U2 have just released three never before seen interview clips on MySpace Music, AOL’s Spinner, and The Wall Street Journal to coincide with the 25th anniversary of their creative breakthrough release, The Unforgettable Fire.
The largest rock band in the world sat down to discuss their favorite tracks from the album, what they really thought of their biggest single at the time, “Pride (In the Name of Love),” and what it was like working with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois for the first time at Ireland’s Slane Castle for the making of this landmark album.
The recently re-mastered version of The Unforgettable Fire is now available everywhere in limited edition 2CD+DVD box set, 2CD deluxe edition, single CD and LP vinyl.
Watch each video in its entirety to learn something new about the band and make sure to check out www.U2.com for the band’s most recent tour dates.
Here’s a great look at the new Oasis album from Luke Turner of The Quietus. I agree with him on almost every point. Its great to hear Oasis back sounding fresh.
1. “Bag It Up”
This opening salvo isn’t a cover of the Geri Halliwell song or a “No Diggity”-esque chorus, but something to do with tea: the first two lines of this, Oasis’ seventh album, contain a reference to pouring yourself a cup of lady grey, which all seems a little la-di-da for a band you’d imagine are more at home with a brew of PG that you could stand a spoon up in. Anyway, it’s a solid start that’ll do nothing to scare the Oasis faithful, sturdy blasts of chest-out noise, the bros G in duet on vocals, and ringing Noel Gallagher guitar lines that end in a suitably bombastic crescendo. So far, so expected.2. “The Turning”
The first signs of a more adventurous Oasis appear here. The track opens with a drumbeat and a melody that, I jest not, isn’t a million miles from a speeded up take on Radiohead’s “Everything In Its Right Place.” Perhaps the normally crackers Ryan Adams had a bit of point about the album sounding like Kid A? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though. Liam’s vocal begins and a whopping chorus drops in — so it’s not the eureka moment when God’s white beard appears on the computer screens of the Large Hadron Collider boffins, but in Oasis terms it’s something of a progression. There’s a fair amount of religious imagery present in the lyrics, the rapture and angels all putting in an appearance before the track fades into the sound of sea and sirens.3. “Waiting for the Rapture”
Lyrically again, this has Big Themes, though they’re doing that dangerous thing of the God/Love equation that Jason Pierce always gets in a muddle about. It’s a pugnacious stomper, with a cracking chorus to boot, this time with Noel Gallagher at the vocal helm. Liam’s voice might sound a lot better than his Brit Awards live bellow, (the five AM jogging sessions on Primrose Hill clearly getting some quality pre-rush hour London air into his lungs), but getting his older brother to do these higher parts on this one was certainly a wise move. Again, it does seem to represent a little more thought and breadth than Oasis’ recent albums seem to have had — this all makes for a rather promising start.4. “The Shock of the Lightning”
Dive bomber sounds give way to a sharp rat-at-ating from whoever fills the drum stool on these recordings (it seems unclear), before one of those battles between blugeoning guitars and Liam Gallagher’s voice that marked Oasis’ 1990s arrival begins. It’s the sound of the band going back to where they began, bombastic and aspirational — “love is a time machine / up on the silver screen” — with a Beatles tic thrown in for good measure. There’s a good keyboard breakdown before a fill you’d never have got from Tony McCarroll or Alan White, and we’re clobbered with the full force of the track’s core yet again. This sounds like it could have fitted in on Definitely Maybe or (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, an assured, ballsy stodge for men in raincoats to swagger down the road to. Actually, it is quite a lot like “Rock & Roll Star.”5. “I’m Outta Time”
And then, oh dear, a ballad. By Liam. Dedicated to John Lennon. This has been produced to within an inch of its life, the musical equivalent at that shockingly airbrushed NME cover of last week. Not really much to say more than that, except that it keeps trying to become “A Day in the Life” and the overall effect is that of Jeff Lynne’s re-imagining of the Beatles. Oasis can do two ballads — the sort for blokes to hug to after a they’ve had a skinful, and the sort that said blokes use to apologise to their missus the morning after, and this fits neither. It’s telling that this is the track that Liam penned in tribute to his hero John Lennon, a man more than capable of mawkish platitudes and balladeering insincerity.6. “(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady”
Yet another shocking title (what’s it about, those who criticised Noel’s Best Groups Ever list for its lack of female artists?) for a track that sees Oasis strip things down to a rattle and a-handclap and slamming draws, a flick of bluesy guitar and Noel singing through effects… so he sounds like Liam. You get the impression Oasis probably think that this is their take on Tom Waits. It isn’t, of course, it sounds like Phil Collins’ “That’s All,” which is an interesting way to innovate, for sure.7. “Falling Down”
