U2's downfall...

[Dalton]

I think U2's downfall will be Adam's love for underage girls. That's right folks, he's pedokiss.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

I honestly don't think these last 2 albums are all that calculated
well, not more calculated than POP (some electro here, something resembling old U2 there) was or War (adding a wee trumpet here, some female vocals there) just to name 2 examples
How to dismantle .... does sound like it took quite a bit of work to get there
a problem U2's best work doesn't have

I think Dana is 100% correct in stating how ludicrous it is to view these last 2 albums as "happy" music
death, leaving behind, crawling back seem the main themes

U2 has grown up
these guys are 40+
they write about where they are at the moment
and you can tell that at the moment mortality (in all its aspects) is a bigger issue than most other things

what would be fake and calculated is for these 4 guys to still pretend to struggle through issues that they actually left behind 10 or 15 or 20 years ago
it would also be fake to pretend their lifes are something it isn't
they live pretty much great lifes with some personal sadness

if its not your kind of darkness ....
tough luck

it's hard to be dark when your life is pretty fucking awesome.

 

[rihannsu]

City of Blinding Lights, a bit, although I just love that song in general. I actually see some in Vertigo. I see a decent bit in Yahweh. Also, SYCMIOYO, but it's really only good live.

But emotion =/= depth.

I've been kind of emotionally numb for most of my life unfortunately but my first listen of Bomb was like Bono doing open heart surgery on me. I wasn't what I would have considered a fan although I was aware of U2 and liked everything I'd heard and Bono's Live Aid performance also did a bit of emotional surgery on me at the time but this album really broke open the floodgates for me. I've gone back and collected their entire catalogue and listen to all the albums kind of endlessly to my daughters slight annoyance (even though she does like them too) but the albums I go back to most often are ATYCLB and HTDAAB. Although I actually listen to U218 all day most of the time when I'm working. These two have the strongest effect on me emotionally and have really helped me to turn my life around emotionally. But everyone is touched by different things. Bottom line for me is that U2 makes music that helps me make it through the night or the day or whatever and for that I am endlessly grateful.

Dana

 

[Rob33]

Really, the only lyrical masterpiece we've gotten this century has been City of Blinding Lights (well, and Mercy, to an extent, but it needs fixing). But that's not the entire point. City works as a uplifting track, just as Streets did, partially because it is lyrically deep.

However, usually the issue is not thematic, but presentational.

For instance, let's take Love and Peace. It's an okay song. But it's about the same subject as Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bullet the Blue Sky, and Please. It is not nearly as good as those three.

Sunday Bloody Sunday is filled with raw emotion and a lot of anger on Bono's part. It is an amazing song; one of the early era's best. The music fits it perfectly... the drumming and the guitar perfectly complement Bono's angst.

Bullet is a more violent, anti-Reagan song. Listen any live version of it up to 1997 (after that, they just played it, dropping the attitude, because it was McG's favorite) and you'll hear the raw passion in Bono's voice. Edge's guitar solo goes along perfectly with it; it is Bluesy and American, showing what the song is about, and showing their anger at the American government at the time.

Please is, for me, probably the best of these songs. It is absolutely haunting. Like One, the guitar in it seems to almost cry. A true masterpiece.

LAPOE: Bono bangs on drums and screams "WE NEED LOVE AND PEACE!" a lot. Catchy melody, nothing deep, absolutely no emotion whatsoever coming out of any band member.

I find it hilarious how you so conveniently constructed that post..."Bono bangs on drums and screams..."

you can't find one thing negative to say on Bullet, Please and SBS, and yet negativity is the only thing you can find in LAPOE apparently...

You go on with these drawn out descriptions and judgments, and then that's all you have to say about LAPOE??? - "absolutely no emotion whatsoever coming out of any band member" - OH REALLY?!?! I'm pretty sure if there was "absolutely no emotion whatsoever," they wouldn't even consider the song in the setlist in the first place....

 

[JOFO]

How to dismantle .... does sound like it took quite a bit of work to get there
a problem U2's best work doesn't have

Well, it's a known fact that WTSHNN took a hell of a long time to record and get the right takes; quite a bit of work indeed for a 4 chord song, and yet some would say their greatest achievement, at least within their best work...

 

[BVS]

U2's eagerness to write an album full of joyful songs will eventually be their undoing.

Their undoing where? In your little world?

Not everyone likes dark songs. This whole dark vs uplifting songs is a horrible formula to calculate if the next album will be any good or not.

 

[digitize]

I've been kind of emotionally numb for most of my life unfortunately but my first listen of Bomb was like Bono doing open heart surgery on me. I wasn't what I would have considered a fan although I was aware of U2 and liked everything I'd heard and Bono's Live Aid performance also did a bit of emotional surgery on me at the time but this album really broke open the floodgates for me. I've gone back and collected their entire catalogue and listen to all the albums kind of endlessly to my daughters slight annoyance (even though she does like them too) but the albums I go back to most often are ATYCLB and HTDAAB. Although I actually listen to U218 all day most of the time when I'm working. These two have the strongest effect on me emotionally and have really helped me to turn my life around emotionally. But everyone is touched by different things. Bottom line for me is that U2 makes music that helps me make it through the night or the day or whatever and for that I am endlessly grateful.

Dana

Indeed. To each his/her own.

 

[ramblin rose]

Really, the only lyrical masterpiece we've gotten this century has been City of Blinding Lights (well, and Mercy, to an extent, but it needs fixing).

