The Edge: “Album by end of this summer"

[MLP Midnight]

Vanilla Mercy is a good way of putting the original leaked Mercy. It's about as interesting and bland as vanilla.

If my favorite ice cream flavor is vanilla, does that say something about me?

[Sir Ken]

if Mercy is Vanilla I don't know what OSC is  love ya Droo

It's hard to judge the acoustic ones as they could go any way full band, but I was a HUGE fan of the lyrics of EBW and thought that North Star had potential if it were expanded upon. Glastonbury felt like it was version 0.8 of a song; it was good and it had the potential to be a GREAT rock song in there but it wasn't there yet and was very unfinished as it was.

I agree with EBW and North Star. I think they need to keep with Glaso. redo some of the lyrics cause the music was great

[jick]

No chance the album will be released this year.

It is poetic irony though that the master of guitar delays has just predicted the release date of an album which will surely be delayed from the original declared date.

Cheers,

J

Jick, there's no need for you to constantly come onto the forum just to remind people that you THINK there's "no chance the album will be released this year."

I obviously don't know Jick/Jovi, but I can only hope that the album DOES get released this year and we can all place a big ole plate of crow in front of him/her...

I'm a him.

And I'd love to have a big plate of crow in front of me. Being a U2 fanatic, the sooner the album gets released the more happy I will become.  But it's just not going to happen.

I have also been putting a big ole plate of crow in front of all the hopeful who really believe "Songs of Ascent" was going to be released in the middle of the tour like some sort of Zooropa. I knew that never had a chance of happening.

Cheers,

J

[JTBaby]

If mercy is vanilla then Osc is dirty dishwater sorbet

[johno11]

New album won't be out until June 2014 

[MLP Midnight]

New album won't be out until June 2014 

Says who??

[The Unknown Caller]

No chance the album will be released this year.

It is poetic irony though that the master of guitar delays has just predicted the release date of an album which will surely be delayed from the original declared date.

Cheers,

J

Jick, there's no need for you to constantly come onto the forum just to remind people that you THINK there's "no chance the album will be released this year."

I obviously don't know Jick/Jovi, but I can only hope that the album DOES get released this year and we can all place a big ole plate of crow in front of him/her...

I'm a him.

And I'd love to have a big plate of crow in front of me. Being a U2 fanatic, the sooner the album gets released the more happy I will become.  But it's just not going to happen.

I have also been putting a big ole plate of crow in front of all the hopeful who really believe "Songs of Ascent" was going to be released in the middle of the tour like some sort of Zooropa. I knew that never had a chance of happening.

Cheers,

J

Yeah, or like when you promised us all that EBTTRT would never be used again as the opener after the first time they played it, or how you assured everyone that IALW would definitely not be dropped like three shows before it was, or how you told us U2 wouldn't play any songs they hadn't already played on 360 in 2011, or assured us that they wouldn't play Zooropa live, or play Moment of Surrender at Glastonbury or... etc etc etc.

Perhaps your prognosticative scales are better this time.

[Droo]

if Mercy is Vanilla I don't know what OSC is  love ya Droo

One Step Closer at least has great lyrics, as opposed to the meandering and pointless Mercy. Not since Elvis Presley & America has Bono used so many words to say nothing.

[acr0bat]

if Mercy is Vanilla I don't know what OSC is  love ya Droo

One Step Closer at least has great lyrics, as opposed to the meandering and pointless Mercy. Not since Elvis Presley & America has Bono used so many words to say nothing.

Wow, I love Mercy.

[So Cruel]

if Mercy is Vanilla I don't know what OSC is  love ya Droo

One Step Closer at least has great lyrics, as opposed to the meandering and pointless Mercy. Not since Elvis Presley & America has Bono used so many words to say nothing.

I like One Step Closer but I think Mercy is possibly the best song they've done since Achtung Baby and to say Bono is saying nothing in it probably means you haven't given it much of a chance.

Mercy to me is one of Bono's most spiritual lyrics.