Fucking hell, this one starts off sounding like Ride. Part of the great shame of Andy Bell spoiling late period Ride by turning them into an audition tape for Oasis was the instant demotion of the natural guitarist to bass as soon as he joined the ranks of the Mancs. He’s not credited as a songwriter here, but still, it’s even got some proper shoegazing lyrics, “catch the wind that breaks the butterflies,” things like that. Noel calls this “krautpop” and says it’s the song that he’s been wanting to write for years. Why didn’t you then, Parker? It displays Oasis’ canny knack for hiding a good chorus amidst the skittish drums and strings, far better used here than the usual Oasis trick of bunging them on as an “emotive” afterthought.8. “To Be Where There’s Life”
Gem Archer (formerly of Heavy Stereo) channels George Harrison’s patchouli ghoul via the sitar for this slow-burner. An Oasis track without guitars? What’s the world coming to! The result is actually a lot less hackneyed than you might expect, creating the kind of burbling under-the-surface epic atmospherics that The Verve used to manage before they, er, tried to be Oasis. To be where there’s life? For once, it can be found in a new Oasis album.9. “Ain’t Got Nothin’”
Another humdinger of a title with that double negative, and a fairly standard Who-influenced rocker penned by Liam. There’s some harmonica and furious bluster here and there, while the melody takes a bit of a strange wander. There’s also the problem that rhyming “fuse” and “lose,” “groove” and “prove” always provokes a cringe when delivered in Liam’s taut whine.10. “The Nature of Reality”
Oasis get philosophical, though the music hardly aspires to intellectual heights. It starts with shaken maracas before settling into a bit of a blues plod, one-two drums and a vaguely glammy riff as Liam muses that “the nature of reality / is pure subjective fantasy.” Someone on an Oasis messageboard isn’t happy about this, though; “the one thing great about Oasis is that they aren’t poetic saps like Bono or Chris Martin, and keep things simple and write songs that people can easily relate to,” thunders one Notorious L4E. Could this be a problem for Oasis in Dig Out Your Soul? While their attempts to push their envelope might tickle the ears of a few post 1997 defectors, one imagines they’re unlikely to win any new converts. Moreover, does the distinct lack of beery rockers or lighter wavers on this album risk alienating the more dunderheaded elements of their fanbase?11. “Soldier On”
Don’t be put off by the fact that The Coral found this on a hard drive at a studio used by Oasis, and none of the band could remember writing it until Andy Bell found it on his iPod. “Soldier On” is a sinuous and languid affair with melodica and multi-tracked echoing vocals, a pleasing counterpoint to the bluster of “Bag It Up” and a neat finish to a surprisingly good album.I had expected, if truth be told, that getting through Dig Out Your Soul enough times to review it might have required the perseverance of a porridge taster. There’s no shock of the new, of course, more a shock that Oasis have managed to climb up the wall at the end of their cul-de-sac to see what interesting pastures might lie beyond. Even if you can’t help but wish they’d done this ten years ago after Morning Glory, credit where credit is due: by and large, Dig Out Your Soul, is a refreshing listen, both the sound of Oasis rediscovering some of the spirit that made them great, and attempting — finally — something different.
~ Luke Turner
This album is really growing on me. Nice of the lads in the band to break things down for each track off of Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends. Stream the album here if you haven’t heard it yet, below you’ll find the breakdowns, via MTV:
“Life in Technicolor”
Guy Berryman (bass): We always had it in mind that we were going to start the record with that instrumental melody. And what’s interesting about the song is that there’s actually a full-song version with singing on it, and when we came to putting the album together, it didn’t really work in the sequence of songs, but we felt strongly that it should start with this piece of music. So that’s why we ended up using the first part of it, because that’s how we always intended it to be.
Chris Martin (vocals/piano): You’ll hear [the full-song version] at the end of our next record. The reason we wanted to start this record with an instrumental is to: A) do a good ringtone, which is what that song is, and B) not have to have too much singing everywhere. By your fourth album, people are sort of bored with the singer’s voice, you know?
Will Champion (drums): Jon Hopkins [who is credited as a co-writer] was a friend of Brian Eno’s, and he has this uncanny knack of being able to play any song. You can play him a bit of classical music once, and he’ll be able to play it back to you perfectly, from memory. He’s an incredibly talented guy, and Brian brought him in because I think he wanted to free up Chris from playing keyboards too much, so he could do other stuff.
