What does quality mean to you? To me, the production is flatter and less interesting, Edge hasn't come up with an interesting guitar part in years, the arrangements are more formulaic
I disagree... I don't believe the production is flatter, I'd agree that it's overproduced in any case.
I think that the overproduced songs can be annoying since they don't sound as natural/raw as earlier material, but I've experienced that once I accepted that that's the "new" U2 (just like I had to do the same after Achtung Baby compared to 80's U2), the production is better overall even if different to what they used to do/be.
What do you mean by "interesting"? If you mean "innovative and balls", I already admitted they're lacking in that department. (Same applies with the "arrangements more formulaic" argument).
Other than that, I belive "interesting" is pretty subjective... I find very interesting (and great quality) what Edge does in COBL, SYCMIOYO, OOTS, MD, NLOTH, FEZ, Magnificent, Boots, Mercy, Winter and I could keep going on and on.
Get somebody who knows about music and never have heard of U2, give them War and Bomb... I believe they'll tell you that Bomb has way better quality than War.
Less balls, but more quality.
I can accept however that you don't find it interesting, or that you don't find quality in the more formulaic music, but I know many people would disagree with you. It's just opinions.
there's a reason why the general public has only latched onto a handful of songs from an entire 15 year period.
There's several reasons for that, I don't believe "musical quality" is one of them.
And obviously the lyrics are worse, but you didn't include that.
Not sure about that.
I hate sexyboots and standupforyourlove... but I'm not sure everything can be dismissed like that.
On the other hand, I really don't "speak" english, so I'm not sure how cheesy/good/bad/cool/dadrock the lyrics are. I usually don't understand almost anything in the songs and I have to look for the lyrics to know what he's singing anyway. Sometimes I like them, sometimes I don't.
Still not sure they're really "worse" than itsalrightitsalrightitsalrightshemovesinmisteriousways.
It's not that the last four albums have been bad, but I wouldn't use any one of them as an introduction.
I agree with you on this.
U2 is capable of so much more.
50+ year olds U2? not sure.