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Bravo!

I think I'll go and have a beer now.

ahn1991

I certainly hope U2 doesn't decide to wage war with Lady Gaga and other artists who base their entire careers on pumping out songs to be played on the top 40 or top 100 or whatever they are calling the radio these days.

Look at all of the big rock acts out there. Coldplay and Muse songs aren't getting any plays on the radio simply because the work they do isn't what the radio stations want. But frankly speaking, what the radio stations want are generic, shallow tunes. U2 needs to recognize that they are not a radio band. They are a record band. It's a formula that has worked for them repeatedly. Release a stellar record and take the world by storm with an otherworldly tour.

As for their direction, I suspect they will try to go back to basics and look at what worked and what didn't. I personally hope they revisit their HTDAAB album and play around with that motif again. While people may hate that album, I personally think it was their most relevant album regarding the sound and lyrics.

clover68

13 years

and do you really think Bono is totally in comand for the directions to take and whatever?!
we would have had an album labeled U2 - Spiderman flies to mars lately .. just for making one example.
the only true thing is that he's a big mouth since .. uhm .. ever

MattG

13 years

I don't really think it's fair to say "it's what radio wants"....radio wants LISTENERS, and frankly on a drive between the shopping mall and my house I'm far more likely to want to rock out to something accessible like "Summer of '69" or even modern pop like that Usher/David Guetta song "Without You" than I am some epic tune like Stairway to Heaven or a powerful masterpiece like The Doors' "Light My Fire".

Point remains though, radio shouldn't be their main concern. Bono needs to have trust in a fanbase again.

MattG

13 years

Or rather, Edge needs to step in and take a huge creative control and convince the band to listen to what he has to say. He's the only one who stands by GOYB as being a good first single, which means he's down for the different. He didn't watch it flop and then go "Oh well clearly we made a bad decision because the people didn't play it 10,000 times". He doesn't care what they think about it.

If the others had realized GOYB wasn't going to be great radio, and instead tried for the poppest, friendliest hit first, we would have gotten Crazy Tonight as the first single, and how excited would we all have been that January morning that the first single dropped in 2009 hearing the same old textbook anthemic pop that they've been churning out for 10 years now? We would have been pissed.

Yogi

13 years

Originally posted by EyesWithPrideB3Or rather, Edge needs to step in and take a huge creative control and convince the band to listen to what he has to say. He's the only one who stands by GOYB as being a good first single, which means he's down for the different. He didn't watch it flop and then go "Oh well clearly we made a bad decision because the people didn't play it 10,000 times". He doesn't care what they think about it.

If the others had realized GOYB wasn't going to be great radio, and instead tried for the poppest, friendliest hit first, we would have gotten Crazy Tonight as the first single, and how excited would we all have been that January morning that the first single dropped in 2009 hearing the same old textbook anthemic pop that they've been churning out for 10 years now? We would have been pissed.

Well, Edge complained about GOYB too, it's right there in the Q mag that's dedicated to the 20 years of AB. He said he sees now how it could be so much better song.

clover68

13 years

Originally posted by EyesWithPrideB3:Bono needs to have trust in a fanbase again.

They need to have trust in a fanbase again.

RattleandHum1988

13 years

Originally posted by EyesWithPrideB3Or rather, Edge needs to step in and take a huge creative control and convince the band to listen to what he has to say. He's the only one who stands by GOYB as being a good first single, which means he's down for the different. He didn't watch it flop and then go "Oh well clearly we made a bad decision because the people didn't play it 10,000 times". He doesn't care what they think about it.

If the others had realized GOYB wasn't going to be great radio, and instead tried for the poppest, friendliest hit first, we would have gotten Crazy Tonight as the first single, and how excited would we all have been that January morning that the first single dropped in 2009 hearing the same old textbook anthemic pop that they've been churning out for 10 years now? We would have been pissed.

If anyone needs to have a creative reboot its Edge. Like Adam said, the light echo sparkly guitar has been played out. It's time for something different. I think Edge should be the first one to say "this is the sound that i'd like to experiment with" and they go off from there. That being said, because he sticks up for Boots doesn't really give him creative control. Many people thought it worked live but sucked on the album (including myself) and as a single. They need a song that can rock both (aka, Vertigo, Beautiful Day, if we're talking recent U2 hits).

The most important thing for them is to be creative and progress as artists. I don't care if they piss off the radio listeners or the fans. What I want to hear from them is "this is where we want to go, and if you don't like it, too bad". Obviously I want them to put out something appealing, and I've no doubt that they will, but they didn't stand up for their art. After NLOTH was a somewhat disappointment (basing this off of too many things, not my opinion - although I agree with it) the band pretty much collectively said "We could have done better, too bad". They COULD have done better in my opinion, but that's not the point. The number one killer of the album (besides the lacklustre singles) was that they weren't behind it. They should've stuck with it, stuck up for their art, and not dismissed at the first sign of a sales flop.

Andrew_C

13 years

if EBW, North Star, Winter and (maybe) Mercy were on NLOTH instead of crazy, boots, SUC then it would have been their 3rd masterpiece imo. Songs like NS and EBW show me that they can still make great music, so i have hope for whatever they do with the new album.

loftarasa

13 years

This is getting off topic btw :-D.

But I agree with both EyesWithPrideB3 and RattleandHum1988. I still wonder what NLOTH would've sounded like if they didn't lose their balls in the final process - as far as I know Steve Lillywhite came in last and polished everything up in the wrong way?

Moment Of Surrender, Magnificent, Boots and No Line (in a radio edit, like the version produced by Will.I.Am) would've been a great singles flow in my opinion.

Boots was the first real single release I experienced since I became a fan, and I loved it coz it sounded so different to what the radio plays. Still love it, both live and on the album.

loftarasa

13 years

On U2.com there's a subscribers special: Bono and Edge with the albums and artists they loved in the last year.

Gotta say they have a great taste in music and leave me with some stuff to check out, too.
The biggest news for me is that Edge seems to appreciate Sigur Rós!!!! And Bono tends to love slowish songs, "Lord I'm Coming" (Gavin Friday) and "We All go Back To Where We Belong" (R.E.M.) being his songs of the year.

Regarding mention of album plans I found this: "...earlier in the year both Edge and I played at the memorial to Steve Jobs and also at the Hollywood Bowl for the Bill Clinton Foundation. It’s quite something hearing our own songs, like Sunday Bloody Sunday or A Man and Woman, so stripped down and I think it showed us some clues for the future.
We’re working on three albums at the moment and we haven’t decided what order we’re going to put them out but ‘The Songs of Ascent’ have the kind of beautiful intimacy that we’re speaking of now."

....nothing new on this topic then. Any hope for a kind of acoustic project???

Bono praised Burst Out by The Antlars and I just checked it out - it would kinda fit as a Songs Of Ascent album. Quite good recommendation by the way! Same with Edge's mention of Hearts by I Break Horses and Bon Iver.
Both highly praised M83 and The Black Keys, too.
They also talked about other artists and albums, so check it out, it's a nice read if you are into music.

Let's see in what way this music inspired/inspires them.

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