U2 - Salome (1991)

After U2's 1987 album 'The Joshua Tree' and the supporting Joshua Tree Tour brought them critical acclaim and commercial success, their 1988 double album and documentary film 'Rattle And Hum' precipitated a critical backlash. Although the record sold 14 million copies and performed well on music charts, critics were dismissive of it and the film, labelling the band's exploration of early American music as "pretentious" and "misguided and bombastic". Despite their commercial popularity, the group were dissatisfied creatively, and reacting to their own sense of musical stagnation, U2 searched for new musical ground. During this period, Bono and the Edge began increasingly writing songs together without Larry Mullen or bassist Adam Clayton, and the group recorded demos at STS Studios in Dublin, which later evolved into the songs 'Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses', 'Until The End Of The World', 'Even Better Than The Real Thing', and 'Mysterious Ways'. U2 hired Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno to produce the album, based on the duo's prior work with the band on 'The Unforgettable Fire' and 'The Joshua Tree'. They chose to record at Hansa Studios in West Berlin, near the recently opened Berlin Wall, where several acclaimed records had been made, including two from David Bowie's "Berlin Trilogy" with Eno, and Iggy Pop's 'Lust For Life'. The initial recording sessions took place at Hansa Studios in late 1990 in the Meistersaal, a former SS ballroom, but morale worsened once the sessions commenced, as the band worked long days, but could not agree on a musical direction. 

The Edge had been listening to electronic dance music and to industrial bands like Einstürzende Neubauten, Nine Inch Nails, the Young Gods, and KMFDM, and he and Bono advocated new musical directions along these lines. In contrast, Mullen was listening to classic rock acts such as Blind Faith, Cream, and Jimi Hendrix, and he was learning how to "play around the beat". U2 returned to Dublin for Christmas, where they discussed their future together and all recommitted to the group. Listening to the tapes, they agreed their material sounded better than they originally thought, and they briefly returned to Berlin in January 1991 to finish their work at Hansa. In February 1991, U2 moved the album's recording sessions to the seaside manor Elsinore in the Dublin suburb of Dalkey, renting the house for £10,000 per month. Although the sessions there were more relaxed and productive, the band did struggle with one particular song, which was later released as the b-side 'Lady With The Spinning Head', although three separate tracks, 'The Fly', 'Ultraviolet (Light My Way)' and 'Zoo Station', were derived from it. In April, tapes from the earlier Berlin sessions were stolen after the band reportedly left them in a hotel room, and they were subsequently leaked before the album was finished. The recordings were bootlegged into a three-disc collection dubbed 'Salome: The [Axtung Beibi] Outtakes', named after the song 'Salome' that was prominently featured in the collection but which didn't make the album's final cut. The bootleg was mastered directly from the DAT's that U2 produced as working tapes during the recording sessions, and consequently the recording quality is outstanding. 

Many of these songs are early versions of 'Achtung Baby' tracks, while others are unique and unreleased songs, or musical ideas, as the band at that time were writing primarily through jam sessions. The final album represents a deviation from the sound of their past work, with the songs being less anthemic in nature, and their musical style demonstrates a more European aesthetic, introducing influences from alternative rock, industrial music, and electronic dance music. The album's first single, 'The Fly', was released in October 1991, a month before the album, and although sounding nothing like U2's typical style, it was a critical and chart success, reaching number 1 in the UK. When 'Achtung Baby' appeared in November 1991, it received acclaim from critics and fans alike, re-establishing U2 as one of the most popular and critically acclaimed musical acts in the world. For this look behind the scenes of the making of the album, I've picked the best versions of the multiple takes of some of the songs, and although many of them later appeared officially on the actual record or on b-sides, these are all radically different versions, with alternate titles and lyrics. 'I Feel Free' later morphed in 'Until The End Of The World', 'Don't Turn Around' became 'Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses', 'Back Mask U2' was used for 'So Cruel', and 'Take You Down' was an early version of 'Lady With The Spinning Head'. I've made some subtle edits, removing Bono's stammer on the beginning to 'Sweet Baby Jane', fixing the drop-out in 'Doctor Doctor, and toning down the distracting vocalisations on the bridge of 'I Feel Free', but the rest of the music is as it was recorded at the time. 

