EXIT_TO_THE_NORTH
The Fly
I'm guessing the album went from being a raw sounding RnR album to its current state, when Chris Thomas was let go, and Steve was brought aboard.
But let me expound on this a bit.
When POP was being worked on, the band was all about the electronica movement, saying that the album would have shades of elec. and U2, etc. But then that genre never really broke the American market with the exception of Prodigy perhaps. The movement was short lived and electronica in the mainstream never really happened. So I wonder if U2 then, realizing the fad had faded, quickly changed gears on the album, ran out of time, we all know the story … Thus, they missed the movement and looked like followers rather than innovators.
With the new album I wonder if a similar thing might have happened — the RnR guitar driven movement by the Strokes, White Stripes and others really had an influence on the band, but the movement started to subside, oh, quite a while ago … I wonder if the band felt the winds change directions and thought back to POP and said, Let's just do what we know how to do, bring in those we know, those who know how to make a U2 album. And then they kept the RnR guitar driven gems from the Thomas era, and went all out U2 from that point on.
Unlike POP, they took another year to re-record and learned from their mistakes by not scheduling tour dates. Without this past year, I'm afraid the band might have once again looked like followers of a movement that was beinging to seem passe.
So we're left with a U2 album. Thank God. I prefer U2 being U2, even if getting there is a bit like a masqerade party.
But let me expound on this a bit.
When POP was being worked on, the band was all about the electronica movement, saying that the album would have shades of elec. and U2, etc. But then that genre never really broke the American market with the exception of Prodigy perhaps. The movement was short lived and electronica in the mainstream never really happened. So I wonder if U2 then, realizing the fad had faded, quickly changed gears on the album, ran out of time, we all know the story … Thus, they missed the movement and looked like followers rather than innovators.
With the new album I wonder if a similar thing might have happened — the RnR guitar driven movement by the Strokes, White Stripes and others really had an influence on the band, but the movement started to subside, oh, quite a while ago … I wonder if the band felt the winds change directions and thought back to POP and said, Let's just do what we know how to do, bring in those we know, those who know how to make a U2 album. And then they kept the RnR guitar driven gems from the Thomas era, and went all out U2 from that point on.
Unlike POP, they took another year to re-record and learned from their mistakes by not scheduling tour dates. Without this past year, I'm afraid the band might have once again looked like followers of a movement that was beinging to seem passe.
So we're left with a U2 album. Thank God. I prefer U2 being U2, even if getting there is a bit like a masqerade party.
