User:Melicans/Sandbox

'''Welcome to my sandbox. You likely got here by mistake, or by random chance, but in any case please don't vandalize it. This is where I make test edits for new edits/to improve articles in need of heavy work. If you came to know a bit more about me, I'm afraid you're out of luck. The best place for that is my userpage. I'll always respond to any comments on my talk page, so feel free to get in touch with me there. Cheers!

Random links

 * Lillywhite interview on "Vertigo"

Songs of Ascent
Songs of Ascent is the provisional title for the upcoming thirteenth studio album by the Irish rock band U2. In an interview posted on 15 February 2009 with Sean O'Hagan of The Guardian, Bono stated that U2 would release another album by the end of the year consisting of material recorded during the No Line on the Horizon sessions, and that it will be "a more meditative album on the theme of pilgrimage". The album is intended to be a sister release to No Line on the Horizon in the same way that Zooropa was to Achtung Baby. The first single is intended to be "Every Breaking Wave", one of the final tracks to be cut from No Line on the Horizon.


 * RS notes
 * USA Today info

Other (ongoing) sandboxes

 * "Beautiful Day"
 * PopMart Sarajevo (Preserved as archive of original version)
 * Passengers
 * Chobits
 * "Two Hearts Beat as One"
 * "Kite"
 * "Heartland"

U2 360° Tour "Reception" links

 * National Post attendence figures, Q&A with McGuinness
 * Live Daily Giants Stadium record more than Pope
 * USA Today on building

Original Soundtracks 1 info

 * NME interview
 * jazzthetik interview (German magazine)
 * 1994 news archive
 * 1995 news archive (Part 1)
 * 1995 news archive (Part 2)
 * 1996 news archive
 * U2 by U2
 * Stories Behind Every Song
 * 25 years
 * Best of U2 magazine
 * Interview (Part 1 from Promo)
 * Interview (Part 2 from Promo)

Song articles to write for
After "Stand Up Comedy" and "Fez", from No Line on the Horizon that leaves:
 * "No Line on the Horizon"
 * "Moment of Surrender"
 * "Cedars of Lebanon"
 * "Winter"


 * Others I'd like to try and find information on for writing
 * "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)"
 * "City of Blinding Lights"
 * "Beautiful Day"
 * "Acrobat"
 * "Miracle Drug"
 * "Walk On"
 * "Always Forever Now"

Cedars of Lebanon
"Cedars of Lebanon" is a song by Irish rock band U2 and the eleventh track on their 2009 album No Line on the Horizon.

Writing and recording
"Cedars of Lebanon" was written from the perspective of a journalist covering a war overseas. The song's melody was based on a sample of "Against the Sky", a track Eno and Lanois had collaborated on with Harold Budd for the 1984 album The Pearl, with the band noting that the ambience of the song was "like a direct throwback to the early 80s". The final verse is a condemnation of the Iraq War.

Acrobat
"Acrobat" is a song by rock band U2 and the eleventh track from their 1991 album Achtung Baby.

Writing and recording
U2's approach to recording Achtung Baby had been to "throw out" all that they knew, to work with music they didn't know, in a place (Berlin) that they didn't know, and to re-arrange roles and responsibilities within the band. This was an alienating experience for long-time collaborator and producer Daniel Lanois, particularly on recording "Acrobat". Bono described him as trying get the band to play to their strengths while Bono was trying to experiment and play to their weaknesses.

Composition
It features $12/8$ time signature and has The Edge playing a heavily distorted tremolo.

Lyrically, it is one of the most personal on Achtung Baby with Bono acknowledging personal weakness, contradictions, and inadequacy. Bono's long standing friend, artist Gavin Friday, suggests its chorus "Don't let the bastards grind you down" is aimed at the press.

The theme of moral confusion was later used in U2's song "Zooropa" from the 1993 album of the same name. The coda in "Zooropa" features the lyric "dream out loud", which Bono included as a reference to "Acrobat". The phrase "dream out loud" was first used by Bono during the Lovetown Tour in 1989, and has appeared several times in U2's work since then, including the song "Always" — a B-side to the "Beautiful Day" single released in 2000 — and being spoken by Bono in the PopMart: Live from Mexico City concert release.

Reception
The Kitchener Record felt that the song added to the band's "tremendous presence", saying that it showed the band's commitment to each individual song and that it "indicates a very clear evolution in Bono's lyricism and the band's clear artistic focus."

During the fifth episode of the fifteenth series of Top Gear, presentor Jeremy Clarkson used "Acrobat" in his film commemorating the life of the late Formula One champion Ayrton Senna. The piece was set against a montage of Senna duelling with Nigel Mansell, including their close battle in the final laps of the 1992 Monaco Grand Prix.

In the book Reading Rock and Roll, Robyn Brothers compared the song to "Zooropa", stating that both reference a response to uncertainty and an unavoidable feeling of alienation.

Always Forever Now
"Always Forever Now" is a song by Passengers, a group composed of rock band U2 and producer Brian Eno. It is the fourth track on the group's only release, the 1995 album Original Soundtracks 1.

Writing and recording
U2 and producer Brian Eno formed Passengers as a side-project during the preliminary recording sessions for U2's 1997 album, Pop. Their intention was to record a soundtrack for Peter Greenaway's 1996 film The Pillow Book as a warm-up before the Pop sessions proper. Though the plan did not come to fruition, Eno suggested that they continue recording for imaginary films. U2 were unsure of the idea at first, but agreed after Eno told them that producing radio hits was not the goal of the collaboration.

U2 had frequently improvised in the past, and during the Original Soundtracks 1 sessions they engaged in free-form jamming to video clips from various films. Eno stated, "Listening to the original improvisations as they came off the floor, you feel the excitement of the process ... You have to be careful not to disturb the organic flow of the thing." The group brought in producer Howie B to record and mix some of the tracks after several hours of jam sessions had been recorded.

Part of the group's intent in creating Original Soundtracks 1 had been to make a "night-time" record. Lead vocalist Bono said, "It feels like it's been set on the bullet train in Tokyo. Every record has a location, a place where you enjoy listening to it, whether that be a bedroom or a club, well this record location is a fast train. It's slo-mo music though. But it has an odd sense of speed in the background." He also noted that when creating works for soundtracks, the visual suggestion from the music is more important than the story told by the lyrics. With this in mind, the band had tried to create "visual music" when recording, continuing a trend that began with their 1993 song "Zooropa".

Reception
===Notes===

Category:1995 songs Category:Songs written by Brian Eno Category:U2 songs

Pop

 * MTV reflection

Rose Bowl

 * Reuters/Hollywood Reporter