Next Album Rumours Thread II - Songs of Ass Scent

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Hollow Island said:
Maybe nobody wants to work with them. Flood had a hell of a time on Pop, the sessions with Chris Thomas and Rick Rubin didn't work out. Eno & Lanois had credit disputes with the band and were annoyed with what U2 did to an album on which they were full collaborators. Danger Mouse was pissed with how they treated him and SOI. I'd be surprised if U2 didnt have a piss poor reputation among producers. They pissed off some very highly regarded people.

Maybe Tedder is the best they can get. Even if that's the case, has there ever been an artist to reach as far down for a long term partnership with a producer as U2 did for Tedder? It's hard to believe this band reached so far up for Eno in 84, after trying to get Conny Plank (Neu and a bunchbof other krautrock) and then Colin Newman (of fucking Wire!). They used to have good taste.
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This. They were always looking for the trend setting, artistic producer.

Now they think boyband Ryan Tedder is the cool option - not even the most mainstream band in the world in Coldplay would touch that flimsy bubblegum popstar with a barge pole. I’m not even close to being a big Coldplay fan but fuck it, their new album is ten times more artistic and adventurous in sound than the ‘rawk’ or simpering pop crap of latter U2. Christ, even a fellow peer like the extremely derivative Noel Gallagher has released better music and has opted to work with interesting producers like David Holmes in recent years! That’s how low U2 have sunk in their creative ambitions.

I worry for their mental health - it’s a full blown mid life crisis. If they don’t have the confidence or balls to be seriously artistic anymore, they might as well split.

The obsession with Ryan Tedder and corporate suckers like him and Apple is the ultimate nadir of this band. It’s difficult to see how they’ll ever get out of it.
 
MattD said:
This. They were always looking for the trend setting, artistic producer.

Now they think boyband Ryan Tedder is the cool option - not even the most mainstream band in the world in Coldplay would touch that flimsy bubblegum popstar with a barge pole. I’m not even close to being a big Coldplay fan but fuck it, their new album is ten times more artistic and adventurous in sound than the ‘rawk’ or simpering pop crap of latter U2. Christ, even a fellow peer like the extremely derivative Noel Gallagher has released better music and has opted to work with interesting producers like David Holmes in recent years! That’s how low U2 have sunk in their creative ambitions.

I worry for their mental health - it’s a full blown mid life crisis. If they don’t have the confidence or balls to be seriously artistic anymore, they might as well split.

The obsession with Ryan Tedder and corporate suckers like him and Apple is the ultimate nadir of this band. It’s difficult to see how they’ll ever get out of it.
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At the end of the day, u2 has given us decades of great music and memories, sure the last couple of albums may not have been the greatest but what do you expect from a band who has been around for 40 years? Another JT or AB? Reality is that this late in their career, this will never happen. I may not enjoy their latest albums fully but I do think they have released a few great songs lately (example: invisible). At this stage I am happy they are even bothering still releasing music. Most bands at this stage would have broken up or members die. I just don’t get all the anger about who u2 is working with or the style of music they are releasing. I think they’ve given us plenty already. Anything new is just a good bonus. If you get so angry over things like this, there are plenty of other bands out there releasing good music that you can always listen to. U2 is not the only band out there.
 
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i gave up on caring about what the next u2 song sounds like years ago and now i'm just here to enjoy the banter with you lovely people :heart::drunk:
 
Tedder is working on "some new pieces". Doesn't mean that he'll be doing the whole album or that they'll even finish with him.

Of course, a committee of producers IMO would probably be worse.

But at least Tedder is saying it's going to be a left turn aesthetically:

"I think it's their intention to make a record completely different from the last two. It will be easier. You know, it's like a pendulum. When you make a very produced album, with so many instruments in it, the next project you want it more sparse and you wonder: what if the disc had the sound of four musicians playing in a room?"

lol @ him using some of Bono's old ATYCLB sound bites though.
 
lazarus said:
Tedder is working on "some new pieces". Doesn't mean that he'll be doing the whole album or that they'll even finish with him.

Of course, a committee of producers IMO would probably be worse.

