starvinmarvin said:
here's a question:
Did U2 begin the Passengers project with the intent of recording a new U2 album? Did they look at the final result and chicken out because it was so uncommercial?
Or
Was passengers meant to be a diversion right from the beginning? Was it meant to be a side project?
It's under the Passengers name for 2 reasons,
1) Because of the fact that Eno (and others) play such a huge role in it, it is effectively a different band. It's not fair to label it U2 when others outside of U2 played such a huge role. It's a group of 5,6,7 people called Passengers. 4 of them just happen to be in U2.
2) They figured the music was too much of a stretch for most U2 fans. They correctly identified it as too far in one direction. That says more about U2 fans than U2. If it weren't for the fact that I understand reason (1) completely, I'd personally feel bad that U2 didn't have the balls, or faith in their fans, to release it under the U2 name.
The album seemed to start in the same way as Zooropa, going by Flanagans book. They came home after the tour, took some time, and then found they still had a lot of unfinished creative energy and naturally let it spill. They seemed to not really know exactly what they were doing at first, but just ran with it - similar to Zooropa - but I'm sure once it took it started to take it's form and came together they knew as per above that it wasn't going to be "The New U2 Album".
To the public it is and should be seen as a side project, but to a U2 fan it's rightfully as relevant as any other album. It is as natural a next step after Zooropa as Zooropa was after Achtung. It's a sound and direction they had to go into, and they've pulled it off brilliantly IMO. I love the album. I love the greater idea. Even the humour in the film/director names etc. It's a jazz album to me and the more you listen to it, the more it opens itself up to you.
On my shelf it sits proudly in between Zooropa and Pop, and I definitely consider it as the U2 album that comes in between.
Larry Mullen has no taste.