How I in love with U2

Last week, the new U2 album “ Songs of Innocence” appeared by itself in libraries of all users of the ITUNES program and Apple's telephones - more than half a billion devices. Sergei Mezenov, who fell in love with the music of four Irish 27 years ago, is finally ready to describe the painful path of the ex-fan of the U2, which went in relations with his favorite group to a point of no return.

Because U2 passed "Pop"

In the 1990s, U2 , like Jupiter, was allowed. The stuck to the cunning physiognomy of Bono Sunny glasses, telephone calls to the White House from the stage, idiotic stage costumes, a satellite broadcast of the concert, connecting the whole world long before the advent of the Internet, songs from Luciano Pavarotti and Johnny Kash, three different clips for one song - all this was carried out in the wake of Achtung , Baby! and Zooropa . And all this safely got off the U2 from hand for one simple reason - because you could really do what you want to these songs, they did not get worse at all. The new album U2 prepared with the already familiar scope for them-they convened a crowd of producers who worked mainly with electronic and pop artists (Nelly Huper left the same Bristol conglomerate DJs, as the Massive Attack , Marius de Reese recorded Madonna and Triki, Steve Osborn worked with Curve and Happy Mondays , Haui Bi released his own electronic records), flew even more epic scene for the world tour, shot a clip in which Village People pretended, and ordered the remixes to the Underworld group. But something went wrong-having heard about the conversations about how, during the recording of the album, the producers dragged U2 on dance clubs, the audience began to think about the shelves of stores where the new record of the group was laid out. Having debuted in the first place of the charts in 32 countries, Pop nevertheless turned out to be the most poorly sold album in the Irish career. At the same time, he was the last great plate of the group and one of the most important musical documents of the 1990s, but this seemed to be not enough for the U2 -when they began to shine for an interest in electronics and for the absurdity of the appearance during the Popmart round from a giant moving lemon, U2 began to agree with these accusations, referring to a hard deadline, as a result of which the album was not brought to the mind so much, so much. How much they themselves wanted. They began to spread their hands and make excuses in every possible way. This was no longer a crirty one.

U2 - "Discotheque"

Because U2 pretended that the 1990s did not exist at all

No doubt, “ Beautiful Day” , the first single from the U2 “ All that You Can ' T Leave Behind” album, a wonderful radiochite, a rapid, bright, piercing, fully deserving three Grahammy premiums that had fallen on it. But the first thing they made U2 for his presentation was a video with a live performance on the roof of the hotel in Dublin. The roof of a tall building is a great platform for shooting a song, as well as the runway of the Paris airport in the official video on it. Beautiful background. That's just embarrassed the unmistakable reference to the U2 model of the 1987th-to the clip on “ Weres Have No Name” , taken on the roof of the store in Los Angeles. The hearts soldered into the symbolism of the new album (the heart in a suitcase on the cover, the podium in the form of a heart on a new scene for a tour) said that after the decade of the Irony U2 ​​they return to sincerity, as well as the U2 themselves, who spoke about this direct text in an interview. But was the price of this new cordiality great if it was built on an attempt with a calm face to pretend that there were no nineties in their work?

U2 - "Beautiful Day"

Because "One" turned into agitation

Fighting out from the intonations and approaches of the 90s, U2 was in no hurry (for obvious reasons) to completely ignore the songs written during this period. During the Elevation round in support of the album “ All that You Can ' T Leave Behind” , they actively performed songs with “Achtung, Baby!” And “zoropa” (and almost nothing with “ pop” ), and “ One” each time quite predictably became the climax of the evening. But Bono, apparently, trying to achieve the maximum effect, came up with the next move - during the “ One” on the screens located above the screens, they began to show the lists of the names of the dead in the attacks of September 11. Of course, any audience, which at that time, which was moving away from this monstrous event for a year with a little, was at a time - but it also instantly put an excellent and difficult song into a completely different context, turned from a painful personal experience into a propaganda poster, even if it seemed from the best motives.

U2 - "One" (Anton Corbjin Version)

Because “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” appeared

On the album “ All that You Can ' T Leave Behind” U2 tried to correspond to the most common and simplified ideas about themselves, but this game seemed acceptable due to the fact that the album had large -caliber songs - not only the mighty single “ Beautiful Day” and “ Elevation” , but also the piercing “ Kite” , Watercolor " In a Little While" , suddenly stupid and cheerful "Wild Honey" . The “ How - Atomic Bomb” published in 2004 was opened by the song “ Vertigo” , one of the most dizzying and energy in the U2 catalog, but then the material followed a slightly different sense. Without peeping into the tracklist, you can only remember the rumbling blues “ Love and Peace or Else” , the rapid number “ City of Blinding Lights” with the remarkable bass of Adam Cleiton and the innocently adopted little thing “ All Becuse of You” . Everything else sounded like U2 on autopilot - sound and intentions are recognized, but in addition to sound and intentions of the other songs, nothing had. The second half of the plate completely moved into poorly constant itching.

