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  1. I've alreAdy made a closed sticky topic that contains all official info and that is simply the albums release date. Nothing else officially confirmed yet.
  2. Originally posted by germcevoy:I've alreAdy made a closed sticky topic that contains all official info and that is simply the albums release date. Nothing else officially confirmed yet.

    Ahh yeah, forgot about that, nice one Gerard. I predict a riot on this thread in due course, so I'm off lol




  3. This threads shite indeed. Too much going on to keep track of. Once something new and official pops up I'll add it to the other topic and close it again.
  4. Don't know if this helps, as it's still just speculation, but these are the descriptions released in Q and Rolling Stone of the possible songs thus far:

    1. No Line on the Horizon

    Q: First version began as a slow paced, Eno- and Unforgettable Fire-esque slow burner that builds to a euphoric coda. Was re-worked in the Olympic sessions into an abrasive punk-rock tune akin to Vertigo, with its "No! Line!" chorus chant. A Pixies/Buzzcocks homage that proceeds at a breathless pace. Bono - "It's the Buzzcocks meets Bow Wow Wow.”

    RS: Churning, tribal groove and a deadpan chorus. Its relentless groove began as a group improvisation. "It's very raw and very to the point," says the Edge. "It's like rock & roll 2009."

    2. Get On Your Boots:

    Q: A heaving electro-rocker that may mark the destination point the band had been seeking on Pop. Formerly titled Sexy Boots, this demented electro grunge employs a proto-rockn'roll riff, but propelled into the future, with a hip-hop twist in the middle. Features Bono in flirtatious, self depreciating mode: “I don’t wanna talk about wars between nations.”

    RS: The likely first single, this blazing, fuzzed-out rocker picks up where "Vertigo" left off. "It started just with me playing and Larry drumming," the Edge recalls. "And we took it from there." A furry monster of a fuzz-guitar riff; power chords that, per Bono, echo the Damned's "New Rose"; verses that share a rhythm with "Subterranean Homesick Blues"; and a chorus that mixes whimsy and ardor: "Get on your boots/Sexy boots/You don't know how beautiful you are." "A hundred fifty beats per minute, three minutes, the fastest song we've ever played," Bono says.


    Review from Skott at Interference:

    "God bless 'em, it opens with a drum fill, not unlike "Young Folks" by Peter, Bjorn & John, and then we're on our way. The signature riff is muscular and catchy in the "Vertigo" vein, with a rapid fire vocal pattern. I read a Alan Cross' blog this morning that compared the verses to "Pump It Up" by Elvis Costello, and I can't say I disagree with that. It's evocative but I wouldn't call it a rip-off. The chorus goes all middle eastern with Bono singing "You don't know how beautiful you are". There's a half-tempo breakdown/bridge with a processed drum loop that I cannot wait to hear in a stadium. It's like John Bonham playing on a Massive Attack song before the song lurches back into the main riff for another verse and chorus. And then before you know it, it's all over. It feels like a dense 7 minute epic crammed into about 3 and a half minutes.

    The single most striking thing about this song for me are the drums. Or at least I think they're drums! I've never heard so many layers of rhythm on a U2 song. There are a lot of very processed drums (I thought of Kasabian at one point and N*E*R*D* at another) and loops going on, coming in and out of the mix and then at points it goes back to traditional sounding drums for emphasis. It's extremely tasteful, but complex enough to make my head spin. And I have no idea how I'm gonna manage to pull it off when my band learns it, so stay tuned for some comedy while I work that business out.

    Anyway, this is NOT U2 by the numbers. This is not a "return to form" or "back to basics". This is, what the kids like to call, some OTHER shit. The 21st Century version of U2 is finally here. And they aren't looking back to their own catalog for inspiration anymore if this song is any indication."


    Review from Toronto DJ Alan Cross:

    “There are some new sounds that could only come from an Eno/Lanois production, which left me with a feeling similar to what I experienced when I heard “The Fly” for the first time.

    This is NOT a back-to-basics guitar/bass/drums track like “Vertigo” or even “Beautiful Day.” There’s some definite sonic evolution going on here.

    It does rock. To find the last time a first single was a ballad, you have to go all the way back to “With Or Without You.” That worked out all right, but I can’t imagine U2 doing that again in the prevailing musical environment.

    Bono manages to rhyme “submarine” with “gasoline” and says something about “don’t talk to me about the state of nations.”

    There’s a portion of the melody that somehow reminds me of the cadence of the verses in Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up,” but as I write this, I’m not completely sure. Still, part of the song reminded me of…something else.

    Did I like it? I didn’t hate it—but I need to hear it more before I really make up my mind about what I think about….anything to do with the song.

    Like so many U2 songs—especially ones produced by an Eno/Lanois/Lilywhite nexus—it’s filled with far more subtleties and complexities that anyone can hear with one listen. I need to examine it, ponder upon it and otherwise live with it.

    But that’s the cool thing about U2. There’s just so much THERE there that it can take a while to sort through it all. Suffice it to say, however, that if you’re a U2 fan, you’ll be pleased."