But at least Tedder is saying it's going to be a left turn aesthetically:

"I think it's their intention to make a record completely different from the last two. It will be easier. You know, it's like a pendulum. When you make a very produced album, with so many instruments in it, the next project you want it more sparse and you wonder: what if the disc had the sound of four musicians playing in a room?"

lol @ him using some of Bono's old ATYCLB sound bites though.
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I agree with those who concede that Tedder is only part of the problem. But it's a noticeable part. A producer can push and coax a band into an aesthetic. If you watch "From the Sky Down" its obvious how integral Eno und particularly Lanois were in teasing the nuance that oozes from Achtung. As another anecdote, Def Lepard said that Hysteria wasnt even a coherent album before Mutt Lange gut involved. U2 are bigger than Tedder. Ergo, I doubt he challenges them on strategic directions or sounds. And that IMO is the problem. They need a critic again. Someone who actually finds them bland and wants to hear more, or something different. They may not be capable of it- the fallout with Danger Mouse and avoidance of working fully with Barlow may be evidence of this. But working with Tedder, like Lilywhite, will always be a sign to me that they still harbor delusions of greatness and prefer a yes-man. And that's embarassing.
 
dabiggestu2fan said:
At the end of the day, u2 has given us decades of great music and memories, sure the last couple of albums may not have been the greatest but what do you expect from a band who has been around for 40 years? Another JT or AB? Reality is that this late in their career, this will never happen. I may not enjoy their latest albums fully but I do think they have released a few great songs lately (example: invisible). At this stage I am happy they are even bothering still releasing music. Most bands at this stage would have broken up or members die. I just don’t get all the anger about who u2 is working with or the style of music they are releasing. I think they’ve given us plenty already. Anything new is just a good bonus. If you get so angry over things like this, there are plenty of other bands out there releasing good music that you can always listen to. U2 is not the only band out there.
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I expect a band that's been around for 40 years to not embarrass themselves. This "who cares if it's good, im happy they're still around" attitude is bizarre. The whole point is to be good and have integrity. U2 have made plenty of good songs in the last decade but the corporate coziness and blatant pandering makes it hard to respect them.
 
Hollow Island said:
I expect a band that's been around for 40 years to not embarrass themselves. This "who cares if it's good, im happy they're still around" attitude is bizarre. The whole point is to be good and have integrity. U2 have made plenty of good songs in the last decade but the corporate coziness and blatant pandering makes it hard to respect them.
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I agree but let’s be real. This song isn’t embarrassing. The only recent embarrassing moment for the band is the iTunes release. Anything else is Interference being over the top as usual.
 
Hollow Island said:
I expect a band that's been around for 40 years to not embarrass themselves. This "who cares if it's good, im happy they're still around" attitude is bizarre. The whole point is to be good and have integrity. U2 have made plenty of good songs in the last decade but the corporate coziness and blatant pandering makes it hard to respect them.
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I generally agree with what you say but what I don’t agree with is the crazy amount of bashing U2 gets every time a new release comes along. Obviously I don’t mean everyone bashes u2 and many of the points people make are valid points. But you have some people here who say things like u2 are done or they lost it etc etc. It’s the general attitude that u2 owes us a great album that really gets me. U2 owes us nothing, if they choose to quit tomorrow, it is up to them. All I’m saying is that I am thankful they still record music. Even if I sometimes don’t like it, it’s ok. And Mikal is right, the only embarrassing thing u2 has done as of recent is the whole iTunes release shit show. As for the music, it is what it is. As I said before, they are not 20 year olds anymore.
 
I think Get Out of Your Own way is legitimately embarrassing. It's one of the worst things I've ever heard from a band that I love.

Recycled music, eye-rolling/on the nose lyrics, clutter in the vocal melody, etc.
 
lazarus said:
I think Get Out of Your Own way is legitimately embarrassing. It's one of the worst things I've ever heard from a band that I love.

Recycled music, eye-rolling/on the nose lyrics, clutter in the vocal melody, etc.
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To the people that are too smart to enjoy anything, yes. Most people are just meh towards it.
 
I like or love every U2 song with probably under 10 exceptions over their whole career that I actively dislike.

