Does anyone here care enough about U2 to buy their new album? They were my first love, musically speaking, so they'll always have a place in my heart and I will probably always buy their albums.
On one hand, their last album (How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb) was so awful, that my expectations were low for the new one. On the other hand, I saw some great things written about it. One of the major music mags said it was their best since Achtung Baby.
My opinion:
There are a couple of songs on the album that are fantastic and in my opinion are instant classic U2 songs. There are also some truly cringe-worthy songs. My assessment breaks down very neatly. The first four songs are great, especially "Magnificent" and "Moment of Surrender". The next four songs are terrible, especially "Gonna Go Crazy..." and the single, "Get On Your Boots". The last three songs are somewhere in between. Overall, I'd put this album on about the same level of greatness as All That You Can't Leave Behind. It's clearly not on the level of their greatest work, but there are some redeeming qualities.
Speaking of "Get On Your Boots", one of my disappointments is that this album is not, as was adversited by the band and others, very experimental. My favorite era of U2 was Achtung Baby through Pop. I'll take those albums over the earnestness of The Joshua Tree any day. So I was excited to hear that after two albums of a more "back to basics" approach, with the Edge reclaiming that shimmering 80s U2 guitar tone and lyrics free of any cynicism or irony, that U2 was interested in exploring the dark side again. Not the case, I'm afraid. There are little bits of the album that hint at that sort of thing (for example, the main riff of "Boots"), but their attempts at painting in anything other than pastels come of as half-baked and ultimately get lost in the tide of hopefulness and white flag waving. Maybe the much talked about "Spiderman musical" that Bono and Edge are working on will be more successful at getting to those places.
