dmesq
The Fly
Dear fellow U2 fans & denizens,
Just thought I'd share some thoughts after having listened to the new album for a week...
We U2 fans always expect U2 to 'Deliver The Goods', and the band knows that fact more than anyone: Bono recently said that when you're in his band's position at the top of the world, if you produce two crap albums in a row, you're out. (Thank goodness ATYCLB delivered the goods...) I think they definitely make good on that promise with their latest album, even if there are quite a few crap tunes to get through on the way to the gold.
This is like the first U2 album ever where I feel the 2nd side plays absolutely brilliantly, whereas the first half is just so-so. The last half is as richly developed, well-crafted, visionary and moving as anything they've ever done, but I'm sorry to say that just makes the first half seem all the lesser in comparison.
Vertigo is to U2 what Start Me Up is to the Rolling Stones - it'll sure get a crowd on its feet, but it just doesn't have enough catchy melodic hooks to stay interesting throughout. It's big and loud and obnoxious, for sure, but in my opinion it's not obnoxious good, just obnoxious irritating, and quite frankly gives me a goddamned headache every time I hear it. Bono's posing and vamping to this song is the epitome of insufferable (enough with the IPod commercials already!!); unlike, say, Beautiful Day, on this one he just feels totally phony. He's selling his emotions like a whore, and the results make me cringe and feel embarrassed (i.e., Please on the 'Pop' LP).
Sure, Miracle Drug has a nice opening 44 seconds, a strong ending, and good-natured, well-meaning lyrics, but the rhythm and melody just ain't there, folks. It's every bit as hackneyed and thrown together as 'Electrical Storm' was. What someone said of Discotheque is also true here - Bono sings like he's in search of a memorable melody, and he doesn't find it. I suspect that when they're in the studio, U2 put the hard-rockin' 'finales' of many their songs together first, and then work backwards from there, and oftentimes they don't come up with a strong enough support for the first half (example: The Ground Beneath Her Feet).
I think SYCMIOYO is the only song on the first side that is genuinely emotionally compelling, a beautiful ballad to Bono's late father that picks up surprising rock'n'roll force by the end - but I really dislike the way Bono belts (I certainly wouldn't call it "sings") "you're the reason I have the operas in me" - what should be the poetic high point of the whole CD, Bono just bellows out in a laughably 'macho' way and it becomes cheesy instead of transcendent. Aargh.
I agree with the NME magazine reviewer, LAPOE is all glam and camp - and it's fun! But I still think its gutter-bucket blues-rock would've worked better with a stronger first half, but instead it makes the first half seem more throwaway, and weaker not stronger when you finally reach the 2nd side. And it's a ridiculous segue going from this intentionally trashy number (that's a compliment, BTW - I really love U2's intentionally trashy tunes) into something as dully 'uplifting' as COBL (this album's 'Walk On'...zzzzzzzzzzz).
I also agree with NME that COBL goes nowhere, it's just bland & generically 'positive' in the same way that 'Unforgettable Fire' (the song, not the album) was. And I am SO sick of Bono's "the more you 'X,' the less you 'Y'" lyrical schemes, he did a bunch of it on ATYCLB too, and it's just empty and meaningless. (Hey, I've got one for him, too: "The more you preach, the less you make sense!!")
From there on out, I almost have no complaints. ABOY, AMAAW, CFYT, OSC, OOTS, and Yahweh are all fantastic! Brilliant! Bold & beautiful! It's unquestionably the strongest 2nd half of any U2 album since The Joshua Tree (hey, even Achtung Baby had Ultraviolet, which sounded like INXS, for god's sakes, and Acrobat, which had compelling enough lyrics but went nowhere musically).
In particular, I think CFYT is the single strongest song U2 has written and performed in the last five years - I mean, it sounds like it came right off The @#$% Joshua Tree. (Could there be any higher praise? Maybe, but I don't know what it would be.) A hard-rocking power ballad about the AIDS crisis in Africa, the chorus and lyrics and melody and playing - OMG. Definitely Edge's finest moment of guitar playing on the whole CD, but then it's the entire band's finest moment, too. Songs like this are why U2 was FORMED in the first place - it's as Michael Moore said to Playboy magazine in an interview over the summer: "The guy who started the religion I grew up with said you'll be judged by how you treat the least among us. He went into the temple and turned over the money changers' tables because he didn't like that the have-nots were suffering. He felt the pice should be divided up a little more fairly. Call it liberal, socialist, whatever - it's about responding from a good place in your heart." Just as with The Joshua Tree, CFYT expresses these noble themes of suffering and dignity, and breaks your heart every bit as much as TJT did, too.
