late period u2 are they good or? my instinct is that they are some grad A bs but they have some good songs

i think ATYCLB is by far the most assured-sounding album, the one where they seemed to go in with a good plan. it's probably no coincidence that both that and NLOTH were Eno/Lanois productions. not sure going the Dangermouse etc route is the best plan for success w/these guys...

No Line disappointed me the most, because it clearly feels compromised, like it could have been much weirder and/or more exciting, but ended up in this sort of purgatory. There was a great reveal from Eno back-when about the band's working habits, namely that their albums are constantly developing and vacillating, back and forth, from success to failure, as they tinker, up until the very last minute. Sometimes they run out of time when the albums are great or on the upswing, sometimes they run out of time and the albums fall short. Anyway, the fact that Atomic Bomb, Innocence and I guess the new one feature so many name producers demonstrates how desperate the band has been for a direction/hit/relevance for some time now.

The band has tried too hard for too long and this album is the ultimate expression of that.

Hmmm. I think they only know how to make music that sounds like they're trying too hard, and they don't really have a lot of other modes in their toolbox.

Their pace has understandably slowed because they're extremely comfortable and globally famous, but when they try to make records they tend to make records that sound like people who are trying too hard.

Especially because almost no one gives a fuck what they are doing now, and hasn't since 2004, as Turrican notes. The market just gets saturated. I will probably see them this summer. And I am pretty sure "this is one from our new album" is going to mean "you can go to the restroom now" to most of the audience, just as much as it did 4 or 6 or 8 years ago.

Yeah, I agree, and thinking about it, it's a little strange that they've never attempted to do the kind of low-key, small-scale acoustic/unplugged type of record that a lot of bands that get to that size do. It's like they feel that everything they do had to be big in scale and they haven't realised that at this stage they don't have to do that.

*has

I guess zooropa is the closest they have come to a small-scale casual effort. Coincidence or no, that may be their most divisive record. I've encountered as many people who hate that record as people who call it their favorite.

Zooropa is my favourite, but really the 1991-1997 period is my favourite period in general. Even though Zooropa probably was one of the easier U2 records to make, stuff like the title track and 'Stay (Faraway, So Close!)' still seem to have one eye on the big crowds.

Agree that "Beautiful Day" is really the last essential tune, and even that isn't very good IMO; in many ways it's the mission statement for the second half of their career.

'Zooropa' and the Passengers album were really the last releases with really interesting tunes on them. "Lemon" is one of the most beautiful things ever recorded.

otm

Well except for that last sentence. Let’s not get carried away

'Lemon' is excellent, and I think many were secretly hoping Pop would continue building on what U2 were doing with 'Lemon' and 'Numb' but with more of an emphasis on delivering big hits - kinda like Achtung Baby but an even bigger sonic leap forward. As we all know, it didn't pan out that way and Pop ended up a bit of a mess, but I still think there's some great material on there.

"Beautiful Day" is one of those weird songs that is so affecting the first few times you hear it then slithers away into annoyance.

music aside Pop is probably the last album where the lyrics are at least 90% outstanding imo.

Since then most of their lyrics have been merely serviceable (though some of them rise above, like the best bits of NLOTH) but their clunkers are a bit more pronounced. I'm just going to pretend I don't hear "ref-u-jesus" on the new one.

It reminds me a lot of 'The Sun Always Shines On TV', but it's not the only "inspiration" I detected on that album ... there's another song which reminds me of 'Here Comes Your Man' ...

(xpost)

And surely it's impossible to hear Get out of your own way without secretly singing Go your own way in your head?