Discuss! I'll get us started. Looks like the release date is December 1st according to various sources, although the band hasn't officially confirmed that yet.
My thoughts on the songs we've heard so far:
The Little Things That Give You Away- I really like this one. Classic U2 balladry with some nice lyrics from Bono and a fantastic guitar & drum build-up near the end that really elevates the song to another level.
The Blackout- Solid, catchy, up-tempo rocker with excellent bass work from Clayton. He owns this song. Reminds me a bit of the Achtung Baby outtake Blow Your House Down.
You're the Best Thing About Me- not bad, but not spectacular either. U2 can write these kinds of sugary pop songs in their sleep at this point, and there's nothing really interesting about it. It's catchy, and I get why they chose it as a single. But to me it's just kind of meh.
I've listened to both The Blackout and You're the Best Thing About Me a few times and I enjoy the former more than the latter. "You're the Best" seems like a safe choice for a lead single and as far as U2 songs go, it's fairly unremarkable. One thing I do enjoy hearing in it is The Edge's singing in the last third of the song. His voice is an underrated aspect of the U2 sound.
My hope for this album is that it doesn't represent the band attempting to stay "relevant". This seems to be a preoccupation with U2, and a foolish one at that since any band that can still sell out stadiums across the world obviously maintains some amount of relevance. I want an album where they don't concern themselves with making music that will garner radio play, and I'm already worried that won't be the case given the first single. Instead, I want an album that stretches their artistic abilities, like they did in the 1990's.
My other concern with this album, before I even hear it, is the number of different producers they've employed in making it. I want an album with a cohesive sound, like Achtung or Joshua Tree, and not one that feels like it's cobbled together. In the end I have almost zero doubt that I will enjoy most of it. I'm an unabashed fan who, although I remain able to criticize their work, loves most of what they've done (including the divisive Pop and No Line albums).
New album Dec 1. Experience + Innocence Tour coming next May. This tour will probably use the same setup as the Innocence + Experience Tour in 2015.
2 more songs have been released: Get Out Of Your Own Way and American Soul (American Soul is only available if you pre-ordered the album directly from U2.com.) Both songs feature Kendrick Lamar. Get Out doesn’t do much for me, reminds me of Beautiful Day And sounds overproduced. American Soul is more interesting to me, IMO. It sounds like it is meant to “mirror” the song Volcano from Songs of Innocence (some of the words and music are identical).
senrab Wrote:New album Dec 1. Experience + Innocence Tour coming next May. This tour will probably use the same setup as the Innocence + Experience Tour in 2015.
2 more songs have been released: Get Out Of Your Own Way and American Soul (American Soul is only available if you pre-ordered the album directly from U2.com.) Both songs feature Kendrick Lamar. Get Out doesn’t do much for me, reminds me of Beautiful Day And sounds overproduced. American Soul is more interesting to me, IMO. It sounds like it is meant to “mirror” the song Volcano from Songs of Innocence (some of the words and music are identical).
Not sure how I feel about the band lifting the bridge from Volcano and using it as the chorus for American Soul. I suppose it's not that different from Gord Downie repeating some of the same lyrics in different songs, but something about it just seems kinda lazy to me. Makes you wonder if they're starting to run out of musical ideas. That being said, I do like the other songs that have been released so far.
direwolf74 Wrote:senrab Wrote:New album Dec 1. Experience + Innocence Tour coming next May. This tour will probably use the same setup as the Innocence + Experience Tour in 2015.
2 more songs have been released: Get Out Of Your Own Way and American Soul (American Soul is only available if you pre-ordered the album directly from U2.com.) Both songs feature Kendrick Lamar. Get Out doesn’t do much for me, reminds me of Beautiful Day And sounds overproduced. American Soul is more interesting to me, IMO. It sounds like it is meant to “mirror” the song Volcano from Songs of Innocence (some of the words and music are identical).
Not sure how I feel about the band lifting the bridge from Volcano and using it as the chorus for American Soul. I suppose it's not that different from Gord Downie repeating some of the same lyrics in different songs, but something about it just seems kinda lazy to me. Makes you wonder if they're starting to run out of musical ideas. That being said, I do like the other songs that have been released so far.
This album is meant to be a companion to the previous one, so I see why they did it. I would like to hear the version of this album that was supposedly ready to go before the US election & Bono's undisclosed medical problem. I laughed the first time I heard the "you and I are rock n' roll" part in American Soul, though. Someone posted a lengthy review on twitter and said they did the same thing in 1 or 2 other songs - the upcoming "13 (There is a Light)" = Song For Someone
senrab Wrote:This album is meant to be a companion to the previous one, so I see why they did it. I would like to hear the version of this album that was supposedly ready to go before the US election & Bono's undisclosed medical problem. I laughed the first time I heard the "you and I are rock n' roll" part in American Soul, though. Someone posted a lengthy review on twitter and said they did the same thing in 1 or 2 other songs - the upcoming "13 (There is a Light)" = Song For Someone
Aw man, really? I'm as big a U2 fan as you'll find. I own everything they've ever released, and I'll be buying the new album anyway just because I'm a completist. But a new album full of retreads or alternate versions of previous material doesn't sound very promising to me. If we're talking b-sides/remixes, etc.., that's fine, as they've done that quite a bit in the past. But that's not what I expect out of a new studio album. Hopefully, as you said, it's only 1 or 2 songs that do this.