Track listing

01 Where Did It All Go Wrong
02 Doctor Doctor
03 I Feel Free
04 If You Want To Take Tomorrow
05 She's Gonna Blow Your House Down
06 Sweet Baby Jane
07 Take You Down
08 Heaven And Hell
09 Don't Turn Around
10 Back Mask U2
11 Salome

Updates 4

As usual I took a number of these albums on holiday with me to listen to on headphones, and you might not be surprised to hear that two of them were the recent U2 and Bruce Springsteen albums. U2 was pretty good, but I just felt the gap between the first two tracks could be a few seconds shorter, and I've trimmed the beginning to 'Smile'. Springsteen was pretty much perfect, but the extended coda I had to add to the end of 'Reason To Believe' had some noticeable joins, so I've smoothed them out.

The only other album that I felt could do with an upgrade was 'I Need A New Adventure 'by Television, where I've trimmed the beginning to 'Last Night', and also to 'The Dream's Dream', as well as removing the acetate surface noise at the beginning, and giving it a better ending. 

Most of the others sounded fine, but I haven't actually listened to all of them yet, so if I do find anything wrong later I'll upgrade them and let you know. 

Lastly, Paul over at albumsthatshouldexist has found an extra couple of tracks that I could have included in my recent post from Sade, so I've added those in to make a more acceptable 49-minute album. 

All post are updated on Soulseek, and new links for all four posts are in the download folder.

U2 - Songs Of Ascent (2010) **UPDATE **

Listening to this album once more, I noticed that the guitar intro to 'Mercy' seemed extremely loud compared to the rest of the song, so I've toned it down a bit to blend in with the rest of the track. Soulseek and Mega updated, and link to the track on its own is in the comments. 

pj

U2 - Songs Of Ascent (2010)

In 2006 U2 began work on a new album with record producer Rick Rubin, but shelved most of the material from those sessions before beginning work with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois in May 2007 in Fez, Morocco. The exotic musical influences that the group were exposed to in Fez inspired them to pursue a more experimental sound, but as the sessions unfolded, the band decided to scale back the extent of those pursuits. Having grown tired of writing in the first-person, Bono wrote his lyrics from the perspective of different characters, and recording continued at several studios in the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland throughout December 2008. 'No Line On The Horizon' had been intended to be released in November, but after composing 50 to 60 songs, they delayed it to continue writing. Prior to the album's release, U2 claimed that their time in Fez, as well as Eno's and Lanois' involvement, had resulted in a more experimental record than their previous two albums, and when it appeared in February 2009 it received generally favourable reviews, although many critics noted that it was not as experimental as previously suggested. The album debuted at number one in 30 countries, but did not sell as well as anticipated, and after expressing disappointment over the relatively low sales of five million copies (!), the band discussed plans to release a meditative follow-up album, 'Songs Of Ascent', which would be a sister release to 'No Line On The Horizon', similar to 'Zooropa''s relationship to 'Achtung Baby'. 

In June 2009, Bono said that although nine tracks had been completed, the album would only be released if its quality surpassed that of 'No Line On The Horizon', with 'Every Breaking Wave' being mooted as the first single. Over time, the album continued to be delayed, and in April 2010 U2's manager confirmed that the album would not be finished by June, but indicated that a release "before the end of the year was increasingly likely". In October 2010, Bono stated that their new album would be produced by Danger Mouse, and that twelve songs had been completed, with the album having a tentative release date of May 2011, although he noted that 'Songs Of Ascent' was no longer the likely title. In the end the 'Songs Of Ascent' project was ultimately abandoned, and after numerous delays, U2 digitally released their thirteenth album, 'Songs Of Innocence', on 9 September 2014 in a surprise release. The band appeared the same day at an Apple Inc. product launch event to announce the album, and reveal it was being released to all iTunes Store customers at no cost, for which they were universally ridiculed. There are several tracks on 'Songs Of Innocence' that were originally slated to be part of 'Songs Of Ascent', such as the original version of 'Every Breaking Wave', which they also performed as a piano ballad. 'Mercy' was originally played live as 'Luckiest Man In The World', while 'Glastonbury' was a punchy rocker that was relatively stripped down, but later became reduced to just a bridge section on 'Volcano', and we also had the instrumental song 'Return Of The Stingray Guitar', which later morphed into the b-side 'Lucifer's Hands'. With these tracks as a starting point, and adding in some rare b-sides, film soundtracks and live recordings of songs that never made it into the studio, we can piece together a credible track-listing for what the album might have sounded like, and so here is U2's follow-up to 'No Line On The Horizon', which should have appeared in 2010.   

