New U2 Album Next Month with No Fanfare

Achtung Baby is so much better than the Joshua Tree - bloated and boring overall imo.

 

It's mainly 'One' vs 'With Or Without You', if you can say which one you enjoy more then that's the album for you. Obviously in very very very simplistic terms.

 

Being Australian, I saw Popmart right at the end of the tour (see also: every other tour they've done...). So I saw them a couple of months after the Mexico City shows, and I can assure you they were just as good as that video suggests. A perfect mix of old and new songs - seven off Pop, right at the end of the tour, for crying out loud! - plus some amazing versions of things from 'I Will Follow' to 'Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me'.

For mine, the Vertigo tour was their weakest. 360 at least had the virtue of interesting setlists, whereas Vertigo seemed much more static and obvious. Which is not to say that it was awful, even U2 on an off night is a pretty great live show, but i can't remember the one I saw (in 2006) as well as I can remember ZooTV, PopMart or 360. Bono was horribly off-key for the first few songs, I remember, and they did a pretty nice take on 'Kite' in the encore (the one from a week later is on the 'Window in the Sky's single, if you're interested), as well as a mini-ZooTV set.

Maybe early in the tour, but contra the PopMart tour, by the end of 360, there was just four songs left from the new album. Which, even though understandable from a certain point of view, was disappointing. Yes we got a good setlist, but it didn't feel remotely connected to the 'new' album (by then two & a half years old).

Argh! I saw the NLOTH vinyl for ages at my local store, kept on putting off getting it. Then one day went, with the express purpose of finally buying, only to find it had sold a few hours earlier... So disappointed. Haven't seen it in person since.

 

Interesting, I assisted to the last tour too....same feeling here, however i enjoyed the intro with the David Bowie song and the band walking in....memorable.

 

My body is ready for the new U2 album.

 

We'll see ...

 

Funny - RFK was my first PopMart show and the 6th time I'd seen the band, and I thought it was the BEST U2 show I'd seen.

I loved the 1997 tour. I thought that despite - or maybe because of - the overwhelming size of the production, the band remained tight at the center of it all.

To me, ZooTV was overwhelming - I loved that show on video but wasn't wild about it the 2 times I saw it in person. PopMart worked for me in person immediately...

 

That was my reaction too - scrapping albums and firing producers seems like a lot of fanfare.

Now they are RUSHING this to market????

 

I'm exciting if it just means a new episode of this:
http://www.earwolf.com/show/u-talkin-u2-to-me/

 

He isn't, because he actually does something in the studio unlike the fraud that is Rick Rubin.

 

Very original, my show had "Pop Musik" during the "boxer's entrance". That show was one hell of an endeavor and the performance was perfect, it was just a little distant. What were your responsibilities? I worked for Bill Graham Presents and did everything from parking lot control to shining lights on the stage so the musicians didn't trip over the cables while walking out and back. Yes......I was indeed vital.

 

I actually liked the Vertigo tour, probably because How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb had a number of "arena-ready" rockers, but more importantly, because I was able to see it in an 18,000 seat arena rather than an 80,000 seat stadium. The problem with U2 is that they have gotten so big, that the only way to accommodate ticket demand in most cases is to play stadium shows.

 

Friend, You and Me both!! I'm a sucker for remasters and box sets.

 

As we're kind of talking many different things about U2 in this thread including the last album, can anyone tell me if the vinyl is as brickwalled as the cd was? Back when the album was released, I actually ripped the DVD audio to get the title track for a marginally better mix as the CD sounds really harsh to my ears.

 

I was part of the audience just that.

 

Source?

 

That was a big plus for me as well. As I mentioned, I got to see 3 shows spread only a few days apart at the beginning of the tour in San Diego, Anaheim and LA and they were really experimenting with the set at the beginning of the tour plus they were playing at a really high level, especially The Edge. Also as a major bonus, I figured out the first show how to beat the GA Pit random draw thing they had going that tour by spacing me and my friend about 5 or 6 people apart and making sure the first person got his ticket scanned about 5 persons after the last person who got scanned for Pit Entry. 100% of the shows I saw that tour, one of us got in the pit and the other would be their "second."

Near the end of the tour in November, I saw one more show at Staples again in LA which while very good, didn't quite have the level of anything-can-happen that the first few weeks of the tour had.

 

CD is DR 6, vinyl is DR 10. No audiophile wonder by any means, but I find the vinyl WAY more immersive and sweeping, with a great bass and better drum sound.

 

They have also become extremely formalistic. Other than that you pretty much got it covered. Thanks mate....

 

It's been discussed over the past year including comments by reliable long time "insiders" on the couple of major U2 forums. I also recall reading something about this in an article about McGuinness leaving.

BTW, thanks about the comments about the vinyl release. I'm going to pick it up next time I see it.

 

The vinyl No Line on the Horizon is totally worth it if you love or really like the album. Beautiful design too.

I had a chance to interview the band and their new manager and talk to other U2 business people earlier this year, and I'm close to certain that hassles over the money split are the last thing that's bugging the band.

 

Interesting to hear. Can you at least allude to what issues *may* be going on with them over the last 18 months that have seemed to throw a spanner in the works? There certainly seems to be a palpable level of chaos and indecision surrounding their camp if not on a personal, but at least on an artistic level that hasn't been evident since the period leading up to the Achtung Baby album/tour.

One other thing - I wish U2 would get around to releasing a box set for "Rattle and Hum." The album is the only one left in their back catalog that is in dire need of remastering, has tons of great b-sides and unreleased material and the home video (DVD/Blu-ray) have hours and hours of great out-takes while the original film itself could use remastering as well.

 

My pleasure... now let's discuss The Monkeys.

Cheers Mate.

 

Were you aware of the issues with re-masters being brimming with compression and being agents of the loudness wars? I had to question much of my own existence after coming here and having my sonic fantasy world ripped apart.