Like I said there are certainly topics in there but the current state of his life significantly reduces what he can write about especially in what could connect with the average person. My post was simply trying to point out that with reduced subject matter it should not be a surprise for there to be so many songs that are pretty thin in substance, heavy in cliche and not much beyond the line or two message of the song. Bono can still write great lyrics it just seems to me that one of the major external effects on Bono's writing is how great his life is and that appears in a few songs on the post-Pop albums.
This is true.
However, I want to point out that many wonderful albums have been written from perspective of the rich and powerful. Recent example: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West. Past example: On The Beach by Neil Young. These records are decidedly meta and don't shy away from the artist's reaction to fans, critics, and their current situation as a celebrity. U2 themselves did an extraordinary job tackling this with ZooTV.
The problem is, U2 is no longer inspired by that. They don't care about it. So when they do write about those things on recent albums, it blows. So what does Bono care about? Family, friends, people, dying Acrifans, and the occasional Biblical passage. The issue with writing about
those topics is that Bono has very few interesting or inspired things to say about them these days. So, realizing this, he decided to use the third person narrative and let his imagination do its thing on NLOTH. Surprise surprise, the result was phenomenal. Many of the above topics found their way into the music, but his detachment gave the songs depth beyond the message. And that's what's really been missing: depth.
The source of Bono's inspiration is irrelevant. Writers can be inspired by a slice of bread, a rain gutter, a homeless man or their bank account. What matters is the effort they take to write something lasting and unique. Bono needs to find a way to make his lyrics read less a plea to the G8 and more like a product of a competent lyricist with thoughts to communicate about daily life, and I don't believe that Bono really took the time to think through HTDAAB's lyrics in such a manner. As a matter of fact, I
know he didn't, because I've read articles and interviews that stated most of his contributions were done on the go. On Love and Peace or Else, Bono went out of his way to connect his observations to a situation we can all relate to: watching the troops on TV with the sound off. But, instead of a profound or human response to the image, he speaks through a bumper sticker: WHERE IS THE LOVE??? That just won't cut it, and it never will.