Seriously, folks - imagine removing "Exit" (which, while it TOTALLY rocked, always seemed somehow out of place on the album) from TJT and putting CFYT in between "One Tree Hill" and "Mothers Of The Disappeared." The lyrics and Bono's gorgeous phrasing of "three to a bed/Sister Ann says dignity passes by" would fit in so wonderfully alongside 'Red Hill Mining Town' and 'MOTD'. It's a total classic-on-arrival.
(What I've already heard of Fast Cars, the Japanese-disc bonus track, makes me really wish they'd put it on the 1st side somewhere, in place of MD or COBL or even Vertigo, just reshuffle the running order...it is SO incredibly catchy and excellent, it sounds like The Police at the top of their form circa 1983 & 'Synchronicity' - sheesh, why isn't Bono *always* this sharp in his lyrics and phrasing??? Damn, he is ON in that song. Sing it, Mr. Vox! )
So, I come away with eight excellent songs out of eleven - it makes for a marvelous album overall, and the 2nd half is as classic U2, and classic rock, as anything I've ever heard from them. U2 is still the biggest band on the planet, and they still deserve to be. It's a pity that their Almighty status forces them to often dilute and water down and overthink their music, but of course that's understandable - anyone else in their position would most likely be doing the same exact thing. (After all, even God must have a certain amount of neurosis.) Hell, I'm sure this album could've just as well been 11 different versions of 'Vertigo', if the music execs had had their way with it; thank goodness so much lovely, extraordinary & entrancing music was allowed to 'escape' from the Dublin studios this time around. It's still one of the best records of the year.
Anyways, just my straight-up thoughts, and I'm sure most of you will be leaving 'em rather than taking 'em...but hey, that's what these forums are all about
Just thought I'd share some thoughts after having listened to the new album for a week...
We U2 fans always expect U2 to 'Deliver The Goods', and the band knows that fact more than anyone: Bono recently said that when you're in his band's position at the top of the world, if you produce two crap albums in a row, you're out. (Thank goodness ATYCLB delivered the goods...) I think they definitely make good on that promise with their latest album, even if there are quite a few crap tunes to get through on the way to the gold.
This is like the first U2 album ever where I feel the 2nd side plays absolutely brilliantly, whereas the first half is just so-so. The last half is as richly developed, well-crafted, visionary and moving as anything they've ever done, but I'm sorry to say that just makes the first half seem all the lesser in comparison.
Vertigo is to U2 what Start Me Up is to the Rolling Stones - it'll sure get a crowd on its feet, but it just doesn't have enough catchy melodic hooks to stay interesting throughout. It's big and loud and obnoxious, for sure, but in my opinion it's not obnoxious good, just obnoxious irritating, and quite frankly gives me a goddamned headache every time I hear it. Bono's posing and vamping to this song is the epitome of insufferable (enough with the IPod commercials already!!); unlike, say, Beautiful Day, on this one he just feels totally phony. He's selling his emotions like a whore, and the results make me cringe and feel embarrassed (i.e., Please on the 'Pop' LP).
Sure, Miracle Drug has a nice opening 44 seconds, a strong ending, and good-natured, well-meaning lyrics, but the rhythm and melody just ain't there, folks. It's every bit as hackneyed and thrown together as 'Electrical Storm' was. What someone said of Discotheque is also true here - Bono sings like he's in search of a memorable melody, and he doesn't find it. I suspect that when they're in the studio, U2 put the hard-rockin' 'finales' of many their songs together first, and then work backwards from there, and oftentimes they don't come up with a strong enough support for the first half (example: The Ground Beneath Her Feet).
