Quite an interesting read about U2's new album and how it was released to all iTunes users for free. A few mentions of Prince included as well as other aging icons. Read the article and the comments below, and you hear the same debate that endlessly takes place on the org regarding Prince, his legacy, his past, the industry today etc.

http://music-mix.ew.com/2...ce-review/

Incidently, the album isnt very good and U2 are getting quite a lot of the org treatment around the internet regarding how they have lost their mojo and have to give away their music for free to promote the inevitable live tour.... Sound familiar?

maybe you could copy/paste the Prince mentions over here?

thedance said:

maybe you could copy/paste the Prince mentions over here?

Because they are scattered about in various places and you need the context for it to make sense. Why not just open the link and read it?

(Article edited for quotations re Prince. langebleu - moderator)

purplethunder3121 said:

By Kyle Anderson on Sep 10, 2014 at 1:42PM @KyleAEW

KYLE: I agree. U2 are like Paul McCartney or the aforementioned Prince—even if this album was shockingly excellent, it still probably wouldn’t be in the top five (or maybe even the top 10) of the band’s all-time releases. Those spots are all locked up. The sudden rollout has made Songs of Innocence inherently more interesting than No Line on the Horizon was, which maybe justifies dropping it into everybody’s pending downloads queue.

It certainly has made me curious about the rumored forthcoming collection Songs of Experience, but ultimately I agree with you: Outside of an inevitable spin to remind myself how goofy “The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)” sounds, it’ll probably stay in the single digits on my play count until the end of iTune

This part, exactly. It has to do with the fact you can't make new musical memories that mean as much consiciously/subconsciously as your longtime, cherished memories. In my case, I only know after two or three years if a specific song still rates high enough.

Because I know this, I allow myself to like something that catches my fancy and if it stickls, it sticks. So I'm sure it's silly but the song Silicon has stucki, My Medaillon as well -- I don't even care if anyone thinks those are crap, they represent Prince at the time for me. But no, they are not Lady Cab Driver, a song I listened to so many times over the years that I can stop thinking about the song for a minute and then I'll think about it and I'll mentally be one minute later in the song, as if I had left the record playing.

purplethunder3121 said:

Yesterday, U2—easily the biggest rock band left on the planet—surprised everyone when they released their long-in-gestation new album for free.

i had to laugh hard on this 1.

Imo, there are others that are even or even better like Rolling Stones and Metallica for example.

I agree. I think to a large degree music will always be a young mans game. That is not to say that one can't produce brilliant music when you are older it is that the relationships between listener and artist change.

Firstly and mainly I feel music has more strands to it when you are younger. The song doesn't sit in isolation. I feel when younger it is more of a soundtrack to how you feel and where you want to belong. There are old Prince songs that are possibly not as good as his later output but I have a far greater emotional attachment to them. Essentially the NEED is different.

Secondly when you are younger you relate to that artist more as someone you may want to be/aspire to. As you are older you are more defined and as such in more of a space to to just listen to the song.

Either way music I feel becomes less all encompassing as to leave us less empassioned.

It's a fair enough assessment.

KingSausage said:

I find the notion that artists can't break into their own top 5 album list (because those spots are filled) weird. Why does this seem to be a common claim about musicians but not directors, actors, visual artists, etc?

Maybe visual artists but in terms of actors and directors they have a constant external input to keep them invigorated. A musical artist is just pouring themselves out and probably there is only so much to give

These critics just threw Prince's name in there to justify their vague generalizations attacking U2. This statement proves they don't really know much about Prince: "The first way is that U2 essentially operate like, say, Pearl Jam or Prince now, where the albums are merely mile-markers that offer a reason to hit the road again." Prince tour behind a new album? That will be the day.

KingSausage said:

I find the notion that artists can't break into their own top 5 album list (because those spots are filled) weird. Why does this seem to be a common claim about musicians but not directors, actors, visual artists, etc?

Thats a great question. Im not sure of the answer but I think it has to do with the emotional attachment thats generated by your first good exposure to music that becomes cannonized (like Prince's or U2's early stuff was). Everything after that artists moving on from that cannon becomes compared to it and there's like zero escape for them. I'll never ever ever love another Pearl Jam album like Ten and I'll never love another Prince album like 1999 and PR or another U2 album like Joshua tree and Achtung Baby.. its impossibe and I know it.. even though it's kind of irrational.

I'm always amazed that so many people disliked No Line on the Horizon. It's a great album - no room for debate - and I'm not a huge U2 fan.

jasminejoey said:

rainbowchild said:

KingSausage said:

I find the notion that artists can't break into their own top 5 album list (because those spots are filled) weird. Why does this seem to be a common claim about musicians but not directors, actors, visual artists, etc?

