HelloAngel
ONE love, blood, life
http://blender.com/
U2
Best Of 1990?2000
Universal/Island
4 stars
In the ?90s, the world?s most earnest band met presidents and supermodels. But did they write many great songs?
Release date: November 12, 2002
By Paul Du Noyer
As a shorthand, Beatles fans often divide themselves into ?red album? or ?blue album? people, symbolizing a preference for a compilation of the band?s early years or the later era.
Now U2?s admirers can play the same game. Four years ago, the band released The Best of 1980?1990, representing their first decade as the self-positioned World?s Most Important Band. Now we?ve got the sequel, stretching from Achtung Baby to the end of the second millennium since Jesus Christ. Comparisons are inevitable ? not just between U2 and the Beatles or Bono and Jesus Christ, but between the U2 of those distant mullet-and-morality years, and the smirking, irony-rich version that came after.
For better or worse, U2 came a long way in those two decades. It?s the difference between the bright, righteous daylight of ?Pride (In the Name of Love)? and the winking neon nighttime of ?Mysterious Ways.? The first song was about the murder of Martin Luther King Jr.; the second made reference to cunnilingus and was performed accompanied by a belly dancer whom guitarist the Edge later wed. It?s the difference between four gawky but earnest Irish boys and a sleek, global supergroup that consults with world leaders by day and cavorts with supermodels by night.
Released in 1991, Achtung Baby was a turning point, and set the tone for a lot of what followed. Their famous ?reinvention? as media-saturated citizens of cyberspace is commemorated here by ?Even Better Than the Real Thing,? ?Mysterious Ways? and ?Until the End of the World.? But here also is ?One,? an exquisite, melancholy hymn that shows U2?s underlying seriousness.
From Baby?s follow-up, Zooropa, come two great tracks, ?Stay (Faraway, So Close!)? and ?The First Time,? but also the aptly titled ?Numb,? which has presumably been included as a favor to the Edge, its creator and singer.
Sensuality and doubt now replaced the spiritual certainty of early U2. The troubled but interesting Pop (1997) contributes ?Discoth?que,? ?Staring at the Sun? and ?Gone,? all as remixes. It?s a shame, however, that U2 deemed it fit to truncate ?Miss Sarajevo? (from 1995?s Passengers), dropping the gorgeous, slow crescendo that precedes the operatic entrance of Luciano Pavarotti.
The recent return to ?classic? U2, All That You Can?t Leave Behind, is represented here by ?Beautiful Day? and ?Stuck in a Moment You Can?t Get Out Of,? while the Batman Forever soundtrack gives us ?Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me,? exactly as glitzy and unmemorable as the film itself.
Best of 1990?2000 offers two new tracks. The single ?Electrical Storm,? a slightly disappointing tale of tempestuous romance, is again in the vein of the old, banner-waving U2, though it lacks the youthful fervor that made them stirring even when they were preachy.
Then there?s ?The Hands That Built America.? Written for Martin Scorsese?s long-awaited movie Gangs of New York, the song?s subject is that ancient favorite of Irish folk songs: the laborer facing exile from his green fields (?Diggin? in our pockets for a reason not to say goodbye?) as he ventures to New York City, joining the swarming tribe of his countrymen at work on a rising skyline. Again, it?s old-school U2, a long way from the futuristic sheen of ZooTV, evincing a simple, timeless beauty. Finally, as with its predecessor, early editions of this set arrive with a bonus disc of B-sides.
So that?s the second decade of U2, wrapped up for posterity. These were feverish years, when the band reveled in the messiness of the modern world and harbored no illusions about the depths of their confusion. Will there be a third installment to the story? God only knows ? provided Bono has told Him, of course.
U2
Best Of 1990?2000
Universal/Island
4 stars
In the ?90s, the world?s most earnest band met presidents and supermodels. But did they write many great songs?
Release date: November 12, 2002
By Paul Du Noyer
As a shorthand, Beatles fans often divide themselves into ?red album? or ?blue album? people, symbolizing a preference for a compilation of the band?s early years or the later era.
Now U2?s admirers can play the same game. Four years ago, the band released The Best of 1980?1990, representing their first decade as the self-positioned World?s Most Important Band. Now we?ve got the sequel, stretching from Achtung Baby to the end of the second millennium since Jesus Christ. Comparisons are inevitable ? not just between U2 and the Beatles or Bono and Jesus Christ, but between the U2 of those distant mullet-and-morality years, and the smirking, irony-rich version that came after.
For better or worse, U2 came a long way in those two decades. It?s the difference between the bright, righteous daylight of ?Pride (In the Name of Love)? and the winking neon nighttime of ?Mysterious Ways.? The first song was about the murder of Martin Luther King Jr.; the second made reference to cunnilingus and was performed accompanied by a belly dancer whom guitarist the Edge later wed. It?s the difference between four gawky but earnest Irish boys and a sleek, global supergroup that consults with world leaders by day and cavorts with supermodels by night.
Released in 1991, Achtung Baby was a turning point, and set the tone for a lot of what followed. Their famous ?reinvention? as media-saturated citizens of cyberspace is commemorated here by ?Even Better Than the Real Thing,? ?Mysterious Ways? and ?Until the End of the World.? But here also is ?One,? an exquisite, melancholy hymn that shows U2?s underlying seriousness.
From Baby?s follow-up, Zooropa, come two great tracks, ?Stay (Faraway, So Close!)? and ?The First Time,? but also the aptly titled ?Numb,? which has presumably been included as a favor to the Edge, its creator and singer.
Sensuality and doubt now replaced the spiritual certainty of early U2. The troubled but interesting Pop (1997) contributes ?Discoth?que,? ?Staring at the Sun? and ?Gone,? all as remixes. It?s a shame, however, that U2 deemed it fit to truncate ?Miss Sarajevo? (from 1995?s Passengers), dropping the gorgeous, slow crescendo that precedes the operatic entrance of Luciano Pavarotti.
The recent return to ?classic? U2, All That You Can?t Leave Behind, is represented here by ?Beautiful Day? and ?Stuck in a Moment You Can?t Get Out Of,? while the Batman Forever soundtrack gives us ?Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me,? exactly as glitzy and unmemorable as the film itself.
Best of 1990?2000 offers two new tracks. The single ?Electrical Storm,? a slightly disappointing tale of tempestuous romance, is again in the vein of the old, banner-waving U2, though it lacks the youthful fervor that made them stirring even when they were preachy.
Then there?s ?The Hands That Built America.? Written for Martin Scorsese?s long-awaited movie Gangs of New York, the song?s subject is that ancient favorite of Irish folk songs: the laborer facing exile from his green fields (?Diggin? in our pockets for a reason not to say goodbye?) as he ventures to New York City, joining the swarming tribe of his countrymen at work on a rising skyline. Again, it?s old-school U2, a long way from the futuristic sheen of ZooTV, evincing a simple, timeless beauty. Finally, as with its predecessor, early editions of this set arrive with a bonus disc of B-sides.
So that?s the second decade of U2, wrapped up for posterity. These were feverish years, when the band reveled in the messiness of the modern world and harbored no illusions about the depths of their confusion. Will there be a third installment to the story? God only knows ? provided Bono has told Him, of course.
