Tim mentioned something to me about the total overexposure of U2 in the media lately. Super Bowl halftime show, NFL playoff advertisements, NBA appearances, WWF, Bono schilling for Chex Mix, you name it. Rather than try to concoct some whack conspiracy theory explaining it all, I instead find myself wondering what it is everyone sees in this "new" U2. Now don't get me wrong. I like U2. At least I like the old U2. How could I have been so off the mark about their latest album, which has gotten them more airplay and public notoriety than anything they've done for the past ten years? Well, to try to answer this question, guess what I did today. That's right, I wiped the dust off of
All That You Can't Leave Behind and gave it a spin.
Rather than provide a track-by-track, like some kind of belated review, I'm just going to flat out tell you what went wrong with this thing. First impressions go a long way, and way back in 2000, I remember thinking how un-Eno the whole thing sounded, despite Eno being back on as producer. On the latest album, the different components of the music just sound too distinct, unlike say a lot of
Achtung Baby, where the musical lines blend seamlessly together, providing a kind of wash of sound that you can pick your way through and explore as you choose. Now you probably just read that and told yourself, "This guy is full of BS. He doesn't really think that. He's just making up shit for his website." Hold on...let me just explain before you close your browser. I don't know if Eno is responsible this or if it was part of the band's conscious decision to go for a "stripped down" sound, but
All That You Can't Leave Behind sounds way too clear. There is too much of an emphasis on Bono's vocals now. It's just too far up in the mix and that is too much of a dominating presence for a lot of people to take. The band may relish in the fact that they no longer need to rely on the vocal effects employed on their nineties albums, but I think they're a necessity as long as Bono chooses to be so overzealous in his singing style.
The Joshua Tree came close to crossing this line, but Eno held back a little on the vocals, and the fact that they were a little over-the-top served to compliment rather than detract from the wide-eyed, explorative feel of the album. Moving past the vocals, doesn't anyone think that The Edge sounds far too obvious now? This goes directly back to the different musical lines sounding too distinct. His guitar playing on previous albums tended to dance above the main rhythm, but like on say "Even Better Than The Real Thing", it was unintrusive (my new favorite word) enough that you could easily shift focus back and forth from both the vocals and lower rhythms. The guitar on some of the newer songs sounds a little too "guitar hero" for my tastes and it seems like it's fighting the other musical elements for attention (I'm looking at you "Elevation" and "Walk On"). The worst offense on this album, however, has got to be the near complete disappearance of the warm bass that was found all over their early nineties releases. I don't know what's gotten Adam in the doghouse, but being able to wrap myself up in that comforting bass somehow had the effect of making Bono's blathering seem much more sincere.
I think I do have to admit that a lot of the songs from
All That You Can't Leave Behind sound pretty decent in these television snippets. Just the other night, I saw some U2 special, and "Kite" sounded absolutely fantastic over the closing credits. And I suppose "Elevation" fit in pretty well with those Tomb Raider spots. The problem I have with all of this is that the media friendliness has come at the expense of how I relate, or at least used to relate to this band on a personal level. Now I'm not one of those goons who gets angry when his favorite bands become more popular. Frankly, that would be a pretty ridiculous position to take with a mega-band who's been wildly popular for the past two decades anyway. I just think that the musical components that were once present, the ones that so convincingly told me that this music was for me, are no longer there. U2 no longer has anything to say to me. That's just a little sad, I think.
