I found myself in a situation very much like Alan Cross this morning, so I composed my thoughts for The Blue Crackheads after hearing the song twice.
God bless 'em, it opens with a drum fill, not unlike "Young Folks" by Peter, Bjorn & John, and then we're on our way. The signature riff is muscular and catchy in the "Vertigo" vein, with a rapid fire vocal pattern. I read a Alan Cross' blog this morning that compared the verses to "Pump It Up" by Elvis Costello, and I can't say I disagree with that. It's evocative but I wouldn't call it a rip-off. The chorus goes all middle eastern with Bono singing "You don't know how beautiful you are". There's a half-tempo breakdown/bridge with a processed drum loop that I cannot wait to hear in a stadium. It's like John Bonham playing on a Massive Attack song before the song lurches back into the main riff for another verse and chorus. And then before you know it, it's all over. It feels like a dense 7 minute epic crammed into about 3 and a half minutes.
The single most striking thing about this song for me are the drums. Or at least I think they're drums! I've never heard so many layers of rhythm on a U2 song. There are a lot of very processed drums (I thought of Kasabian at one point and N*E*R*D* at another) and loops going on, coming in and out of the mix and then at points it goes back to traditional sounding drums for emphasis. It's extremely tasteful, but complex enough to make my head spin. And I have no idea how I'm gonna manage to pull it off when my band learns it, so stay tuned for some comedy while I work that business out.
Anyway, this is NOT U2 by the numbers. This is not a "return to form" or "back to basics". This is, what the kids like to call, some OTHER shit. The 21st Century version of U2 is finally here. And they aren't looking back to their own catalog for inspiration anymore if this song is any indication.
around here...
