So what've we got so far? - a proposed map of the album

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Leave Mercy alone, just trim the legth a little, the second half especially could use it.
 
It's a good vocal, but I prefer Bono's '09 voice. And I agree that Eno could work some magic with atmospherics on that one.
 
If they leave the song alone it will probably not "fit" on the album if the descriptions are true. I'm all for Eno to make this song even better.:up:
 
Yes, I like Mercy as a Bomb era sounding song, but I agree that as is it would no longer fit on a new album. So unless it's a B-side or Bonus or something, it would seem they would need to rerecord to use it as an album track. I said before I'd be happy to see it put out either way, but the more I think about it, yeah I'd like to see it updated, and not be just a leftover. A shiny new Mercy could be something really amazing. (Like dan_smee said, we'd still have version 1.)
 
i've always figured that the fact that Mercy is so widely known among the U2 fan base, that U2 would never finish it. i know they've said differently though...
 
gweeps said:
Mercy is a fantastic driving song. I wonder if it would fit SOA? Maybe the final song? It does have a last track feel to it.
Click to expand...
Good idea! The only reason I could think they wouldn't put it as the last track is their tendency to end on a darker note (Love Is Blindness, Cedars, ect.) Personally, though, I think the song would work great as a closer.

EDIT: Personally, I'm thinking Kingdom should be the first track, Winter should be somewhere in the latter half of the album, and Mercy should be the closer or second-to-last song. Yes, I know it's way too early to start speculation about the track order, but I don't really care.
 
gweeps said:
Mercy is a fantastic driving song. I wonder if it would fit SOA? Maybe the final song? It does have a last track feel to it.
Click to expand...

It could also work as the penultimate track, where the band tends to put many big, bold, or epic tunes.

I'm thinking of it as an opener, especially the way it ends with "I am alive/baby I'm born again, and again and again...", which also ties in nicely with the title of a certain song on the current album.
 
Songs of Ascent: map of the album
Last Update: December 30th 2009

Cover: Unknown, (unofficial fan made placeholder):


Album name: Songs of Ascent
Release date: McGuinness says June 2010 is the expected release date for now.
Recorded in: Fez, Morocco 2007 resumed sessions in Eze-sur-Mer, France and Manhattan, New York City in late 2009
Producers: Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois/Steve Lillywhite(?)
Format(s): Possibly CMX / Apple LP? (Digital).
Bono previously mentioned something similar to these formats in Q Magazine about No Line On The Horizon:

Code: 
On a markedly less drunken occasion at home in the South of France last summer, Bono experienced a eureka moment.
Staring at his huge plasma TV screen he was using to play music, 
he found himself suddenly frustrated by the virtually static nature of the iTunes control panel.
"I'm looking at this stationary iTunes, wondering why if we were listening to The Joshua Tree, you couldn't maybe see full-screen photographs moving?" he recalls.
"If I was reshooting that cover now, I'd shoot it over 40 minutes and have the heads moving. Even in working-class homes there's big, fuck-off plasma screens. 
And I thought, Look at that screen and then think about the gatefold vinyl album in its heydey...this is way better! This could waste it!" 
As a result, U2 are currently working on releasing No Line on the Horizon
as a downloadable widget - a piece of interactive software - complete with artwork and lyrics. 
"Then I thought, Gosh, you can't rob that." Bono points out, arching an eyebrow knowingly. "We might have thought of a new format".

Mood: A more reflective album, with pilgrimage as the central theme. It is intended to be a companion album to NLOTH

Possible songs:
An estimated three new songs were recently written during sessions in U2's Eze-sur-Mer studio, some songs might have been written during the sessions in Manhattan.
Every Breaking Wave - possible first single according to Rolling Stone.
  • Q Magazine, December, 2008:
    With Or Without You-style pulser that builds layers of guitars over electronically enhanced verses before opening up into an expansice drop chorus and then, ultimately, exploding into an exstatic coda. Key line: "Every sailor knos that the sea/Is a friend made enemy"
  • Rolling Stone, January 22, 2009:
    A swelling soul-pop song, with bright synth sounds influenced by OMD and, Bono says, "early electronica". "You don't hear indie bands doing blue-eyed soul [like this]." he adds.
Pilgrim's Lack of Progress - House of Abraham Left over from No Line On The Horizon
Velvet Hearts - Leftover from NLOTH sessions in Fez, 2007.
Not As Yet - Left over from No Line On The Horizon
8522720743878734.jpg


Kingdom of Your Love - Left over from No Line On The Horizon
YouTube - Complete U2 360º Concert - Giants Stadium

Winter - Left over from No Line On The Horizon, re-recorded for 'Brothers' and a third, "electronic version", is being developed by The Edge.
YouTube - U2 Winter
YouTube - U2 - "Winter" from Brothers (2009) better quality

Thank You For the Day - Bono/Lanois collaboration. Different versions in existance pre-Fez summer 2007.
YouTube - Daniel Lanois - Thank You


Mercy - Left over from HTDAAB (Edge mentioned that U2 still haven't agreed on the final fate of the track in March 2009.)
YouTube - U2-Mercy