Track listing

01 Soon

02 North Star

03 Boy Falls From The Sky

04 Mercy

05 Return Of The Stingray Guitar

06 Are You Gonna Wait Forever

07 Glastonbury

08 Smile

09 Levitate

10 Every Breaking Wave

11 Winter

Happy New Year

Best wishes to everyone for 2020

Track listing

01 Happy New Year - ABBA

02 Funky New Year - The Eagles

03 Our New Year - Tori Amos

04 New Year's Prayer - Jeff Buckley

05 New Years Day - U2

06 New Year's Greetings - The Triffids

07 This Will Be Our Year - The Zombies

08 Celtic New Year - Van Morrison

09 Next Year - Foo Fighters

10 Same Old Lang Syne - Dan Fogelberg

11 New Year - Sugababes

12 New Year's Eve (Bad As Me) - Tom Waits

13 New Year's Eve's The Loneliest Night Of The Year - Trembling Bells

14 New Year's Eve - Snoop Dogg feat. Marty James

Happy New Year

U2 - The Desert Songs (1987)

When U2 convened to start recording what was eventually to become 'The Joshua Tree', Bono's original vision was for a double album titled 'The Desert Songs', having basically written a concept album about the desert. However, The Edge and possibly the record company insisted on a single album, and so, unhappy at this, Bono tried to cancel the release, thinking it wasn't good enough, but they had already spent a lot of money on promotion and couldn't pull the plug. As we now know, the album was a massive success, and reinvigorated the band's reputation, but we did end up missing out on the underlying story as it was originally written. The songs were all recorded, and the ones which didn't make the album were released as b-sides, and most were added to the 20th Anniversary Edition in 2007 as a bonus disc, but this is obviously not what the sequencing of the double album would have been, as by putting the songs in a certain order, we get closer to the original concept of the album, which is the hero's journey through the desert of his soul to find water, or the meaning and purpose of his life.
One of the first songs was called 'Desert of Our Love', which morphed into 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For', and as Bono was having some difficulties in his marriage at that time, most likely these songs were written from a very personal point of view, reflecting his inner emotional landscape. A lot of the songs feature heavy desert imagery, and the characters are always searching for water, representing a quest for God, Love, Quan, the source of life, or whatever you want to call it. While the story and characters are a bit murky, I have pieced together a rough image of what a concept album might have looked like, and similar to The Who's Lifehouse, it now sounds like the unreleased soundtrack to a movie that was never made.
The original album was sequenced by one of the producer's wives, who was only told what the opening and closing tracks would be, so I'll leave those two where they are but rearrange everything else. I get the sense that she simply put her favorite songs in order, which also happen to be many of the singles that her husband did the mixes on. For me, there are too many mid-tempo numbers all in a row, all hit singles, which kind of takes the mystery out of it, so the first order of business is to add a rock song closer to the beginning, and also to establish the setting for our story.
The opening track stays the same with 'Where the Streets Have No Name', both musically the best opener and it also introduces the themes of disillusionment and the call to begin his odyssey. His soul is thirsty and he longs for something more than the things found in the material world. 'Silver and Gold' describes the corruption and greed he encounters at his job and in society in general, and 'With or Without You' paints the picture of a desperately unhappy relationship that has no chance of getting better. He finally makes his decision to leave her in the sad and ironic 'Sweetest Thing'. where he sings 'I'm losing you, ain't love the sweetest thing', set to happy music but with lyrics describing his cold-hearted love interest, indicating that he is happy to be moving on but still bitter about the whole experience. Then the plot thickens when the military industrial complex suddenly bombs the city with their bullets lighting up the blue sky, sending our protagonist fleeing out into the desert. The follows the ominous 'Race Against Time' as our hero escapes into the desert, where he begins his journey. At first he is happy to be free, but soon grows tired, weary, and thirsty.  