U2 Duals Tracklisting

[hmtmkmkm]

I'm bummed that in my first year of subscribing (2010), I got Artificial Horizon and I hate remixes – god help them if their new album in May is some club music thing like Paul McGuinness has said they might do. And now Duals comes out and I may have to resubscribe to actually get this one, seeing as it's a new year. I get their emails about it but I don't even think I'm valid for it, considering it's a new year. Considering their past releases are rarer than tits on a bull to find online and then you're paying upwards of $250 for Hasta or Zoo TV... bah. I chose the wrong bloody time to subscribe. Pitfalls of trying to be a completest...

I wasn't aware they had recorded other Zoo TV and Popmart Shows. I'd say the only hope there is for them is if they include them in any future remasters. Surely Achtung Baby! is due in its 20th Anniversary year?

Thanks for the U2.com link, Aaron. Read through all of it and joined in the chorus of displeasure.

[MDuchek]

I think each subscription gets you one CD, so even if you recently subscribed and got a CD, you won't get the next CD unless you pay for another year.

[hmtmkmkm]

Then fortunately for me, this CD won't be very expensive on ebay shortly after the deliveries are made.

[Aaron]

i really think they threw out the concept of the album way too early.  "oh hey. we're gonna do a full album of duets.  we will get it pressed sometime next year. but hey it's september and we want your money, and know codes will bring in more of you than will the cd.  we'll figure that out later".

only thing is the concept is so limiting.  how much of the older stuff has been captured live?  and how much of it would need to be cleared to put out there on this album?  how hard are you going to bother doing the legal work to get clearances, when it's just a fan club cd.

i think the concept was announced, and then they had to live up to it.  and we get the sad stuff they already have clearance to use...

[MDuchek]

If you watch the Joshua Tree classic albums you'll see footage from 8/27/92 with Daniel Lanois performing ISHFWILF (by the way would have been a great duet for the DUALS album).  If you watch the Miss Sarajevo doc there is some 1993 European footage.  Can't help but wonder what they have stored away.  Yet for the most part they release stuff for these CDs that has already been out.  Disappointing.

[morgan1098]

Part of the blurb on U2.com sounds pretty defensive, no doubt due to all the criticism being put forth in various forums:

"A few of the fifteen tracks have featured on studio albums, but many have had only limited previous availability and some are released here for the first time.

We think it's a pretty special collection and with the finished CD now in production, we'll be emailing qualifying subscribers with details of delivery times as soon as we have them."

The comment on "studio albums" makes me think that we probably won't get unique or unreleased mixes of When Love Comes to Town, Wanderer, etc.  Just the same stuff you can get on the regular albums.

And the comment about the "finished CD now in production" means you can forget about them listening to all the fan feedback and correcting the situation.  It's a done deal.

[Carl]

For a casual - I like U2 and got a fan-club remembership for the concert tickets to see them once or twice before they retire and get some swag it seems solid... honestly I can't think of too many bands out of the ones I listen to where I would have every soundtrack/collaboration appearance - WLCTT seems a bit much, but perhaps that's to draw in the younger crowd to their old material, who knows.  The Ronnie Drew song was a pleasant include.

I suppose just keep in mind that U2 is a brand as well as a band - I mean it's awesome they've been playing unreleased material, but the setlist is still a bunch of a-sides (though less so than before) with a few 'rarer' songs etc thrown in for the faithful.

[MDuchek]

I understand your point but it's still a pretty unappealing collection.  WLCTT is even on Best of 80-90 so even many casual fans would have it, I bet.  But overall just seems pretty random.  Some of the tracks are actually Bono (not U2) and the "Drunk Chicken" is a curiosity that shouldn't be on any compilation outside of the JT deluxe.

I'm sure there's no alternate mix of WLCTT though they did recently do it again with BB King (Bono/Edge) so that would be cool (it's on YouTube).

Speaking of, I wonder what the Rattle and Hum re-release will be like.  Unreleased R&H (i.e., Joshua Tree leg 3 era) footage?  Lovetown show?  Stuff from the premier era?  A package including the R&H film itself?

I've often wondered if video from 11/7/87 exists.  But I bet they'd focus instead on Lovetown.

And what about "disc 2"  This would be the first one where, if you count all the long promo-only remixes, where I don't think you would be able to fit everything on CD.

[Aaron]

I understand your point but it's still a pretty unappealing collection.  WLCTT is even on Best of 80-90 so even many casual fans would have it, I bet.  But overall just seems pretty random.  Some of the tracks are actually Bono (not U2) and the "Drunk Chicken" is a curiosity that shouldn't be on any compilation outside of the JT deluxe.

I'm sure there's no alternate mix of WLCTT though they did recently do it again with BB King (Bono/Edge) so that would be cool (it's on YouTube).

Speaking of, I wonder what the Rattle and Hum re-release will be like.  Unreleased R&H (i.e., Joshua Tree leg 3 era) footage?  Lovetown show?  Stuff from the premier era?  A package including the R&H film itself?

I've often wondered if video from 11/7/87 exists.  But I bet they'd focus instead on Lovetown.

And what about "disc 2"  This would be the first one where, if you count all the long promo-only remixes, where I don't think you would be able to fit everything on CD.