As a songwriter, I can say that songwriting is part amazing inspiration that seems to come out of thin air. You're walking around one day and a piano part or guitar part comes into your mind out of nowhere. It's difficult to explain..like a gift from God. Sadly, some are like a gift from a mad ex girlfriend and are not worth recording. As I have written over 100 songs, too much of my new inspiration is clouded with bits and pieces of things I've already done, so it's difficult to come up with something new that I haven't already done. I could not even imagine what it is like for Prince, who with THOUSANDS of songs already written can even come close to beating his past.

Another problem: Fans get what I call "Bart Van Halen disease" where every single song has to be mindblowing, and as good or better than previous great works. I agree that Prince is in decline, but Lotus Flow3r (just the LF Disc, not the other 2), is a great album. Easily Top 10 for me, but the only post 1990 album I rank in his top 10.

U2 has made a very good album that I have yet to make final judgement on, but U2 fans with BVH disease seem to despise it like it is Tony M with Auto Tune or something. Sad. New music by old artists is usually pretty good. Mind blowing? Probably not...but not the piece of garbage so many who don't LISTEN to music anymore...they only HEAR it. Big difference.

Edit: Even though LF is the only album I put in my top 10 after 1990...I love and really like nearly every single album. I really love 3121, and most of PE. I like some of the new songs, but the Auto Tune Prince scares me. I think Wow(Unexpected) is a great song...

[Edited 9/12/14 12:41pm]

I had the new U2 album playing thru Itunes yesterday. Was only passively listening to it while doing some housework. Nothing caught my attention, but it was pleasant overall. I'll probably play it again in the background a few more times to see if anything will eventually jump out at me as worthy of a closer listen.

I'm generally a fan of U2, but the last album i bought from them was Achtung Baby (which I love entirely). I have liked some of their singles since, but not enough to make even an Itunes purchase. I think I got "Beautiful Day" on a compilation cd. And downloaded the free charity song they put out of Itunes several months ago, which I remember being good.

Sad that artists can't make money releasing albums anymore. I think they really need to get a fresh take on what they are releasing. Maybe more boxed sets with premium lyric books, photios, stickers, ... physical stuff that people can hold in their hands. I don't know if that would help.

Maybe the music industry needs to change how they make music. Maybe every major artists music needs to be produced with Dolby 5.1 (or whatever the highest possible quality, and largest file size) and release only in electronic versions a very compressed mp3 file. You want the quality, you gotta buy the Blu-ray disc deluxe version. Would people be able to rip a deep dolby 5.1 album???

It's a huge market to reach. Has any information surfaced on how much U2 were paid by Apple?

Noodled24 said:

It's a huge market to reach. Has any information surfaced on how much U2 were paid by Apple?

I gave it a quick listen via my account, then clicked through iTunes to "hide" it. Not my cup o' tea. No matter how well intentioned... I hope Apple doesn't make an executive decision in the future to 'push' more music into my account when I'm paying them for storage.

U2 Manager Discusses $100M 'Songs of Innocence' Marketing Deal and Future Plans With Apple

http://www.macrumors.com/.../u2-apple/

[Edited 9/12/14 18:25pm]

Noodled24 said:

It's a huge market to reach. Has any information surfaced on how much U2 were paid by Apple?

$100 million.So when you think about it,U2 has already made a fortune from this deal.It doesn't matter how many copies the physical CD will sell when it's officially released.

One thing's for sure - Bono's lyrics will shit all over anything Prince has written. But then, not many people can write lyrics like Bono.

Rebeljuice said:

Quite an interesting read about U2's new album and how it was released to all iTunes users for free. A few mentions of Prince included as well as other aging icons. Read the article and the comments below, and you hear the same debate that endlessly takes place on the org regarding Prince, his legacy, his past, the industry today etc.

http://music-mix.ew.com/2...ce-review/

Incidently, the album isnt very good and U2 are getting quite a lot of the org treatment around the internet regarding how they have lost their mojo and have to give away their music for free to promote the inevitable live tour.... Sound familiar?

I like this album. I thought it was very good.

I've followed U2 at times in the past and their 'Atomic Bomb' album of a decade ago was hot stuff but I actually fell asleep (literally) during the first play of 'Horizon' and never went back to it. Can't even remember a single track that's on it. I played through on preview this one but every track made me recoil (even those with Dangermouse who tends to be good for anyone) so I've never been so glad that I've never got round to getting an iTunes account.
I just don't think a lot of these artists on their 45th album have a lot to say and it's kind of like turning up at the disco when you're a grandad. I mean...go ahead and do it but it ain't that interesting.

rap said:

One thing's for sure - Bono's lyrics will shit all over anything Prince has written. But then, not many people can write lyrics like Bono.

You mean not many can write banal tripe like Bono?
Probably not

He's a very gifted lyricist and orator. Prince on the other hand ...

HMmm.

So U2's albums aren't great anymore?