posted
That has to be one of the better topic names of all time, eh? Well, disappointingly, this isn't any sort of disarmament instruction, merely an endorsement for an album of said name.
U2's newest, available for sale next Tuesday, can be listened to via fully legal stream here. It's beautiful. It's poignant. It's anything but sold out.
"I've had enough of romantic love, yeah, I'd give it up for a miracle drug..." is this about love? Society? Money? Addiction? Religion? It's classically beautiful U2 in its glory of ambiguity.
This album is low-key, ethereal, and pleading. It's all of the passion of their younger days sublimated into a mature, sad sort of plead to end the madness of the world that reminds me of Orwell's Winston crying in the final chapters of 1984.
And musically, it's contemporary while managing to still be distinctly U2. The new generation will think "wow - this sounds like Coldplay." The older generation will think "wow - this is The Unforgettable Fire, but grown-up, and richer." The soaring guitar makes me want to cry and the vocals make me want to save the world.
Technichally, I'm still not at Hatrack, but I had to take a break from paper-writing to rave about this. I'm back to the books, but I hope some of you will enjoy this as much as I do. Discuss among yourselves.
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quote: This album is low-key, ethereal, and pleading. It's all of the passion of their younger days sublimated into a mature, sad sort of plead to end the madness of the world that reminds me of Orwell's Winston crying in the final chapters of 1984.
Wow, that is quite a good way to characterize the album. In short, you are 100% correct and I could not have put it better myself!
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posted
Oh, and by the way, a full review will be coming after I get my mitts on my (already reserved) hard copy.
(Oooh.... Hobbes will be here in time for the big day. He gets to see me be a fangirl! This will be the real test of how much he likes me, folks )
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The review in this morning's Ottawa Citizen was pretty luke-warm... I have yet to go and listen to it to form my own opinion, though.
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I'm going to write a song that starts out "one, five, three, seven" just to tick somebody off. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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quote:I'm going to write a song that starts out "one, five, three, seven" just to tick somebody off.
A less arbitrary sequence would be cooler, primes for instance, or maybe the digits of pi.
Three, one, four one!
Or maybe 'e'
Two, seven, one, eight!
The graviational constant, Planck's constant, acceleration due to gravity at the surface of the Earth. Heck you could do these in all sorts of different units! Like the speed of light in furlongs per shake.
posted
The only song I've heard so far has been Vertigo -- I'm saving myself for the release day. There's just nothing like tearing off the shrink wrap and putting a new U2 album in the CD player for the first time.
Good comments though Annie! I look forward to your full review!
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She's not allowed to post a full review here until after November. Says her, but from the looks of it I'm going to have to be the one enforcing the rule.
posted
First impression: Worst album since... Well, the only other U2 album I didn't like immediately was Zooropa. That one grew on me. I hope this one does too...
Here's my friend Jeffrey Overstreet's review (scroll down).
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I know. It would take a proof positive grade-A moron not to know how to write one, two, three, four in Spanish, or at least how to look it up. That's not my only reason for disliking the song. It just doesn't seem to be up to U2 quality. I don't like the pattern of the single or the lyrics or the video or the way the song sounds.
Are there any songs on the album that are different?
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Interesting, Godric, since I loved Zooropa the first time I listened to it.
Course I tend to love the crazy tangental albums. Monster by REM was my favorite REM album. For comparison's sake, Factory Showroom is my favorite TMBG album.
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Are we sure that he thought he was counting to four? Anyone uncover a possible deeper meaning for one, two, three, fourteen?
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I agree with Ryuko. At most, I'll only be sort-of listening to it if my dad buys it. There's no way that I'm going to pay money for it, though.
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The Edge's guitar is friggin' ethereal-ly amazing, and Bono's voice is heartbreaking. That is all.
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The top of the international charts, record-setting sales on iTunes, and millions of people buying your album before they've even heard it are some of the perks of being a well-established, 25-year old rock band at the top of the world. But what about the art of the album itself? How do the songs on U2's newest release, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, fare in the quality test, and how do they relate to the band's impressive body of previous work? Here, to answer these questions in a disgustingly biased and presumptuous manner, is Annie the U2dious review meister.
