Yes, i've said this before but regarding the topic i felt this had to be said again. It's a little harsh at times, I know, but it's for the good cause now that there's a new album coming up:
Bono: FOR THE SAKE OF THE REAL ORIGINAL, POETIC, MYSTICAL, MELANCHOLY MUSIC: Get your ass FULL TIME in the studio and CREATE with the boys extraordinary music like you've done in the years before! Create landscapes, atmospheres… Stay away from the big U2 clichés for once: (songs like COBL, favourite one-liners: "Edge is on fire, punk-rock from venus, staying relevant is important, getting lost in the music..")
I admire you for your spirit and effort for the good cause, but the music suffers from it! Get mysterious again, epic, poetic, ambient, sounding slik & cool like on Until The End Of The World, The Fly... take your fans on a ride like in the old days with new music!
I think people nowadays hunger for some imagination, melancholy, romance, getting sucked into landscapes, atmospheres in music, not only sincerity or being too direct with emotion and explain everything so that in the end it falls flat like in songs like Sometimes and Original... You've proven that a song works better if you don't become to literally and leave a little room to breath and imagination in songs like in One, Stay or Please....
Don't we all want to hear a band that doesn't give a shit if the new CD sells, but want to make a record that is original, experimental and is not written for the masses. Take risks! And than when that afterwards appeals to a big crowd: nice for you and the record sales! But it shouldn't be the hook/startingpoint of a new album...Like The Unforgettable Fire, Achtung Baby and Zooropa were... U2 didn't know how the world would respond to it when they first brought this record into the world... And look at the magic and evelasting power and artforms these albums turned out!
It seems like nowadays they know the trick, and, unfortunately one can hear it: U2 doing U2 to a cliché-extend: City Of Blinding Lights, Miracle Drug, All Because Of You, Crumbs (Walk On-clone), Sometimes (to much "in-your-face-sentiment")..Bono said about HTDAAB: "I want every song to sound like it could be released as a single.." Man, with this attitude in the songwriting-proces they tend to shift towards sounding like Bon Jovi.
U2/Bono should focus on making surprising, artistically interesting songs again that come from another place like: Tomorrow, The Unforgettable Fire, Bad, In God's Country, Love Comes Tumbling, Walk To The Water (talking about a gem!), The Fly, Acrobat, Until The End Of The World, Lemon, Heartland, Love Is Blindness, Please, When I Look At The World, Mercy…
These song are creative, emotional in a subtle way, multi-layered, spiritual, and come from places out of this world. While, except for Yahweh and A Man And A Woman!, the songs on HTDAAB sound like everyday life... Down to earth, too straight-on, flat, plain lyrics, no surprises, so therefore less interesting and not long lasting as the earlier albums full of gems, and not full of "hit-singles"!
More and more you hear people getting bored with U2 because they don't tickle the listeners imagination anymore en don't delve into unknown territory. I'm afraid right now they've fallen into the trap of being the biggest, therefore pleasing the masses. U2 should not sell out and become they're on tribute-band !
The last 2 albums are good, with good songs on them. But not more than that. 80% is indeed dry and one-dimensional.
Now that they have the attitude: “o.k., we now know how to write a good song, so listen what we got!” (with a lot of swagger). Sorry Bono, you can scream to the world that City Of Blinding Lights is one of the best songs ever, but it’s nowhere near Streets, Unforgettable or Please!! And I think he knows it...
The more a song or album lacks this magic, the more he brags about it, and feels he has to back it up with a lot of noise and blah-blah…Everybody knows that by now! It’s so see-through…
But I’m still waiting for a great return of my favourite band. And I’m convinced when they keep a few things in mind, we’ll hear them as we never heard them before, full of surprises. A few things that could help them:
1. Bono: be there 100% when it comes to the writing process. In the studio, FULL TIME, with the others all the time! Stimulate each other! Fight, argue, experiment, whatever but look for new grounds!
2. take risks musically (like in the AB and Zooropa-era)
3. forget about wanting to be the biggest, best or whatever!
4. in songwriting: search for weird, unknown territory, dark/light sounds, dark/light landscapes
5. forget about: “how do we appeal to the largest number of listeners/audience”
6. forget about: “how do we play this live?”
7. forget the straightforward-down-to-earth thing: get the passion and the poetry back