I too would love to hear the album that was in the can before the election. If there's one thing that's always annoyed me about this band, especially on recent albums, it's that they spend way too much time tinkering in the studio. This is where the Edge has too much control over things in my opinion. I love him as a guitarist/musician, but it seems like he's an obsessive perfectionist in the studio, and the band tends to over-cook their albums as a result. I got the impression in recent interviews that Bono was somewhat annoyed that the album didn't come out when it was supposed to. I think it was on Fallon where Jimmy asked him "when can we expect the new record?" And Bono replied, and I'm paraphrasing here, "you'll have to ask The Edge. If he could, he'd still be mixing it as it's going into the shops."
direwolf74 Wrote:senrab Wrote:This album is meant to be a companion to the previous one, so I see why they did it. I would like to hear the version of this album that was supposedly ready to go before the US election & Bono's undisclosed medical problem. I laughed the first time I heard the "you and I are rock n' roll" part in American Soul, though. Someone posted a lengthy review on twitter and said they did the same thing in 1 or 2 other songs - the upcoming "13 (There is a Light)" = Song For Someone
Aw man, really? I'm as big a U2 fan as you'll find. I own everything they've ever released, and I'll be buying the new album anyway just because I'm a completist. But an album full of retreads or alternate versions of previous material doesn't sound very promising to me. Hopefully, as you said, it's only 1 or 2 songs that do this.
I too would love to hear the album that was in the can before the election. If there's one thing that's always annoyed me about this band, especially on recent albums, it's that they spend way too much time tinkering in the studio. This is where the Edge has too much control over things in my opinion. I love him as a guitarist/musician, but it seems like he's an obsessive perfectionist in the studio, and the band tends to over-cook their albums as a result. I got the impression in recent interviews that Bono was somewhat annoyed that the album didn't come out when it was supposed to. I think it was on Fallon where Jimmy asked him "when can we expect the new record?" And Bono replied, and I'm paraphrasing here, "you'll have to ask The Edge. If he could, he'd still be mixing it as it's going into the shops."
Yes, this band is notorious for overthinking things. Bono admitted in a recent HBO documentary about Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre that U2 were responsible for ending Jimmy Iovine's career as a producer. He said they wore him out. This was the Rattle and Hum album. He referred to the song Hawkmoon 269 as an example. The "269" is the number of times they recorded/mixed the song, so much that they literally wore out the analog tape.
Bono recently shared that he had a health scare last year which also delayed the album and he wanted to rewrite some stuff. He said he's OK now. He won't elaborate but he said that it was a genuine fright, and Edge said that Bono had a "brush with mortality".
Like the last album, this album has many producers.
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Will be interesting to see if this works and keeps the scalpers/bots away
Irish rockers will work with Ticketmaster to keep Experience + Innocence tickets out of the hands of scalpers.
Ticketmaster will utilize its Verified Fan platform for all tickets on U2's 15-city Experience + Innocence tour, marking the first time the ticketing company has used the technology for an entire arena tour to keep tickets out of the hands of scalpers.
U2 will utilize Verified Fan for presales with both U2's fan club as well as the band's first ever branded pre-sale with Citi, and then the general public ticket sale on Monday, Nov. 20. All fans must register by Nov. 18 to unlock access to tickets at u2.tmverifiedfan.com. U2.com fan club subscribers receive first access to tickets Nov. 14 and can register at u2.com/subscribe by Nov. 12 for the fan club.
David Marcus, executive vp and head of Music at Ticketmaster said the company has used Verified Fan to sell a portion of tickets for Ed Sheehan’s 2018 North American tour, as well as dates by Twenty One Pilots, Harry Styles and Bruce Springsteen’s Broadway run, but said the U2 tour is one of the largest yet to utilize the technology he says is akin “slow ticketing."
“Fans register with Verified Fan two to three weeks before tickets go on sale,” Marcus tells Billboard. “That gives us a chance to slow the huge rush that takes place when we open the doors and put tickets on sale. Verified Fan allows us to weed out bad actors and know exactly how many people want to buy tickets."
Live Nation’s Arthur Fogel, who is promoting U2’s Experience + Innocence tour said the band is utilizing Verified Fan following the "justified outcry of brokers and bots scooping up a fair amount of tickets,” adding “I think every artist wants their tickets getting into the hands of real fans."