Martin: What we’ve managed, cleverly, to do on this album is work with people who are much more talented than we are, and pass it off as our own.
“Cemeteries of London”
Martin: [This song] features our first use of handclaps on an album. But not the only time on this album.
Champion: The Spanish flamenco clapping is incredible when you hear it done properly, although ours is a very crude and English version of it. It’s like more of a golf clap — “Good par!” — or some seals.
“Lost!”
Berryman: This was one of the first songs we worked on for the record. … We were listening to a song called “Sing” by Blur, and I think we were in America somewhere —
Martin: Detroit.
Berryman: — in Detroit, and we were listening to that song in our dressing room. And we went on stage to do a soundcheck, and we were trying to write a song like that. And it’s sort of evolved in various ways and has lots of different versions of itself.
Martin: That’s often how we write, is we listen to something and we think it’s incredible, and we feel stupid for not having anything as good as that, so we go and try to play it. And then, of course, because we don’t know how to do that, we often come up with something new.
“42″
Martin: [Explaining the lyrics] Well, the whole record is — if it were a Notorious B.I.G. record, it’d be called Life and Death, it’s just that … maybe because we’ve had some people close to us who we’ve lost, but some miracles — we’ve got kids. So, life has been very extreme recently, and so both death and life pop up quite often. It’s called “42″ because it’s my favorite number. And I think it’s probably in Will’s top three favorite numbers too.
Champion: Yeah, 17 and 11 and then 42.
“Lovers in Japan” and “Reign of Love”
Martin: Guy and Will made the piano you hear on there.
Jonny Buckland: Wait, I did too!
Champion: We were in a studio in New York, this place called the Magic Shop, and it had this thing called a tack piano there, which sounds like an old honky-tonk piano, where you put little tacks in the hammers, so it sounds like more of a harpsichord almost. And so we wanted to use that kind of sound, but we didn’t have a tack piano, so rather than sample it, we went and bought an old piano from the shop up the road from our studio, and we bought a load of tacks, and me and Guy and Jon spent a couple of hours pushing tacks into the piano hammers.
Martin: The only thing is, now we don’t have anything to pin notes up with, so we have a lot of pieces of paper on the floor, and a beautiful piano.
“Yes” and “Chinese Sleep Chant”
Martin: Everyone was complaining to us about people not buying albums, so we thought maybe the reason people don’t want to buy music is because there’s not enough value for money. So we tried to add a bit of value [with the hidden track, “Chinese Sleep Chant”]. It’s as simple as that. It comes from the supermarket.
Champion: One of the main things we tried to focus on with this record is changing vocal identities, because Chris has a very recognizable voice. Just the idea that you can totally change the sound of a song and the sound of a band, just by treating the vocals a different way. So in a song like “Yes,” Chris is singing in a lot lower register, and then in “Chinese Sleep Chant,” it’s drowned in reverb, and he’s trapped behind all these guitars.
“Viva la Vida”
Martin: I think everything we’re trying to do at the moment is about not starting again so much as breaking down what we’ve built up before and trying to build something different and hopefully better, or worse in a good way. And this song is one of our favorites, because none of us are doing anything on it that we’ve ever done before. But we really enjoy playing it. The longer you go on as a band, the harder it is to surprise yourself.
“Violet Hill”
Berryman: It was one of the older songs we had been working on, and we had sort of moved it to one side from the list of songs that were going to be on the record. And there’s this secret fifth member of the group, [manager] Phil Harvey, and he really championed it, as well as a few other people, so quite rightfully so, we dragged it back into the short list. And we had great fun making the video for that song in Sicily, on top of Mount Etna.
Martin: We made two videos for that song; the other one’s on the Internet, which is our favorite video we’ve ever made. We just thought it was funny that in the run-up to elections, everybody dances. … And we thought, “Wouldn’t it be great to make a video of just politicians dancing?” So we did.
“Strawberry Swing”
Champion: Those are actually Brian [Eno’s] handclaps at the beginning of that song, and —
Martin: If you listen very closely, you can hear him complaining about the tempo at the beginning of that song.
Champion: That’s mostly what he does, complain about tempos.
Martin: [In a booming Brian Eno voice] “Oh, that’s much too fast.”
“Death and All His Friends” and “The Escapist”
Martin: Well, this is supposed to be the theme of the album, really. We’re aware of all the bad stuff in life, you know — i.e. Death and all his friends — but that doesn’t mean you should ever give in to it, you know? So we all sing that bit together really loudly, as kind of a message to ourselves: never giving up and never focusing on the bad stuff too much.
PLAY