Vertigo When U2 was playing the international leg of their Zoo TV tour in 1992, a show in Mexico City took a frightening turn for the disastrous. In the middle of the band's second set, the stadium they were playing in caught fire. That is what Vertigo is - a flaming bombshell of a song straight out of a Mexican rock&roll nightmare. Bono is selling the beat, asking for the cheque, while the Mexican "girl with crimson nails with Jesus 'round her neck" is swingin' to the music in the front row. The drummer notices something going awry in the back of the arena, and the surreal music world is thrown into a dizzying state of vertigo. This track is a "hit single," you know, the one on the album with the simplistically repetitive hook (Hello, hello) that will assure its overplay on ever Clear Channel station in the country. But, as always, the boys have carefully disguised a powerful observation on God and the Universe in funky, marketable riffs that American teenagers can boogy around to with their iPods. All this, all this can be yours All of this, all of this can be yours All this, all of this can be yours Just give me what I want And no one gets hurt, and suddenly our state of vertigo is no longer due to the dizzying heights of pop celebrity. We're now perched atop the spire of the temple in Jerusalem with Christ and Satan. "Jump off and angels will catch you," the devil taunts. "Worship me, and everything you see... all of this... can be yours." If you thought we'd get through the first, poppiest track on this album without ending up back in the Bible, I apologize. There won't be much freedom from Christian allusion in this album. The Bono/Christ ambiguity shifts back to the earthly, the dark flaming rock show. The singer, who has spent the last 15 years of his creative life struggling with the darkness and doubt of a silent God in a violent world, who admitted in 1991 that he had his "head in heaven, fingers in the mire," ends the song with an exultation: Lights go down and all I know Is that you give me something I can feel You're teaching me ...aaahhh Your love is teaching me ...aaaah How to kneel How to kneel.
Miracle Drug What is easily the most beautiful song on this album (that I sincerely hope ends up as a single) hits us with its ethereal guitar and the soft throbbing rhythm that we were introduced to on All That You Can't Leave Behind right after the punky strains of Vertigo die away. I want to trip inside your head Spend the day there... To hear the things you haven't said And see what you might see This opening verse strikes you right away as a touching love song, the desperate and all-consuming attachment that Bono has emoted before in reference to his wife in Two Hearts Beat as One and All I Want is You. But this isn't a love song of youth and fiery passion, it is a deep, mature love for a wife and a mother who has stayed with him through years and grown with him into the paradoxically freeing state of family bonds: Freedom has a scent Like the top of a new born baby's head This is a complex, a difficult sort of love. He's "had enough of romantic love." He'd "give it up for a miracle drug." What sort of drug is this? The ambuguity of Bono's lyrics grows deeper as the throbbing rhythms of the song grow more intense, backed up with a chorus of pleading harmony vocals and a burst into sunlight with the climax lead guitar notes, Edge's trademark "bells on two strings." God I need your help tonight (and the love is evolving from purely human to spiritual) Beneath the noise Below the din I hear a voice It's whispering In science and in medicine "I was a stranger You took me in"
The songs are in your eyes I see them when you smile I've had enough of romantic love I'd give it up, yeah, I'd give it up For a miracle, miracle drug The stranger we took in was Christ in the form of suffering human beings, a parable the Savior used as an illustration of charity - the pure love of Christ. Charity is a love that surpasses the selfish love of the natural man. We've heard the allusion of love as a drug before (Running to Stand Still)... so wherin lies the miracle? I'll let you decide.
Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own I can't get myself to be overly fond of this song. To me, it's another Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out of, which always reminded me of an emotional vampire sort of a friend I had that would listen to REM's Everybody Hurts on repeat for hours at a time. There's nothing wrong with the didactic sort of consolation song that this is that ends up being a lot more popular as a single than I think it really should be. However, I will give credit to a fascinating sort of duality in the lyrics. Listen to me now I need to let you know You don't have to go it alone
And it's you when I look in the mirror And it's you when I don't pick up the phone Sometimes you can't make it on your own Who is it that can't make it on his own? Is it a friend, or is he speaking to himself - the one he sees in the mirror? The word "alone" here becomes an interesting twist. Who is alone? We can picture a scenario of one person struggling with two lives, but we can also see a couple ("We're one, but we're not the same...") in the midst of crisis: Where are we now? I've got to let you know A house still doesn't make a home Don't leave me here alone And now there is one leaving, and the other pleading, using as his argument the fact that you can't make it on your own - a directive to his parnter that disguises the real intent of the statement: "I can't make it on my own." Interesting. Maybe it will grow on me. We'll see.