So just out of curiosity, how does someone who became a fan in 2006 become so jaded in such a short time.

I think Bono has to rethink his whole "new fan" strategy, I don't think it's working.

 

[Diemen]

it's hard to be dark when your life is pretty fucking awesome.

Besides, if they try and copy their past sound, they cease to be artists.

 

[Zoots]

Well I don't agree that the last two albums are somehow less honest and heartfelt. They're TOO honest and heartfelt, if anything, with not enough abstraction. I agree that U2 is at their best when they've stepped back a bit and filtered these feelings through something a bit more ambitious sonically and thematically, but these recent songs obviously connected with a lot of people. It's the albums as a whole that fail to stand as impressive, comprehensive works.

Agreed 100%. Too direct and not enough abstraction.

 

[digitize]

So just out of curiosity, how does someone who became a fan in 2006 become so jaded in such a short time.

I think Bono has to rethink his whole "new fan" strategy, I don't think it's working.

I'm jaded about everything.

 

[shaun vox]

u2's last two albums were for the soccer moms and dads.
its very easy listening. where is the challenge, the adventure? all gone
the new album is shaping up to be a "soccer mom greatest" hits lol.

 

[Zoots]

u2's last two albums were for the soccer moms and dads.
its very easy listening. where is the challenge, the adventure? all gone
the new album is shaping up to be a "soccer mom greatest" hits lol.

 

[shaun vox]

you like that Zootlesque? i gots more.

 

[Zoots]

I'm shocked!

 

[LemonMelon]

He may have been laughing at your avatar.

 

[corianderstem]

OH REALLY?!?!

I believe you meant

 

[shaun vox]

hopefully after the " U2 08 soccer mom greatest hits" u2 will change their sound.

 

[shaun vox]

He may have been laughing at your avatar.

WHY , i think i look sexy, owwwwwwww

 

[Zoots]

And still Chinese Democracy will not be out.

 

[shaun vox]

LOL ok you got me haha.

 

[Moser]

There will be no downfall. I believe this record is going to be one of there very best.

 

[bathiu]

Crumbs = about as black a song as anything on AB about how those who have treat those who have nothing

...and you have no problem that a song with a theme like that has a melody like it's straight out of some kind of tv commercial? really?

 

[AndrewCowley]

I agree totally with the thoughts of the OP. As long as U2 want to win grammys, sell lots of CD's, play to as many people as possible, find new younger fans, be a 'big' band and generally do everything possible to create 'greatness' for themselves then there is the problem of all those things taking over from the songs and you get albums that just don't seem right for their age as a band and their age as individuals. They did pull of some amazing albums with these attitudes in place but today I reckon they are a hinderance to the type of music that the likes of us want to hear from U2.

I am not sure thesedays how much they make music for themselves vs. music to allow those things listed above to happen.

 

[U2girl]

I honestly don't think these last 2 albums are all that calculated
well, not more calculated than POP (some electro here, something resembling old U2 there) was or War (adding a wee trumpet here, some female vocals there) just to name 2 examples
How to dismantle .... does sound like it took quite a bit of work to get there
a problem U2's best work doesn't have

I think Dana is 100% correct in stating how ludicrous it is to view these last 2 albums as "happy" music
death, leaving behind, crawling back seem the main themes

U2 has grown up
these guys are 40+
they write about where they are at the moment
and you can tell that at the moment mortality (in all its aspects) is a bigger issue than most other things

what would be fake and calculated is for these 4 guys to still pretend to struggle through issues that they actually left behind 10 or 15 or 20 years ago
it would also be fake to pretend their lifes are something it isn't
they live pretty much great lifes with some personal sadness

if its not your kind of darkness ....
tough luck

Aside of a big topic like a divorce or fascination with America lacking, the last two records were - as said by U2 themselves - about creating singles, not albums.

 

[rihannsu]

...and you have no problem that a song with a theme like that has a melody like it's straight out of some kind of tv commercial? really?

I don't have any problem with the music or melody for Crumbs. I wouldn't know whether it has any relation to TV commercials because the only time I watch TV is if I record something and then I fast forward through commercials. I don't see the music as being sappy.

Dana

 

[cobl04]

Y'know, I kind of agree, too...But I think that one part (of many) what makes JT and AB masterpieces is their master of bittersweet. QUOTE]



For me that's especially the reason AB's my favourite... there's a fair bit of substance there, it's intriguing, and ages well, whereas I kind of agree with the first poster that Hutdab didn't age all that well (though I love and adore Attyclub).

But all this thread really proves is people (on this forum anyway) will always find something to criticise.

 

[U2girl]

JT and AB are great because they combine great individual songs as well as a cohesive unifying theme for the lyrics.
U2 hasn't (maybe, with some better songs in the second half, on War) done that since, all the other albums swing either way : a good song collection or an album with less than great songwriting.

 

[cobl04]

When it comes down to it, if the album sounds good to me, and doesn't contain lyrics you'd find in boy bands or Hannah Montanna, then I'll be over the moon! The only song that doesn't really sit that well with me from the last album is All Because of You, so...

 

[last unicorn]

The reason why I love U2 is because they make music that is uplifting and gives me hope at the end of the day, though not denying the darkness. As Bono says, it's not about denying it but about making some light. There is nothing "sexy" about "dark" music. I don't feel the last two albums were any less heartfelt or any more "shiny happy" than anything they'd done before. Like any other human being, they have grown, aged, matured, changed. Unlike some fans here, who only want to hold on to the past.