Playing it Safe Since Pop

[LMP]

I think because of how bad Pop was received at 1st by many people, the band has started to play it safe and stop experimenting. Don't get me wrong, I love the most recent albums alot, but maybe if they knew how many people liked Pop a few years later, these albums could have been very different. What do you all think?

 

[korczykp]

I don't know, I think they just got out of that "phase"

I live Pop and Zooropa, but if they kept doing the same kind of style and just expanding on it... It'd get kind of old too

I love where they are right now

 

[Lancemc]

I love where they are right now

Agreed

 

[HelloAngel]

I dunno. I think U2 are grown men who are making music that is both appropriate and jubilant while still remaining relevant and interesting to the world and their fanbase. So dunno if they're playing it safe more than they are just secure with who they are and the music they are chosing to put forth.

 

[kakvox]

I also think, though, if U2 were still in their 'POP' experimental stage, a whole other group of people would be complaining about that. Either way, you can't please everyone.

 

[Yahweh]

POP wasnt poorly recieved except for really one country but I wont go there again.

 

[bollox]

I think because of how bad Pop was received at 1st by many people, the band has started to play it safe and stop experimenting.

agree 100%. pop and the popmart tour get savaged by critics, u2 retreats and rediscovers "classic" sound, same critics hail u2's "return to form"

sorry, but i'll take giant mirrorball lemons and irony over excruciating earnestness and the "top of a newborn baby's head" any day

 

[kerc]

Now ya made me wanna listen to POP. As if I needed an excuse...!

 

[STING2]

Why is POP considered by some and experimental album and ATYCLB and HTDAAB are not?

The fact of the matter is, every album is an experiment. POP actually has music on it that sounds very much like old U2 in several places and ATYCLB and HTDAAB are not the rehash of old U2 that many here claim. Ultimately, all three albums are experiments and each has taken U2 to a new place they have never been before.

POP was a great album, but as Larry says, they never finished it and unlike the Unforgettable Fire, it did not have that "unfinished beauty glow" like UF did.

 

[AquariumDrinker]

I like 90s U2 better than any other period of their career. If you asked me if U2 was playing it safe four years ago, I would have whole-heartedly agreed. But after listening to HTDAAB, I have come to the conclusion that it's just a different band now than it was during the 90s. They are older now and resolved the issues that made up the themes of AB, Zooropa, and POP.

The goal of 90s U2 was to run away from the notion of 80s U2. The band simply has a new goal now and that's to focus on songwriting. I don't have a problem with that as long as the songs are good. And HTDAAB has good songs, better than POP's IMO.

 

[Saracene]

IMO with POP U2 have taken their 90s direction as far as they could and it was a dead end with or without commercial success. In the same way that they reached dead end with R&H in the 80s.

 

[U2Kitten]

I don't believe they did anything for any other reason other than that's what they wanted to do at the time- ever- for any album. Pop was in them in 97, this is what's in them now. That's all.

 

[MrBrau1]

I've hated U2 ever since R&H. Critics slammed the record and movie, so U2 changed to keep the critics happy. They have a history of this ya know.

 

[U2Kitten]

I also don't see what's so 'safe' about the newer albums. Every album is a chance, and U2 has never followed current mainstream trends.

 

[TheBrazilianFly]

I agree with HelloAngel and U2Kitten!

 

[Jack In The Box]

my favorite music magazine thinks that ATYCLB is an experimental album, and I agree, because is an album where 'the boys' are in search of something

 

[RademR]

People think u2 are playing it safe, some think they aren't. I don't really care, I love ATYCLB and HTDAAB and they are both brilliant albums so they can keep making "safe" albums for all I care.

"Love and Peace" is like an industrial blues song that doesnt sound like anything they've ever put out. "All Because of You" has that u2 feel but it is heavily influenced by 60s rock and the WHO, sounds very different. "A Man and a Woman" is u2's attempt at an r&b song which they've never tried to do before. It has a strong spanish influence too with those guitars. "Fast Cars" sounds like it's straight from the middle east. Playing it safe? I dont see it.

I agree they planned out certain songs to pinpoint the mainstream audience like "vertigo" and "sometimes..." but I wouldnt say their playing it safe. Who knows, maybe they are, but I loved the last two albums so they can keep bringing it.

 

[ADecentMelody]

I think because of how bad Pop was received at 1st by many people, the band has started to play it safe and stop experimenting. Don't get me wrong, I love the most recent albums alot, but maybe if they knew how many people liked Pop a few years later, these albums could have been very different. What do you all think?

I don't really think U2 reacts much to what people think of their work. If you watch their making of's, they are in their own world when it comes to song composition. It has to excite them. At this point in their careers, why would they try to appease the guy down the street.

 

[The OOTS]

I think that they are playing it a bit safer these days. They are in their 40s now, have varied interests other than experimenting with their music, have families to raise, saving the world (Bono)etc. Lyrically, Bono has had a few gems, but most of the lyrics on the last two albums seem to be a bit uninspired. I believe the songs were contructed to capture a mainstream audience rather than capture the imagination of the listener.

That doesn't mean that the newer albums are bad, in fact I like them a lot. But, they feel a lot 'safer' as compared to AB, Zooropa, and Pop.

 

[Saracene]

I believe the songs were contructed to capture a mainstream audience rather than capture the imagination of the listener.

Er... what do you mean by making the difference between "listener" and "mainstream audience"?

 

[The OOTS]

Lyrically, the songs seem simpler....and musically they are shorter.

I was listening to JT today and they were just on a different plain then. Lryically, there is no comparison. The lyrics make you 'think' and reflect a little bit.

 

[Reggie Thee Dog]

I just think that after all these years they are finally comfortable in their own skin.

 

[Reggie Thee Dog]

Lyrically, the songs seem simpler....and musically they are shorter.

I was listening to JT today and they were just on a different plain then. Lryically, there is no comparison. The lyrics make you 'think' and reflect a little bit.

The lyrics now, or during JT?

 

[Reggie Thee Dog]

Oops, I just read the previous posts....my bad.

 

[U2girl]

I for one hope they stick with the direct, humble approach of the last two albums.

 

[U2_Guy]

I for one hope they stick with the direct, humble approach of the last two albums.

Of course you do.

 

[Aardvark747]

Let's not start _guy and girl!

 

[Dalton]

My wife is the most beautiful person I have ever met, but sometimes we will be laying in bed and i will look at her for so long she starts to look ugly - and my mind begins to play tricks on me "you're gonna be with her forever..... she's not attractive .... what did you ever see in her ...."

Then for the next few days I get into a funk wondering what in the hell I was thinking and then like a little Grace from God, she walks into a room at a time when i don't expect her to and I am blown away by her beauty. Stunned by how amazing she is ......


I think my analogy is self explanatory, so I will leave it there.

Just a little friendly advice from the neighborhood a-hole.

 

[U2girl]

Let's not start _guy and girl!

See my post in the IMO thread in Where the album has no name. I could care less about what he says.

 

[Salome]

POP was playing it safe
they started incorporating the hip sounds of that time
but instead of pushing this along they filled half the album with kinda avarage U2 songs and letting flood play with it for a while to make it at least sound cool

at least with ATYCLB they had the balls to make a decision on what direction to go and stick with it