Love and Peace or Else. The one U2 album that everyone in America owns is The Joshua Tree. And 80% of the people who own this album play the first three tracks over and over, always shutting it off before they get to track four - Bullet the Blue Sky. For one, it's harsh and loud and not pretty like Where the Streets Have No Name. For another, it's disconcerting. When you listen to the lyrics, you recognize a theme that is reinforced throught the rest of the album: America is a little messed up and the world is suffering as a result. Anyone who has seen Bullet the Blue Sky in concert, especially during the PopMart and Elevation tours when US gun control was directly addressed, can have no doubt of that. Similarly, Love and Peace or Else is harsh, straightforward, and a directive to the international community to stop the madness. Lay down Lay down your guns Are you daughters of Zion? Are you Abraham's sons? He begins by speaking to the Middle East - to the Jews and Arabs who are both sons of Abraham. The song is a plea of the most pacifist sort: As you enter this life I pray you depart With a wrinkled face And a brand new heart
I don't know if I can take it I'm not easy on my knees Here's my heart you can break it (U2 are avid supporters of Amnesty International), but becomes an angry warning. The grinding guitar and hammering drums don't let up. The solo is reminiscent of Gone, from the Pop album, a song of bitter loss with a military beat. Then, surprisingly, the tempo lets up and the casual bluesy bridge turns the international tension into a living room with a quarrelling couple: Baby don't fight We can talk this thing through It's not a big problem It's just me and you You can call or I'll phone The TV is still on But the sound is turned down And the troops on the ground Are about to dig in The television, the war, the American footage of real-world violence brought into our living rooms are all themes that we'll see revisited in Fast Cars. The song fades out with the question: And I wonder where is the love? Where is the love? Where is the love? Where is the love?
City of Blinding Lights A friend of mine in a LiveJournal U2 community called this track the "song Coldplay wishes they could write," but I see it as absolute classic U2. Its introduction, purely musically, is an echo of Where the Streets Have No Name, and the lyrics follow along some of the same themes, travelling fast, almost flying, through a landscape of space and ambiguous love. But this song is more urban than The Joshua Tree, and becomes also a re-visit of the dark city that was Achtung Baby. (The rhythm recalls Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses? and the lyrics recall Zoo Station) Though this song is among the more vague and less didactic on the album, we still see pleasant allusions to themes we've seen before. Oh you look so beautiful tonight In the city of blinding lights Don't look before you laugh Look ugly in a photograph Flash bulbs purple irises The camera can't see I've seen you walk unafraid I've seen you in the clothes you made Can you see the beauty inside of me? What happened to the beauty I had inside of me? (Compare to Zooropa'sBabyface) Neon heart dayglo eyes A city lit by fireflies They're advertising in the skies For people like us And I miss you when you're not around I'm getting ready to leave the ground.... (Compare to Elevation) Time... time Won't leave me as I am But time won't take the boy out of this man (Compare toI Will Follow) I like to think of it as a fast flight through a landscape of past works. With songs as loosely scripted as City of Blinding Lights, a lot of the interpretation becomes intuitive and visual for me. I can see the city, I can feel the wind through my hair, even if there's not much text around to stop and chew over. It's interesting to note, though, that once again (as we have been for years), we end the song on our knees: The more you know the less you feel Some pray for others steal Blessings are not just for the ones who kneel... luckily and the humility of the kneeling poet is translated onto a more global outlook...
All Because of You Musically, this track is 21st century U2. The legacy of the 90's electronica is there, the vehement rock guitar of the early years resurrected, and the synthesis of the two becomes a space rock that clarifies and qualifies the sound of this album as something new and relevant. The lyrics to this track are amusingly metaphorical: An intellectual tortoise Racing with your bullet train Some people get squashed crossing the tracks Some people got high rises on their backs and they're written just ambiguously enough (All because of you, all because of you, I am) to be taken as a rock&roll love song by listeners who want to hear it that way. To me, at least, the song screams some more Christian propaganda I was born a child of grace... I'm alive I'm being born I just arrived, I'm at the door... I'm not broke but you can see the cracks You can make me perfect again And this funky guitar ditty becomes a funky 21st-century prayer.
A Man and a Woman This track bugs me too. It's smart and mature despite its first appearance of sappy 80s love drivel, but something about the melody reminds me a little too much of sappy 80s love drivel. It's a shame that the lyrics that bother me like You can run from love And if it's really love it will find you Catch you by the heel But you can't be numb for love The only pain is to feel nothing at all How can I hurt when I'm holding you? Drown out the relevant, mature point of the song, which is: I could never take a chance Of losing love to find romance In the mysterious distance Between a man and a woman It becomes an existential question about why we need love at all, a struggle in the gutters of love much as Pop's Wake Up Dead Man was a struggle in the gutters of religion. I've been trying to feel complete again But you're gone and so is God The soul needs beauty for a soul mate When the soul wants... the soul waits ... There's not much more I can say lyrically, though musically this track is an interesting flashback to the War album, and Adam is back with classic early U2 bass riffs in fine form. I suppose that's all for now.
