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  1. Referee won't blow the whistle. God is good, but will he listen?

    Clearly God is refusing to walk through the studio room and U2 have an album that's nearly great, but there's 'something' missing. Now, how elastic is the fans' collective patience?? At breaking point it seems.
  2. Don't believe a word Bono says but I trusted Edge... On Jo Whiley on 3rd Feb he said he won't have much of a summer holiday when asked about the album release then said that he would be busy towards the end of the year when asked about the tour. Why the sudden turn around 3 weeks later after all the momentum.
  3. All this talk of great and very good, relevance, irrelevance etc. begins to really annoy me. Bono should learn to be a bit more humble. You're a musician. Do your job - we pay you. If Coldplay are 17 years younger and will sell more copies, then so be it. Did Bowie ever bother about Coldplay? U2 should make music for themselves, not for the Radio. They should enjoy what they do. And do it. If what they do is very good but not great; well, I'll always prefer 11 very good songs to 0 songs! Scale it down; and scale it up again if you'll ever happen to make a great record. Judging from OL and Invisible, their music is now really good, but it's no longer JT, AB, n.1, Time Magazine covers etc. Oh well. We all get older. Bono, show us your white hair. Be yourself, not a millionaire rockstar afraid of no longer being in the spotlight. There's space for both you and Coldplay - the World is large enough. Have confidence and get the songs out!
  4. Originally posted by JuJuman:All this talk of great and very good, relevance, irrelevance etc. begins to really annoy me. Bono should learn to be a bit more humble. You're a musician. Do your job - we pay you. If Coldplay are 17 years younger and will sell more copies, then so be it. Did Bowie ever bother about Coldplay? U2 should make music for themselves, not for the Radio. They should enjoy what they do. And do it. If what they do is very good but not great; well, I'll always prefer 11 very good songs to 0 songs! Scale it down; and scale it up again if you'll ever happen to make a great record. Judging from OL and Invisible, their music is now really good, but it's no longer JT, AB, n.1, Time Magazine covers etc. Oh well. We all get older. Bono, show us your white hair. Be yourself, not a millionaire rockstar afraid of no longer being in the spotlight. There's space for both you and Coldplay - the World is large enough. Have confidence and get the songs out!

    I think I'm going to print this topic and send it to Bono somehow. Maybe I'll carry it to St Paddy's Day or something.

    Amen.
  5. Do your job - we pay you ?! Seriously? Maybe the 'fans' should be a little humble. We're not shareholders in some record making conglomerate. I'd prefer if they released nothing rather than embrace mediocrity. People need to get a grip. We don't own U2. Fans shouldn't dictate a band's creative endeavours no more than the radio should. You cannot argue that the band should make music for themselves, then insist that they release something just to satisfy the fans.
  6. I really don't get the frenzy on this forum:

    In general people have complained about the standard of the last two albums, some even the last three.

    Surely the last thing people want is some Rolling Stones repeat, where the band almost become a parody of themselves, pumping out one lousy album after another as the members age disgracefully?

    Then people start spouting this line 'I don't care about the album I just wanna see them live'.

    Utter nonsense.

    Same people will be complaining they're not getting JT/ AB/ Zooropa mark II a few weeks after their one or two concerts.

    I know people want it both ways - high quality instantaneously, but it doesn't work like that. If there is some truth to the suspicion that this might be the last record, then let them mull over it. Let them take twice as long even if the record only improves 5%.
  7. Originally posted by JuJuman:All this talk of great and very good, relevance, irrelevance etc. begins to really annoy me. Bono should learn to be a bit more humble. You're a musician. Do your job - we pay you.


    This was particularly funny in nauseating way.




    Not for the people that pay them?



    I'll always prefer 11 very good songs to 0 songs!


    And what's to say they have even 1 very good song, let alone 11? Clearly they don't.
  8. I still say the whole "U2 should make music for themselves...stop worrying about Coldplay...yadda yadda" argument is, for lack of a better word, stupid.

