New Album Discussion 9 - Larry needs new arms, ba rum pa pum pum

[ferball415]

Did Bono ever very-topically ask the audience if he made them feel horny in the intro to EBTTRT on PopMart? He should've.

 

[Hollow Island]

agreed. but i've been told that my opinion is wrong about this, so yours might they're merely reimagined alternate takes. in no way is the band saying "here - this is how we want you to listen to this now. delete all other versions and only use this now." yet a lot of people seem to be taking it that way, which is both fascinating and baffling at the same time.

You keep saying that but nobody is taking it that way. You're hallucinating posts!

I'd also take more 4th of July Edge over more Mofo Edge. I think he explored his 90s sound as much as he could. Unfortunately we'll probably get more 00s Edge. What I'd really like to hear is him ditch all his old gear and load up on Chase Bliss Audio and Meris pedals.

 

[deltau922]

this stung more than usual.

Hey everyone knows I don’t have a good vertical leap or outside jumper anymore, and so I’m really excited to give you this 4-disc highlight reel of me pump-faking, shooting fadeaways and turning the ball over.

 

[dan_smee]

Hey everyone knows I don’t have a good vertical leap or outside jumper anymore, and so I’m really excited to give you this 4-disc highlight reel of me pump-faking, shooting fadeaways and turning the ball over.

Taking that logic further, there’s actually no point to anyone but the Beatles ever releasing anything because it just ain’t as good as what’s out there.

 

[Rich79]

It’s more that U2s music since the Songs of have felt more of a Bono project with a backing band.

This might be the most accurate description ever.

It's interesting the mixing thing keeps coming up. I don't know why, even as a musician, I wasn't tuned in to how different it is now compared to past recordings.

 

[deltau922]

Taking that logic further, there’s actually no point to anyone but the Beatles ever releasing anything because it just ain’t as good as what’s out there.

Groan

 

[dan_smee]

Groan

Don’t hate the player. It just wasn’t as good a take as you thought it was

 

[Hollow Island]

There are at least 5 different guitar and synth tracks in there through the build up, each bringing a texture or feeling layer. Their “remarkability” is irrelevant. Lots going on refers to the care and attention it took to construct and plan and execute. Whether you like or find the result remarkable is taste and unarguable.

Cliched pads do not equate lots going on or suggest care and attention.

 

[Rich79]

Uh oh, they're padding the songs now

 

[JWR1992]

Holy crap at the negative reaction to these new takes. It’s just a one off acoustic album. A lot of bands do this when they get old. And it’s not like they went into this thinking they were going to somehow trump the original recordings. Kudos to U2 for putting some genuine care into it. It’s not the end of the world, they have an album of new material rumored later for this year. I think it’s incredible this band still gives a fuck almost 50 years into it.

And I think Bono’s vocals honestly turned out better than I expected. Other than singing the verses in his lower register this is probably one of the best vocal takes on WOWY in a decade or 2. I think it’s miles better than most of the performances we’ve gotten since 360 tour for sure.

 

[Hollow Island]

Taking that logic further, there’s actually no point to anyone but the Beatles ever releasing anything because it just ain’t as good as what’s out there.

Lol that bears no relationship whatsoever to his analogy.

 

[Hollow Island]

Uh oh, they're padding the songs now

Pads. Synth pads. Common since the 80s.

 

[ndmaxfield]

Genuine opinions? I am warming to the overall tone of the project the more I hear.

A few of us have posted our genuine opinions, as you requested. If you don't want us posting our genuine opinions (if you're going to counter every opinion that doesn't jive with yours), please don't make this request.

 

[Rich79]

Pads. Synth pads. Common since the 80s.

No explanation needed. It was a feeble attempt at a pun on my part.

 

[lazarus]

This project would be fine, if they had released it in the middle of the pandemic and called it "The Bedroom Tapes".

There is no way they are riding into Vegas on the back of this album. Right? Right?

We can go back and forth over whether these tracks are terrible or an interesting curiosity, or how Bono sounds for his age (isn’t he still technically 62?), but the above is the thing I keep coming back to. Too little, too late.

These guys managed to record and put out a crazy experimental masterpiece in the space of a few months during an elaborate world tour in 1993, and they couldn’t get this out during he height of the pandemic when people would have actually been interested in this kind of restrained navel-gazing?

It’s just fucking boring, and how they’re going to find the commonality between these versions and an Achtung Baby/ZooTV tribute in a futuristic multimedia venue is beyond me. Gonna be one hell of a B-Stage bathroom break.

