financeguy
ONE love, blood, life
On hiatus after the extended ZooTV tour, Bono promised great things to come, telling the media that the Edge had "fallen back in love with his guitar".
Fans eagerly awaited the next move. U2 offered us a mouth watering taster in the summer of 1995 - the single Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me. Though it wore its T-Rex influences a little obviously, it was a fine Bolanesque pastiche, and coupled with suitably gender-bending lyrics and arguably the most thought provoking video they have ever released, HMTMKMKM was more than enough to quell any heretical thoughts that U2 were about to call it a day.
Yet, as it turned out, those looking to HMTMKMKM for pointers as to the future direction of U2 would have been led astray.
Their next release was an extra-curricular activity - The Original Soundtracks LP recorded with Brian Eno and others, an ambient album which holds up pretty well nigh on a decade later, although perhaps not quite a classic of its genre.
Most were surprised by what came next - rather than attempting to re-invent rock and roll, U2 ventured into the waters of dance beats and the club scene. 1997's Pop was an album which divided, and still divides, the fanbase and critics alike.
In one interview, manager Paul McGuiness even ventured that U2 had plenty to offer to the blissed out 'E' generation. For some rock fans, including more than a few U2 followers, such comments smacked of a band a little too anxious to jump onto passing bandwagons. Truth be told, by 1997, dance music was already becoming a trifle jaded.
Nevertheless, Pop offered a number of high points, with Please and Mofo really coming into their own in a live setting. The under-rated Last Night on Earth was let down by an arty video that didn't quite achieve what it set out to do.
Yet for this fan, Pop is to some extent, an album which tried to be all things to all people. Yes, the passion is still there - in Bono's vocal on Please and Gone and in the lyrics throughout, but it is not a criticism of U2 to suggest that any band would struggle with reconciling rock and roll with the different ethic of dance music.
Pop was a noble attempt, which almost, but didn't quite fully come off, but it would be churlish not to acknowledge their spirit of adventure and creativity.And yet for many, including some devoted fans, there is the lingering sense that U2 were trying to be something that they were not.
But is it nothing more than a foolish nostalgia for the relatively recent past that induces me to think that nothing that they will ever do will surpass the creative highpoint of the 1991 - 1995 period?
Is it the delusion of a jaded old timer that causes me to view the much maligned and misunderstood Last Night on Earth as the last truly great U2 single?
And is it the blinkers of that delusion that makes me perceive the post-1997 era U2 as a watered down version of a once truly great band?
Fans eagerly awaited the next move. U2 offered us a mouth watering taster in the summer of 1995 - the single Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me. Though it wore its T-Rex influences a little obviously, it was a fine Bolanesque pastiche, and coupled with suitably gender-bending lyrics and arguably the most thought provoking video they have ever released, HMTMKMKM was more than enough to quell any heretical thoughts that U2 were about to call it a day.
Yet, as it turned out, those looking to HMTMKMKM for pointers as to the future direction of U2 would have been led astray.
Their next release was an extra-curricular activity - The Original Soundtracks LP recorded with Brian Eno and others, an ambient album which holds up pretty well nigh on a decade later, although perhaps not quite a classic of its genre.
Most were surprised by what came next - rather than attempting to re-invent rock and roll, U2 ventured into the waters of dance beats and the club scene. 1997's Pop was an album which divided, and still divides, the fanbase and critics alike.
In one interview, manager Paul McGuiness even ventured that U2 had plenty to offer to the blissed out 'E' generation. For some rock fans, including more than a few U2 followers, such comments smacked of a band a little too anxious to jump onto passing bandwagons. Truth be told, by 1997, dance music was already becoming a trifle jaded.
Nevertheless, Pop offered a number of high points, with Please and Mofo really coming into their own in a live setting. The under-rated Last Night on Earth was let down by an arty video that didn't quite achieve what it set out to do.
Yet for this fan, Pop is to some extent, an album which tried to be all things to all people. Yes, the passion is still there - in Bono's vocal on Please and Gone and in the lyrics throughout, but it is not a criticism of U2 to suggest that any band would struggle with reconciling rock and roll with the different ethic of dance music.
Pop was a noble attempt, which almost, but didn't quite fully come off, but it would be churlish not to acknowledge their spirit of adventure and creativity.And yet for many, including some devoted fans, there is the lingering sense that U2 were trying to be something that they were not.
But is it nothing more than a foolish nostalgia for the relatively recent past that induces me to think that nothing that they will ever do will surpass the creative highpoint of the 1991 - 1995 period?
Is it the delusion of a jaded old timer that causes me to view the much maligned and misunderstood Last Night on Earth as the last truly great U2 single?
And is it the blinkers of that delusion that makes me perceive the post-1997 era U2 as a watered down version of a once truly great band?