So I'm definitely not "too smart to enjoy anything".
 
lazarus said:
I like or love every U2 song with probably under 10 exceptions over their whole career that I actively dislike.

So I'm definitely not "too smart to enjoy anything".
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I agree with this and your take on "GOOYOW", which is as insipid, banal, and smug as anything Coldplay or Chris Martin have said/Produced in the last 10 years. The moments of U2 I dont like, such as most of October, Bomb, and parts of Pop, are because i am just indifferent to them. They're fine. Not good, not bad, just not for me. The U2 moments I hate are those that take away from times when they could have been great but came off instead as pretentious jerks or heritage acts clinging to fame trying to sound like Billie Eilish or Lady Gaga or whatever other flavor of the month. This list includes "The Fatal 3" of NLOTH, SOI, any of the singles from SOE plus American Soul, and much of R&H. They are on a cold streak, and they're in denial about it. But they may be catching on. Its possibly why they brought JT, and not I+E, on tour again.
 
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The thing that annoys me most is that for every GOOYOW and American Soul,there is a Red Flag Day or Little Things. Shows they can still record some great music,but their choice of singles is appalling.

Why promote The Blackout on Facebook that gets a great response,then release best thing as the lead single?
 
super fly guy said:
The thing that annoys me most is that for every GOOYOW and American Soul,there is a Red Flag Day or Little Things. Shows they can still record some great music,but their choice of singles is appalling.

Why promote The Blackout on Facebook that gets a great response,then release best thing as the lead single?
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This, 100%. The Blackout, for me, was a breath of fresh air. I actually think I let out a sigh of relief after I heard it. This on the heels of Little Things live and the leak of the Kygo "Best Thing" mix and I was way on board. But again, as with the 2 albums before it, they sacrificed invention and an aesthetic for half-baked radio hits that never became hits. I actually wonder how much different SOE would have gone if they had released Blackout first, then Little Things, then the Kygo mix or Lights of Home, then Red Flag Day. No GOOYOW or Soul. Imagine playing Blackout and Little Things on SNL instead of the dross they performed, or using a...bullhorn. I imagine it would have landed much better and sold better during promotion.
 
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I maintain a double album of 16-18 songs would have been better.

Songs of Innocence & Experience

1-01 Invisible
1-02 Every breaking wave
1-03 Raised by wolves
1-04 Cedarwood Rd
1-05 Iris
1-06 The crystal ballroom
1-07 Sleep like a baby tonight
1-08 This is where you can reach me now
1-09 The troubles

2-01 Love is all we have left
2-02 The blackout
2-03 Lights of home
2-04 Landlady
2-05 Red flag day
2-06 Ordinary love
2-07 Book of your heart
2-08 The little things that give you away
2-09 Love is bigger than anything in its way

Release three double a sides, each with a b side:

Every breaking wave/The blackout/song for someone

Invisible/little things/13

The Crystal ballroom/red flag day/the miracle

Then, after tour legs in USA then Europe, drop a tour EP:

1 Volcano
2 California
3 Lucifer’s hands
4 American soul
5 The best thing
6 Summer of love

The only songs not to survive the era are GOOYOW and The Showman.

The b sides are fine to be throwaway songs, and the threads from innocence to experience work better in that setting. The EP has the same threads with Volcano and American Soul, but less pressure than being fuckin g singles.

Almost identical content, but a better strategy and this could have been a decent era.
 
dan_smee said:
I maintain a double album of 16-18 songs would have been better.

Songs of Innocence & Experience

1-01 Invisible
1-02 Every breaking wave
1-03 Raised by wolves
1-04 Cedarwood Rd
1-05 Iris
1-06 The crystal ballroom
1-07 Sleep like a baby tonight
1-08 This is where you can reach me now
1-09 The troubles

2-01 Love is all we have left
2-02 The blackout
2-03 Lights of home
2-04 Landlady
2-05 Red flag day
2-06 Ordinary love
2-07 Book of your heart
2-08 The little things that give you away
2-09 Love is bigger than anything in its way

Release three double a sides, each with a b side:

Every breaking wave/The blackout/song for someone

Invisible/little things/13

The Crystal ballroom/red flag day/the miracle

Then, after tour legs in USA then Europe, drop a tour EP:

1 Volcano
2 California
3 Lucifer’s hands
4 American soul
5 The best thing
6 Summer of love

The only songs not to survive the era are GOOYOW and The Showman.

