Alrighty, here goes.
After three or four listens:
Miracle Drug: Honestly, forgettable. I think I’ve only listened to this one once or twice. I tend to skip ahead to the others. Solid U2. The lyrics are really cheesy in places, but other places have elements to ponder about. It’ll get examined more closely in successive listens.
Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own: It’s no “One.” But it’s light-years ahead of “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of.” Ugh. There’s a real emotional urgency and a twinge of desperation in the lyrics and music that give the song some bite, and keep it from being just another I’ll-be-there-for-you anthem.
Love and Peace or Else: Any song with the lyrics, “Where is the love?” should be immediately dismissed, but in this case the stellar music redeems the preachy lyrics. Not a political album my eye. I would have been interested to see what a closer fusion of the opening vibe and the main stock of the song would have sounded like, but I’m pretty sure the remixes will take care of that. In any case, the deep synth at the beginning sets up (by contrasting with it) the rolling beat quite nicely. It’s a more classical song structure. This song ends exactly when it should; not a moment too soon or too late.
City of Blinding Lights: This feels like the album’s centerpiece. It’s certainly the most ambitious effort on the record (which isn’t saying much), with a coda that’s that not entirely successful. I’m trying really hard not to hear a train sound as the verses ramp up into the chorus…but it’s hard not to. Just a little silly. As Lindsey pointed out, it definitely sounds ready-made for stadium sing-alongs.
All Because of You: I love what Edge did with this song. The intertwining guitar lines at key points in the song (pure / gritty) contrast perfectly and the song flat-out rocks. It’s pretty straightforward thematically, doesn’t exist on too many levels (and least that I can discern yet), and the lyrics are mostly overshadowed by the music. It almost reminds me of a hard, proto-metal rocker from the late ’60s, a la “Helter Skelter” (original version). There’s honestly not much to it except the grit and the riffs. The production on this song is phenomenal.
A Man and a Woman: Sorry folks. Haven’t yet been able to make it all the way through this one. Wasn’t there another promising song in the running they could have inserted in this slot in the album? The music on the chorus is nicely syncopated, but…that’s all I got.
Crumbs from Your Table: Take “Electrical Storm” and put it on The Joshua Tree and you have this song. Searching, hoping lyrics set off by standard Edge riffs. Decent.
One Step Closer: Another thematically simple song, and the music sets this off beautifully. Great touch. I like it. The liner notes say, “With special thanks to Noel Gallagher.” I’d be interested to know what part he had in the song’s development.
Original of the Species: I like this song. I really, really like this song. Lyrically it’s closest to their ’90s albums, with half-obscured metaphors, an emotional undercurrent that suggests a brooding need, and an anthemic chorus. The only thing I hate is Bono’s vocalizing during Edge’s solo. That kills it… Less is more, Bono. *sigh*
Yahweh: Yes, Lindsey, it’s a bit cloying, but no more so than some of their other “spiritual anthems.” Musically it’s repressively conservative and ready-made for progressive worship services; you’re right. It’s also one of the couple of songs on the album that really shows Bono’s vocal abilities going downhill a bit. Back in the War – Joshua Tree era he had a vocal flexibility that could jump around ad infinitum and never sounded strained, only strident and passionate. But in this song in particular his singing comes across as not without some effort, and it gives the rest of the song a labored quality that only undermines its theme.
Picks: “Original of the Species,” “Love and Peace or Else,” “One Step Closer,” and so help me, “All Because of You.”
Honestly the first metaphor that sprang to mind when considering the album as a whole was the new Porsche 911. Bear with me. In automotive circles, the Porsche 911 is an institution. Always a solid, respected car and a world-beating performer, it defied convention with its unique design when the first iteration came out in the late ’60s, and has stuck to the same basic architecture through the years. It’s always steadily evolved, though, keeping pace with modern performance through mostly minute but sometimes larger-scale changes, but never really compromising the essence of the car. About 6-7 years ago, though, Porsche gave the platform its most thorough revision to date, doing away with what some diehards would consider key elements of the car in favor of more progressive affectations. The styling changes made were also the most extensive yet. The result was a better-performing car in every aspect, but the evolution left a lot of enthusiasts wishing for the more obsolescent elements of the older model. In response to this, then, the automaker earlier this year revealed the latest iteration of the 911, a model that scaled back many of the styling changes of the previous model in favor of some of the older themes, inside and out. The mechanical bits were simpler too, and the overall feel of the car was much closer to the models before the major revision. Most consider it a fantastic car, a great blending of the old and the new, but the question raised by this in many enthusiast circles was, “Where do they go from here?” If a car is reaching back to its past for qualities to give it success, has the platform reached the limits of its evolution? Or are they just dawdling, playing it safe, while they seach for a new direction, a new automotive advancement to latch onto to propel the model’s development forward again?
If you made it this far, kudos. I hope it’s not too hard to see the parallels between my thoughts about the new car and the new album. Replace the car references in the last couple of sentences with musical references, and you have the questions raised in my mind.
Quick note about the album design: I love it. The photos are distinctly Dr. Strangelove-ish and have an early-’60s grainy pop-art feel. I want to know the name of the font they used too; it’s chunky and great.
I did what I said I wouldn’t and actually went to Amazon and listened to clips before I bought. I wasn’t really that impressed. Maybe some bands don’t need to continually innovate, and maybe some songwriters have a finite amount of great music in them?
Most of my favorite singers/groups made a few dud albums in addition to the classics. I wouldn’t characterize this as a dud, but…
I wouldn’t call HTDAAB a dud. In fact, I’d hesitate to label even the weakest album in U2’s discography a dud (at least according to the popular mindset, not when comparing U2 albums among themselves) for the simple reason that whatever they play, they’re totally committed to the music. They believe in it, or at least make it sound as if they do, and that confidence comes through in all their music and gives it a higher starting point than other bands.
As far as having a finite amount of great music: I’d like to think U2’s range and creativity haven’t run out just yet, but if the next album is more of the same, that might be the case.
just bought it yesterday, have yet to listen to it, i want to be able to sit all the way through and really feel each song. then i will read your critiques (i scrolled by them so as to keep a clean slate)
i look forward to discussing it though ;)
Fair enough :)
Yes, let it soak in a bit before making observations about the songs. It took a little while to settle with me (but that’s how it is with all the great albums anyway–I never really like them on the first listen).
yeah, I started listening to it in the cab ride over… there are already things about the first two songs that annoy me (like bono’s gruffness, is it faked for affect or age?) but the third song is good… thats all I’ve gotten through just yet ;)
“The idea for the song lyrically, the one step closer to knowing line, came out of a conversation he was having with Noel Gallagher about his father’s illness, which at that point he’d found out was terminal. They were talking about how weird it was to know that your father’s dying, and Bono was saying, I’m not sure he has a faith, whether he knows where he’s going, and Noel says “Well, he’s one step closer to knowing, isn’t he!” and Bono went “Yeah”. It must have just registered, ok, that’s a song, and two years later it came back when we were working on that tune and it came together really fast.”
Edge, u2.achtung.com
Thanks :)
I’d heard rumors that Gallagher co-wrote “Staring at the Sun,” so I just wondered whether he had had any musical influence in the new song, but it sounds like it was all thematic. Interesting.