Hope you won't mind me starting this Lemon Melon, your point here interested me, namely: Stayed up longer than i intended tonight so bear with me but hopefully discussion may possibly develop and be shared/expanded when i am more awake if this interests people or it may just plummet down the board, will see i guess.
"I think Bono fearing this sort of reaction is why he took a nosedive as a lyricist following Pop IMO. Generic, all-encompassing lyrics that ultimately mean nothing have become a lot more common than intriguing compositions like this one. Many great literary works have universal themes buried in allegories, and this track has a character with a misanthropic streak confronting what he feels is wrong with humanity, his profession, etc. while exiled in Lebanon. It's interesting, it's a gamble. I completely approve of it."
This was obviously partly in connection to the Rate the song, Cedars of Lebannon thread but i am interested in the way Bono's writing seem to me to have changed since POP. You have helped further highlight this for me and i like what you say about him gambling witht eh way he approached Cedars and it seems for some fans it paid off handsomely.
I would say there is some, both wonderfully immediately personal stuff along with character written but very emotionally affecting stuff nonetheless in his lyrics since POP.
BUT YEAH sometimes it feels to me alternately wooly/overthought out or lacking in impact and resonance. Very subjective this obviously but for me, as a case in point of different way he writes and how both approaches can get to me:
Sometimes you can't make it on your own was both very personal and beautiful while Character driven narratives such as Cedars of lebannon and White as Snow were very powerful, very beautiful in their own way.
NLOTH may i think be one of the u2 albums which may have in the end the most enduring impact on me, i think a review said as much in one of their reviews at the time and it now seems quite prophetic for me. It is not a perfect album but it has mystery, soul, adventure and clarity to me (musically as well as lyrically), if that makes any kind of strange sense to anybody out there.
"I think Bono fearing this sort of reaction is why he took a nosedive as a lyricist following Pop IMO. Generic, all-encompassing lyrics that ultimately mean nothing have become a lot more common than intriguing compositions like this one. Many great literary works have universal themes buried in allegories, and this track has a character with a misanthropic streak confronting what he feels is wrong with humanity, his profession, etc. while exiled in Lebanon. It's interesting, it's a gamble. I completely approve of it."
This was obviously partly in connection to the Rate the song, Cedars of Lebannon thread but i am interested in the way Bono's writing seem to me to have changed since POP. You have helped further highlight this for me and i like what you say about him gambling witht eh way he approached Cedars and it seems for some fans it paid off handsomely.
I would say there is some, both wonderfully immediately personal stuff along with character written but very emotionally affecting stuff nonetheless in his lyrics since POP.
BUT YEAH sometimes it feels to me alternately wooly/overthought out or lacking in impact and resonance. Very subjective this obviously but for me, as a case in point of different way he writes and how both approaches can get to me:
Sometimes you can't make it on your own was both very personal and beautiful while Character driven narratives such as Cedars of lebannon and White as Snow were very powerful, very beautiful in their own way.
NLOTH may i think be one of the u2 albums which may have in the end the most enduring impact on me, i think a review said as much in one of their reviews at the time and it now seems quite prophetic for me. It is not a perfect album but it has mystery, soul, adventure and clarity to me (musically as well as lyrically), if that makes any kind of strange sense to anybody out there.