 

[DaveC]

i have listened to it once and i have no interest in listening to it ever again.

that's pretty much all the opinion i can muster up about this track.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

It's supposed to sound like an outtake ?????

My god, new levels of U2 related derangement have been reached. These are very polished recordings. They dont sound like outtakes, and they're not supposed to sound like outtakes.

out take, alternative take... you are (again) harping on semantics.

point is they are not supposed to sound like the original. they're supposed to sound like something reimagined and different.

they're not supposed to replace the original, either. they're supposed to merely live on their own.

but sure - the guy who uses fat bono, the edge in scuba gear and adam looking like he just slept on a bench has "U2 related derangement" because I totally NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER criticize the band. i just smile and nod along with anything they do or say because by golly they deserve it.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

“When a song becomes well known its always associated with a particular voice. I can’t think of Tangled Up in Blue without the reedy timbre of Bob Dylan or All The Time in the World without the unique voice of Louis Armstrong.

So what happens when a voice develops and experience and maturity give it additional resonance?

U2 have been around long enough to know what that is like. It’s true for us all, but it’s particularly true for Bono.

The fact is that most of our work was written and recorded when we were a bunch of very young men. Those songs mean something quite different to us now. Some have grown with us. Some we have outgrown. But we have not lost sight of what propelled us to write those songs in the first place. The essence of those songs is still in us, but how to reconnect with that essence when we have moved on, and grown so much?

Music allows you to time travel and so we started to imagine what it would be like to bring these songs back with us to the present day and give them the benefit or otherwise, of a 21st century re-imagining.

What started as an experiment quickly became a personal obsession as so many early U2 songs yielded to a new interpretation. Intimacy replaced post-punk urgency. New keys. New chords. New tempos and new lyrics arrived. It turns out that great song is kind of indestructible.

Once we surrendered our reverence for the original version each song started to open up to a new authentic voice of this time, of the people we are, and particularly the singer Bono has become.

 

[Hollow Island]

I’m not harping on semantics, I’m referring to your own claim. Saying that something is supposed to sound like an outtake has a specific meaning. Rough, generally not as good as, yet similar to an album or era in question. Which is why I laughed, beause that’s obviously not what this is supposed to be.

Of course they’re not supposed to sound like the original. Does anyone think that they are?

And again, nobody thinks that they’re to supersede the originals.

Edge’s spiel is nonsense. A quarter of the album was written by men in their 50s, and the bulk of it by men in their 30s and 40s. An album like the the one he’s describing would be interesting, but SOS is pretty much a re-recorded greatest hits album.

 

[ndmaxfield]

“When a song becomes well known its always associated with a particular voice. I can’t think of Tangled Up in Blue without the reedy timbre of Bob Dylan or All The Time in the World without the unique voice of Louis Armstrong.

So what happens when a voice develops and experience and maturity give it additional resonance?

U2 have been around long enough to know what that is like. It’s true for us all, but it’s particularly true for Bono.

The fact is that most of our work was written and recorded when we were a bunch of very young men. Those songs mean something quite different to us now. Some have grown with us. Some we have outgrown. But we have not lost sight of what propelled us to write those songs in the first place. The essence of those songs is still in us, but how to reconnect with that essence when we have moved on, and grown so much?

Music allows you to time travel and so we started to imagine what it would be like to bring these songs back with us to the present day and give them the benefit or otherwise, of a 21st century re-imagining.

What started as an experiment quickly became a personal obsession as so many early U2 songs yielded to a new interpretation. Intimacy replaced post-punk urgency. New keys. New chords. New tempos and new lyrics arrived. It turns out that great song is kind of indestructible.

Once we surrendered our reverence for the original version each song started to open up to a new authentic voice of this time, of the people we are, and particularly the singer Bono has become.

Fine, but the artist telling us how he wants us to perceive the art doesn't guarantee that perception will happen.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

to me that all reads as the band, and in particular The Edge, wanting to spark something creative - to find the essence of what the band once was and connect it to what they are now. because they aren't young men anymore. they are old, and that's impacted them all - especially bono and his voice. so how do we reach back and connect to the past in an attempt to inspire the future.

shit he even says "the benefit, or otherwise..." which to me pretty much means that this isn't going to be for everyone.

 

[clerks]

Whatever you call this — it worked. Because this board is alive. Release a greatest hits album or release 40 tracks rebooted in 2023?

