How much of U2's insipid, bland and generic songwriting of late is down to poor creative influences and how much of it is down to themselves?
I get the feeling all desire and determination for creativity has left them as they become tired and old, leaving the likes of artistic vacuums like Tedder and Guy Oseary in charge (in charge of Madonna I believe, says it all).
It was all down hill after they hired that coffee salesman who wrote 'my humps, my humps, my lady lumps' to help create I'll Go Crazy.
It's a kids film for sure, but that doesn't mean quality should be any less. Randy Newman wrote some beautiful songs for Toy Story 2 like When She Loved Me without needing to water things down for the target audience. Maybe it will take a 5 year old kid to openly swear about U2's music for them to leave the stage with whatever dignity they have or revert to being serious about music.
In all seriousness, a band that the singer hob nobs, wines and dines with the most powerful people on earth, wrapped in his ego, flies his hat half way round the world and has a guitarist who gets into destructive environmental land disputes for property development, all screams of a band used to the material and exclusive life of the wealthiest people on the planet. Priorities are all wrong, and no wonder the art suffers when they are so engrossed in a materialistic life with seemingly no awe and wonder left for life outside of it. Brutal, but true.
