iphones being infected with U2

[pianoforte]

Our iphone usage metrics indicate that a lot of you are thinking too different. In order to bring your listening choices
in line with our core demographic we have uploaded a more acceptible musical product.

You have just won the Internet. Tenfold.

[Jonse]

What generally annoys the hell out of me is whenever people discuss "the good U2 albums" and include that one from 2000-ish as being "the last U2 triumph" or some bullshit.

Ah, yes, All That You Can Leave Behind a Really Long Unwieldy Title Because U2 Are Too Big and Important for Short Album Titles. I hate that record exactly for that reason: somehow it was hailed as a "return to their roots". That's sort of when I realised the music industry can make up any nonsense they want and force it down people's throats until they just accept it. I kept wondering, what "roots" exactly? I don't remember cheesy synth bleep-a-dee-bloops and corny Backstreet Boys-ish ballads on Boy.

I don't know what it's called, but it has that overplayed pop song Walk On which juxtaposed with how U2 acts pretty much demonstrates the biggest issue.

I find Elevation even more vomit inducingly disgusting than that one.

Whatever song, I fucking hate that record. I hate when it had just come out and my dad would not stop fucking playing it. In the house, in the car...the only U2 albums he owned were Joshua Tree, The Unforgettable Fire, Zooropa and that one. Then later he bought the YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH bullshit.

It was 15 years ago, I was a kid, and yet it was a clear cementing moment that U2 was a shitty band.

Mexi said "everything after Achtung Baby they can shove up their arse"...alright. I'd agree with that collectively, album-wise.

That said, there are *moments* on Zooropa and Pop that I actually like. When it feels they were about to do something different and then they just kind of let it go, particularly on the latter and even that has the fucking boy band nonsense where they all take pictures of themselves for singles.

I don't know why I like parts of 90's U2 but I think it's because nobody really gave a shit, which might have forced a band to try and do new things even if they don't know what they're doing. Same goes for Original Soundtracks 1 - at least it had a fucking concept.

I loathe the 2000 album because they came back literally saying "we're re-applying for the best band in the world" and somehow, SOMEHOW became important and relevant again. I have no idea how. They didn't even regress, they went straight the radio-friendly-rock-formula-textbooks and were whores for a couple years.

Someone said they can't think of a huge band who piss so many people off, and that it was remarkable. Personally, I can thing of plenty...although I suppose dogshit like Linkin Park doesn't actually piss off as many people as it should and it's more just myself and anyone with functional ears.

With U2, aside from the whole ego shit "Bono", "The Edge" (how about "Dickface"), I think some people understand what happened.

That is, that a good band (that wasn't ego driven or tremendously acclaimed by large numbers of people) turned into a shitty band (that IS ego driven and tremendously acclaimed by large numbers of people). Somewhere in the middle and peripherally to the sides is where I can appreciate their work (and U2 is not remotely a band I listen to on a regular basis, just one I grew up hearing).

But not beyond that 2000 bullshit. Holy fuck, it's a BEAAAAAAAAAAAAUTIFUL DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY is a "singer" defecating in one's ears.

[jcnporter]

That said, there are *moments* on Zooropa and Pop that I actually like. When it feels they were about to do something different and then they just kind of let it go, particularly on the latter and even that has the fucking boy band nonsense where they all take pictures of themselves for singles.

I don't know why I like parts of 90's U2 but I think it's because nobody really gave a shit, which might have forced a band to try and do new things even if they don't know what they're doing. Same goes for Original Soundtracks 1 - at least it had a fucking concept.

I loathe the 2000 album because they came back literally saying "we're re-applying for the best band in the world" and somehow, SOMEHOW became important and relevant again. I have no idea how. They didn't even regress, they went straight the radio-friendly-rock-formula-textbooks and were whores for a couple years.

All true, I think Zooropa's a good album but somehow they went from being experimental (for such a big name band) to dull, tedious water-treading within the space of two albums.
Most big bands seem to go into a slow decline into AOR over a period of decades, seems like U2 moved a bit quicker.
On a side note/rant, it's around this period of a band's career that they start saying things like 'the sign of a great song is when someone can just sit down and sing it with nothing but an acoustic guitar.'
I doubt there's a more irritating phrase uttered by musicians - er, no, you don't sound more 'authentic', just washed up, not to mention glibly dismissive of several entire genres of music.

[IanRedpoint]

On a side note/rant, it's around this period of a band's career that they start saying things like 'the sign of a great song is when someone can just sit down and sing it with nothing but an acoustic guitar.'
I doubt there's a more irritating phrase uttered by musicians - er, no, you don't sound more 'authentic', just washed up, not to mention glibly dismissive of several entire genres of music.

U2 had a history of this sort of thing. Rattle And Hum was a much publicised quest to discover some authenticity and their roots in Americana... Which is bullshit if course. Their roots are playing in tiny Dublin clubs with The Virgin Prunes. Rattle And Hum is godawful.

I neither love nor hate U2. They're just irrelevant to me. I liked October and The Unforgettable Fire (my teenage gateway to Brian Eno). Even Achtung Baby seemed pretty tepid compared to what I was listening to by then.

[mc10101]

It's good to see some intelligent backlash towards U2. All political hypocrisy aside, I totally agree they musically switched off as the 20th century finished. Up to and including 'Pop' there was hope for them: from 'All That You Can't Leave Behind' there wasn't