Interesting Hotpress editor comments

[quiv]

Well, I'm genuinely glad that you and others enjoy the lyrics, and I'm sure Bono and the band like them. For me, they pale in comparison to a lot of Bono's other writing, and just seem trite.

It's interesting to me that as Bono ages, his lyrics have become more youthful. For example, some of his Joshua Tree lyrics sound as though they were written by a wise old wizard, passing along ancient knowledge, while his more recent lyrics are very in-the-moment, complete with contemporary slang, time-stamps, and nursery-rhyme couplets ("a mole! digging in a hole! digging up my soul!")

Personally, I prefer the wise-old, younger Bono

Maybe it's harder to take yourself so seriously the longer you live?

It's only rock-n-roll... bro

 

[Rachel D.]

Well, I'm genuinely glad that you and others enjoy the lyrics, and I'm sure Bono and the band like them. For me, they pale in comparison to a lot of Bono's other writing, and just seem trite.

It's interesting to me that as Bono ages, his lyrics have become more youthful. For example, some of his Joshua Tree lyrics sound as though they were written by a wise old wizard, passing along ancient knowledge, while his more recent lyrics are very in-the-moment, complete with contemporary slang, time-stamps, and nursery-rhyme couplets ("a mole! digging in a hole! digging up my soul!")

Personally, I prefer the wise-old, younger Bono

I've thought the same thing. It's almost like Bono is getting more conversational with his lyrics and is using less formal wording. That has its place, but it does seem a little less poetic than what he used to do. Maybe it has something to do with being a parent and/or getting older.

 

[standrums]

I've thought the same thing. It's almost like Bono is getting more conversational with his lyrics and is using less formal wording. That has its place, but it does seem a little less poetic than what he used to do. Maybe it has something to do with being a parent and/or getting older.

I think some of his earlier lyrics could be a bit pretentious and pious at times

 

[PowerSurge]

Well, I'm genuinely glad that you and others enjoy the lyrics, and I'm sure Bono and the band like them. For me, they pale in comparison to a lot of Bono's other writing, and just seem trite.

It's interesting to me that as Bono ages, his lyrics have become more youthful. For example, some of his Joshua Tree lyrics sound as though they were written by a wise old wizard, passing along ancient knowledge, while his more recent lyrics are very in-the-moment, complete with contemporary slang, time-stamps, and nursery-rhyme couplets ("a mole! digging in a hole! digging up my soul!")

Personally, I prefer the wise-old, younger Bono

Funny, because I find a lot of his earlier lyrics to be unnecessarily vague and preachy. To each his own I guess.

I find the lyrics on the new single to be a step up from just about anything on the last album so we may be in for a treat.

 

[Utoo]

Well, I'm genuinely glad that you and others enjoy the lyrics, and I'm sure Bono and the band like them. For me, they pale in comparison to a lot of Bono's other writing, and just seem trite.

It's interesting to me that as Bono ages, his lyrics have become more youthful. For example, some of his Joshua Tree lyrics sound as though they were written by a wise old wizard, passing along ancient knowledge, while his more recent lyrics are very in-the-moment, complete with contemporary slang, time-stamps, and nursery-rhyme couplets ("a mole! digging in a hole! digging up my soul!")

Personally, I prefer the wise-old, younger Bono

I've often wondered if part of it is that throughout the JT-Achtung period, he was reading good material. Poetry, prose, all written by famous and barely known people. I've wondered if his writing in the 00s, especially on Bomb, suffered because a larger proportion of his reading in this time period consisted of facts & figures related to Africa, DATA, etc. Much more literal stuff floating around in his mind = much more literal lyrics.

The one thing that speaks against that is that Bono has said in recent years that he thinks that his writing has improved, that the beautiful stuff from the UF through JT and maybe even AB era was too dreamy and nonspecific. If he really thinks that way, I think it's a huge shame. He's definitely improved from his Boy, October, and even War writing, but I'd argue that he made that huge leap with UF onward.

We've had reports since Bomb came out that he's been reading some good stuff again, so hopefully we'll get a nice treat this time around. While portions of GOYB have a trace of Bomb-style writing, a lot of GOYB seems to really show some more layers than we've had recently. Me likey.