Well you have to realize that when U2 reinvents itself each time that it takes awhile for some fans to adjust and that some fans dropoff only to come back on board later. When my first look at Achtung Baby had The Fly rubbing his crotch in a video camera in a live performance I was shocked and appalled by their "betryal" of their former image. It was almost a year before I "got" the "new sound/ irony/ rock star" thing and started loving the album.
Same thing with ATYCLB as Beautiful Day did nothing for me in the first 6 months of radio rotation. Only when I heard it live on some award show did it re-present itself in a new light.
anyway
Reasons (i've come up with) that people have problems with the 'new' U2
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POP -
1. Unfinished album. They missed deadlines and had to put it out early, even the band admits it. Plus they ended up remixing all the Pop tracks on the greatest hits (gee wonder why?). This IS the band's fault but hell they're just human.
2. Bad start. The tour did not start well. Reviews to missed queues and botched songs did not translate into full stadiums. Plus the whole cheesy outfits went a little too far in many people's minds. Overblown irony isn't THAT cool. They later made up for it when everything started clicking.
3. Discoteque. The first single's ode to disco (modern at least) complete with YMCA outfits really freaked out the people that were JUST coming to grips with Lemon.
Some never recovered. Pitty them.
4. The title-the presentation. But what hurt it most was the misinterpretation that it was full of POP songs. Discoteque started that idea and the band's image didn't help but most people FAIL to recognize that its a very dark album lyrically and also rather schizophrenic in its approach to new sounds (techno) and old (rock & roll, ballads). Most never realized what its STRENGTHS were....but others did. Pop as an album and a tour WAS after all VERY successful.
But there were some disappointed fans. (also see REM's Monster or Blur's Think Tank for a similar fan situation)
so what was the band to do.............
Well they came out with
ATYCLB
1. It was the anti-POP "pop" album. If you loved Pop you probably hated ATYCLB because it was sincere, safe, rock n roll, less experimental. So a lot of fans were happy that the "original" U2 were back but not POP fans or even some Achtung-Zooropa fans...
2. Pop- Frankly a lot of people saw the previous POP image and the real "pop" sound and thought that the band had lost its soul or edge. What they missed out on was that it WAS a deep album and was very soulful. About loss it really made sense AFTER 9/11 and that's when it really "clicked" in the minds of most latter fans. If you weren't listening it probably didn't click.
3. Experimental-If you only wanted U2 to be experimental and to always cut new ground than you probably didn't like ATYCLB either. It wasn't "indie" in the least and wasn't "new" and yet it did well just for that reason. It was a return to basics and it was needed. Radiohead never went back and put out the Bends Part 2 but U2 had the balls to go back and find its roots and make a NEW album and direction in doing so.
And it wasn't recycling so much as re-inventing yet again. (if you figured that out)
and so.............
U2 will return again with a RAW rock & roll sound sure enough to add what was missing from the last album as much as piss off the people who loved the last one.
The rule of U2 is that they will always "fix" what they "broke" in the last album and will re-invent themselves yet again.
And hindsight is 20/20.