Crumbs From Your Table The intro to this song is a return to the grand days of Edge guitar, and the tune keeps up, producing a satisfactory anthem in the best traditions of the U2 legacy. The lyrics, again, are a dualistic dialogue that can begin by being directed at a woman and end up directed at God. The singer pleads from the borders of love and rejection: I would believe if I was able But I'm waiting on the crumbs from your table but the audience becomes God, who speaks of signs and wonders in the chorus and in the Book of Revelation. The bridge transforms the song into a plea for social change, in the tradition of If God Will Send His Angels: Where you live should not decide Whether you live or whether you die Three to a bed Sister Ann, she said Dignity passes by This song's position on the album is interesting as well. As the band has done before on All That You Can't Leave Behind, the album opens loudly and brightly, sinks into brooding cynicism around songs 7 through 9, and resolves itself with a return to the humble religious anthem, that we will see in the next few here, culminating at Yahweh.
One Step Closer Subdued and pensive, as much of this album has been, this track addresses more calmly the desperation and doubt revealed in Crumbs From Your Table. The anger and frustration cool off into honest ignorance but faith in an imminent answer. Instrumentally, much of this track recalls the work the band did with Brian Eno on the soundtrack to The Million Dollar Hotel. Production by Daniel Lanois is really evident on this track, that preserves the aesthetic he pioneered on The Unforgettable Fire. Unlike Sometimes You Can't Make it On Your Own, this track manages to be soothing and hopeful without being annoyingly didactic. It may be the simple poetic humility (that recall's Zooropa's For the First Time) that makes it so much more palatable. I'm hanging out to dry With my old clothes Finger still red with the prick of an old rose Well the heart that hurts Is a heart that beats Can you hear the drummer slowing? One step closer to knowing One step closer to knowing One step closer to knowing To knowing, to knowing, to knowing.
Original of the Species As a rule, I think songs whose titles don't appear in the lyrics fare poorly as radio-friendly singles, which is really a shame in the case of Original of the Species, which may well be the most beautiful love song ever written. I'll give you everything you want Except the thing that you want You are the first one of your kind And you feel like no-one before You steal right under my door And I kneel ‘cos I want you some more I want the lot of what you got And I want nothing that you're not ...is a resurrection of 1989's All I Want is You. This is a song in the tradition of medieval lyrical poetry, where the woman becomes a deity and the crooning knight acknowledges his own mortal limitations and inability to attain her lofty state. Once again, notice, we have the kneeling motif, something that Bono has been using insistantly since 1991's One and Mysterious Ways, up through 1998's Big Girls are Best and several incarnations on this album. Part of this reoccurance is Bono's unique belief that the Holy Ghost is female, giving a female aspect to the character of God. The most beautiful aspect of this song, I believe, is the contrast of the soft syntheic space-xylophone melody of the introduction to the cool liquid arpeggios that rain down as the chorus sings "Everywhere you go, you shout it..." The pace of the song grows in intensity and finally breaks into a 60's pop standard "doo doot doo doot" during the bridge, which doesn't work on paper but audibly provides the perfect climax of the song. Beautiful, beautiful stuff.
Yahweh U2 has never been labeled as a Christian band, though themes in even the earliest of their albums (especially 1980's October) hinted strongly at the underlying beliefs of their songs. This is probably the most overtly religious song they have produced since October's 40. Every verse come directly out of the Psalms, littered with New Testament phrasings, but addressed to Yahweh (YHWH), the Jehovah of the Old Testament. The only thing I can say about this straightforward plaintive prayer of a song is that U2, with the distinctive praise inherent in their trademark guitar sound, is the only rock band that can pull it off. Are you listening, Creed and Jars of Clay? Don't try this at home.
Fast Cars Something I was unaware of, having purchased the special edition album, is that track 12 isn't included on the standard American release of the album. This is pretty tragic because, along with being my favorite track instrumentally with its Spanish guitar and driving beat that makes me want to belly dance, this track is the most relevant bit of lyrics on the entire album. It's about Americans, which is perhaps why it's not intended for the general public who have every right to be offended by it. (Not that I'm offended by it, but then again I'm usually good at offending my fellow Americans myself) My cell is ringing No ID I need to know who's calling - My garden's overgrown I go out on my belly crawling I got CCTV, pornography, CNBC I got the nightly news To get to know the enemy - All I want is your face in a locket Picture in my pocket I take a pill to stop it - I know these fast cars Will do me no good - I'm going nowhere Where I am it is a lot of fun They're in the desert to dismantle an atomic bomb I watch them channel hop Check the stocks I'm in detox I want the lot of what you've got If what you've got can make this stop - Don't you worry about your mind Don't you worry about your mind Don't you worry about your mind Don't you worry about your mind You should worry about the day That the pain it goes away You know I miss mine sometimes Did you hear that, America? Yeah. That's what Europe thinks of you. Wake up and let's figure out how we're going to remedy the situation
quote:Did you hear that, America? Yeah. That's what Europe thinks of you. Wake up and let's figure out how we're going to remedy the situation
Annie, I have serious problems with our foreign policiy and was dissapointed in the outcome of the election, but the tone of the comment makes it seem like America should sweat and kowtow so Europe will like us again. I don't think that's an effective way to frame the message.
