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From The Orange County Register:

Post-tragedy, U2 songs say it all
October 5, 2001

By BEN WENER
The Orange County Register

It's official: I'm an idiot.

It's taken three weeks for that truth to set in, though I started realizing it the day after the
day no one will ever forget. That was when, depressed like anyone with a heart still beating,
I turned to the radio for solace.

Never mind solace. Try release. And after scouring the dial and finding nothing but the
usual suspects, I discovered what spoke to me.

A quietly churning funkless funk beat, so faint you barely notice it. Atop it, doleful
keyboard tones, resolving into that throbbing bass no one can mistake. A plinking guitar,
like Roger McGuinn warming up.

And out comes the voice. It belongs to a guy that has seen enough, done all the crying he
can. He's almost bland, monotone and cold, the way Lou Reed can sometimes be. Just there,
stating matter-of-factly.

He says: In New York, freedom looks like too many choices.

He says: In New York, I found a friend to drown out the other voices.

Those voices: Voices on a cell phone, voices from home, voices of the hard sell, voices down
a stairwell.

In New Yorrrrrk.

His voice swoops low, then he tells us he just got a place there, before returning to his usual
wail.

And I'm hooked.

The song, off U2's "All That You Can't Leave Behind," has been growing on me all along. I
liked it well enough on record, liked it more when Bono danced around the aorta of the band's
stage at the Pond. Now I can't get enough of it.

No, more than that: I can't do without the entire album. Suddenly songs that seemed so
inconsequential now resonate almost too deeply. It's downright eerie how in tune with what's
happening they are - how "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" speaks to rebuilding
wounded pride, how "Walk On" spills over with realistic compassion and encouragement, how
the simple-mindedness of "Peace on Earth" now comes across as justifiable and righteous.

I know, I'm doubling back on myself, but sometimes it takes a jolt for reality to set in. So many
years of hearing U2 carry on about the troubles of the world when America has rambled on
unharmed has taken a toll. For too long now I have wanted more dazzle and invention from
the band because I didn't need its salvation and spirituality, its humanity and hopefulness. I
overlooked, for instance, that while I and many others have been living as comfortable
consumers, they have been keeping creative tabs on the ugliness of the world.

They have seen their homeland torn apart. They have taken stock of strife in Bosnia, in
Rwanda - throughout Africa, really. They know what the Third World looks like, even as they've
witnessed decay of the First from the seclusion of a limousine.

Look, this doesn't change that Bono is often overbearingly mopey and pathetically self-important.
But face it: They have foresight many of us will never have.

Foolish, then, to think that there was something wrong with U2 - that the guys weren't doing
enough to keep us interested and supporting their causes. Maybe it's the other way around;
maybe we're boring them. Maybe it's that they're fighting the good fight and have grown restless
at our own self-absorption, our pointless materialism, our vapidity.

Somehow "All That You Can't Leave Behind" doesn't sound nearly as retrograde as it once did.
Its moody urgency just arrived. Its vitality just reared its head.

But I suspect both were there all along. I just couldn't hear it.

And for what it's worth - which right now is exactly nothing - it will win the Grammy for Album
of the Year. Bet me.

10 U2 SONGS

"If God Will Send His Angels" (1997) - Would everything be all right?

"Seconds" (1983) - "In an apartment on Times Square / You can assemble them anywhere / Held to
ransom, hell to pay / A revolution every day."

"A Sort of Homecoming" (1985) - Hopefulness: As the city walls come down, we run and don't
look back.

"Until the End of the World" (1992) - Drowning sorrows in waves of regret and joy.

"Bullet the Blue Sky" (1987) - Disturbingly amazing how it fits any atrocity.

"Wake Up Dead Man" (1997) - Looking for order in disorder when Jesus doesn't seem to have the
answers.

"Please" (1997) - Like all of their political statements, written for one set of troubles, applicable
to all.

"Walk On" (2000) - Stay safe tonight.

"Peace on Earth" (2000) - "Tell the ones who hear no sound / Whose sons are living in the ground."

"40" (1983) - How long to sing this song?


------------------
Macphisto worships me!
 
Yeah, it's a good review, it's from our local newspaper.
smile.gif

Here's another U2 related article from the OC Register:

The Sincerest Form of Flattery

Review of cover CD: 'Even Better Than The Real Thing

Orange County Register, October 05, 2001

Robert Kinsler

Since the Sept. 11 attacks on the East Coast, music has been among the most prominent ways to raise relief funds for families of the victims, as well as provide a way of healing a wounded nation.

For countless rock fans, U2's "Walk On," "Peace on Earth" and "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" off the band's All That You Can't Leave Behind have become a kind of soundtrack for the mood of the country.

Now, a group of independent labels from Orange and Los Angeles counties (Independents Anonymous) have released a timely and impressive tribute to U2 titled Even Better Than The Real Thing, which leads off this week's look at some of the best new local releases.

Various Artists
Even Better Than The Real Thing
Independents Anonymous

There is little question about the caliber of songwriting on a tribute to a band as remarkable as U2. The question for Even Better Than The Real Thing is the originality and performance of 15 classic U2 songs representing everything from "An Cat Dubh" (1980) to "Discotheque" (1997).

Noteworthy performances abound: Peoplemover tackles "Acrobat" with an obvious reverence. Trespassers William fuses the power of the original with the haunting intimacy of Mazzy Star to repaint "Love is Blindness" as a seven-minute dreamscape.

Lift Off retains the exhilarating feel of "Where the Streets Have No Name" but also uses a heavy dose of electronica to revamp the classic as if it were a part of the Achtung Baby sessions. Deep Mosey transforms "In God's Country" into a sparse country-flavored treasure, and pop-rock's the Relatives race warp-speed through an uplifting "With or Without You."

Tunnel Fishin' ("Bullet the Blue Sky") and Doom Kounty Electric Chair ("An Cat Dubh"/"Running to Stand Still") are hard-rocking outfits whose own material lacks the ethereal quality of U2's work, but both bands clearly succeed here.

Even Better Than The Real Thing is now available online via www.sonikwire.com, or in area music stores beginning Tuesday.


? Orange County Register, 2001.
 
Definitely! He hits the nail on the head. I liked the line "maybe we're boring him." That would explain some of the irony of PopMart. Like his prediction for the Grammies!
 
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