zooropop40
Refugee
This idea that u2 is like radiohead is absurd. Let me ask this board something. who do you think this band is? they are not a cult driven, dead/phish/radiohead/cure type "album cuts are better and more meaningful then the hits and only morons listen to the hits" kinda band. sure they have experimented . but big difference between what u2 does and what radiohead does. u2 has never made music that had no chance of selling records.. ever. get it? they are a alternative pop rock band. they are not progressive. album cuts should get more play at concerts. but u2 isn;t gonna give anyone a show full of album cuts and rare b-sides and no hits.. like what phish and the dead do. the passengers is the closet thing to making music that can;t sell. i laugh when someone says u2 played it safe on this or that album. you have no idea what "safe" means in that context. you really don't. safe compared to what? where is this epic, 20 min songs, progressive, concept,pink floyd-ish album that u2 did (that was officially called u2) that they are not doing anymore, cause they went "safe"? can someone send me a copy of it?
U2 is very much like Radiohead in terms of musical exploration and vision. U2 will put a few mainstream tracks on an album but that doesnt mean they are not experimental. Perhaps you have not listened close enough? listen to passengers, Zooropa, Pop, even NLOTH with good headphones- the detail of the sound is incredible. Many of those albums are way ahead of their time. Perhaps you dont remember the first time you heard a U2 songs and said "WTF was that!?!?" and then you learned to understand it and appreciate it. Think back a bit harder, and hopefully you will see that the 2 bands sometimes even parallel eachother.
Your post is completely off in my opinion- I see U2 a bit differently than you do