    3. Magnificent:

    Q: Classic U2-isms which echoes The Unforgettable Fire's opening track A Sort Of Homecoming in its atmospheric sweep. Slow building anthem with the ambience of the Unforgettable Fire and laced with the wide eyed wonder of U2's earlier albums. Edge here is at his most dynamic. Features the line: "Only love can reset your mind".

    RS: "Only love can leave such a mark," Bono roars on what sounds like an instant U2 anthem. Will.i.am has already done what Bono calls "the most extraordinary" remix of the tune.


    4. Crazy Tonight:

    Q: Straight-up pop; (the track Will.I.Am was taking a pass at). Upbeat pop track with distinct echoes of 60's era Phil Spector, particularly the moment when its chorus disappears into a wash of reverb. Centres around the line: "I'll go crazy If I dont go crazy tonight.”

    RS: "It's kind of like this album's 'Beautiful Day' — it has that kind of joy to it," Bono says. With the refrain "I know I'll go crazy/If I don't go crazy tonight," it's the band's most unabashed pop tune since "Sweetest Thing."


    5. Stand Up Comedy:

    Q: Rousing groove-based rocker with shades of Led Zep and Cream. Swaggering; wherein U2 get in touch with their, hitherto unheard, funky selves - albeit propelled by some coruscating Edge guitar work, a signature feature of a number of the tracks. Home to the Bono lyric, "Stand up to rock stars/Napoleon is in high heels/Be careful of small men with big ideas." Edge mentions that they're trying to keep Stand Up in a rough state and not overproduce it by putting it through Pro-Tools which cleans up imperfections.
    Edge - "Stand Up is just a great gutsy performance from everyone, a swaggering rock and roll song with a real groove...If you're going to do a big guitar song I think you need to push it all the way. It started with a Moroccan rhythm and gone rock n roll."

    RS: Another hard rock tune, powered by an unexpectedly slinky groove and a riff that lands between the Beatles' "Come Together" and Led Zep's "Heartbreaker." Edge recently hung out with Jimmy Page and Jack White for the upcoming documentary It Might Get Loud, and their penchant for blues-based rock rubbed off: "I was just fascinated with seeing how Jimmy played those riffs so simply, and with Jack as well," he says. Has an almost hip-hop-like cadence: "Stand up, 'cause you can't sit down... Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady... Come on, you people, stand up for your love." Slinkier than anything U2 have done in years.

    6. Unknown Caller:

    Q: Stately; recorded in Fez and opens with the sounds of birdsong taped by Eno during a Moroccan dawn. A middle eastern flavoured percussion loop drives this tale about a man "at the end of his rope" whose phone bizarrely begins texting him random instructions: "Reboot yourself","Password, enter here","You're free to go". Dallas Schoo describes the song as "one of Edge's major solos in his life - you wont hear better than that on any other song.”

    RS: This midtempo track could have fit on All That You Can't Leave Behind. "The idea is that the narrator is in an altered state, and his phone starts talking to him," says the Edge.


    7. Moment Of Surrender:

    Q: A strident seven-minute epic recorded in a single take. Already has the air of the U2 classic about it, with lyrics about dark stars and existential crises: "I did not notice the passers-by/And they did not notice me". Recorded in one take. This album's One.

    RS: This seven-minute-long track is one of the album's most ambitious, merging a Joshua Tree-style gospel feel with a hypnotically loping bass line and a syncopated beat. "Moment" was played just one time — the band improvised the version on the album from thin air. "This kind of spirit blows through every now and then," Bono says. "It's a very strange feeling. We're waiting for God to walk into the room — and God, it turns out, is very unreliable. So you don't have the right to imagine you can make a great album. But what you can do is create the conditions where it might happen."

    8. Every Breaking Wave:

    Q: Was beginning to take shape around an emotive Bono vocal and an appropriately grand swell of a climax. "We might be on to something special there," noted Bono.
    A slow burning track that gradually builds to a climax brimming with passion and intensity. Bono performs a note perfect vocal that employs the movement of the ocean as a metaphor for the human struggle, before building to the plaintive line "I don’t know if I'm that strong.” Key line "Every Sailor knows that the Sea/Is a friend made enemy"

    RS: 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.

    9. Cedars of Lebanon

    Q: Bono imagining himself as a weary, lovelorn war correspondent "squeezing complicated lives into a simple headline". Ends with the possibly telling line "Choose your enemies carefully cos they will define you."

    RS: "On this album, you can feel what is going on in the world at the window, scratching at the windowpane," says Bono, who sings this atmospheric ballad from the point of view of a war correspondent.

    10. Winter:

    Q: Featuring a fine Bono lyric about a soldier in the snow of Afghanistan, surrounded by a deceptively simple rhythm track and an evocative string arrangement courtesy of Eno. 6 minute ballad. Echoes of Simon & Garfunkel. Poignant, acoustic string laden ballad. Will appear in the new film 'Brothers' starring Tobey Maguire about the emotional fallout of the war. Edge on backing vocals.

