5 Stars: How to Dismantle an Atomic Fanbase, April 2, 2005
Wow. Since I initially wrote my review in November (when the album was still rated 4 stars as an average) theres been an overwhelming amount of 1 star reviews.
Its okay to not like the music of U2, but I find that a lot of people resorting to attacks such as "U2 are dinosaurs", "U2 should retire", "Bono sucks", etc. I don't think those are constructive in terms of rating the music, because as we all know there have been many artists who have released great albums as they got older (just look no further than Ray Charles).
Okay first I just want to state some stuff which I "believe" are facts (not my opinion):
- Paul McGuinness has said recently that HTDAAB has sold 9 Million copies, which means it will eventually outsell Joshua Tree (closing in on 15 Million copies), and it is already U2's fastest selling album.
- U2's current tour, the Vertigo tour, has been selling like hotcakes. I think most people here know by now that most of the concerts have been selling out in less than an hour. It will break the record of the highest grossing tour in a single year from what I've read from various sources.
- U2 did not receive money from Apple for the Vertigo iPod/iTunes commercials. Keep in mind that U2 did help launch iTunes originally a few years back. U2's opinion on iTunes is that its the future of music on the internet and the music industry needs to get behind it. Also they believe Apple is more of an "artistic" type of company (this was actually stated by Bono at the Apple/U2 press conference). It is true to some degree, as Apple caters to digital artists/people who like a nice looking computer and Apple is not a main stream company.
OK. The above was not my opinion, just some stuff that I felt needed to clear the air.
U2 is definately enjoying their highest peak in terms of commercial success right now. The last time U2 peaked in terms of commercial success was Joshua Tree, and U2 took that success and ran with the ball to push their creativity until their popularity hit an all-time low with Pop.
That being said, the concept of the band was never about commercial success, but about its political and personal messages that it sent through its very unique/creative music.
Okay now to my opinion.
4 months after initially hearing the album, I have to say that its grown on me. U2 albums have always been like this to me. I had to be forced to listen to Achtung Baby 10-20 times before I really fell in love with that era's sound, and the same holds true for Pop, Joshua Tree, and Zooropa. I've always felt Unforgettable Fire/Joshua Tree were the most accessible albums of the bunch, and the same was true for ATYCLB. But I think HTDAAB falls into the category of Pop/Zooropa in terms of not being very accessible (except Vertigo, even though I still felt this song didn't show its depth until many listens).
I don't want to generalize, but this is my attempt at an analysis of the situation of opinions on U2. I think for new U2 listeners, they were expecting the whole album to sound like Vertigo. For the older Joshua Tree era fans, they probably haven't been paying attention to the band as much as they used to, and the album didn't immediately fit their tastes as well as albums like UF/JT did so they pretty much have this picture that U2 is old and should retire even though this is the most successful period of the band's existence. I think the Achtung Baby/Zooropa/Pop fans have probably taken the most liking to this album. Those mentioned albums had a lot of layers to go through before you got to really feel the music, and they all needed patience, and I think thats how the current album was for them (and me).
Again another generalization here, but I think the fans of the older era music are usually people who are more likely to skip songs that they don't like immediately (which I have no problem with, thats their prerogative), while the 90's era fans usually will listen to an album from start to finish. And I think the listening method is what probably defines this album in people's minds. For people who just skip the tracks that aren't immediate, they probably end up skipping most of the tracks and seeing the album as filler. The 90's era fans will listen to the whole album and take the whole album as an experience, and compare it to the experience of listening to the whole of other albums, and I really think that the latter is the only way to listen to the album and enjoy it. This is not an album filled with "radio friendly" songs. The tracklisting is very fluid (no jarring transition to Bullet the Blue Sky here), the strength of the songs are pretty consistent (I've always felt that ATYCLB had a lot of weak songs on the latter half of it), there are quite a few places here that U2 has NOT gone before (Love and Peace or Else, A Man and a Woman, Crumbs From Your Table, Miracle Drug), and some reworkings of sounds which are trademark U2 (Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, City of Blinding Lights, Original of the Species, Yahweh).
About Bono's voice: If you've listened to the complete U2 (which i'm sure most haven't because it is very expensive, and you cannot get the Rare tracks without buying the whole digital boxset) there are quite a few HTDAAB/ATYCLB outtakes. Most of the HTDAAB outtakes are before Steve Lillywhite took over as producer, and Bono's voice is very good, comparable to his voice on AB/Zooropa. It seems as though the rough voice in most of the songs is very intentional (his voice isn't flat/rough/raspy/doesn't crack during the outtake of "Sometimes" at all). Also, the bootlegs from the first two nights of the Vertigo tour also support this as Bono's voice was crystal clear and vibrant (especially during the "Boy" songs).
Okay so you ask, what do I think about the album?
Its tough to really rank it because its WAY to early to really justify its place in U2's history. One thing is for sure, that this album has brought their *commercial success* back to the top. However, my wishy-watery praise of the album will only hold if they bring us something creative as they did after the super success of Joshua Tree.
I'll say this, I think the album is better as a whole than the sum of its parts, and by this I feel it is better than ATYCLB because ATYCLB wasn't very consistent from track to track, but HTDAAB is really an adventure to listen to. No its not dark/perverse like much of AB/Zooropa/Pop was, but its a different kind of adventure, definately one of spirituality, love (and not just love between a man and a woman but between father and son) and hope.
Wow. Since I initially wrote my review in November (when the album was still rated 4 stars as an average) theres been an overwhelming amount of 1 star reviews.
