Originally posted by AllBecauseOfU2:[..]
Now can we put the beach clips to rest?
Originally posted by blink:I bet if Magnificent was the first single it EXPLODE
Originally posted by Expressen
GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
LONDON.
U2's twelfth studio album, released March 2, is an uneven history. Determined to rewrite rock history. But the question is if they have not proposed a knot in themselves this time.
Bono claims that the band will make history this time - also.
But still, it is just words. Words like hollow as the launch of their upcoming CD, which began in the pompous forms in art gallery Saatchi gallery in fashionable Chelsea yesterday.
After rigorous security - all guests had to concede about everything except the clothes in recyclable cartons already at the entrance - was passed through the world press into a gigantic light halll with white walls and white ceilings.
Then were all the critics of free drinks, huge cachet with parmesan taste and luxurious meze-rights before it was time for the exclusive playback.
Unfortunately, art galleries rarely suited for music.
While nice granularity Corbijn images projected on the walls was the sound - after all, the most important - a minor catastrophe.
I sat next to a Czech journalist. He liked not the acoustics, but he liked the fast songs.
Personally I preferred the ballads, if you're going to make such a division.
But above all I felt a great reluctance, not only because of the blatant sound.
U2 never showed up. Instead, one record company guy, and declared that this was the band's best album in the 2000s: "Challenging, tough and provocative," he said. "An art," he added.
What feels like a very large, while uncertain words.
Like Bono quotes in the UK Q:
If we get this together for 2009 belong to us. And, on the next tour:
"What we are planning has never been done before. We have worked on it long. It is brilliant. A technological revolution."
One senses a certain lack of trust in the new material? A general reluctance? Or is it just me?
U2's new criticized single "Get on your boots' is actually by far the worst track. But the Irish twelfth studio album is an uneven history.
"No line on the horizon"
Full speed ahead from the start. U2 dancers in a song that tries to be raw as "Vertigo" but that sounds remarkably outdated. Pretty anonymous, apart from a nice riff.
"Magnificent"
Here's a familiar guitar loop a la "The unforgettable fire".
A very familiar sound that 1) already is remixed by the Black Eyed Peas Will.I.Am and 2) appointed the album's third single.
"Moment of Surrender"
This may be U2's greatest moment in the 2000 century. A seven minutes superb gospel that begins as Springsteens "Streets of Philadelphia" and ends like a soul version of the band's own "One". Really beautiful. According to Bono maybe the best song he has ever wrote.
"Unknown caller"
This is not a song. It is a drum loop. With a highly questionable text on a man who, when he will hang himself, gets a series of anonymous text messages that he should think about it and move on ...
"I'll go crazy if I don't go crazy tonight"
The sound says "Achtung, Baby!". Melody says Ireland in Eurovision Song Contest. The song in general say that U2 is probably heard as much on Glasvegas as Glasvegas have listened to U2. Next single
"Get on your boots"
As I said: U2 are trying to go KO, but the album's first single feels like a slap in the air. An unsynced mix of grunge riffs and electro beats with an amazing lamentable text.
"Stand up comedy"
The Edge's riff off of a melody heard some of the Beatles "Come together" before it snowed in to "The Fly". A so-called Rocker.
"Fez - Being born"
A new wave power-groove plus another football chorus. A good idea that does not really loose.
"White as snow"
A subtle acoustic ballad with a serious Bono, appears rather trivial in the text.
"Breathe"
Arena Rock with gospel feeling, so intense that it will tip over cows in the coming tour.
The most modern track on the entire album.
"Cedars of Lebanon"
A cinematic, atmospheric ballad that remains fairly anonymous right through.