He walks, trudges, and crawls across the desert sand as the scathing sun burns down on his peeling skin. He begins to hallucinate, the mirages appearing as angels at first, and then demons, dancing amongst the fragmented memories of a world he left behind. A temptress with Spanish eyes visits him, awakening his lust and distracting him from his journey as he descends into the dark side. The demons continue to haunt him and he loses his sanity completely. His former lover appears, and he violently murders her in a fit of rage. It was only an illusion, but he is shocked to discover the evil within his own heart. We fade to black as he collapses in despair at the break of night.
He wakes up the next day and taking stock of his journey so far, concludes that he still hasn't found what he is looking for. Eventually he comes across a troubled woman who is also wandering alone in the desert on 'Running to Stand Still'. He feels empathy and connection with something greater than himself for the first time, and together they walk on. Something awakens deep inside of him, giving his life a new meaning and purpose, all because of this woman, celebrated on .Trip Through Your Wires.. 'Heartland' takes us deeper into this new spiritual and emotional connection with both the world around him and also within his own heart. (Although this track was released on Rattle and Hum, it originated in 1984, and was worked on at the main Joshua Tree sessions in 1986 and possibly into 1987). Armed with a new meaning and purpose, it is now time to rejoin society.  The woman leads him back to a band of rebels who have taken refuge out in the desert after the evil empire invaded their town and stole their water supply.
The final act begins with the regime kidnapping the girl and holding her hostage at the top of Red Hill, where they hold all the other political prisoners.  Our protagonist joins the resistance and they mount an attack, but this time it's personal. They win the battle and he rescues the girl, but he is seriously wounded during the process. As our hero lays bleeding on top of the hill, his final message is to hold on to love. His blood runs down the hill and turns into a raging river. They rename the place One Tree Hill in honor of our hero, who is now called Joshua, the one who sacrificed his life to save others, and in doing so, fulfilled his destiny and discovered what life was all about. He finally found the water that quenched his thirst, and it spilled over into the world and into other people's hearts as well, ending with everyone singing 'Oh, great ocean, oh grand sea, run to the ocean, run to the sea'. They have finally found water, and it even begins to rain. The final song pays homage to all the freedom fighters who have been killed by the evil empire in the struggle for freedom, ending with the lyrics 'see their tears in the rainfall'.
......or something like that. The exact sequence is debatable and maybe Album Fixer was reading too much into this, and the details may be skewed towards his own personal neurosis, but there does seem to be the general outline of a story that follows the mythical 'Hero's Journey' found throughout the ages. It contains the three stages of departure, initiation, and return. The hero wanders through the desert, is tempted, then guided, finally returning to society as a transformed human being with a new purpose and outlook on life, only to be killed. There's a bit of a Hollywood twist at the end with the girl being held hostage, as that might not actually be on the album, but it's a fresh way of looking at a classic album, and having now played it a number of times it really does hang together very well. 

Track lising

01 Where The Streets Have No Name
02 Silver And Gold
03 With Or Without You
04 Sweetest Thing 
05 Bullet the Blue Sky
06 Race Against Time 
07 In God's Country
08 Walk To The Water 
09 Spanish Eyes 
10 Exit
11 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
12 Running To Stand Still
13 Trip Through Your Wires
14 Heartland
15 Red Hill Mining Town
16 Luminous Times (Hold On To Love)
17 One Tree Hill
18 Mothers Of The Disappeared

From The Album Fixer April 2015. All ideas and opinions in the notes are his.