    RS: Eno is irked that the band has dropped some of the more contemplative and sonically adventurous songs it developed. "Tell them they're being stupid cunts," he jokes, after playing a lovely discarded ballad called "Winter."

    11. Breathe

    RS: Arabic cello gives way to joyful chorus. Brian Eno says this is U2's best ever song. Eno, Bono and Will.i.am wrote the cello part in Olympic Studio. Only beginning to record in this final fortnight, never mind mix. A rollicking vocal featuring door-to-door salesman, a cockatoo and a chorus that begins "Step out into the street.......sing your heart out". Eno estimates it to be the 80th incarnation of the song.

    12. "Tripoli"

    RS: This strikingly experimental song lurches between disparate styles, including near-operatic choral music, Zooropa-style electronics, and churning arena rock. Ambitious possible album opener that violently lurches between different sections.
  5. Originally posted by vanquish:[..]

    Stop trying to cover your ass and trying to change the subject and admit you were wrong.

    You (and the others) have not wanted to listen to the Beach Clips, which is fine, you are entitled to listen or not listen to whatever you want to.

    But don't expect the Album Discussion Thread (which discusses the upcoming album and songs btw, hence the name) to be a Non-Beach Clip zone, where you can discuss things like, what Eno said, who punched Bono onstage, where can I get the Q mag etc.etc.

    And when it isn't and people are talking about the clips (ie. discussing representative songs) what gives you (and the mods) the right to try and stamp out all such discussion, so as to not upset you and the other non-listeners, who want to speculate on the album, but only to a certain degree, up to a point which suits them, and anyway they would much rather listen to the hype.




    Did I ever say I didn't listen to the Beach Clips? I did, many times Further on, I never said you're wrong. I said the discussion is quite pointless because we don't know anything, it's only suggestive. Read back my posts.

    I'd like to end this discussion in this thread. Feel free to PM me however.
  6. NEW @U2 GET ON YOUR BOOTS MONDAY
    January 14, 2009
    posted by: sherry

    Alert @U2 readers have been letting us know that "Get On Your Boots" will be world premiered by Dave Fanning on 2FM on Colm and Jim Jim's morning show on Dublin's 2FM on Monday just after the 8 a.m. news.

    While 2FM does stream live online, when "Vertigo" was premiered, 2FM's live stream was cut for the premiere. We're not certain if this will happen again. When we find out more, we'll pass it along to you. (Thanks D.M. and others)


    too bad it will be on at 3 in the morning where I am but enjoy Europeans!
  7. Originally posted by thefly07:NEW @U2 GET ON YOUR BOOTS MONDAY
    January 14, 2009
    posted by: sherry

    Alert @U2 readers have been letting us know that "Get On Your Boots" will be world premiered by Dave Fanning on 2FM on Colm and Jim Jim's morning show on Dublin's 2FM on Monday just after the 8 a.m. news.

    While 2FM does stream live online, when "Vertigo" was premiered, 2FM's live stream was cut for the premiere. We're not certain if this will happen again. When we find out more, we'll pass it along to you. (Thanks D.M. and others)


    too bad it will be on at 3 in the morning where I am but enjoy Europeans!


    WOOHOO! Still 5 days!
    Thanks Jake!
  8. Lucky me. I have exams that week, but on Monday I have the morning free so! 8 o'clock in the morning in Ireland is 9 o'clock here right? They better don't cut the livestream off
  9. Originally posted by http://blog.art21.org/2009/01/14/sugimoto-u2/Word on the street is that one of Hiroshi Sugimoto’s images will be used as the cover for U2’s upcoming album No Line on the Horizon, scheduled for release March 3rd. The Season 3 photographer follows in the footsteps of other Art:21 artists who have also crossed over and “exhibited” their work as album art. Notable favorites include Raymond Pettibon for Sonic Youth (Goo, 1990), Tim Hawkinson for Beck (Mutations, 1998), and Matthew Barney for Arto Lindsay (The Prize, 1999).


    1+1=
    Invalid url 'http://[IMG]http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/4150/42257650fp3.jpg[/IMG]'


  10. If it's something that like I would like it.

    Just bought the Q u2 special.... 8 euros 50! Expensive but it's worth it.


  11. That's just brilliant, to be honest. I hope it'll be something like that. Someone at Interference posted the same kind of cover, but with a few more colors.
  12. Originally posted by dieder:Lucky me. I have exams that week, but on Monday I have the morning free so! 8 o'clock in the morning in Ireland is 9 o'clock here right? They better don't cut the livestream off


    Yup, 9 o'clock..lucky me I have a day off at that day. I'll find a way to record it for sure, enough programs to do so.
Contribute to the U2 community with uploading photos or by telling us which shows you have visited.
Contribute to the U2 community with uploading photos or by telling us which shows you have visited.
Contribute to the U2 community with uploading photos or by telling us which shows you have visited.
Contribute to the U2 community with uploading photos or by telling us which shows you have visited.