I love u2. I don’t care if I’m the last one standing in 2075.

To relate to my name. I love Kevin smith. I don’t love all his movies. But I’m always interested in what he does. And clerks 3 I didn’t like at all. Clerks 2 I cried. Yet I still own all of them on bluray. I’m a fan. It’s okay to give your favorite things and people love you may not give others.

But to me U2 hits like 850 batting average to me. The last two albums were fantastic.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

I’m not harping on semantics, I’m referring to your own claim. Saying that something is supposed to sound like an outtake has a specific meaning. Rough, generally not as good as, yet similar to an album or era in question. Which is why I laughed, beause that’s obviously not what this is supposed to be.

Of course they’re not supposed to sound like the original. Does anyone think that they are?

And again, nobody thinks that they’re to supersede the originals.

Edge’s spiel is nonsense. A quarter of the album was written by men in their 50s, and the bulk of it by men in their 30s and 40s. An album like the the one he’s describing would be interesting, but SOS is pretty much a re-recorded greatest hits album.

you are, actually. i've already said "alternate take" as well, but you just keep harping on the one post and your own personal definition.

the literal dictionary fucking definition is something recorded and left out. so no, it doesn't mean that it's a rough, unproduced cut.

but keep on keeping on. i'm sure you'll respond to this with "lol nobody's saying that"

 

[clerks]

Also we all know these will all sound better live. Watch Bono solo show. With it without you is incredible.

 

[Airseven]

Both of these suck and make me want to cancel my pre-order. They are not fun or original. They're just slow meandering watered down versions of the originals. Like something you'd hear at an open mic night.

There's no imagination to these "re-imaginings"

This is my issue as well. WOWY sounds like a ditty Bono & Edge would arrange for daytime tv. Do an unplugged album of the hits, fine. Do an album of new material with this "reimagined" approach, terrific. But WOWY and Pride feel clunky, forced, and diminished in this vein. I truly believe this project was a covid "hey this sucks, let's do something" now being sold as inspired.

 

[Hollow Island]

you are, actually. i've already said "alternate take" as well, but you just keep harping on the one post and your own personal definition.

the literal dictionary fucking definition is something recorded and left out. so no, it doesn't mean that it's a rough, unproduced cut.

but keep on keeping on. i'm sure you'll respond to this with "lol nobody's saying that"

Yeah, things that are left out are generally rougher than the things that make the album. Not always, but often. Have you ever heard an outtake? The definition that you found also doesn’t jive with how you’re using the term.

These also don’t sound like alternate takes. The new WOWY doesn’t sound like a version from the JT sessions, and it’s not meant to. It sounds like U2 in 2022. They’re polished, contemporary recordings that sound contemporary. Not like outtakes or alternate takes. They’re new and they’re meant to sound like it.

 

[Hollow Island]

to me that all reads as the band, and in particular The Edge, wanting to spark something creative - to find the essence of what the band once was and connect it to what they are now. L

That’s been the line for every album bar NLOTH since All That You Can’t Leave Behind. If Edge said what you think he means he’d have just that instead of what he actually said.

 

[DomCobb]

I think my feelings on both tracks is that they're not doing them much favors by releasing them as singles. On their own they're too short, too sonically one dimensional from what we expect. But even just listening to them back to back there's already a better appreciation for what they're doing, how the two are both different from one another in the same way they are different from the originals. This album will really be a greater than the sum of its parts situation. I don't need to hear a 3 minute acoustic version of WOWY. But a 2 hour run through of their career where they do different a different approach for each song (as shown in the snippets) will be an interesting listen.

 

[DeVaul]

It’ll cost me nothing but time to stream the full SOS album upon release and I can make up my mind then. I’m not particularly excited by these cuts but I *do* like that they’re doing something that interests them rather than what they think the market wants to hear.

As for linking SOS to AB Vegas, it makes sense if the through line is in the theme of re-exploring their catalogue. They need a new marketing pitch since “it’s relevant again” was already spent on JT30. They still may be able to get away with a few Baritone Bono takes just by leaning on the production.

 

[Hollow Island]

I was expecting the Vegas shows to be Zoo Dot Com or something - Zoo TV updated for this era. If they tie it into SOS it’ll be more like Zoo Dot Calm because this stuff is so chill. Best case scenario is they’ll just have an SOS interlude to give Larry & Adam a break before going back to the venue-driven mind fucking.