Joyous, passionate, moody, lightweight?
Angela Pancella ([email protected])
Wed, 25 Nov 1998 19:22:38 -0600
Interesting opinions surfacing here in reference to what people are looking
for out of the next album. I'll just jump in here...
I want passion, and I want joy, and I want sincerity. Passion's been in
everything they do. Sincerity hasn't--at least, sincerity in the sense I
am using it, which is "devoid of irony." The ZooTV Tour was highly ironic,
but the songs on Achtung Baby were not, as a general rule. Presentation is
key. Take the line "Except you, you were talking 'bout the end of the
world" in UTEOTW. That says one thing, especially once we know the speaker
is Judas addressing Jesus. But when Bono changed the words in concert to
"Except me, I'm still talking 'bout the end of the world," I read that as
an ironic take on his supposed tendency to "play Jesus" in the 80s. Or
take "Even Better Than The Real Thing," all popstar poses and preening for
cameras. Total irony.
Something interesting happened with Pop and the Popmart Tour. Again, the
songs are sincere, devoid of irony (again, as a general rule--there are
exceptions). At first glance, and as far as the media went dug into the
tour, it appeared to be ironic. But at least by the time I saw it, after
the Sarajevo show, it was all about staying close to the songs. It was
sincere as all get-out, which made the presence of the giant olive a little
peculiar. I think (or personally hope) they've rediscovered sincerity and
ditched irony, because you can't profess to stay close to the songs and to
us and then put all sorts of ironic distance between yourself and what you
sing.
As for the joy part: they've done lots of dark, heavy, moody stuff, and
that's not a 90s phenomenon. (I'm thinking "Exit.") While there's a place
for this, I'd like to see U2 choose some other colors from the palette. As
has been pointed out, it's hard to write a joyous song without it being
perceived as lightweight. I'm not really thinking about happy, poppy songs
when I say "joy" though. I'm talking about a song that speaks seriously
about the mess we're in but takes courage in hope. I want them to be
upfront, not ambiguous, about hope, because if they're too ambiguous, a
dark song can seem to encourage despair. They could send a very powerful
message if they wrote songs with serious hope.
Angela
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on Wed Nov 25 1998 - 17:44:34 PST