This is my interpretation:

The person starts disillusioned with God/religion and has a conversation with Jesus.

"You wanted violins and you got Nero" is a brilliant line. It's basically the subject saying to Jesus you wanted everything to be good (the violins) but look what you got (Nero was the emporer when Rome burned. The burning indicates war, death, etc). He's basically pissed at the world and at God and is letting Jesus know how he feels.

You can then look at this as a conversation:

Jesus: You're gravity searching for the ground, You're silence searching for a sound ,Your heart is aching, your heart is my home
Person: It's fascinating, I know Ill never be alone
Jesus: If you hunger, baby let me feed it, If your heart is full, baby let me bleed it, And happiness is for those who don't really need it
Person: You love me too much, You always love me too much
Jesus: Love has got to be with the weak ,Only then love gets a chance to speak, Love will come again, I'll be gone again
Person: I, I can't escape myself, I'll hear you talk,
Jesus: Fear nothing
Person: I fear nothing
Jesus: Love is the end of history, The enemy of misery, Love is come again, I am gone again, Love is justice, not charity
Love brings with it a clarity, Love is come again
Person: I'm alive again, Alive, I am alive,  Baby, I'm born again

The line that is confusing is the "i'll be gone again", but what I think that means is that Jesus is saying he will come in times of need but we need to step up and help each other also.

Mercy is like many U2 songs in that it can be interpreted in many ways, but I hardly think Mercy is pointless or Bono "using many words to say nothing."

 
 

[_acrobat]

Mercy is overly long, lyrically mediocre and cliched, and boring. I wouldn't even want them to waste a b side on it with songs like EBW an North Star begging to be released. Just my opinion.

[Droo]

Presenting Mercy as having an explicitly churchy interpretation isn't going to do anything to make me like it any more.

It's just Bono rattling on about hearts and love yet AGAIN for six agonizingly dull and overly familiar minutes, if you ask me.

[goldtoad]

I think this year is a pretty good bet :-)

Me too. I mean, aside from the fact that it will have been 4 and a half years since NLOTH (with the gaps between the last few albums suggesting that we're due a new album in late 2013), if they delay the album beyond 2013, i don't think they'll do another spring release, meaning they'd have to wait until the end of 2014.

And i like to think that even u2 thinks that 5 and a half years between albums is pushing it, and would only serve to make the general public even less aware that u2 are still around. Given they need a 'come back' record, it's in their best interests to not just have good material, but to get it out there sooner rather than later.

I think they're probably working with 2013 in mind not just because it's time, but because if they fail to release something by then, they might well have to wait another year.

Yes, I don't understand the pessimism... February, 2014 will be 5 years since NLOTH.  It is not like they are just starting to work on the album now. They have been working on the Danger Mouse album for months. Larry and The Edge both seem to be happy with what they have so far and both say they want to release it before the end of this year.

I know the last 10% of a U2 album can take months, but it is only January, so they have a few months to finish it this year. 

[Pasha]

Presenting Mercy as having an explicitly churchy interpretation isn't going to do anything to make me like it any more.

It's just Bono rattling on about hearts and love yet AGAIN for six agonizingly dull and overly familiar minutes, if you ask me.

There's no mention of church in So Cruel's interpretation. Jesus and church are not the same thing by any stretch. In fact if you read the gospels you will find that Jesus is VERY critical of religious people (i.e the Pharisees). Religious people in churches today behave exactly the same way that the Pharisees in the gospels did. Give Jesus another chance I say. And if you want to fully understand Bono's lyrics you simply can't write Jesus off, his lyrics in sooo many songs are laced with the person of Jesus.

[The Unknown Caller]

I found the original Mercy to be somewhere between mediocre and average, and the new one to be pretty good. I realise this puts me in a minority. The old one was way too padded, didn't sound at all finished and had those cringeworthy bridges which have thankfully been removed from the newer. (Sorry, but "You wanted violins and you got Nero" just reeks of Bono desperately trying to be clever and failing horribly)