All the talk about ATYCLB not having a "proper" ending and peetering out towards to end. To me, ATYCLB was the last truly cohesive U2 album. I think Grace perfectly wrapped it all up. Beautiful Day and Grace make perfect bookends. The first being about seeing beauty even though everything has just fallen apart, and Grace continuing on that theme. In between those 2 songs you get songs about death, grief, midlife crisis, war, doubt, loss of faith. It all seems to gel perfectly, for me, anyway.
HTDAAB i don't even count as a U2 album. It's just so abysmal, yet it does have a certain cohesiveness to it (albeit a cohesiveness of crap), but it makes sense as a totally random mainstream pop album. It's randomness is the theme, you could say.
NLOTH, well...different story. The album itself is confused, loses its cohesiveness halfway thru, and that's the main problem. The tour is a totally seperate thing. I haven't been to any shows, but I don't remember reading anywhere that the tour had some overall concept or theme, like ZooTV or PopMart. To me, it just looks like a more elaborate stage set-up (compared to Elevation or Vertigo tours), with really no story to be told within the concert itself. So, with all the talk about U2 not being comfortable in playing their new songs...I don't buy this argument. It seems like they are plenty confident in playing the majority of the album, there's always going to be some songs that don't get played. Acrobat was never played, but no one ever questioned U2's certainty towards the AB album. This is what you get every single tour. Most new songs get played, and the others don't. NLOTH the album - confused and lacking focus. NLOTH the tour - just another U2 tour, with just a more elaborate stage set-up, no concept, no theme, just a tour.
My main interest is in hearing a cohesive U2 album.
If there was any uncertainty that I could accuse U2 of having, it would be their shunning of the Zooropa and POP albums. This seems to be quite obvious. But the answer as to why is also obvious. They didn't yeild as many classics, and U2 like to rely on classic songs. It's something I wish they would change their minds about, but whatever, I haven't been to a show since Elevation tour, and I probably won't go to another unless it's some whole other weird thing, like another ZOOTV. Until then, it's just another tour, like most bands that tour...play some new songs, and stick to the classics.
Like I said, my main interest is in hearing a cohesive, inspired album.