Achtung Baby voted best album in last 25 years
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The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Mrs. Garrison
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
WoW! i thought NME liked u2? or am i mistaking them for "Q"
corianderstem
Blue Crack Distributor
I think you are. NME usually whines about U2, Q sings their praises.
Vlad n U 2
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I guess it's time for the editors to slit their wrists and cry like little girls in their bedrooms.
cobl04
45:33
fuck how am i going to sleep tonight with that headline in my head? 
Mrs. Garrison
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
well im trying to think of any other band who has had a bigger impact to music in the last 25 years....still trying....
cobl04
45:33
in all seriousness though, that's probably the worst music-related article i've ever seen...
Vlad n U 2
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medmo
The Fly
Everyone should read the comments below this article. The writer gets into a discussion with a guy about the lyrics. The writer basically says the lyrics to Until the End of the World are meaningless and stupid, and the other guy points out that they're about Jesus and Judas. The writer admits he was unaware of this, and that his argument has basically been shot down.
You'd think the dude could have done a little research before he wrote a piece discussing the shitty lyrics on Achtung Baby.
What the writer just totally ignores is that U2 have pushed there sound beginning with AB and ending with Pop. All those bands that he names that are influenced by U2 haven't changed their sound one bit.
Your legacy is a quarter-century of boring, blustery, formulaic rock.
Your legacy is a quarter-century of boring, blustery, formulaic rock.
Vlad n U 2
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What the writer just totally ignores is that U2 have pushed there sound beginning with AB and ending with Pop. All those bands that he names that are influenced by U2 haven't changed their sound one bit.
Your legacy is a quarter-century of boring, blustery, formulaic rock.
Geez that writer deserves all the tomatoes thrown at him as he can get. He certainly enjoyed getting some attention thanks to some piece of shit article.
What I think is, any kind of popular music publication nowadays that doesn't have an objective, international, and postmodern perspective is simply irrelevant and doomed to obscurity and eventual cancellation. That the NME -- Britain's last-standing music paper (its one-time cohorts have all long-been cancelled due to public indifference) -- is still apparently clinging to some sort of "British-indie-is-good ; Popular-in-America or American-indie-is-bad" kind of regional, provincial, editorial perspective is stunning, and (for them) rather embarrassing.
I do think the British music press of the past served a function, and at its best achieved a kind of higher-quality-by-competition that served smaller bands well, in a way that a stand-alone corporate whore like Rolling Stone after the 1970s never could (much like the USA being the sole "superpower" after the cold war). However, the current pluralistic, international, post-indie, post-everything music world is ill-served by a parochial, reactionary perspective as dished up by the hack writer of this article, who clearly comes off as someone who hasn't studied U2's music (and is a decade out of touch, as he thinks Spin is America's "indie" magazine, which it hasn't resembled for 10 years at least).
This would lead to the obvious question of why such a person would be asked to write an editorial about U2... but since this is the NME, we needn't ask.
The one British music publication I rate very highly is MOJO.
I do think the British music press of the past served a function, and at its best achieved a kind of higher-quality-by-competition that served smaller bands well, in a way that a stand-alone corporate whore like Rolling Stone after the 1970s never could (much like the USA being the sole "superpower" after the cold war). However, the current pluralistic, international, post-indie, post-everything music world is ill-served by a parochial, reactionary perspective as dished up by the hack writer of this article, who clearly comes off as someone who hasn't studied U2's music (and is a decade out of touch, as he thinks Spin is America's "indie" magazine, which it hasn't resembled for 10 years at least).
This would lead to the obvious question of why such a person would be asked to write an editorial about U2... but since this is the NME, we needn't ask.
The one British music publication I rate very highly is MOJO.
roy
Refugee
From the NME article posted earlier:
Luke Lewis [Member] //May 1 2010 at 12:39
@DB - you talk about the "strength" of the lyrics in 'Until The End Of The World'. Don't get me wrong, I do like that song. But my point is, there's a specific lyrical mode to it that's been highly influential on the likes of Chris Martin.
A line like, "Waves of regret, waves of joy/I reached out for the one I tried to destroy." What does that MEAN? It sounds vaguely portentous, but it actually shrugs off specific meaning. The more you analyse Bono's lyrics, the more they sort of disappear into vapour
DB [Visitor] //May 1 2010 at 17:26
Luke, re: the lyrics in 'Until The End of The World' - this may make you snort in derision but the song is actually about Judas and Jesus. Not the coolest subject matter of all time but there you are.
Luke Lewis [Member] //May 1 2010 at 17:49
@DB - Thanks, I never knew that. You've rather shot down my argument there...
That's just embarassing. Music editors these days are so completley ignorant.
Luke Lewis [Member] //May 1 2010 at 12:39
@DB - you talk about the "strength" of the lyrics in 'Until The End Of The World'. Don't get me wrong, I do like that song. But my point is, there's a specific lyrical mode to it that's been highly influential on the likes of Chris Martin.
A line like, "Waves of regret, waves of joy/I reached out for the one I tried to destroy." What does that MEAN? It sounds vaguely portentous, but it actually shrugs off specific meaning. The more you analyse Bono's lyrics, the more they sort of disappear into vapour
DB [Visitor] //May 1 2010 at 17:26
Luke, re: the lyrics in 'Until The End of The World' - this may make you snort in derision but the song is actually about Judas and Jesus. Not the coolest subject matter of all time but there you are.
