New U2 Album Next Month with No Fanfare

It seems these days any 4-star review is automatically suspected of being "rubber stamped," as though it's not even conceivably possible that the reviewer just simply liked whatever he or she was writing about.

 

From start to finish I feel this is their strongest album since the '90s.

 

I was referring more to the tour and promotion of that album than the actual production.

 

Interestingly, Eno and Daniel Lanois don't get any thanks in the enormous thank list at the end of the liner notes.

 

Is "every breaking wave" "every breath you take" with another melody line?

 

Wow, interesting. Thinking about it in that context, the bass line sounds more like With Or Without You.

 

One of the things I like most about this album is that it is sequenced much better and flows much better as an album than No Line on the Horizon. Also, while it's only six minutes shorter than No Line, it feels 20 minutes shorter. For the most part, the new songs are concise and focused: "Volcano" is only 3:15 long - by contrast, the shortest song on Achtung Baby ("Even Better Than The Real Thing") is 3:42, and that's the only song on Achtung Baby under four minutes. Even "Song for Someone," the big power ballad on this album, clocks in at a relatively concise 3:47.

 

The songs do seem short, and for some reason it's always surprising to me. Not a lot of fade-outs, not a lot of flab. I appreciate that as well - the songs don't hang around long enough to become unwelcome.

 

Don't know if it sounds like either or both to me- it's very common chord progression that has been used in one key or another in tons of songs...

 

Good point that I haven't heard made yet...I also haven't been listening to any tracks off this album and thought, "please someone stick a fork in this song!" I certainly have had that experience with a few songs on the previous two or three albums...

 

I think Volcano is a really cool song, one of my favorites off of the album. Bono uses a cool vocal effect on the verses similar to The Fly and there are catchy vocal melodies and the guitar work is really cool. Plus the bass sounds nice and crunchy!

I don't know about anyone else but the vocals and guitar work during the "Been out in the wild / Been out in the night / Been out of your mind" part of it reminds me of the Black Keys a little bit

 

That always makes me laugh - a lot of posts on this album claim that it's U2 trying to sound like Coldplay or whoever and then there's this song that starts out sounding almost exactly like "With Or Without You."

Let's see - melody's different, instrumentation entirely dissimilar, song lyric describing a completely different relationship scenario - yeah, it's "Every Breath You Take!" Good call!

 

"Magnificent" from the last album is a perfect example of a song that could have been edited down. It's 5:25 long. Once it gets going, it's one of my favorite songs they've ever done. But you have to sit through 45 seconds of intro bass stabs and synth bleeps and bloops before Edge's guitar riff kicks in and the song takes off. On the new album, they cut out the dead weight. Even a track like "Iris" that cracks the five-minute barrier doesn't feel overlong and bloated the way that "Magnificent" does.

 

Also quick becoming one of my favorites on the album...

 

"Iris" is an amazing song to me. Don't wanna get too maudlin but it seems like one of the most emotional tracks I've ever heard from U2, and that's a tall order. I didn't lose my mom at a young age (and haven't yet actually), but I could not sing that song without breaking up. I'm somewhat impressed that this is the album that they chose to give away - there's a lot of deep, gripping stuff here.

 

In response to complaints Apple, has launched a website specifically to help people delete the U2 album.

http://www.stereogum.com/1705373/apple-launches-u2-removal-website/news/

To remove this album:

Go to http://itunes.com/soi-remove.

Click Remove Album to confirm you’d like to remove the album from your account.

Sign in with the Apple ID and password you use to buy from the iTunes Store.

You’ll see a confirmation message that the album has been removed from your account.

If you downloaded the songs to iTunes on your Mac or PC or to the Music app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you’ll need to delete them manually.

 

Saying that U2 sounds like Coldplay is like saying that the Beatles sound like Badfinger or that the Rolling Stones sound like Aerosmith.

 

I have an alternative take on this.

If you are a U2 fan, like me, you can take the money you saved off this release and support other bands that may never get such a chance for a lump sum- buy their music, go to their concerts, T shirts.

Its not easy making a living anymore for most artists.

 

I would but I am buying the vinyl edition of their new album. It really deserves to be heard on something other than my laptop. Oh, and there are some additional songs for the physical release.

 

I agree. The album gets better and better and also puts me

Not as young as 14, but I did lose my mother. That song just reaches deep into my soul .

 

I only thought there was a similarity, and a very close one. I'm not disparaging this album at all. I think it's great.

also, I believe my pedantic side is telling me you should have said 'whomever'. That side could be disastrously wrong.

 

Funny thing, I was in Dublin on vacation when they made this surprise release. I had no internet access so it didn't really hit me until I walked into HMV on Grafton Street and they were playing one of the new tracks. Been listening to the album since I got home yesterday and initial impressions are positive. The only song that I don't really care for is 'The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)' which of course is the first single. To me the song sounds like they are desperately trying for another 'Elevation' or 'Vertigo'.

 

After listening to the LP a few more times (with headphones on iPhone and CD in the car) I am now very happy with it. For me, the weakest track California destroyed it and my first Impression was kind of "no - what a simple mainstream Pop Thing". Then I recognized it's this one track that was the reason for that. For the CD-R I deleted California and put Iris at no. 3 in the tracklisting - and now it's a perfect U2 Album. I love it and I'm looking forward to the vinyl edition, so that I can hear it On my system (and loud!). My favourite tracks are Sleep like a baby tonight, Iris & The Troubles!

 

Apple has released a statement to Rolling Stone sharing the number of people who have listened to Songs of Innocence in the first week. "We wanted to thank our customers and share our love of music by gifting them Songs of Innocence," said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. "Just six days after its release on iTunes, a record-breaking 33 million people have already listened to the album."

 

Assuming this is accurate, this was a super-smart move for U2. When you throw in their back catalog charting on iTunes around the world, it looks even smarter. If they're really smart, they will do an arena tour instead of stadiums, and it will be a very hot ticket, I suspect.