U2 And Their New Album (Part 4)

Whether this is a compliment or not, "No Line On the Horizon" is one of those albums that I feel like I should listen to a lot before giving an opinion on. But here's my opinion anyway, and if I'm wrong correct me. On hearing it a couple times my thoughts are 1) Rolling Stone was out of its mind to give it 5 stars, 2)Bono's voice sounds great 3)none of the songs are memorable. (Except the single "Put On Your Boots", which a lot of people didn't seem to like). I think it's great though, it's a real weird song, which makes it stand out next to the other middle of the road, unremarkable songs on the album.(The verse is a direct rip off of Elvis Costello's "Pump It Up" though) Actually, the verses in a lot of the songs are cool, and it's the choruses that disapoint. For example, look at the title song "No Line On The Horizon". The verse here sounds great, and Bono sings it right up from his fucking heart, but the chorus melody is something a 5th grader could have come up with. "No line on the Hu-ri--uh-zun, no line". If it would have taken you another 5 years to come up with a catchier chorus you should have stayed in the studio. Out of 5 stars it deserves 3 on my first couple listens. If I realize I was wrong after listening 50 more times I'll write about it. I didn't like "Astral Weeks" at first either, maybe this, also, is the greatest record ever made.

U2 And Their New Album (Part 3)

Continued from two posts ago

Why is it that U2 so frequently fall short of their potential? It’s because they have a limited ability as songwriters. They can rarely come up with memorable hooks, and therefore they often settle for mediocre or unfinished sounding ones. Rock music doesn’t have to have great lyrics, and so the fact that Bono’s not a great lyricist is not a fatal flaw. He can occasionally rise to the occasion, but what’s more important is that he can write lyrics that fit in with the music behind him. “With or Without You” is a great song, and a testament to that is the fact that it has mediocre lyrics, but who cares. Sometimes you find a song that just feels good and you give yourself away. Bono’s lyrics remind me a little bit of Oasis’ lyrics, in that most of the time their job is to just go with the flow and fit the mood. (The difference is you can actually hear Noel Gallagher not giving a shit in the crap he writes. I mean that in the best possible sense though, Oasis used to be a great fucking rock and roll band, and when they said they were they had the coke lines to back it up).

A lot of lyricists are like this. Their job is, more or less, simply not to get in the way of the mood and the feeling. Bono is usually this kind of lyricist. He’s got no “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die” type lines, to stick in your gut until judgment day. Instead his job is “just don’t stumble”, because the message is already written in the chords and the guitar. But sometimes he does stumble, like in the God awful lyrics to “Grace” and “New York” off my favorite U2 album “All That You Can’t Leave Behind”. I’m thinking of him like a boxer, or like Bob Dylan described him in his book “Chronicles Vol. 1”, a guy who was fated to be an Irish cop but beat the odds and became a rock star. (I’m paraphrasing Dylan) He’s a working class guy with kindness in his heart, trying to stay on his feet no matter how hard the punches come or how unevenly he’s matched. And when he’s up against music that’s calling out from the depths of our home sometimes the best you can aim for is to last the full fifteen rounds. Unevenly matched, out of his weight class, he wins by staying on his fucking feet. And on a good night, with an Irish glint and a smile that tells that he’s been to God’s furnace and come back with the fire, he can dash off a right hook that can take you by surprise. This is “I’m only hanging on to watch you go down, my love” in “So Cruel”, “Well it’s too late, tonight, to drag the past out in to the light” in “One” and “If I crawl, if I come crawling home, will you be there?” in “In a Little While”. There are others too, and also “Pride (In the name of Love)”, which is the only Martin Luther King tribute that is actually worthy of the man. (“In a Little While” is my favorite U2 song. Joey Ramone was supposedly listening to it as he died next to his mother in his hospital room. That’s probably the most beautiful and sad summation of what U2’s music, at their best, sounds like.)

Despite the brilliant exceptions, the rule for U2 is that if the music’s not good then the lyrics sure aren’t going to carry you through. And here’s their Achilles heel, and a conclusion barely worth writing. So I’m barely going to write it. They write unfocused hooks. All of us are in the gutter, U2 are looking at the stars. And give us a good hook and let us see them too. Or we’re in the gutter, and we’re also bored.
Tomorrow I’ll review their new album.