"When you look at what’s happening in the industry and why people are doing Verified Fan, it makes complete sense for U2,” he tells Billboard. "There is a very limited amount of inventory and demand will exceed supply."
According to Ticketmaster, Verified Fan reduces the opportunity for resale on secondary markets by over 90 percent.
it's a new system for fan club tickets and i hope it works
i have used the verified system before and it's not great
but that was not for fan club tickets, just regular ones
fingers crossed. im a long time u2 fan club member(2001) so i will access on tuesday the 14th
how can they only play 1 show in montreal? that's just weird.....
ashtrayrock Wrote:it's a new system for fan club tickets and i hope it works
i have used the verified system before and it's not great
but that was not for fan club tickets, just regular ones
fingers crossed. im a long time u2 fan club member(2001) so i will access on tuesday the 14th
how can they only play 1 show in montreal? that's just weird.....
I've been a member of Propaganda/U2.com for the same amount of time. I've never been unable to get tickets in the U2.com presales.
I bet they add more dates in selected cities - there are holes in that schedule
I think they are being wary of over-saturating the market in North America - they just toured here last year
I'm shocked there isn't a Toronto tour date - although I guess they've played here three times in the past three years. I was out west for I&E at the ACC; am I wrong in thinking there were supposed to be four shows but ticket sales weren't brisk enough?
I saw the two Vancouver shows on I&E. The first one was so good I literally collapsed after it was finished.
I'm concerned about this album. I'm a huge U2 fan but everything I've heard off this album so far is middle of the road. I just listened to "American Soul" for the first time today and it is nothing more than a weaker version of "Volcano". I don't understand the need for lyric recycling. Anyone else have diminished expectations for this album?
potsie Wrote:I'm concerned about this album. I'm a huge U2 fan but everything I've heard off this album so far is middle of the road. I just listened to "American Soul" for the first time today and it is nothing more than a weaker version of "Volcano". I don't understand the need for lyric recycling. Anyone else have diminished expectations for this album?
After listening to it a few more times, I'm actually starting to come around on American Soul. I don't think it's a better song than Volcano, but I kinda dig it. The Little Things that Give You Away is fantastic and might end up being the best thing on the album.
But yea, based on what we've heard so far I've tempered my expectations. There are rumors flying around that this might be their final album. I hope that's not the case, but it wouldn't surprise me if this is indeed their last hurrah. They've spent so much time tinkering in the studio, and I get the impression that the songwriting and recording process is a real struggle for them these days. They're still a formidable live act, but creatively it feels like they're slowly running out of ideas and just kind of spinning their wheels.
One of the songs from the new album....
From Third Man Records... Out this Friday for Black Friday RSD..
Quote:U2's "The Blackout" 12" single
"The Blackout" marks the first physical release from U2's eagerly awaited new album, SONGS OF EXPERIENCE, due later this year. The 12" includes both the original album version backed by an exclusive remix by the band's longtime collaborator, Jacknife Lee. Hailed by Rolling Stone as "a dynamic new track," "The Blackout" was revealed this summer via a surprise live video, filmed during U2's blockbuster Joshua Tree Tour 2017.
TMR's "The Blackout" 12" had just one extremely limited pressing at Third Man Pressing, the label's state-of-the-art vinyl production facility in Detroit. Black vinyl editions will be available at all participating Record Store Day shops, with 750 colored vinyl editions on offer exclusively at Third Man Records' Nashville and Detroit storefronts, as well as two TBA retailers in the UK and Ireland.
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direwolf74 Wrote:potsie Wrote:I'm concerned about this album. I'm a huge U2 fan but everything I've heard off this album so far is middle of the road. I just listened to "American Soul" for the first time today and it is nothing more than a weaker version of "Volcano". I don't understand the need for lyric recycling. Anyone else have diminished expectations for this album?
After listening to it a few more times, I'm actually starting to come around on American Soul. I don't think it's a better song than Volcano, but I kinda dig it. The Little Things that Give You Away is fantastic and might end up being the best thing on the album.
But yea, based on what we've heard so far I've tempered my expectations. There are rumors flying around that this might be their final album. I hope that's not the case, but it wouldn't surprise me if this is indeed their last hurrah. They've spent so much time tinkering in the studio, and I get the impression that the songwriting and recording process is a real struggle for them these days. They're still a formidable live act, but creatively it feels like they're slowly running out of ideas and just kind of spinning their wheels.
Wow, I hadn't heard those rumours. That would be unfortunate. Almost without exception, bands don't make their greatest records while in their 50's. However, I always felt that if anyone could pull it off it would be U2. Experience will probably be a very serviceable album but I want so much more from the band, especially given the amount of time spent on this one. Fingers are crossed that the best songs on it have yet to be heard.