I
f ever a band divided opinion, it’s U2. Some see them as the ultimate modern rock band, able to channel their obvious passion into classic songwriting. A band who connect with their audience and always seem to be able to fit into the prevailing mood in music. Others see them as clumsy practitioners of vapid, cliché-strewn bombast and recoil from their preachy value-pushing and ham-fisted worldliness.
No matter which side of the debate people find themselves on, they generally agree on one thing though; Bono is a twat.
Now, U2 aren’t all bad. Their early, post-punk work was reasonably interesting and the angular nature of the stuff on ‘Boy’ or ‘October’ bears comparison with anything from the era. What hasn’t dated as well is the stadium rock of their golden period. People bemoaned that the 80’s saw in the era of repetitive pop, but U2’s formula was as rigid as anything Stock Aitken and Waterman came up with – ringing guitar from Edge, surface-deep yet empty lyrics roared by Bono, big choruses and all wrapped up in the Lanois/Eno sheen. Repetition may have robbed them of what made them so interesting contemporaneously, but at this distance it sounds perfect ‘Top Gear’ driving compilation fodder and little else.
And then, weirdly, they got interesting. Really, really interesting. ‘Achtung, Baby!’, ‘Zooropa’ and ‘Pop’ remains their finest collection of work. Packed full of doubt, honesty, darkness and genuine soul, Bono may have been trying to hide behind a collection of irony-drenched alter egos but he actually connected with something much more universal in the process. As for the music, it got increasingly more experimental and complex, the band moving from big chord tradition to electronica, dance, and even techno. They are still vital albums now.
Which makes the return to the dreary dadrock of ‘All That You Can’t Leave Behind’ even more puzzling. The gutless misery that is ‘It’s A Beautiful Day’ heralded a band who had decided to exist in a cosy comfort zone of piddling mediocrity, secure in the knowledge that regurgitating the same album every two years preceded by the only vaguely interesting track on it as a single would see them maintain their status as elder statesmen. U2 are simply too big now; their albums are given lazy four-star reviews by everyone in return for an interview, their tours sell-out and Bono gets to wibble on about whatever cause he’s read about that week.
It would be churlish to say they haven’t influenced anyone. Every band who decide that they aren’t going to be worrying about money adopt the U2 model of big, shiny rock which appeals to everybody and is as professional and soulless as a cash dispenser. A cursory listen to the last Kings of Leon album will confirm that.
So, they rattle on, playing to big full stadiums and growing ever less relevant. It’s been a good career, undoubtedly. But they are a band people not in the cult may struggle to find a point in as they move further away from caring any more.
U2 play Hampden Park on Tuesday 18th August.
Filed under: General Stuff Tagged: | benny from crossroads hat, bono, hair dye, No line on the horizon, the edge, U2, u2 hampden
Also, Bono; stop dying your hair. I’m starting to think ‘Peter Stringfellow’.
Oasis are heading the same way with albums being little more than a vehicle for live tours; these stadium shows being mainly ‘the hits’ played to the already converted.
Oasis stopped being either interesting or original when John Major left Downing Street.
If someone can point out the difference between “It’s A Beautiful Day” and A-Ha’s glorious signature tune “The Sun Always Shines On TV”, they should get a special prize.
A-Ha are much, much better than U2……
I have to say I liked the Joshua Tree, War, the Red Ricks Live thing and thought their Live Aid performance of ‘Bad’ was a stand out of the day – showing my age, there.
Where I think ELM loses the polt is in thinking Zooropa, Pop etc are anything other than self-indulgent meandering pap, bolstered by publlcity campaign/hyps that would have made Madonna look shy.
No Tom, they were quirky, interesting and experimental. They didn’t always work but they were worth a listen. They also didn’t meander in the slightest, they are incredibly stripped albums. Were they occasionally self-indulgent? Probably. but there was enough there to be worth engaging with.
If The Joshua Tree was any more boring, you could pour hot water over it and it’d be a new flavour of supernoodles. It’s music to play in the car while the kids fight in the back as you go to Ikea.
I’ll decline to use my spophisti and rhetorical ability on this occasion and simply state that you’re wrong and I’m right; not for the first time and not, sadly, the last.
Said albums were sperical organs in a skin sac.
In the 80s TJT was a decent statement of intent and songs like Streets and With Or Without You have stood up to time’s withering eye pretty well.
Lemon and similar musical wallpaper will be looked back upon with commetns like ‘what were they thinking?’ and ‘I never play it’.
No, you are an old man who likes old man’s music which is why you like the comforting strains of TJT whilst you sook on your Werthers Originals and reflect on how Easter was earlier/later this year.
The three albums were too difficult for you because they
a) comprised of more than one song repeated 12 times and
b) had bright covers which hurt your eyes
It’s okay Tom, comes to us all.
Guilty be being old, not guilty on missing the point of these albums – other than fulfilling the band’s record company contract and them seeing how much they could get away with.
Altogether now: ‘Lemonnnn…..”
(reaches for AK47)
1. Pop was a good album
2. . I checked the set list from Hampden, 7 songs from the last album, and a considerable chunk of the whole set from thelast three. People do not pay £60 to go to a stadium to hear the shitty new album, they go to hear the hits. It’s why the audience is big enough to (nearly) fill the space. At least he’s stopped going on about third world debt. Would’ve been ironic in Glasgow, what with it having the highest rate of per capita personal debt in the first world. Or something. All those bottles buckie and lacoste shell suits don’t pay for themselves you know.
Aye, and Tom, leave Lemon alone, poor wee The Edge never gets the spotlight, and all he ever gets to do is those twiddly riffs he could play in his sleep by now. Think of it as U2′s answer to yellow submarine.
If you haven’t already, cjheck out Bill Bailey’s cruel exposure of Mr Evans’ guitar playing.
Probably find it on YouTube.
He plays some riff, then gradually takes the flange, echo and sustain off and you’re left with a tinny little strumming.
I don’t think Mr Bailey is a fan either of the good stuff or the three albums in question