Luke Lewis [Member] //May 1 2010 at 17:49
@DB - Thanks, I never knew that. You've rather shot down my argument there...
That's just embarassing. Music editors these days are so completley ignorant.
Vlad n U 2
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Hahahaha owned. 
In fairness to the writer (I hesitate to use that word), he does, albeit via slamming U2, make a point that I wholeheartedly agree with -- that the trend of mainstream rock lyrics nowadays is to write inoffensive, lovely nonsense.
Of course, none of this is U2's fault. U2's lyrics are, by and large, intentionally broad in scope and interpretation but still pointed and clearly inspired. This is a delicate line to weave, and Bono and co. do it very well. Once in a while the lyric might come off as too specific (some of the stuff in a song like "God Part II" will inevitably date the song) and slightly more often it veers into too vague (like "Staring at the Sun" or "Vertigo"), but more often than not we can "get" the point of the lyric. Not only that, but Bono has gone on record on numerous occasions to discuss the inspiration to his lyrics.
I do think that this trend of U2's has influenced other lyric writers, but probably not for the better. In the hands of someone like Chris Martin, "broad but inspired" lyrics somehow turned into "sensitive nonsense". Take a song like "Speed of Sound" for example. I really like that song, and I think its melody and some of its individual moments and its production are sublime. Clearly it's a record of great beauty. However, it'll never be anything than a piece of pretty music to me because the lyrics are inane. Martin may have had something specific in mind but it's so vague with so many non-sequiters that nobody can be expected to glean any point from it. By contrast, the Noel Gallagher school of songwriting is simply to write utter nonsense, as long as it vaguely rhymes -- he himself admits that most of his lyrics mean nothing and he says he doesn't even care about lyrics at all.
Neither of these cases apply to U2, even remotely. And as someone said, blaming U2 for Coldplay is like blaming the Rolling Stones for Aerosmith or Guns'n'Roses.
Of course, none of this is U2's fault. U2's lyrics are, by and large, intentionally broad in scope and interpretation but still pointed and clearly inspired. This is a delicate line to weave, and Bono and co. do it very well. Once in a while the lyric might come off as too specific (some of the stuff in a song like "God Part II" will inevitably date the song) and slightly more often it veers into too vague (like "Staring at the Sun" or "Vertigo"), but more often than not we can "get" the point of the lyric. Not only that, but Bono has gone on record on numerous occasions to discuss the inspiration to his lyrics.
I do think that this trend of U2's has influenced other lyric writers, but probably not for the better. In the hands of someone like Chris Martin, "broad but inspired" lyrics somehow turned into "sensitive nonsense". Take a song like "Speed of Sound" for example. I really like that song, and I think its melody and some of its individual moments and its production are sublime. Clearly it's a record of great beauty. However, it'll never be anything than a piece of pretty music to me because the lyrics are inane. Martin may have had something specific in mind but it's so vague with so many non-sequiters that nobody can be expected to glean any point from it. By contrast, the Noel Gallagher school of songwriting is simply to write utter nonsense, as long as it vaguely rhymes -- he himself admits that most of his lyrics mean nothing and he says he doesn't even care about lyrics at all.
Neither of these cases apply to U2, even remotely. And as someone said, blaming U2 for Coldplay is like blaming the Rolling Stones for Aerosmith or Guns'n'Roses.
gvox
Ghost of Love
I'm trying to reconcile the fact that while U2 is my favorite band, I can't bring myself to name Achtung Baby the best album of the last 25 years. It's not *my favorite album of the last 25 years, that's for sure. I do love it alot though, and I guess I'm happy to see them there.
djerdap
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From the NME article posted earlier:
Luke Lewis [Member] //May 1 2010 at 12:39
@DB - you talk about the "strength" of the lyrics in 'Until The End Of The World'. Don't get me wrong, I do like that song. But my point is, there's a specific lyrical mode to it that's been highly influential on the likes of Chris Martin.
A line like, "Waves of regret, waves of joy/I reached out for the one I tried to destroy." What does that MEAN? It sounds vaguely portentous, but it actually shrugs off specific meaning. The more you analyse Bono's lyrics, the more they sort of disappear into vapour
DB [Visitor] //May 1 2010 at 17:26
Luke, re: the lyrics in 'Until The End of The World' - this may make you snort in derision but the song is actually about Judas and Jesus. Not the coolest subject matter of all time but there you are.
Luke Lewis [Member] //May 1 2010 at 17:49
@DB - Thanks, I never knew that. You've rather shot down my argument there...
Heh, he did end up looking like an idiot, but at least he admitted his mistake. To bash Until the End of the World for its lyrics out of all possible U2 songs... That's like shooting yourself in the leg from the start.
Radiohead?
Exactly.
Mrs. Garrison
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
Radiohead?
overrated
VintagePunk
Blue Crack Distributor
The positive thing about this article is the comment section. Most people in there are bucking the popular trend of bashing U2 these days, and defending them and the album. Nice to see.
Moser
Refugee
Here's my uncertain to be posted comment.
Vlad n U 2
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