HelloAngel
ONE love, blood, life
[SIMG]http://bonovox.interference.com/reviews/httadbcover-sml.jpg[/SIMG]
By G. Melton
2005.01
Having been a fan of this amazing quartet for 20 years now, it's nothing short of an event anticipating the next release by U2. What songs are going to stick in my head for days on end? What look and feel are these guys going to have this time? Will it affect pop culture? Will this release sound and feel sonic, rocking, ethereal or all of the above? Harmonica or wah-wah pedal? Distorted voice or fat lady falsetto? Drum sequences and loops or piano and acoustic guitar?
In those 20 years of following the band, I've only felt the way I feel right now one other time, a feeling of, wow, kind of mystified and not used to this, but this is a pretty lousy album. The titles of the songs sound great, the hype machine was in place, "Vertigo" is catchy with a vibrant iPod commercial accompanying it, and supposedly Bono was crazy about this album. Edge was in better form than ever, the riffs were supposed to be some of his best, angriest, well, you all know the rest from the publicity machine that is Bono in interviews for the most part. Sadly, though, it looks better on paper—this album's a real dud.
The other time I've felt like this about a U2 album was when the band released "Pop", the only other crap album in U2's illustrious catalogue. The similarities between the two albums are there: the first single is the first song on the album, it sounds exciting, pushing into a new direction, yet distinctively U2, upbeat and rocking, then track number two comes on and I'm scratching my head wondering whether this meandering song is gonna be representative of the rest of the album. Then a less than stellar album unfolds.
As with "Pop," the boys traipsed in a handful of—collaborators, producers, engineers, mixers, et al—and on most tracks none of them were named Eno or Lanois. Also like "Pop," there is the problem of the middle songs, the fillers. These are the type of songs that start out with the feel of a rock 'n' roll song: tempo is good, steady, the strum of the E chord, the rock 'n' roll time signatures, tapping my foot, wanting it to work, then, nothing, forgettable, rock 'n' roll songs with no soul, no great chorus, no nothing, nada, nunca, catorce! These are the worst types of songs for bands, these are the songs that when played live, people leave to get another beer or go to the restroom, the songs that U2 stayed away from for most of their career, the songs the band may have been jazzed about playing live when recording them, only to find they didn't go over that well live and are never, ever dusted off and brought out again on subsequent tours. The middle of this album is chock full of them—“All Because of You," their next single, the disastrous "Love and Peace or Else," "City of Blinding Lights" with it's incredibly hokey and attempt to pull at the heartstrings, and the oh-so-close-but-naaaahhhh-forgettable-in-no-time-track "Crumbs From Your Table."
Part of the reason U2 has managed to stay away from fillers thus far is that guy to Bono's right we affectionately know as The Edge. The stuff he came up with was too good, too original, too rhythmic to be just a strumming-chord-change-type-of-song. Not on this album, only the riff on "Vertigo" will be remembered. Shame, this was supposed to be a guitar album, and Edge can definitely shape an album. Whether flickering and full of ringing, hypnotic notes ("Joshua Tree") or the "I'm taking a front seat on this one" with slide guitar, distortion, sonic solos and a wah-wah peddle that's also, well, danceable ("Achtung Baby") or just plain atmospheric and moody, yet sleepy and melodic ("The Unforgettable Fire"), Edge has always been the other dynamic component in this band, with Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr. holding down the bottom end with pulsating rhythms. On this album Edge either got tired of coming up with rhythmic, sustaining, signature riffs or he had a lapse and thought he was in every bar band in the history of time that thinks it has a chance in rock 'n' roll. When he does come out of his lapse from time to time, he falls back on the ole Edge stand-bys and imitates himself with unoriginal riffs or notes that sound like me playing Edge on my Fender Stratocaster.
This album's not without it's little flashes of brilliance here and there; this is U2, afterall. The choruses in "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" and "City of Blinding Lights" are beautiful, harmonic, melodic and gone before you know it. "A Man and a Woman," though not a rocker, is a tightly constructed, poignant little ditty that explores "The mysterious distance between a man and a woman." This track is the other standout besides "Vertigo" and should be the next single, then the band should cut their losses. "Yahweh" sounds like four men in sync, but by then it's too little, too late. A throwaway cut, "Fast Cars," that I guess is only on limited releases, is surprisingly good and sounds like U2 meets the acoustic side of Jane's Addiction. By then, though, the only thing I'm humming is a line from "All Because of You," Bono proclaiming, "I'm not broke/But you can see the cracks."