Mike -- up next is supposedly a deluxe box of Achtung Baby.  When enquiring about that, I was told Rattle and Hum, Zooropa and Pop would probably only get a double CD along the lines of what we got for Boy, October, etc.  I looked over the R&H bsides, and promo stuff, and there's room on one cd to fit it all, including the three live tracks released on "Exceprts from Rattle and Hum", and that was including the 9:23 mix of Desire.  I expect to be underwhelmed with the Rattle and Hum release.

I don't think Rattle and Hum the movie can be released as part of this as it's under license to Paramount.  Which is one of the reasons everytime there's a new format out there, R&H shows up again.  U2 doesn't seem to have control over the movie release of this like they do their own DVDs, and audio cds.

[Aaron]

A few of the fifteen tracks have featured on studio albums, but many have had only limited previous availability and some are released here for the first time.

Oh u2.com i love how you edit old articles.

Released for first time?  (2)
Stranded (Hybrid Mix) if it is a new mix.
Sunday Bloody Sunday (Live with Jay-Z)

Studio Albums? (
The Wanderer
Falling at Your Feet
Miss Sarajevo
The Saints are Coming
One
When Love Comes to Town
Stuck in a Moment
I'm Not Your Baby

Limited Availability? (5)
Streets
Slow Dancing
Ballad of Ronnie Drew
Drunk Chicken
Amazing Grace

The majority of the album is songs from albums you can go out today and buy on itunes and any music store.  "I'm Not Your Baby" has been all over Sinead's solo compilations.  Falling at your Feet was on the M$H soundtrack which you can still find with some ease.  One was on a Mary J Blige best of so it's everywhere.

Limited availability?  Fine I'll list the Soweto stuff here.  But seriously, it's the Rose Bowl performance of those two songs with the Soweto Choir singing over top.  It's not u2 working with the choir.  It's someone mixing in the choir to an already existing U2 performance.  So seriously?  The u2 bits are pretty common.  And Drunk Chicken - well i'll call it limited, but it was on an album release.

They changed the wording around, but it still doesn't change the fact that this album is a crappy compilation for anyone who was hoping for things that were hard to find. 

You could go out tomorrow and find most of these tracks in a music store.

[morgan1098]

Mike -- up next is supposedly a deluxe box of Achtung Baby.  When enquiring about that, I was told Rattle and Hum, Zooropa and Pop would probably only get a double CD along the lines of what we got for Boy, October, etc.  I looked over the R&H bsides, and promo stuff, and there's room on one cd to fit it all, including the three live tracks released on "Exceprts from Rattle and Hum", and that was including the 9:23 mix of Desire.  I expect to be underwhelmed with the Rattle and Hum release.

I just hope they get around to the rest of the catalog before the CD format dies completely.  I'd be fine with the content you described for the R&H bonus disc, as I've never pulled the trigger on buying an expensive copy of "Excerpts from...".  At the same time, every 2-CD release thus far has had at least one previously unreleased/"from the vaults" type track, so I would hope they would include something like that on R&H.  They could use a shorter version of the Desire remix (we don't really need all the versions of that, do we?) in order to make room for previously unreleased material.

As for Duals, I think the backlash would have been less severe if U2.com had simply made the disc shorter and eliminated WLCTT, Miss Sarajevo, The Saints are Coming and The Wanderer.  No matter how exclusive the other material is (and in this case most of it isn't exclusive at all), putting album tracks on a release like this is a slap in the face.

[MDuchek]

So all the R&H b-sides, the shorter remixes, and the longer remixes would still clock in at under 80 minutes?  Must be close then.  The long remixes alone take up what almost 30 minutes?

As for AB, that will be interesting.  Clearly you can't fit all the remixes/b-sides on one CD.  But it would be cool to have them all compiled.  If you put them all on a Blu-ray disc, then you could do it.  And then there's the matter of the CHFIL Mystery Trail Dub, which is my personal holy grail that I'd love to have on CD.  But anyway...

As for a DVD/Bluray, if they were able to put on a full Outside Broadcast show with it, that would be truly awesome.  I don't see it happening, but then again I didn't see the JT deluxe happening either.

Zooropa?  Wonder if they have the Daddy's Remix.  An Oakenfold nut was going to send me a rare HQ recording of that.  Will have to get back to him.

[Brad]

As far as R&H is concerned, I'd much rather have the complete Sun Studios sessions than a disc of remixes.

[Aaron]

I'm with you Brad - as they move into the CD era where most of the bsides were released in that format, i wish they'd focus less on just compiling the bsides, and instead dig for some great rarities.  fill it out with some of the better bsides.

[MDuchek]

I would agree too.  I just noted that if they were going to continue to compile remixes, this one would have some pretty long ones.  Might seem like overkill, though I'm sure all the remixes of Two Hearts Beat as One seemed like overkill too.  Not sure about the Sun Studios sessions, I'd be more focused with having a Lovetown show, preferably leg 2.

Bruce Springsteen put out a great box set late last year for his 4th album, Darkness on the Edge of Town.  In that case he had a ton of old unfinished songs and put out 2 CDs worth of them.  Also included a full show from that legendary show, bonus videos, a recent performance of the full album and a documentary.  Pretty sweet.