I was thinking today about the ways in which Songs of Innocence did and didn’t meet my expectations – not so much with regard to how much or how little enjoyment I get from the record, but more in the ways U2 did or didn’t do what I thought they’d do. In the most important […]
Read MoreWhy U2? #34 – The Color of Music
Every band has moods to their music, I think, although that’s less true with some artists than it is with others. Some artists seem to focus on one mood – anger, for instance – throughout their entire body of work. Most, though have at least a a couple of songs that delve into romance or […]
Read MoreWhy U2 #33 – What Comes After Familiarity?
I noticed something in “So Cruel” tonight that I’d never noticed before – a kind of sliding click right before the main drum track kicks in. It sounds like drum sticks, but I’m not sure exactly what’s being done with them, The exact sound isn’t really the point anyway. The point is that it’s amazing […]
Read MoreWhy U2 #32 – Where To Next?
While I was driving home from my day job tonight, my iPhone randomly chose to play the following three songs for me, in this order: “Cedarwood Road”, “The Fly”, and “Mofo”. It struck me as the last of the three was playing that each of the three songs transported me to a very different location […]
Read MoreWhy U2 #31 – The Case of the Controversial Covers
During this past week, U2 revealed the cover artwork for the upcoming retail release of Songs of Innocence. My first thought was “What are they thinking?”. If you haven’t seen it, the image is a touching picture of Larry and his 18 year old son, the former’s arms wrapped around the latter’s waist, with his […]
Read MoreWhy U2? #30 – U2’s Reactions to Criticism
A hot topic of conversation lately has been the backlash against U2 and Apple following the free release of Songs of Innocence. Of course, this is far from the first (or worst) time the band have been the focus of some negativity, and one thing that I really admire about the band is the way […]
Read MoreWhy U2 #28 – U2 and Technology
I’ve always loved the way U2 have been interested in technology. Back in the early ’90’s, the band used technology to set a new benchmark in tour hardware with the ZooTV tour and the multiple screens it took advantage of. The Pop*Mart tour of 1997 utilized the largest video screen ever assembled, while the most […]
Read MoreWhy U2? #27 – U2’s “Formula” For Success
Even before they could play their instruments, U2 had passion. In some early reviews that were published in NME magazine, our guys were even made fun of for this fact. I don’t remember the exact words, but some snarky writer wrote something like “U2 believes that the quality is directly proportionate to the passion.”, as […]
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