1. Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:[..]
    I think the difference is that Summer of Love existed as a piece of music before even being brought to U2. It wasn't a riff that someone came up with during a U2 session, in trying to make a U2 song better (which is sort of what a producer is there for) - it was a part they came up with during a One Republic session, that Ryan Tedder brought to U2.

    But yeah, I'm pretty sure that one studio scene in From The Sky Down basically confirms that Lanois came up with that main guitar part for One (although, he didn't come up with the basic music - the chord structure, etc.), U2 did that themselves.


    Most people not associated with the production of music think it is the artists who have the largest fingerprint on the track. But it's actually the producer. See Kraftwerk 'Showroom Dummies'.
  2. I say bring it on! I have always been OK with One Republic, never a huge fan, but can't deny Tedder's singing, writing, and production talent. I recently have seen him on the show Songland and respect him even more.
  3. I just want the band to be brave with their sound just like they did with AB and don’t follow mainstream music trends. Go all out like it’s their last album.
  4. Originally posted by CrashCaderz:I just want the band to be brave with their sound just like they did with AB and don’t follow mainstream music trends. Go all out like it’s their last album.
    Which is probably the case
  5. If it's songs like Summer Of Dull and American Empty Soul for a new album, it'll just be another U2 album. After all, surely they'll ask themselves some hard questions ... who needs a new U2 album. The only songs I can see Tedder has contributed in some way to that seem to be decent are The Lights Of Home, Every Breaking Wave, Iris and Landlady (but I wonder just how much input he really had into these).

    Instead, get that Andy Barlow character in - surely U2 can see this. He seemed to bring out the best in what they've left to give. Imagine an album of Book Of Your Heart and The Little Thing ... -esque songs. You'd have a beautiful piece of work to hopefully go out on. If SoE was their last album (thankfully not), it's not a great album to go out on (how many songs on it are honestly any good - I can count six I think are worth something) - you'd be better going out on SoI (where 10 out of 11 songs are worthwhile).
  6. Originally posted by drewhiggins:If it's songs like Summer Of Dull and American Empty Soul for a new album, it'll just be another U2 album. After all, surely they'll ask themselves some hard questions ... who needs a new U2 album. The only songs I can see Tedder has contributed in some way to that seem to be decent are The Lights Of Home, Every Breaking Wave, Iris and Landlady (but I wonder just how much input he really had into these).

    Instead, get that Andy Barlow character in - surely U2 can see this. He seemed to bring out the best in what they've left to give. Imagine an album of Book Of Your Heart and The Little Thing ... -esque songs. You'd have a beautiful piece of work to hopefully go out on. If SoE was their last album (thankfully not), it's not a great album to go out on (how many songs on it are honestly any good - I can count six I think are worth something) - you'd be better going out on SoI (where 10 out of 11 songs are worthwhile).
    The producers didn't write the songs there is only so much you can do to a song to make it better ,U2 had 9 producers on SOE which shows how insecure they were about the songs 1 guy spends months working on the songs oh that doesn't work let's get someone else oh that won't get on the radio let's get someone else in and so on ,they must be the most frustrating band to work with most bands would love the chance to work with Chris Thomas,Rick Rubin or Danger Mouse but each of them were shafted as the band weren't happy with the results.
  7. Originally posted by popmarter:[..]
    most bands would love the chance to work with Chris Thomas,Rick Rubin or Danger Mouse but each of them were shafted as the band weren't happy with the results.
    To be fair, they have worked their tails off to afford that luxury.
  8. It DOES kind of say something that the one producer who was pushing them to come into the studio with completed songs (Rick Rubin) was the one who they ended up not using at all (apart from Windows and Saints).

    It makes you wonder just how much U2 rely on producers to finish their music. Yes, we all know that U2 have always relied on them...but just how much exactly? Is that the reason they're always so hesitant to discuss their creative process? If we saw video surveillance footage of say, the making of Achtung Baby or Joshua Tree, would we end up realizing that U2 wrote less than the majority of what makes up those albums?

    I don't know. They're always talking about striving to write the best music they can write, pushing themselves creatively - maybe the next thing to try is getting together in a room with a bunch of instruments and synths and VSTs and all that shit, and just making an album front to back themselves. You gotta wonder what that would sound like. Would it sound like their songs pre-Boy? Would they even be able to do it anymore?

    I hate writing this as a U2 fan, but that Summer of Love thing left a bad taste in my mouth and it hasn't left me, sorry. U2 sampling someone or a producer writing a part for a skeleton song that's already in-place is one thing, but U2 literally taking music someone else wrote and calling it their own, I don't know. I'm not talking about it from a legal stance, even a moral one (obviously they were given permission), I'm just talking about it from an artistic standpoint. It sucks knowing that one of the better songs on that album wasn't even written by them. And yeah, that guitar part and the "west coast" hook pretty much make that song what it is, at least for me. As a musician who writes and records music (yes I realize I'm not U2) - I'd never do that, not even if I was allowed to, or whatever - my instant reaction would just be "Umm, but I didn't write that, I can't use that...".

    It would be like if we found out after all this time, Lanois was actually the one who came up with the chord progression for One, not Edge. Or Eno was the one who came up with the intro to Streets, but on a synth or something. That would break my fuckin' heart, man. It all makes them seem a lot less like a band and a lot more like a label-created committee who releases music for monetary gain or something.
  9. I mean, whose to say that when they were writing a song from the JT, Daniel or Brian didn’t say “here’s a riff I’ve had sitting around tha I think would work here.” I wouldn’t put too much thought into the Summer of Love debacle.
  10. Originally posted by podiumboy:I mean, whose to say that when they were writing a song from the JT, Daniel or Brian didn’t say “here’s a riff I’ve had sitting around tha I think would work here.” I wouldn’t put too much thought into the Summer of Love debacle.