namkcuR
ONE love, blood, life
2Hearts said:
Ok, I'm back. I don't like this statement at all, and do not like the band quotes where they say the same thing. I love seeing U2 take on different genres and sub-genres. For some reason alot people do not see ATYCLB as taking on a new genre, but I do. Not all of it is in a new vein though, there's vintage U2 in ATYCLB also. HTDAAB covers some new territory for U2 also, but it's not a big leap off the beaten path. I would condemn it for not being more experimental, if the songs weren't SO FREAKING AWESOME. It kind of quells my criticism when they produce songs at the quality level of MD, Sometimes, COBL, OSC, Yahweh, etc. They have just handed us a heck of a masterpiece, and all some of us can say is "That's not what I was wanting you to do."
In the MOJO interview, Bono says "It is songs, not ideas. Not sounds. Not sonic landscapes, which we can do 'til the cows come home." I can enjoy different philosophies of making music (alot of people here cannot). I'm not all depressed that they didn't approach this album the same as previous ones.
A good portion of music that I listen to is unconventional with crazy time signatures, and weird for the sake of weirdness. That doesn't mean that I can't pull out an album like HTDAAB, ATYCLB, Pop, or anything else by U2 and not be blown away by their ability to write stellar, meaningful songs.
But where you think the songs are 'so freaking awesome', I think they're 'good but not great', not even close to what I believe U2 are capable of. I'm not saying that HTDAAB is a bad album, not at all, I'm simply saying it's good, maybe even very good, but it is not this masterpiece some think it is.
I listen to Vertigo and depending on my mood, sometimes I think it rocks, but most of the time I just can't ignore the utter lack of musical and/or lyrical depth in Vertigo. The guitar solo is about the only really musically deep part of the song. 'uno dos tres catorce' and 'yeah yeah yeah yeah'...?
Yahweh...I don't get what the big deal about this song is. When the record first leaked, I remember a lot of people around here saying stuff to the effect of 'this is U2's best album closer since "40" ' - and I remember thinking 'are you kidding me?' That statement suggests that Yahweh is a better song than 'All I Want Is You', 'Love Is Blindness', and 'Wake Up Dead Man', amongst others. All three of these songs are FAR superior to Yahweh, which I think is predominantly a very bland song. The album version is a bore, the alternate version is significantly better but still not overly-gripping, and the live acoustic version is the one that finally 'gets' me somewhat. Why do people think this song is so great?
Crumbs...this song is actually good, but the problem(aside from the overproduction) is the lyrics. It's not that they're bad, it's just that there's no subtlety to them. Now, obviously, Bono has always written about his activist work and Africa and poverty and God and other political/religious subjects too, but he always did with a subtlety and/or flare that made it possible to love the song even if you didn't agree with the subject matter of the lyrics. But now, they're so in-your-face, no-subtlety-at-all, DIRECT, that if you don't agree with the subject matter of the lyrics, it's hard to ignore them and like the song anyway - same thing with Yahweh. At least that's how I feel.
I go back and forth with COBL. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I just feel like it's U2 trying really hard to make another Streets-type song. Actually, even that doesn't bother me all that much. My main problem with this song is the lyrics. They just don't seem inspired or all that interesting to me, with the exception of the line 'time won't leave me as I am/but time won't take the boy out of this man'.
Look, I could go on and on but I won't. These are not bad songs(except for Yahweh, I just don't think it's very good[except live]), they are very good songs. But there is an awful blandness to them from my point of view, an awful lack of excitement, a lack of wonder.
I don't know, I'm close to just rambling now. I just think HTDAAB is overrated - on this board at least.
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