Zootlesque said:
Okay, fine. Maybe those 2 were bad examples. I'm just saying it seems they're having a hard time these days being totally spontaneous like a true artist. Everything on the last 2 albums sounds carefully calculated to please the maximum number of people possible. By spontaneous I mean something out of the ordinary like say, the bizarre Elvis Presley & America or a short strumalicious (yes I just made up that word )interlude like The Ocean or most of the insane Zooropa or certain songs on Pop like Velvet Dress that sound nothing like a U2 staple. Promenade is another good example. I highly doubt they felt safe releasing these songs to the public. It was a gamble and I'm sure it must have been exciting for them.
Pan to the 00s and you find Beautiful Day, Elevation, Stuck, Walk On, Kite, IALW etc. and Vertigo, COBL, ABOY, Sometimes, LAPOE, OOTS etc. etc. To me, the difference is night and day! They're not taking chances any more with their music. I'm not the least bit surprised that these 2 albums were so popular all over the world and especially in the US. It is because the songs have a universal appeal. Anyone can relate to them. Unlike say Elvis Presley & America. But don't you guys miss the purely artistic side of U2 as opposed to the universally appealing side???
One more thing... in 2000, Radiohead released this song Treefingers on Kid A. The song is nothing but 3-1/2 minutes of synthesizer atmospherics as some of you may know. That's spontaneous, and it's perfect too at that point in the album. And before you say, "but please, you can't compare the wacky Radiohead with U2!!!", flashback to 1995. U2 WERE Radiohead with Passengers and a track very similar to Treefingers... Viva Davidoff. I rest my case.
I think you're using the word "spontaneous" incorrectly. Examples from google:
-- happening or arising without apparent external cause; "spontaneous laughter"; "spontaneous combustion"; "a spontaneous abortion"
--ad-lib: said or done without having been planned or written in advance; "he made a few ad-lib remarks"
"Spontaneous" music would thus be music that came about spur-of-the-moment, without much thought..sort of on a whim. Some of the examples you mentioned in U2's catalog may have come about in such a fashion, but knowing Edge, I highly doubt it. I do agree that Bomb sounds over-produced and overworked...thus maybe making you feel that it's not "spontaneous." However, the great vast majority of U2's catalog is far from spontaneous.
I think you're taking the feeling that Bomb is overproduced & overworked and combining it with your feeling that many of the songs are similar to their previous catalog....combined with an apparent appreciation for what I'd term "random" or "non-mainstream" music...and then misapplying the notion of spontaneity to it all.
For example, Fast Cars by your definition would be called spontaneous. However, the appearance of Fast Cars at the end of HTDAAB isn't "spontaneous." The decision to add it or withdraw it from the album may be spontaneous. The decision to change its form from Xanax & Wine may be spontaneous. But the crafting of the song itself isn't, having been at least based on a previously established song that took a good deal of work and many versions to get to.
You use the word "free form....for lack of a better term," but I think that is partly more what you're implying. That could fit more with EPAA and Numb when you're comparing them to Miracle Drug...but I highly doubt that these free-form-ish songs really arose spontaneously..but rather with quite a bit of work & effort.
But again, I think what you're really trying to say is that you want the music to be 1) off the beaten path and 2) less overproduced.
If you say "free form," I half agree. If you say "less mainstream more off the beaten path," I 3/4 agree. If you say "less overproduced," I 100% agree. But if you say "spontaneity" has anything to do with anything, I fully disagree!