dsmith2904
ONE love, blood, life
[SIMG]http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/09/12/arts/pare.184.12.jpg[/SIMG]
U2, The Band That Never Embarrasses Itself
U2'S next album, due in November, will grapple with two challenges: one musical, one cultural.
On its 2000 album, "All That You Can't Leave Behind," U2 retrenched with the kind of ringing, open-hearted arena rock that had made the band's reputation in the 1980's, deliberately reviving a sound that it had twisted and cloaked for a decade. Over its long career, U2 has made more than one foray away from its youthful anthems, first as it tried to come to terms with rock's American roots and then, in the 1990's, as it layered songs with electronic rhythms and swathed the Edge's guitar in effects and distortion.
In 2000, U2 cleared its decks again. Its music was no longer ambivalent about being large enough to resound in a stadium, and its songs directly stated a longing for transcendence and divine grace. Now, at a moment when younger bands are rediscovering garage-rock, the early 1980's and the power of bluntly emotional confessions, U2's next album (Nov. 23) will reveal whether the band intends to stay streamlined or start extending its music in yet another direction.
But the larger cultural question is what the 21st-century role can be for a band that never shied away from significance. While many new acts seem to arrive and disappear within a semester as they revel in self-absorption, U2 has endured for decades and taken itself seriously without too much embarrassment. All sorts of musicians have timed their political statements to arrive this election season, and although U2 has rarely seemed partisan, its songs about love have sought the moral high ground as often as they have considered romance. This will be U2's first album since the beginning of the war on terrorism, and the band may well take notice of larger issues.
--New York Times
U2, The Band That Never Embarrasses Itself
U2'S next album, due in November, will grapple with two challenges: one musical, one cultural.
On its 2000 album, "All That You Can't Leave Behind," U2 retrenched with the kind of ringing, open-hearted arena rock that had made the band's reputation in the 1980's, deliberately reviving a sound that it had twisted and cloaked for a decade. Over its long career, U2 has made more than one foray away from its youthful anthems, first as it tried to come to terms with rock's American roots and then, in the 1990's, as it layered songs with electronic rhythms and swathed the Edge's guitar in effects and distortion.
In 2000, U2 cleared its decks again. Its music was no longer ambivalent about being large enough to resound in a stadium, and its songs directly stated a longing for transcendence and divine grace. Now, at a moment when younger bands are rediscovering garage-rock, the early 1980's and the power of bluntly emotional confessions, U2's next album (Nov. 23) will reveal whether the band intends to stay streamlined or start extending its music in yet another direction.
But the larger cultural question is what the 21st-century role can be for a band that never shied away from significance. While many new acts seem to arrive and disappear within a semester as they revel in self-absorption, U2 has endured for decades and taken itself seriously without too much embarrassment. All sorts of musicians have timed their political statements to arrive this election season, and although U2 has rarely seemed partisan, its songs about love have sought the moral high ground as often as they have considered romance. This will be U2's first album since the beginning of the war on terrorism, and the band may well take notice of larger issues.
--New York Times
There is so much I want to say but I'm trying to avoid FYM 
Oh, I know... It's impossible to go two steps here in MA without running into it about eight times. It's like, come on guys, let's talk about something happy: like the fact that it's less than two weeks till Vertigo!
Get real..please look into the meaning behind the message.