U2 - "Vertigo"

Because " Get on Your Boots" is the worst single in history

When you are still a rock band number one in the world, and you are going to release the first album after five years of silence that you are choosing the first single? Correctly, something win-win and inspiring, such as “ Beautiful Day” or “ Vertigo” , a song that will become an indispensable concert hit and will make the life of everyone who listens to it a little brighter. “ Get on Your Boots” , the first single with the album “ No Line On the Horizon” (2009), is decisively not such a song. This is generally not a song, this is one very monotonous riff with a primitive melody and a chorus screwed on top, for some reason resembling Alice in Chains . The song could have gone for a regular trifle, if Bono was in no hurry, um, to help the business with his texts - "I have a submarine, you have gasoline, no, we will not talk about the war between nations." Not just the worst single U2 , but one of the worst singles of all time.

U2 - "Get on Your Boots"

Because U2 turned into self -passion

The first two minutes of “ No Line On the Horizon” sound remarkably without fools. The womb rhymes rhythm, Bono ecstatically shouts something meaningless, but inexplicably charming (“I know the girl! She has a hole in her heart! She says that it is so great to start with infinity!”)-and when the guitar of Edge enters the full force of the same fragmentation bomb of pure happiness, which was once a favorite U2 weapon. Happiness lasts exactly two minutes - then the group slows down for a second and suddenly switches in an absurd, stupid chanting specially generated for a stadium concert. At this very moment, two minutes after the start, “ No Line on the Horizon” crosses the line of non -return: on this plate, with which the group was fiddling for several years (refusing in the process from the almost ready -made new album recorded with Rick Rubin, and starting from scratch), U2 no longer play the idea of ​​U2 - they begin to repeat themselves instantly. The wordless “o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o- oh” without a twinge of conscience are copied to “ A Moment of Surrender” , the guitar party of Edge from “ Walkn on” again pops up to “ Unknown Caller” . Plus, Bono had something happened to the voice-his suppressed, as if something had just painted, was so pinched, it is sometimes physically unpleasant to listen to.

U2 - "Magnificent"

Because U2 is repeated even during epic touring tours

Releasing one dubious album after another, U2 still remained one of the last true gods of a stadium concert arranging high -tech shows. In a spectacular living performance, even their weakest things acquired meaning, moreover, the group was famous for its longtime talent to radically redo their own songs for concerts, which made the program of each unpredictable. On the tour in support of the No Line on the Horizon album, they thus redesigned a rather passing new song called “ I ' Ll Go Crazy If I Don' T Go Crazy Tonight” , turning it into a kind of pulsating disco. The processing turned out to be much more interesting than the original, but it was impossible to get rid of one “but” - it was an almost accurate copy of the concert version of the song “ MOFO” from the Pop album , which they performed during the Popmart tour (and seemed to have been safely performed since the same time).

U2 - “I'll Go Crazy IF I Donat Go Crazy Tonight” (U2 360 °)

Because Bono

Having gone thirty years ago charitable activities separately from the group - of course, from the best motives - Bono managed to turn into a natural symbol of megalomanian thirst for attention during this time in whose hands any humanistic and humanitarian triumph organized by him seems just another stars of his personal complacency. Perhaps the fault of this turn of events was his ubiquity - Bono meets with George Bush and Barack Obama, carries the UN Secretary General in Africa, receives awards to Chile and Portugal, performs a speech about the pope, organizes the Fund for combating tuberculosis and malaria, receives a medal from the library of Philadelphia; It seems that he is about-and he will jump out of the corner and at your home and begins to push another speech. Or maybe it was also the gradual flattening of the righteous position of Bono to the extent of the very straightforward poster rhetoric (which, incidentally, happens in the songs too)-especially against the background of numerous multimillion-dollar business scales concluded by the group and the musician himself to the right and left. In the end, it is difficult to believe in the sincerity of fiery speeches about hunger and the third world, pushed by a person whose personal condition is estimated at almost a billion,-by will, will be imbued with sympathy for anger, with which Bono was depicted in the series "Southern Park":

Because " Ordinary Love" nominated for Oscar

Of course, when they began to make a biographical film about Nelson Mandela, he could not do without U2 . And, of course, when the U2 wrote a new song for the film about Nelson Mandel, the American movie academy could not ignore her. All these mutual shaking, in truth, are absolutely predictable and deadly - as well as the song " Ordinary Love" .

U2 - "Ordinary Love" (Live on the Tonight show)

Because " Songs of Innocence" is spam

Apple company - according to the Stomillion Treaty with it, the new U2 album “ Songs of Innocence” ended up in users' musical libraries on all “apple” devices - I had to write a separate application with which this album could be deleted . As stated in the great television series Twin Pixes, there is nothing to add protection.