Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Forget U2

Just heard a track ("Stand Up Comedy") from the new U2 album, No Line on the Horizon. It's probably the worst thing I've heard from them since...well, ever. As a thirty-something white guy, I'm probably still obligated to at least give grudging respect to U2 (how is that not featured on Stuff White People Like?!), but I just can't do it. This stuff sounds like the lame, mid-tempo, monotonous guitar riffs I used to come up with in my sleep.

In other words, it sounds like the stuff that bored me so much when I played it myself that it pretty much led me to give up the guitar altogether. Now the Edge will make cash by the truckload for this swill.

"Get on your Boots" is hardly better.

You can hear the whole album here, if you can stand it.

1 comment:

Phil K. said...

I like how you became so beaten with yourself over the guitar. I guess you hit a plateau in your skills and it wasn't satisfying enought to continue? I always thought you had a little something. Maybe you'll teach Young Ben a thing or two in a coupla years.

re: U2

U2 have reached that level that all of the great ones reach. At this point, they can keep putting up s!@# records and the public will never really care because they have so much credibility. In many ways, it reminds me of the Rolling Stones. They haven't put out anything of quality since 1981's Tatoo You. I'll never forget receiving Bridges to Babylon for Christmas in 1997, from an uncle. I wasn't as familiar with the RS earlier stuff, at that point, and I was like "alright! the Stones. Everything they do is great, right?" Wrong. That record blew. Regardless, the Stones can do anything because they were Greatness and relevent once and had a long, influencial period. And so it goes with the once-and-former kings, U2.