I was managing a record store back in late 2000 when All That You Can’t Leave Behind was released, and I remember being really excited with the way the album was being received by music buyers. One shopper, in particular, whose comments have stayed with me told me that he liked “the one that sounds […]
Read MoreU2 101 – Desire
I’ve never quite been able to get my head around why Rattle & Hum was so roundly detested in the critical community. I’ve read all about how people interpreted the fact that U2 were celebrating some of music’s brightest stars to mean that the band thought they themselves were one of those stars. I’ve heard […]
Read MoreU2 101 – Bullet the Blue Sky
“Bullet the Blue Sky” is one of those songs that I always like to think of as belonging to U2-fandom. There are some songs, like “Beautiful Day”, “One”, or “With or Without You”, that are universally acclaimed and beloved, even by those who don’t know much about the band. In fact, I suspect that there […]
Read MoreU2 101 – Stay (Far Away, So Close)
Zooropa occupies a strange place in U2’s discography, somehow managing to simultaneously be the most and least accessible album they’re recorded. I say the least accessible because its got some of the most adventurous, sonically experimental music that U2 has put out, with songs like “Lemon”, “Numb”, and “Daddy’s Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car” […]
Read MoreU2 101 – Sunday Bloody Sunday
“Sunday Bloody Sunday” is one of those songs that a lot of U2 fans seem to have mixed feelings about. I hear a lot of talk about how it’s one of those “warhorse” songs, like “One” or “Pride” that the band’s been playing regularly for too long, and how it’s time for the song to […]
Read MoreU2 101 – Elevation
Its funny, but I still tend to think of All That You Can’t Leave Behind as “new”, even though it’ll celebrate its 14th anniversary this year. I still remember that, back before that album came out, “Beautiful Day” was being played on the radio, and it was getting plenty of love – rightfully so – […]
Read MoreU2 101 – Even Better Than the Real Thing
Just about everybody who’s any kind of U2 fan at all has had, at one time, a copy of Achtung Baby in their collection. I often tell people that my favorite U2 album varies from day to day, and that’s true, but in any given week, Achtung Baby would probably get the nod on four […]
Read MoreU2 101 – Running to Stand Still
I often think back to when I first became interested in U2’s music. I was a student at a boarding school, and one of my classmates had a pretty extensive collection of U2 CD’s that he lent me. I was awkward as a kid, didn’t have a lot of friends, and I felt out of […]
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