With its monster-selling Vertigo tour complete, U2 is ready to reinvent itself, frontman Bono said during a BBC Radio interview earlier this week. “Our band has certainly reached the end of where we’ve been at for the last couple of albums,” he said. “I want to see what else we can do with it, take it to the next level; I think that’s what we’ve got to do.”
Asked by interviewer Jo Whalley if that might mean a move away from rock’n’roll, Bono replied, “We’re gonna continue to be a band, but maybe the rock will have to go; maybe the rock has to get a lot harder. But whatever it is, it’s not gonna stay where it is.”
He went on to reveal he’d like U2 to explore compositions featuring just voice and acoustic guitar. “I would like to do a couple of tunes in that direction, with just a lot of space around the voice,” he said. “I’d like to strip things down; that’s something I’d be very interested in at the moment.”
U2 is expected to get busy in the studio after the New Year, with an eye on releasing a new album before the end of 2007. Bono said casual fans were the target for the recently released compilation “U218 Singles,” which also includes two new songs.
“We’ve never been much of a singles band,” he admitted. “But we did it because we have a very young audience coming through, and we wanted to, you know, just be very available for people who want to check us out, you know? We wanted to have something they could check us out very easy on.”
“I would like to do a couple of tunes in that direction, with just a lot of space around the voice,” he said. “I’d like to strip things down; that’s something I’d be very interested in at the moment.”
that’ll be be pretty fuckin’ interesting for the other three.
I have long empathized with the plight of the casual U2 fan, not knowing where to check them out, you know?...thanks, Bono, for, you know, addressing my concern!
Tis funny that the only “single” that didn’t feature Bono on lead vocals was released as a “video cassette single” only.
I like how Bono’s vision of “take it to the next level” = “my voice, with, well ... with nothing, really, just my voice, you know?”
Not that he doesn’t have a nice voice.
“Taking it to the next level” would involve much more Edge (+ preferably Eno) and a lot less Bono.
that would be taking it to the edge, though.
Next Level U2 = Edge takes off hat
It really bugs me when people talk about “the” rock.
maybe the rock will have to go; maybe the rock has to get a lot harder
It really bugs me when people talk about “the” rock.
“We’ve never been much of a singles band,”
ROFFLE
Yeah, laughed my ass off at that one, too.
But I think Bono’s right. Much as I’d like to be in the cool kids’ Edge/Eno camp, I think Bono’s singing is by far the band’s greatest asset. Assuming that he’s not just a drone who takes direction from the rest of the band and/or his producers, I’m surprised that the band’s still together at all.
Now that we’re discussing Jane Dark too:
“One,” Mary J. Blige feat. U2. Pet Shop Boys, Johnny Cash...this is not the first great U2 cover, and it won’t be the last. There’s a reason for that: however swell the songs might be (and this is one swell song), Bono can’t sing. His vocals are thin and mawkish and have a stident need to be liked, and each of these covers provides a massive benefit, be it Neil Tennant’s yearning irony or Johnny Cash’s singular gravitas. Mary J broadens out the tones to the Baptist breadth to which they always secretly aspired, and gives them an emotional thickness that, well, Bono doesn’t have and she does, in spades. Secondary lesson in all this: The Edge may be more of a genius than we thought.
Dang, and I was so sure I’d made a new friend...
I would pay upwards of $4 for a CD of the Rock singing U2 covers.
I would pay upwards of $10 for a phone camera video of The Rock hanging Bono.
I think Bono’s singing is by far the band’s greatest asset.
ROFFLE
Laugh while you may.
But back to Jane...
Bono’s “Baptist yearning” is hardly a secret. He’s been flaunting his inner gospel/soul/R&B diva for years. Of course, that isn’t what he is, and means his voice sometimes does seem poorly suited to the tasks he sets for it. But that tension gives his singing a great deal of its power, too.
We all recognize the mawkishness. It’s impossible not to see it. Mawkishness and “a stident need to be liked” are written in giant, flaming caps over the man’s entire career. But mawkishness sometimes simply works. And the need to be liked can result in open, inviting, genuinely expressive performance.
Bono sells his band’s work. Their songs may have been reinterpeted successfully by others, but not (so far) in ways that speak so strongly to so many. His performances on “One” and “Where the Streets Have No Name” remain definitive, iconic. Maudlin, yes. Obvious and even grating, sure. But profoundly moving and beautiful just the same. The quasi-spiritual yearing he projects with such seemingly idiotic ease is the band’s one true ace in the hole (from a performance/arrangement standpoint, anyway).
He’s the reason they’re not just another well-liked, well-respected mid-level rock band. He’s the reason that hipsters will always mock them, and the reason that they’ll be remembered for decades to come.
P.S. I don’t like U2 very much. I’m just saying...
His performances on “One” and “Where the Streets Have No Name” remain definitive, iconic. Maudlin, yes. Obvious and even grating, sure. But profoundly moving and beautiful just the same.
See, this is how I feel about Neil Tennant singing WTSHNN.
Yeah, I like it too...
Bono actually speaks aloud the words “take it to the next level” = douche-o-meter in the red, reaching maximum doucheness
I think Bono’s singing is by far the band’s greatest asset.
I usually step up to defend the Big B, but anyone who says “take it to the next level” is fair game.
This is what the Charlton Athletic board said when they got rid of Curbishley and brought in Ian Dowie. The next level, it turns out, is the one immediately below.
U2 can only be redeemed if their next album contains at least seventeen minutes of metal croaking.
“...anyone who says ”take it to the next level“ is fair game.”
No argument there.
That awful bit about not being a singles band, and having a “very young audience coming through,” and wanting to “have something they could check us out very easy on,” isn’t much easier to defend.
Dildo Turd:
The next album will include at least 11 wedding/prom ballads with vaguely “spiritual” themes. Mark my words.
^ OTM
Though I would gladly come back to the fold for an album of Edge/Eno/(Mullen/Clayton) ambient/prog metal. Like if you took the U2 elements already lurking in, say, ISIS and, I dunno, U2’d ’em up? As much as I enjoy Bono’s “gospel voice” I would definitely pay money to hear his COOOOOKIE.
Srsly, this could be like Achtung Baby II.
Or bluegrass. Bluegrass could be good, but with soaring choruses and dotted-eighth delay.
remember when he would wear an acoustic guitar on his back like a prop? what a putz
U2 doing ambient/prog metal would be a truly joyous day, but it isn’t going to happen.
I know!!! Why don’t they try some techno??!!?!!!
U2’s ’91-’97 run is their best work.
You are right, in that ‘Passengers: Original Soundtracks Vol. 1’ is by FAR their best work. ‘Your Blue Room’ I’d even call a bono fide classic!
‘Your Blue Room’ I’d even call a bono fide classic!
Motion seconded, but let the record state that we find the pun execrable.
Bono has just reached parodic territory with these statements, hasn’t he?
I’m itching to take Bono down to Chinatown!