Continued next post.

U2 And Their New Album (Part 2)

Continued from the last post


Almost as central to the unknown and unseen in their music is a mood that could be described as the sadness of leaving. We walk towards the mystery as beings that will vanish, forever unknown like we never were born. Here’s the Irish in them, here’s the Irish in us, here’s the Irish forever. Mo chuisle, avourneen, “my true love forever, the police are watching, and I must go ashore”. Their best songs are partings, my love as I’m leaving, my love to the vanished, my love to the gone. And they may be uplifting, but you’re leaving your home now, we’re all leaving our friends now, “my love, sing along”. Their fellow countryman, the poet W.B. Yeats, summed up the Irish quality of human existence better than anyone, “Our souls are love and an everlasting farewell”.

In terms of the actual sound quality of their music, the major characteristic is The Edge’s guitar sound. (I don’t get that name, it’s another thing that’s thrown me off about U2. No matter which way I look at it it sounds stupid) It’s that distant, echoey chording, like streaks of light across the sky. The only real precursor to it that I can think of is Neil Young’s guitar playing in “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield, and as far as I can remember he never really played like that again. The Edge has truly developed as unique and original a sound as has ever been heard in rock music.

What makes it a strange case however is that unlike other unique guitar players, the Edge’s style hasn’t created a whole race of imitators, in opposition to, say, Dave Davies on the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me”, a case that launched a thousand ships. My guess as to the reason why, when people pick up a guitar, they don’t want to be The Edge is that lack of physicality that is so central to the band’s sound. Where Dave Davies’ playing on “You Really Got Me” sounds like a lusting, beating heart, The Edge’s sound is more about space and ambience. Ninety five percent of his riffs don’t matter, and when he tries to play hard then he’s trying to hard. Questions and sadness don’t require your bones to be crushed to the face of your rotting skull. Black Sabbath, AC/DC, and every band that’s played great riffs, has keyed the message that they’re hungry, that they’re angry, that they’re hard, and that they’re jealous, and that the best is coming hard and then to come again at home. This message is not to be scoffed at, and in not delivering it U2 have a tricky job that can make them look uncool. And they are sometimes, and they actually are often. I’m defining uncool as talking just to fill space, being clumsy, being boring, being safe, and driving well.


Continued next post

U2 and Their New Album (Part 1)

Before I listen to U2's new album here's what I think of them. I was in highschool when All That You Can't Leave Behind came out and I remember being surprised at how good it was. A lot of people called it a come back, but a come back to what? None of their other records sounded like that one, and none of their other records were as good as that one. It was like the praise and reputation they had recieved were the prophecies of the band they would become in 2001. How did their fans know? "In a Little While" is an amazing and touching song off of that album that they'd never given a hint they were capable of. The mystery of U2. They are, and have always been, written about and praised for characteristics that are wildly unrelated to what their music actually is. Between the thought of U2 and their expression lies the shadow.


What threw me off when I first heard them, and what still throws me off, is the complete lack of sex in their music. People can point to whatever lyric or song they want to, there has never been a more asexual band in the history of rock and roll. Since before Elvis Presley, the main aim has always been pushing up against the wall any fan who acts of age. Rock music has been infused so deeply with sex that to so drastically separate the two feels, and sounds, disconcerting to me. Bono poses no danger to your daughters, let them close the bedroom door, they'll just be up talking all night. Plus he's been married for 26 years.

None of this is inherently bad though, and like Freud said "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar" But the trade off is it better be a fucking good cigar. And so when they do rise to the ocassion and find their voice, which they often times aren't able to do, what it is they're getting after is something thats not found between two bodies. Like an affirming and strange mystery, Bono, my ghostly confessor, at his best has told well a strange faith. Driven not by hunger, not by waiting bodies, all thats touched will vanish, the secrets all we've held. This is the central value of their sound, though hard to come by, and not often found, a pearl of great price. The mystery of U2. When they're good this is why, and when they're not you can measure it by the same amount.


continued next post