    Truth be told none of us here have any idea what the band's goals are right now apart from a few tidbits here and there. I haven't actually heard U2 mention anything about current bands and how they're competing with them lately. And even if that's the case, what the hell is wrong with that? For some reason many here equate competing with what's current to shitty music. How in the hell is that the case? Creating something experimental can also lead to success and relevance, and if you don't think U2 has taken that into consideration than you're not really giving much respect to their intelligence. Let's not forget the producers they're choosing to use for this album. Even if Danger Mouse is out, Epworth is still a great pick for them because it's not Eno and Lanois. If anything you should be happy they're not going with those two because THAT would mean another conventional U2 album.

    On top of that we have also no idea what the music that U2 wants to make sounds like. The argument "U2 should make the music they want to make" is ridiculous because maybe they WANT to write songs like Invisible and Ordinary Love. I've said it before and I'll say it again, for whatever reason people seem to think U2 really want to make Passengers 2 or Zooropa 2 but won't because of competing with current bands. It's simple logic that if U2 want radio play on as many stations as they can get, they'll make more conventional music. But here's the kicker, they'd still be doing what THEY WANT TO DO. People are acting as though the label is leaning on U2 to make a particular kind of music. Really? Pretty sure at this point whatever U2 says is what gets done. To think they're not happy with the music they're putting out or going to put out but only do it because they're afraid to lose radio play is ridiculous. They wouldn't write an album they didn't approve of.

    To me it's a highly respectable notion that U2 still tries to compete with the younger, current bands. Most acts their age just lean back on the collection of songs already put out and just put out material that's akin to what they've already done. Sure U2 still does that last part, but the simple fact that they're trying is awesome.
  9. Granted. My concern now though is that I get the impression that the band themselves don't even know what they want. Invisible, Superbowl and the Fallon appearance gave the impression that they were on the cusp of announcing something which isn't going go happen. All very odd.

    Ultimately though I don't really care. There are enough bands out there putting music out to keep me interested in music in general plus I can use the money that I would have thrown at a U2 tour to do other things.

    I'll wait and and accept whatever the band decide to do but the more time passes, the less interested I become and the less likely that I'll be blown away by whatever is at the end of this 5 or 6 year long tunnel.
  10. Originally posted by germcevoy:Granted. My concern now though is that I get the impression that the band themselves don't even know what they want. Invisible, Superbowl and the Fallon appearance gave the impression that they were on the cusp of announcing something which isn't going go happen. All very odd.

    Ultimately though I don't really care. There are enough bands out there putting music out to keep me interested in music in general plus I can use the money that I would have thrown at a U2 tour to do other things.

    I'll wait and and accept whatever the band decide to do but the more time passes, the less interested I become and the less likely that I'll be blown away by whatever is at the end of this 5 or 6 year long tunnel.

    That's fair, and it does seem like they're having a bit of a crisis in terms of what they want to put out and when. I just don't know where all the people around here are getting the insights to what the band are thinking..

    And you provided the reason that the length of time it takes for them to finish doesn't affect how I'll feel about it. New music is still coming out from elsewhere and by not really waiting for it my anticipation for U2's next album hasn't changed since the end of the 360 tour, and probably won't change. But hey, that's just me.
  11. Originally posted by TheRefugee:Do your job - we pay you ?! Seriously? Maybe the 'fans' should be a little humble. We're not shareholders in some record making conglomerate. I'd prefer if they released nothing rather than embrace mediocrity. People need to get a grip. We don't own U2. Fans shouldn't dictate a band's creative endeavours no more than the radio should. You cannot argue that the band should make music for themselves, then insist that they release something just to satisfy the fans.

    OK, I'm happy to take that back, but not the rest of the post. I'm not asking that they release something just to satisfy the fans. My point was that being a perfectionist just is the other side of being insecure. Bowie made great albums in the 00's, and a really great album last year. Are these albums better than his best work in the 70's? Probably not. Are they great and worth listening over and over again? (By and large) yes. If Bowie had waited for a new Ziggy Stardust or a new Station to Station, we, and he in the first place, might well be empty handed by now.
  12. Bowie is one guy, U2 are four. Not to mention it's likely they're not the exact same people with the exact same goals.
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U2start is run by fans for fans. Help us reduce personal costs. Consider to make a donation to support us.
U2start is run by fans for fans. Help us reduce personal costs. Consider to make a donation to support us.