Its okay to not like the music of U2, but I find that a lot of people resorting to attacks such as "U2 are dinosaurs", "U2 should retire", "Bono sucks", etc. I don't think those are constructive in terms of rating the music, because as we all know there have been many artists who have released great albums as they got older (just look no further than Ray Charles).
Okay first I just want to state some stuff which I "believe" are facts (not my opinion):
- Paul McGuinness has said recently that HTDAAB has sold 9 Million copies, which means it will eventually outsell Joshua Tree (closing in on 15 Million copies), and it is already U2's fastest selling album.
- U2's current tour, the Vertigo tour, has been selling like hotcakes. I think most people here know by now that most of the concerts have been selling out in less than an hour. It will break the record of the highest grossing tour in a single year from what I've read from various sources.
- U2 did not receive money from Apple for the Vertigo iPod/iTunes commercials. Keep in mind that U2 did help launch iTunes originally a few years back. U2's opinion on iTunes is that its the future of music on the internet and the music industry needs to get behind it. Also they believe Apple is more of an "artistic" type of company (this was actually stated by Bono at the Apple/U2 press conference). It is true to some degree, as Apple caters to digital artists/people who like a nice looking computer and Apple is not a main stream company.
OK. The above was not my opinion, just some stuff that I felt needed to clear the air.
U2 is definately enjoying their highest peak in terms of commercial success right now. The last time U2 peaked in terms of commercial success was Joshua Tree, and U2 took that success and ran with the ball to push their creativity until their popularity hit an all-time low with Pop.
That being said, the concept of the band was never about commercial success, but about its political and personal messages that it sent through its very unique/creative music.
Okay now to my opinion.
4 months after initially hearing the album, I have to say that its grown on me. U2 albums have always been like this to me. I had to be forced to listen to Achtung Baby 10-20 times before I really fell in love with that era's sound, and the same holds true for Pop, Joshua Tree, and Zooropa. I've always felt Unforgettable Fire/Joshua Tree were the most accessible albums of the bunch, and the same was true for ATYCLB. But I think HTDAAB falls into the category of Pop/Zooropa in terms of not being very accessible (except Vertigo, even though I still felt this song didn't show its depth until many listens).
I don't want to generalize, but this is my attempt at an analysis of the situation of opinions on U2. I think for new U2 listeners, they were expecting the whole album to sound like Vertigo. For the older Joshua Tree era fans, they probably haven't been paying attention to the band as much as they used to, and the album didn't immediately fit their tastes as well as albums like UF/JT did so they pretty much have this picture that U2 is old and should retire even though this is the most successful period of the band's existence. I think the Achtung Baby/Zooropa/Pop fans have probably taken the most liking to this album. Those mentioned albums had a lot of layers to go through before you got to really feel the music, and they all needed patience, and I think thats how the current album was for them (and me).
Again another generalization here, but I think the fans of the older era music are usually people who are more likely to skip songs that they don't like immediately (which I have no problem with, thats their prerogative), while the 90's era fans usually will listen to an album from start to finish. And I think the listening method is what probably defines this album in people's minds. For people who just skip the tracks that aren't immediate, they probably end up skipping most of the tracks and seeing the album as filler. The 90's era fans will listen to the whole album and take the whole album as an experience, and compare it to the experience of listening to the whole of other albums, and I really think that the latter is the only way to listen to the album and enjoy it. This is not an album filled with "radio friendly" songs. The tracklisting is very fluid (no jarring transition to Bullet the Blue Sky here), the strength of the songs are pretty consistent (I've always felt that ATYCLB had a lot of weak songs on the latter half of it), there are quite a few places here that U2 has NOT gone before (Love and Peace or Else, A Man and a Woman, Crumbs From Your Table, Miracle Drug), and some reworkings of sounds which are trademark U2 (Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, City of Blinding Lights, Original of the Species, Yahweh).
About Bono's voice: If you've listened to the complete U2 (which i'm sure most haven't because it is very expensive, and you cannot get the Rare tracks without buying the whole digital boxset) there are quite a few HTDAAB/ATYCLB outtakes. Most of the HTDAAB outtakes are before Steve Lillywhite took over as producer, and Bono's voice is very good, comparable to his voice on AB/Zooropa. It seems as though the rough voice in most of the songs is very intentional (his voice isn't flat/rough/raspy/doesn't crack during the outtake of "Sometimes" at all). Also, the bootlegs from the first two nights of the Vertigo tour also support this as Bono's voice was crystal clear and vibrant (especially during the "Boy" songs).
Okay so you ask, what do I think about the album?
Its tough to really rank it because its WAY to early to really justify its place in U2's history. One thing is for sure, that this album has brought their *commercial success* back to the top. However, my wishy-watery praise of the album will only hold if they bring us something creative as they did after the super success of Joshua Tree.
I'll say this, I think the album is better as a whole than the sum of its parts, and by this I feel it is better than ATYCLB because ATYCLB wasn't very consistent from track to track, but HTDAAB is really an adventure to listen to. No its not dark/perverse like much of AB/Zooropa/Pop was, but its a different kind of adventure, definately one of spirituality, love (and not just love between a man and a woman but between father and son) and hope.
just kidding. Anyway, interesting reviews there. But I don't know about that above comment. I thought they were always about commercial success and being the biggest band ever. However, you may be right about 90s fans liking this album more after the shock that was ATYCLB. I started listening to them from Achtung and I love Achtung, Zooropa and Pop to death. Except for some really good songs, I thought ATYCLB sucked in it's safeness. HTDAAB is much better, although the poduction has gotten worse. It doesn't matter, the melody and lyrics come first.
