What’s In A Name?
It’s taken me a lot longer than I thought it would to accept the name of the U2.com member renewal CD, Artifical Horizon. It make me think of things like “Reenacted War” and “Fake Plastic Joshua Trees” (yes, nod to Radiohead there) as the title first seemd to be a way to distinguish the “real” release, No Line on the Horizon from the fan club only release. Much like Melon is another type of fruit and it came out around the time of U2’s “Lemon” craze.
But, after it sinking in and doing a few Google searches for what artificial horizon actually is, it suddenly seemed to make sense…but it’s kind of like a knock-knock joke. If you have to explain the punchline, then you’ve lost the person on the other end of the joke.
For those @U2 readers who were like me, I’ll save you the hassle of looking it up. Artifical horizon is also known as an “attitude indicator” in aviation. Not that we have to check our attitudes at the door, but rather it’s something pilots use to orient their aircraft relative to Earth. In other words, it lets the pilots understand where they are in relation to horizon. So, if there is “no line on the horizon,” the plane is not pitched or banked towards it. Artificial horizon is also used when pilots need to use instrument meteorlogical conditions, which occurs when weather, cloud cover, or darkness dictates they fly “blind” or by using their instrument panels only.
I find the fan club CD title brilliant because of what has transpired over the past year. While No Line on the Horizon made many critics happy, it was not embraced by the record buying public. If you were to gauge success on the instrument panels - or in this case, No Line on the Horizon’s record sales and number one hits - U2 wouldn’t be anywhere near parellel with their artificial horizon. On the other hand, the band seems to be happy with the creativity and the art expressed on the album and are doing the best they can to downplay the sales quandry and lack of chart success.
So, while at first I saw the album title as merely an “artificial” horizon, full of remixes of songs that don’t even appear on their latest release - like a “remixed best of 2000-2010″ - perhaps it’s their own way of banking and pitching themselves, much like an aircraft, to reorient the U2 brand back to what it was like earlier in this decade. Either way, I’m looking forward to receiving it from Fanfire.
Last 4 posts by U2isABLE
- Busking on Christmas Eve & Driving to Midnight Mass - December 24th, 2009
- Decade of U2 - December 18th, 2009
- Rock Hall Closes the Annex - December 5th, 2009
- Oh, Sod It! - December 2nd, 2009
5 Responses to “What’s In A Name?”
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“While No Line on the Horizon made many critics happy, it was not embraced by the record buying public.”
Isn’t the album one of the top sellers this year worldwide? Our local news station reported on the top five best selling albums and it was Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Black Eyed Peas, U2 and Susan Boyle.
Compared to previous albums things may be way down, but the entire record biz is in a dive right now. Plus the economy is the worst off it’s been for any recent U2 release.
I don’t know, having one of the top selling records of the year certainly points towards the album being embraced by the record buying public. It just seems to me that there’s a lot less of the public buying albums in general…
As I’ve said elsewhere, for what may be an insight into the calm inside the chaos (”There’s a part of me in the chaos that’s quiet”), impending death, the deceptiveness of time and lifespan, having lost the horizon, no end in sight, see: http://www.gladwell.com/2000/2000_08_21_a_choking.htm
The fan club disc name ties in nicely.
U2Wanderer - perhaps I should have been a bit more specific in stating the album sales in the U.S. Looking at the Billboard charts for 2009, U2 didn’t place in the top 10:
For the Top 200 Artist list, U2 ranked 19th. The Black Eyed Peas and Kings of Leon ranked higher than U2.
For the Top 200 Album list, U2 ranked 18th. Britney Spears’ Circus ranked higher than U2. (As did the Peas and KOL).
For the Hot 100 artists chart, U2 didn’t even rank in the top 100. This is based on airplay and sales for the year.
The Hot Radio Songs list, U2 didn’t rank here either.
Hot Digital Songs chart - same here…U2 didn’t rank.
Top Digital Album Artists - ranked number 9, behind BEP, Kanye West, and Kings of Leon. (Michael Jackson was number 1).
Top Digital Album Chart - No Line on the Horizon ranked #12. The Essential Michael Jackson was higher than U2, as were Kanye, BEP, and KOL.
The Canadian Top Album list on Billboard ranked NLOTH at 18.
The European Top 100 Album list on Billboard ranked NLOTH the highest at #5.
The ongoing theme in the United States is that artists who have opened for U2 on the past two tours outranked U2 in 2009 in a variety of ways. Sales and airplay rotation were not U2’s friends in 2009.
Looking at the U2360 tour, we know that U2 can still sell out stadiums, but we have also found that many in the stadium did not react in the same way to the new material than to the old. The fact that band members were pointing fingers about NLOTH’s sales figures back in October through the pages of Rolling Stone said to me that their instrument panel’s artificial horizon (to borrow the term) wasn’t exactly what the pilot(s) thought it was.
I agree that the music biz is struggling, but new U2 music just wasn’t played on the radio. After the band tried to court radio folks during their March promotional pitch for NLOTH, it broke my heart to not hear the band’s music on the radio in a major city that loves this band. At least…not in the heavy rotation I’d expect to hear it in. During the week or so leading up to area concerts, the U2 songs played on the radio weren’t from NLOTH - they were the usual fan favorites like NYD, WOWY, Mysterious Ways, Beautiful Day.
So, given all of that, it’s really a hard for me to read the quote from The Edge where he said to David Fricke “I can’t think that things will change radically for us.”
Staying relevant is key for this band. Well, that’s one of the key quotes the band gives…that and that the guitarist is on fire. Yes, their tour sold well, but looking at album sales, something has to change to get those sales. Either the band has to create more radio-friendly songs, create songs that have a better 30-second sales pitch for those who cherry-pick tracks to download, the music biz has to do more to promote U2, or they continue to do what they want to do and don’t apologize or point fingers as to why sales aren’t where they are - they can remain steadfast and proud of the art they’ve created.
It bothered me that they were second guessing themselves a mere 7 months (technically earlier than that given when the interview was given vs. the time it went to print) and pointing fingers about why NLOTH didn’t fare as well as their other releases - including Pop. At this point, they still want to finish off Pop, yet there’s Pop remixes on Artificial Horizon. So, if that’s how they’re feeling about Pop, I have to wonder if they feel that NLOTH still feels unfinished.
Anyway, thanks for leaving a comment =)
Interesting little debate this.
There are many parallels between NLOTH and Pop. Both sold well worldwide, but neither got the expected traction in the US.
I like Gavin Friday’s explanation for Pop’s US failure in the U2 SHOW book. He reckons America wasn’t ready for Pop in 1997, but in 2003 would have lapped it up. Listening to Pop today - it has held up surprisingly well. I don’t care that the band have basically disowned it (See U2 by U2)
NLOTH seems to be taking the same life. The biggest difference is in 1997 the US & UK press - after initial favourable reviews - mocked the band a bit. None of that happened this year. U2 still got general good live and record reviews.
Hopefully this will allow the band to keep faith in the record. Good sales do not make a great record. Unfortunately the band sees sales as relevance.
This post is a waste of time, 1’s and 0s. What happened to the atU2 that I used to check every day for quality, thoughtful posts? Pointless navel-gazing. Self-righteous, but uninformed schlock. Bad grammar. Poor punctuation. Fail!