We Love You - Born on Elevation Tour show in Antwerp:
YouTube - U2 - We Love You - [Unreleased Song] (Elevation Antwerp)

...Possibly reworked and used as celtic/arabic intro to Beautiful Day on first leg of U2 360° Tour:
YouTube - U2 Gothenburg 2009-07-31 Beautiful Day


Pictures and other sources:

u2boardsmall.jpg

fezboardenhanced.jpg

Code: 
NO LINE ON THE HORIZON                                         VELVET HEARTS
pilgrims lack of progress - HOUSE of ABRAHAM               THANK you for THE DAY
SONGS OF ASCent



img117i.jpg


Code: 
[B]I Was Lost[/B] - probably an early Unknown Caller [I]("I was lost, between the midnight and the dawning...")[/I]
[B]No Line On The Horizon[/B]
[B]Moment of Surrender[/B]
[B]Magnificent (French Disco)[/B]
[B]Chromium Chords[/B] - Ended up becoming Being Born
[B]Tripoli[/B] - Became FEZ
[B]Cedars of Lebanon[/B]
[B]For Your Love[/B] - reworked into Stand Up Comedy
[B]Sexy Boots[/B] - Early Get On Your Boots
[B]Breathe[/B]
[B]Hymn / White As Snow[/B]
[B]Not As Yet[/B]
[B]Diorama[/B] - Lanois said in an interview that this became I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight
[B]Kingdom of Your Love[/B] - Officially unreleased but used as opening song for the U2 360º Tour after Bowie's Space Oddity.



852272074321596.jpg

8522720743357879.jpg


LEFT SHEET IN RED:

Code: 
[COLOR="Red"]
Next to your perfect skin	Next to yo--
 
I'm an irritation		         I'm like so--
and way to serious to take	and way --
seriously.			         to take s--

You free me			Am I like
from the free frame		and
ight flight fear		         ----
	    fame		        next to you
you free me cause		I'm just an
your not vain			And WAY loo
glouriously.			        lo lake ser--
[/COLOR]

RIGHT SHEET IN GREEN: - Presumably 'Anybody Is A Star'

Code: 
Please be a star let me lose--
then fall
caller ??
see him crack

Anybody is a star
Marie Antoinette . ?? like a loyal
		             like a loyal
Slowly to all and ??

Rousseau?? can senn?? 17 70 -
Flashy eyes and brighter
just a baby -
Marie Antoinette at an ??
	standing heat 


flash w--
--ss calm down
[/COLOR]
 
Not As Yet's chords at the beginning on that sheet, they seem rather similar to winter, i could be mistaken anyone with some music knowledge able to back this up?
 
Where are you guys getting all these insider photographs of rough notes and the short clips of studio sessions?

Apart from the obvious excitement of getting 2 U2 albums in the space of just over a year, it's amazing to have this insight into their songwriting technique and recording technique...

Anyone notice that Edge was playing Magnificent in one of the SWF clips in the first post, but just the chords acoustically instead of the riffs?

I wonder if that means he wrote the basic chord progression he would use before he decided what lead riffs to use over it? And what about the delay, does he decide what to do with that after the song itself has been written or is it part of the writing, as in would the first time he ever hears the riff be when he invents it with delay, or does he go "ah, a bit of delay and less strumming would sound better here, let's give it a go..."?

Trying to read the mind of a genius is fascinating :D Keep 'em coming! Adam's really great to keep making these films for us, "The countdown to 360" ones he did last year were epic too
 
I ordered the deluxe box set from amazon, but it did not include the color booklet pictured on the left and the small album-looking thing with the no line cover on the right. My set only had the digipack, the large white hard-cover version of the magazine, a large poster, and the DVD of the Linear film. I'm fairly sure mine came with what it was supposed to because these components took up all the space in the box. There were no more empty slots in the box to fit anything else in there.
 
lov12113 said:
I ordered the deluxe box set from amazon, but it did not include the color booklet pictured on the left
Click to expand...

I believe this was some sort of special deal included with the Dutch edition of the release from Universal Netherlands, right?
YouTube - U2 - No Line On The Horizon (Trailer)
Despite my Dutch aquaintances I'm afraid that I haven't learned the language well enough to make an attempt at a translation. :reject:
 
lov12113 said:
I ordered the deluxe box set from amazon, but it did not include the color booklet pictured on the left and the small album-looking thing with the no line cover on the right. My set only had the digipack, the large white hard-cover version of the magazine, a large poster, and the DVD of the Linear film. I'm fairly sure mine came with what it was supposed to because these components took up all the space in the box. There were no more empty slots in the box to fit anything else in there.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's all there is in it. I thought the photo above was just showing the digipack twice so you could see it opened and closed, but I guess that could be incorrect if that Dutch promo offered something more.
 
If Thank You For The Day still more or less exists in it's 2006 version, will it lack the chorus part that was instead used for the break in I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight (Baby, baby, baby, I know I’m not alone)? Same thing with Winter, will it lack the heavenly Dallas-section in the electro-version do you think?
 
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