Yes we can, Bono, yes indeed.
By G. Melton
2005.01
Having been a fan of this amazing quartet for 20 years now, it's nothing short of an event anticipating the next release by U2. What songs are going to stick in my head for days on end? What look and feel are these guys going to have this time? Will it affect pop culture? Will this release sound and feel sonic, rocking, ethereal or all of the above? Harmonica or wah-wah pedal? Distorted voice or fat lady falsetto? Drum sequences and loops or piano and acoustic guitar?
In those 20 years of following the band, I've only felt the way I feel right now one other time, a feeling of, wow, kind of mystified and not used to this, but this is a pretty lousy album. The titles of the songs sound great, the hype machine was in place, "Vertigo" is catchy with a vibrant iPod commercial accompanying it, and supposedly Bono was crazy about this album. Edge was in better form than ever, the riffs were supposed to be some of his best, angriest, well, you all know the rest from the publicity machine that is Bono in interviews for the most part. Sadly, though, it looks better on paper—this album's a real dud.
The other time I've felt like this about a U2 album was when the band released "Pop", the only other crap album in U2's illustrious catalogue. The similarities between the two albums are there: the first single is the first song on the album, it sounds exciting, pushing into a new direction, yet distinctively U2, upbeat and rocking, then track number two comes on and I'm scratching my head wondering whether this meandering song is gonna be representative of the rest of the album. Then a less than stellar album unfolds.
As with "Pop," the boys traipsed in a handful of—collaborators, producers, engineers, mixers, et al—and on most tracks none of them were named Eno or Lanois. Also like "Pop," there is the problem of the middle songs, the fillers. These are the type of songs that start out with the feel of a rock 'n' roll song: tempo is good, steady, the strum of the E chord, the rock 'n' roll time signatures, tapping my foot, wanting it to work, then, nothing, forgettable, rock 'n' roll songs with no soul, no great chorus, no nothing, nada, nunca, catorce! These are the worst types of songs for bands, these are the songs that when played live, people leave to get another beer or go to the restroom, the songs that U2 stayed away from for most of their career, the songs the band may have been jazzed about playing live when recording them, only to find they didn't go over that well live and are never, ever dusted off and brought out again on subsequent tours. The middle of this album is chock full of them—“All Because of You," their next single, the disastrous "Love and Peace or Else," "City of Blinding Lights" with it's incredibly hokey and attempt to pull at the heartstrings, and the oh-so-close-but-naaaahhhh-forgettable-in-no-time-track "Crumbs From Your Table."
Part of the reason U2 has managed to stay away from fillers thus far is that guy to Bono's right we affectionately know as The Edge. The stuff he came up with was too good, too original, too rhythmic to be just a strumming-chord-change-type-of-song. Not on this album, only the riff on "Vertigo" will be remembered. Shame, this was supposed to be a guitar album, and Edge can definitely shape an album. Whether flickering and full of ringing, hypnotic notes ("Joshua Tree") or the "I'm taking a front seat on this one" with slide guitar, distortion, sonic solos and a wah-wah peddle that's also, well, danceable ("Achtung Baby") or just plain atmospheric and moody, yet sleepy and melodic ("The Unforgettable Fire"), Edge has always been the other dynamic component in this band, with Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr. holding down the bottom end with pulsating rhythms. On this album Edge either got tired of coming up with rhythmic, sustaining, signature riffs or he had a lapse and thought he was in every bar band in the history of time that thinks it has a chance in rock 'n' roll. When he does come out of his lapse from time to time, he falls back on the ole Edge stand-bys and imitates himself with unoriginal riffs or notes that sound like me playing Edge on my Fender Stratocaster.
This album's not without it's little flashes of brilliance here and there; this is U2, afterall. The choruses in "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" and "City of Blinding Lights" are beautiful, harmonic, melodic and gone before you know it. "A Man and a Woman," though not a rocker, is a tightly constructed, poignant little ditty that explores "The mysterious distance between a man and a woman." This track is the other standout besides "Vertigo" and should be the next single, then the band should cut their losses. "Yahweh" sounds like four men in sync, but by then it's too little, too late. A throwaway cut, "Fast Cars," that I guess is only on limited releases, is surprisingly good and sounds like U2 meets the acoustic side of Jane's Addiction. By then, though, the only thing I'm humming is a line from "All Because of You," Bono proclaiming, "I'm not broke/But you can see the cracks."
Yes we can, Bono, yes indeed.
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