"We will not be able to recover the vision and understanding of God's grandeur until we recover an understanding of ourselves as creatures who have been made to know such grandeur. This must begin with the recovery of the idea that as beings made in God's image, we are fundamentally moral beings, not consumers, that the satisfaction of our psychological needs pales in significance when compared with the enduring value of doing what is right. Religious consumers want to have a spirituality for the same reason that they want to drive a stylish and expensive auto. Costly obedience is as foreign to them in matters spiritual as self-denial is in matters material. In a culture filled with such people, restoring weight to God is going to involve much more than simply getting some doctrine straight; it's going to entail a complete reconstruction of the modern self-absorbed pastiche personality."
- David Wells
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
The Dublin boys are claiming there will be a new album by the end of the year. I believe No Line On The Horizon debuted in Feb. '09, so they're definitely due.
Here's a working list on songs that may theoretically make an appearance on the forthcoming album. Courtesy of atu2.com's U2 New Album page.
"Mount Zion" - a song mentioned in the May 2011 Hot Press interview
"I'll Believe Her When She Sings" - another song mentioned in the May 2011 Hot Press interview and described as part of the "club music" sessions with RedOne
"The Sacred Heart of Malibu" - a new song that Bono played for Dutch journalist Bert van de Kamp, and mentioned in his book, And They Called Him Bono
"Mother of Pearl" - another new song that Bono played for van de Kamp
"Return of the Stingray Guitar" - an instrumental rock track that U2 has been playing to start shows on the European U2 360 tour in 2010; in an interview, Larry says the song has been rewritten from what it sounded like on tour
"Glastonbury" - another song that U2 performed on the European tour; U2 wrote this song shortly after the end of the 2009 U2 360 tour and planned to premiere it at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2010; in an interview, Larry says the song has been rewritten from what it sounded like on tour
"Soon" - this is the name of the song U2 used as the intro music when the band took the stage on the 2009 U2 360 Tour; it appeared on the 7-inch, orange vinyl that accompanied the U2 360 at the Rose Bowl super deluxe DVD box set, and was previously said to be called "Kingdom Of Your Love"
"Tripoli" (unused from No Line On The Horizon) In a video on U2.com, Brian Eno explains that this song became "Fez" on No Line On The Horizon.
"Winter" (unused from No Line On The Horizon) - this song appears in the Jim Sheridan film, Brothers
"Every Breaking Wave" Bono told Rolling Stone this is a "surging anthem" and would be the first single. U2 played a rough version of it a few times during the European tour in 2010.
"If I Could Live My Life Again" - Bono says this song is "inspired by the great Argentinian poet Jorge Luis Borges." Bono said he had just begun the song while speaking with author Michka Assayas in December, 2005. Their interview appears as the extra material in the paperback version of Bono in Conversation with Michka Assayas.
"Love Is All We Have Left" - a song Bono named during his May, 2006, trip to Africa as one that he had recently written. "It’s like an old Broadway tune. I thought it was a Frank Sinatra song," Bono said.
"North Star," a song from the How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb sessions which included a guest organ appearance from Michael W. Smith. In this CCM article (PDF download), Smith describes the song as a tribute to Johnny Cash. Bono and Edge performed an acoustic version of this song a few times during the European 360 tour in 2010. It also featured briefly in the Summer 2011 film, Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon.
"Mercy", one of the last songs to get cut from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, described in Blender magazine as "a six-and-a-half-minute outpouring of U2 at its most uninhibitedly U2-ish." U2 played it regularly during the last couple weeks of the European tour in 2010, and a live version with different lyrics appeared on the vinyl release, U2 Wide Awake In Europe in late 2010
"Lead Me In The Way I Should Go" -- a contender for Atomic Bomb first mentioned in this February, 2003, interview with Bono in Grammy Magazine
"You Can't Give Away Your Heart" - a contender for Atomic Bomb first mentioned in SPIN magazine
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Comments on "New U2 Album Information":
3. Neo
- 02/27/2013 8:16 am CST
Bird, with Joshua tree it's one of those albums you can listen to start to finish and just love every track. Consider some of dynamic range of the songs, too, how U2 goes from "Bullet the Blue Sky" (with Adam's relentless bass, Larry going to war on drums, Bono droning on about Nicaraguan fighter planes) and then immediately follow that with the sadly tranquil guitars of the Edge (and Eno on piano) of "Running to a Stand Still"... absolutely brilliant transition of sound and theme. I've never hear something quite as remarkable as that one album.
5. Karl
- 02/27/2013 10:46 am CST
I used to think Joshua Tree was the pinnacle for U2 and it still holds a special place for me. But the more I've read about the band and the more I've gotten into their music over the last decade or so, the harder it is for me to choose any one album and I love a lot of their recent stuff just as much as I do their older stuff.
I will say that reading Bill Flanagan's book "U2: At the End of the World" gave me enormous appreciation for Achtung Baby and to a lesser extent Zooropa. Achtung Baby would definitely be on my short list of best U2 albums of all time, if not at the very top.
Looking forward to the new one.
9. Daniel Ross
- 02/28/2013 10:15 pm CST
NLOTH was a weak album, IMO but they've definitely still got something to say musically ("Moment Of Surrender" was an amazing song). Always look forward to the next album.
10. Bird
- 03/01/2013 6:40 am CST
NLOTH had some weak songs by U2 standards ("Boots," "I'll Go Crazy," "Stand Up," "FEZ," "White as Snow") but it also had some absolute classics. I like the title track, but I LOVE "Magnificent," "Moment of Surrender," "Unknown Caller," and "Breath." IMO those are classic, timeless U2 songs.
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I'm one of those folks that's still stuck at the 'Joshua Tree'. That was a pinnacle of their career, and is quite possibly one of the greatest albums ever. I've listened to plenty of their other albums and nothing comes close to capturing the perfect sound of that particular album, before or after.