Episode +16—Expectations
A new U2 album is…kind of imminent? Sometime this fall, it seems like? Decades-long fans have come to expect certain things when it comes to a U2 album release, and I’ve listed some of them here, along with alternative, “what if?” ideas that I hope the band will read and adopt. It’s not too late, guys!
I wrote the text for this Achtoon on May 24. I had other projects to finish before I could tackle this one, so my list languished on a Google Doc for a couple of months. In the meantime, U2 released a new single and video for “Street of Dreams.” A few of my predictions have already come true, and I’ve noted those below, but I promise nothing major has been spoiled yet…unless they beat me before I can post this and somehow release the album within the next couple of hours.
So! The left column lists my expectations for the new album, the middle one has my “what if?s”, and the right one has notes.
Back on May 24, I planned to close this with a flip-but-meaning-it message: now is the most dangerous time to be a U2 fan. Be very careful in your upcoming travels and everyday dealings and DO NOT DIE before the album is released. Because how disappointed would you be, lying on your deathbed, still waiting to hear this thing?
But then a couple of days ago, Glen Hansard died tragically in a motorcycle accident. And I think all of us who admired him and his music realized anew how fragile life is. We can’t ever take the lives of our four U2 members for granted, and I think sometimes we do because they’ve been part of our own lives for so long. We need to hold them in our hearts, be grateful that they’re still here, and protect them at all costs. Let’s all enjoy being surprised and disappointed and confused and delighted by them for as long as they want to be part of our world.
—Kelly, a.k.a. La Kelly de los Sueños
PS All images are watercolors by me, and they were based on screenshots from the “Street of Dreams” video. You can find prints of them here!