I think SYCMIOYO is the only song on the first side that is genuinely emotionally compelling, a beautiful ballad to Bono's late father that picks up surprising rock'n'roll force by the end - but I really dislike the way Bono belts (I certainly wouldn't call it "sings") "you're the reason I have the operas in me" - what should be the poetic high point of the whole CD, Bono just bellows out in a laughably 'macho' way and it becomes cheesy instead of transcendent. Aargh.
I agree with the NME magazine reviewer, LAPOE is all glam and camp - and it's fun! But I still think its gutter-bucket blues-rock would've worked better with a stronger first half, but instead it makes the first half seem more throwaway, and weaker not stronger when you finally reach the 2nd side. And it's a ridiculous segue going from this intentionally trashy number (that's a compliment, BTW - I really love U2's intentionally trashy tunes) into something as dully 'uplifting' as COBL (this album's 'Walk On'...zzzzzzzzzzz).
I also agree with NME that COBL goes nowhere, it's just bland & generically 'positive' in the same way that 'Unforgettable Fire' (the song, not the album) was. And I am SO sick of Bono's "the more you 'X,' the less you 'Y'" lyrical schemes, he did a bunch of it on ATYCLB too, and it's just empty and meaningless. (Hey, I've got one for him, too: "The more you preach, the less you make sense!!")
From there on out, I almost have no complaints. ABOY, AMAAW, CFYT, OSC, OOTS, and Yahweh are all fantastic! Brilliant! Bold & beautiful! It's unquestionably the strongest 2nd half of any U2 album since The Joshua Tree (hey, even Achtung Baby had Ultraviolet, which sounded like INXS, for god's sakes, and Acrobat, which had compelling enough lyrics but went nowhere musically).
In particular, I think CFYT is the single strongest song U2 has written and performed in the last five years - I mean, it sounds like it came right off The @#$% Joshua Tree. (Could there be any higher praise? Maybe, but I don't know what it would be.) A hard-rocking power ballad about the AIDS crisis in Africa, the chorus and lyrics and melody and playing - OMG. Definitely Edge's finest moment of guitar playing on the whole CD, but then it's the entire band's finest moment, too. Songs like this are why U2 was FORMED in the first place - it's as Michael Moore said to Playboy magazine in an interview over the summer: "The guy who started the religion I grew up with said you'll be judged by how you treat the least among us. He went into the temple and turned over the money changers' tables because he didn't like that the have-nots were suffering. He felt the pice should be divided up a little more fairly. Call it liberal, socialist, whatever - it's about responding from a good place in your heart." Just as with The Joshua Tree, CFYT expresses these noble themes of suffering and dignity, and breaks your heart every bit as much as TJT did, too.
Seriously, folks - imagine removing "Exit" (which, while it TOTALLY rocked, always seemed somehow out of place on the album) from TJT and putting CFYT in between "One Tree Hill" and "Mothers Of The Disappeared." The lyrics and Bono's gorgeous phrasing of "three to a bed/Sister Ann says dignity passes by" would fit in so wonderfully alongside 'Red Hill Mining Town' and 'MOTD'. It's a total classic-on-arrival.
(What I've already heard of Fast Cars, the Japanese-disc bonus track, makes me really wish they'd put it on the 1st side somewhere, in place of MD or COBL or even Vertigo, just reshuffle the running order...it is SO incredibly catchy and excellent, it sounds like The Police at the top of their form circa 1983 & 'Synchronicity' - sheesh, why isn't Bono *always* this sharp in his lyrics and phrasing??? Damn, he is ON in that song. Sing it, Mr. Vox! )
So, I come away with eight excellent songs out of eleven - it makes for a marvelous album overall, and the 2nd half is as classic U2, and classic rock, as anything I've ever heard from them. U2 is still the biggest band on the planet, and they still deserve to be. It's a pity that their Almighty status forces them to often dilute and water down and overthink their music, but of course that's understandable - anyone else in their position would most likely be doing the same exact thing. (After all, even God must have a certain amount of neurosis.) Hell, I'm sure this album could've just as well been 11 different versions of 'Vertigo', if the music execs had had their way with it; thank goodness so much lovely, extraordinary & entrancing music was allowed to 'escape' from the Dublin studios this time around. It's still one of the best records of the year.
Anyways, just my straight-up thoughts, and I'm sure most of you will be leaving 'em rather than taking 'em...but hey, that's what these forums are all about
wassup, dmesq?
