A great post namckur, think you've done really well as you usually do in summarising, but it lets the band off too easy. They're idiots, who consistently make extremely poor decisions that totally override all the good stuff that you point out.
You think I'm being too easy on them, I think you're being too hard on them. I think you and Laz had a debate about that a while back.
I mean come on, you just called them idiots. And 'totally override'? They have made some poor decisions no doubt, but none of them - and I'm not sure which ones exactly you're referring to - override the fact that there are a bunch of really good songs on these records(IMO).
NLOTH is miles ahead of the last two albums in my books, because they actually went there and tried some stuff, and a lot of the time it worked: title track, MOS, Fez, Cedars.
Here's the thing - outside of the four tracks you mentioned, and White As Snow, I rarely have the desire to listen to anything else from NLOTH. I still enjoy everything on SOI except SFS and everything on SOE except Get Out, American Soul, and The Showman.
I also don't agree that SOI and SOE are these wonderfully tied-together thematic records. There's hints of it, but there's also a lot of shit. And a lot of the songs you mention that tie into the themes are quite shit, so for me at least, I couldn't give a fuck if it's some sort of impressive 'this is how music saved me' and 'I still miss my mum' or 'I love Ali heaps', because those songs, Miracle, Iris, Best Thing, are shithouse.
That's just, like, your opinion, man. I really love the verses of Iris with Bono's rarely-used-in-recent-years lower register, and the chorus, however typically U2-ish, is uplifting imo. And I'm not going to have the argument about The Miracle again because we're just never going to agree on anything with regards to that song.
But objectively speaking, the thematic unity is there with maybe the exception of 2-3 songs. I don't know what to tell you if you can't see it. It's pretty obvious.
Again, I really like about six or so songs from SOE, and had I been able to see them on this tour, I'd have been quite happy to hear those six or so songs live, which I think is really impressive and a drastic improvement on SOI. I think the record still pales in comparison to NLOTH because they're all pretty rote tunes though, lacking something special that makes them really stand out as the four I mentioned from NLOTH.
See this is one of the weirdest things to me - I prefer SOI to SOE, and after seeing you crap over SOI for several years, it's genuinely surprised me to see you championing SOE, relatively speaking. To each his own.
I don't think this is it for U2, in no way. But I don't have a lot of confidence that what comes next is going to be great. I think the only way for them to achieve greatness again would be to drop the fucking pretences. JT30 was the best press the band has had since 2004, and it was amazing. Just give us good setlists with all your great stuff and a few of the (actually good) new songs thrown in - Red Flag Day, Love is Bigger, Little Things, Blackout, Landlady, Troubles, MOS, Fez, Cedars, NLOTH, etc. Write some new songs that just exist because they came to you, not because you're trying to re-manufacture the mood of 2000 and 2004 when the rest of the world has left you behind long ago.
I think there are plenty of signs they could be nearing an end.
Regarding the underlined, I'm a bit perplexed by it. I don't hear much of any attempt to sound like ATYCLB or HTDAAB on these records.
I'd advise you to temper your expectations though - a few posts up, you mentioned Nick Cave. Wishing for an artist to be something they aren't is setting yourself up for disappointment.