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posted
I'm not suggesting that we worry ourselves with trying to become everything Europe wants us to be. I'll try to think of a better way to phrase the observation.
However, I do think it significant that not only Europe but a large percentage of foreign countries have serious problems with the way our culture is headed. I didn't mean the "wake up" as a snarky slap in the face, but as an honest plea. We don't care about what anyone else is saying, and I find that supremely frightening.
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I find it quitessentially American. Why should we care we what Europe thinks?
Did you read the part in Children of the Mind about center and fringe countries? In the last one hundred years, Europe and America have switched positions as the center and fringe regions.
What Europe thinks is only important if they have something meaninful to say that has value outside of cultural differences.
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posted
I think cultural differences can be of value. The lyrics I talked of addressed largely cultural phenomena - "I've got the nightly news to get to know the enemy" - "Take a pill to stop it" - "These fast cars won't do me no good."
Culture can be good and bad - it's not a neutral force. If the Europeans disagree with our crass, commercialist society and the Arabs disagree with our lack of morality and the Latin Americans disagree with our fixation on wealth, you could call those cultural differences but I think they're a good indication to us of what is wrong.
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quote:If the Europeans disagree with our crass, commercialist society and the Arabs disagree with our lack of morality and the Latin Americans disagree with our fixation on wealth
If those things are something that needs our attention, then they need our attention because our society, other people, or our souls are hurt by them. They don't need our attention because some vocal people across the sea don't like it.
The question is where does the standard of behavior and thought worth reaching for come from? If it comes from religion, approved moral principles, or high ideals, then it's worth changing for.
But some other countries' opinion? Why? I have no intention of handing over my guiding light to be placed by the rest of the world.
--
What I'm saying is that if the lyrics have meaning and power, then they do for the ideals they embody, not because they were said by a European.
posted
I agree, but I don't think that it being said by an outside observer negates anything. The reason foreign opinions matter is because it's hard to be objective when you're so close to the problem. As in anything, getting a point of view from outside often clarifies what we cannot see in ourselves.
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I agree with the premise Annie, but when it comes to global politics I'm not convinced that anyone can step back out of it, and when it comes to internal politics... well I see the point, and I think their position should be listened to, but I would claim it to be similar to having an agnostic give spirtual advice to a Christian. Often very good advice, worth listening to, but it comes out of the context of the framework in which we live our lives.
posted
I agree that an outside opinion can be illuminating, but not that another country is outside. They are surely affected by us, and are therefore part of the dynamic. It isn't a dispassionate opinion.
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OK, this album has really been growing on me. Right now I'm willing to call it the best album since Achtung Baby -- and I really, really like Pop. Hopefully I'll have my review written by the begining of next week -- I'll read your's then Annie...
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As with almost every U2 album..this one grows on you more with each listen. I remember when Joshua tree came out I really disliked it on first listen...after a long bus ride to a debate tournament it really, really grew on me. I've now listened to the new album about 10 times (hasn't left my cd player today at work) and it gets better with each listening.
As a side note...I head that the song "Sometimes you can't make it on your own" was written for Bono's dads funeral where you he also sang it.
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Twinky, I really think you'd dig the 90s albums - Achtung Baby, Zooropa, and Pop. Very funky technoy stuff.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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Hrm. I'd argue the red hot chili peppers will be remembered for about 3 minutes after they fold. Their talent is... significantly less then Pearl Jam, Guns N Roses, R.E.M... and about 30-40 other bands that have been active in the late 80's and 90's, all of whom will be remembered for their musical talent as well as what they did for the music industry
The Edge is a fine guitarist, but comparing him to Jimmy Page is like comparing a dunkin donut to a freshly baked donut from a kosher bakery. They may APPEAR to be similar things, and the qualities they share are similar, but one is so far superior to the other as to make a comparison meaningless. Jimmy Page is on anyone's top ten guitarist list. The Edge is... above average.
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This whole 1, 2, 3, 14 thing has been killing me. But, I found out today that it was intentional and that it was because it's their 14th album. You rock Godric.
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