The one thing I really have a problem with here is the comparisons of HTDAAB to ATYCLB. Edge's guitar was almost non-existent on ATYCLB. Apart from his riffs in Beautiful Day, Walk On, Elevation, and certain parts of New York and Kite, it's rather barren of guitar. Stuck, POE, In a Little While (has some nice guitar playing, but nothing spectacular), WILATW (solo is about it), Grace...all these songs are mostly vocals, keyboards, drumbs and bass. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I still think that's a fantastic album (seem to be in the minority on that one) but it's very different from HTDAAB. Edge's guitarwork, while maybe not revolutionary, is features strongly in every single songs here. Even at times it's overwhelming (Vertigo, LAPOE, COBL, ABOY, Crumbs, Orignial of the Species...) but it's still a much more guitar-heavy album than ATYCLB. That was more of a pop album, I'm not afraid to admit that. It's still great, but HTDAAB really is more stripped down, back to their roots like Bono has said frequently. That said, it's certainly not Boy, which, if they had released an album exactly like Boy it would be very embarassing. So...well...I'm out of ideas right now. I hope that was at least a little bit coherent.
Thank you,
Lance.