who will not like a direction of an album with each one that comes out, but I've heard quite a few people either online or in person that said they didn't like the direction they took for it. I even had two family members, who are big fans of the band, even told me they weren't really big on it either. That's sort of a needle in the haystack, but there are comments out there like that, and I wouldn't rule out that this was a factor in why the album didn't exactly shock the world either.
 
doctorwho said:
NLOTH was a great U2 album - most fans and critics agree.

The problem with NLOTH was the same problem with "Pop" - weak first single. The weak first single led to poor album sales. There's no way a U2 album in 1997 - pre-download era - should have sold just 1.5M copies in the U.S.

However, flip the first single to "Staring at the Sun" and there's a good chance "Pop" takes off. Likewise, flip the first NLOTH single to "Maginficent" and perhaps NLOTH takes off.

While ATYCLB was a nice change from "Pop" and the 90's in general, by HTDAAB that "adult contemporary" style was already getting old. There are some great songs on HTDAAB, but others that I'm happy never hearing again. NLOTH was a much needed respite from that. If NLOTH has a weakness it's that U2 tried to throw in a few more "adult contemporary" songs, like "Crazy Tonight", which didn't really flow with the album (IMO).

However, the brilliance of songs like MOS, "Breathe", NLOTH (song), "White as Snow", "Cedars...", and "Magnificent" make me anxious for new U2 - provided they stay in this general direction (or even new direction) and not return to ATYCLB territory. That was a good album at the time, but just like JT and AB, I really don't want another one.

As for when any new album will be issued - I'd love to see fall 2012. That will be 3.5 years, holiday season and a good time to release (with a strong first single). But knowing U2, I wouldn't be surprised to see fall of 2013.
Click to expand...

Magnificent failed spectacularly as a single too. I think MOS was the only chance the band might have had to have a hit - and I suspect its the only track on the album which will still get attention when the album is 10 or 20 years old.

ATYCLB was, in my opinion, the worst record they ever released. Beautiful Day was a nice step backwards to a classic sound, but most of the album was material weaker than the average U2 B-side.

POP was brilliant. Discotheque was a fantastic song. I'd rank it in their top 10 tracks some days. The album simply wasn't what the U2 public wanted from the band, and they had some trouble figuring out how to play the songs live.
 
Magnificent failed as a single where it was, but I think it'd have had a different fate as the lead single. I feel like radio/mainstream music fans already wrote off No Line after Get On Your Boots.

Completely speculative, and there's absolutely nothing tangible to base this off of, but I think Magnificent, had it been the first single, would have 1. charted higher than Boots, and 2. remained on the charts for more than one week.
 
popacrobat said:
Magnificent failed as a single where it was, but I think it'd have had a different fate as the lead single. I feel like radio/mainstream music fans already wrote off No Line after Get On Your Boots.

Completely speculative, and there's absolutely nothing tangible to base this off of, but I think Magnificent, had it been the first single, would have 1. charted higher than Boots, and 2. remained on the charts for more than one week.
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You're right - that's completely speculative. What we DO know is that Magnificent was a magnificent failure as a second single.
 
meh. Stay(far away, so close!) failed as a single. It's still one of the best songs I've ever heard. They've had a lot of good songs tank as singles: All I Want Is You, In God's Country, Lemon, Numb, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Elevation, Magnificent, etc. Their list of failures is bigger than the list of scorchers.
 
I'm pretty sure both WOWY and One would have failed as singles following GOYB.

GOYB killed the album. Murdered it.

They will almost certainly come back with a 'safe' song as a lead single for their next album. That's not necessarily good or bad, but it's clear to me the band thinks 'charting' is important.
 
marshall faulk said:
I'm pretty sure both WOWY and One would have failed as singles following GOYB.

GOYB killed the album. Murdered it.

They will almost certainly come back with a 'safe' song as a lead single for their next album. That's not necessarily good or bad, but it's clear to me the band thinks 'charting' is important.
Click to expand...

GOYB is a 'safe' song.

That was the issue with it. It is, in my opinion, no different from an Elevation/Vertigo type U2 song but much worse. And obviously minus the creativeness considering it's been done before.

'Safe' should be something they outright avoid. They don't need to go all avant-garde on us, but at least new for U2 (with that taste of U2 still in it).
 
GOYB was not safe. And it was not anything like Elevation, and not nearly as similiar to Vertigo as people in here think.

It was just a weird song for the public. I guarantee, with a different lyric the song wouldn't have flopped nearly as bad. The general public still has no clue what this song is going on about... and that may work for some bands but it doesn't for U2.
 
I'd argue it's more like Elevation than it is like Vertigo. But the point was that it comes off with a very 'radio rock' flavor to it. Just... in bad taste.
 
GOYB was a risk since the song sounded like two songs smashed together. "Let me in the sound" wasn't likely a line that the public was going get addicted to.

Then when you add the fact that there are two camps that want U2 to make futuristic music or classic rock you can see large portions of the public being mixed.

The main aim for U2 is to make music that is addictive with lots of replay value so it doesn't get dated. Achtung always sounds fresh, and JT has a mass nostalgia factor. Without a single that makes people run for the radio, internet, and eventually the album it will disappoint. People want that buzz when they hear something great that also has new tones that create new grooves in the their brains while still being familiar. This is damn hard to do for any band.
 
Shit the strength of the album as a whole doesn't matter nearly as much as the single. Especially nowadays. Take a look at ATYCLB. It's a decent album for sure, but minus Beautiful Day and nobody gives a shit. Just my take on it.
 
BVS said:
GOYB was not safe. And it was not anything like Elevation, and not nearly as similiar to Vertigo as people in here think.

It was just a weird song for the public. I guarantee, with a different lyric the song wouldn't have flopped nearly as bad. The general public still has no clue what this song is going on about... and that may work for some bands but it doesn't for U2.
Click to expand...

Yeah. It's like Vertigo or Elevation in length and being up tempo. It's far more exotic and strange than either of those tunes.

It's about as far from safe as a song could be. It's down right strange. If you follow the theory that U2 being safe=hits, then GOYB should have been a big hit.
 
Whether you consider GOYB 'safe' or not, it was just plain bad in my opinion. It ended up working 'ok' live given a decent uptempo riff, but the lyric of 'get on your boots' was a train wreck it was so awkward. I find it hard to imagine almost any 'casual' music fans got into that song upon hearing it on the radio.

I hope the band challenges listeners with the sound of the first single off the next album; but mostly I hope Bono doesn't write more cringe worthy lyrics like GOYB.
 
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