"We're gonna continue to be a band, but maybe the rock will have to go - maybe the rock has to get a lot harder. But whatever it is, it's not gonna stay where it is" - Bono
Funny things, U2 albums.
They come out every four years or so, ten to thirteen tracks or so of stodgy, somewhat muffled, metallic, thrashy stuff with that instantly recognisable drum sound and bass line underpinning The Edge’s searing guitar parts while Bono wails on about mobile phones, ATM machines, passwords and other huge problems that “modern, global life” brings. Every track around four to five minutes in length. That is the formula then, a formula that, I have to admit, means that while I bought this album in 2009, I haven’t listened to it properly until today, nearly ten years later! I like it in many ways. Taken individually, a lot of the tracks are impressive.
Despite many people appearing to disagree, Unknown Caller is a favourite of mine, with its echoes of 1984's Bad in its slow build up, atmosphere and its own great guitar solo and similarly, I enjoy the vibrant Subterranean Homesick Blues feel of Get On Your Boots.
Magnificent lives up to its name and is a big, mysterious, brooding U2 thumper. It has a really atmospheric slow burner of an intro. It is one of the album's best tracks, truly soaring in typical U2 style.
Moment Of Surrender is seven minutes plus of infectious U2 groove - all dense but captivating rhythms and haunting vocals. There is something Springsteen-esque about the phrasing of the lyrics in places. It has a great guitar solo near the end too. No Line On The Horizon is instantly accessible, as is the riffy, rhythmic drum-driven muscle of I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight and Stand Up Comedy has an equally killer riff.
Fez is interesting with its industrial echoes of David Bowie’s Berlin phase. White As Snow is actually rather beautiful. Breathe has a staccato feel and a nice keyboard-guitar interplay with a good hook chorussy bit. Bono does go on about a “Ju Ju Man” and "Chinese stocks and shares and Asian viruses” in a paranoid Paul Simon-esque lyric though. I do like this one, however.
Cedars Of Lebanon is one of those classic sparse bass and drum backed U2 slow burners to end things off, for the next four years. A very evocative song though. I have to admit to enjoying it, surprisingly, when giving it my full attention. Although there is a “same-iness” to listening to it in full, the stodgy feel I mentioned earlier, there is a way it just sort of insinuates itself into your consciousness. Dear me, I am beginning to sound like Bono.
I guess my main point is that it is easy to dismiss these later period U2 albums as lazy product from multi-millionaires whose mojo left them long ago. Not so. Give it a chance, as I did, however late. It is a good album. Maybe in a few years, I’ll listen to Songs Of Innocence.