The b sides are fine to be throwaway songs, and the threads from innocence to experience work better in that setting. The EP has the same threads with Volcano and American Soul, but less pressure than being fuckin g singles.

Almost identical content, but a better strategy and this could have been a decent era.
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This would have been the most interesting thing U2 had done in say 20 years. May have taken then another 2-3 years to get out from between NLOTH und Bono's health issue, but yeah. A six or seven year gap for a band their age with their catalogue is nothing, especially if it produced a double album.

To this day I wonder if the Apple release thing rushed them. It felt like a microcosm of the Pop release.
 
That double album plan would have tied-in with the initial tour idea of having multiple nights in each city with a totally different setlist - SOI one night and SOE the next. Remember when that was a thing?

I'm not one of those who is just grateful U2 are still around, touring and producing new music, but I am grateful that with everything which should go against them, I think SOE is one of there most cohesive and enjoyable albums of the 2000s. I still like the vast majority of SOI too.

They've made mis-steps with singles, some of the promo, some of the songs (GOOYOW), but the vast majority of what they've done recently has been very good and way better than what we should legitimately come to expect from a band who've been around as long as they have.

I just wish they'd try something different next time. I'm not wanting/expecting an AB/Pop-style departure, but shake it up - like that double album idea; EPs; work with some new, different producers, see what happens and just release it. Like someone else said, reading how David Holmes worked with Noel Gallagher - that would be a great experiment for U2. Go back to Rubin and do it his way and just see what happens!
 
HansaTonImbiss said:
This, 100%. The Blackout, for me, was a breath of fresh air. I actually think I let out a sigh of relief after I heard it. This on the heels of Little Things live and the leak of the Kygo "Best Thing" mix and I was way on board. But again, as with the 2 albums before it, they sacrificed invention and an aesthetic for half-baked radio hits that never became hits. I actually wonder how much different SOE would have gone if they had released Blackout first, then Little Things, then the Kygo mix or Lights of Home, then Red Flag Day. No GOOYOW or Soul. Imagine playing Blackout and Little Things on SNL instead of the dross they performed, or using a...bullhorn. I imagine it would have landed much better and sold better during promotion.
Click to expand...

I think The Blackout has the most insipid, generic cut and paste chorus ever. It’s got good verses, but I bet that shit chorus was committee led, probably a Ryan Tedder wet dream knowing the simpering amateur he is. Certainly not the stuff they’d have come up with during Achtung Baby.
 
What I find laughable is the band thinking Tedder - of boyband stock - is some songwriting god.

Of industry songwriters, they can’t even pick the right ones. I hate seeing them work with them but even in this aspect they get woefully wrong. I mean,Greg Kurstin is decent, he made Liam Gallagher sound decent and worked with Paul McCartney, and has an extensive musical background, even going into jazz.

Can they not attribute the failure of their last two albums to this scatterbrained thinking and hiring talentless hacks like Tedder? They really are delusional and in denial.
 
MattD said:
I bet that shit chorus was committee led, probably a Ryan Tedder wet dream knowing the simpering amateur he is. Certainly not the stuff they’d have come up with during Achtung Baby.
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right, because only a true professional could write something as cerebral and shakespearean as "you're the real thing/you're the real thing/you're the real thing/even better than the real thing", and "come on baby baby baby light my way".
 
DaveC said:
right, because only a true professional could write something as cerebral and shakespearean as "you're the real thing/you're the real thing/you're the real thing/even better than the real thing", and "come on baby baby baby light my way".
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It’s alright. It’s alright. It’s alright. No need to argue with the guy.
 
MattD said:
I think The Blackout has the most insipid, generic cut and paste chorus ever. It’s got good verses, but I bet that shit chorus was committee led, probably a Ryan Tedder wet dream knowing the simpering amateur he is. Certainly not the stuff they’d have come up with during Achtung Baby.
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You must have the Demo version.
 
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