Post: #65

saferłel napisał(a):Ale dlaczego? Czym miałoby się U2 niby zająć? Get On Your Boots radzi sobie bardzo dobrze i nie trzeba chyba w nich ingerować.

a wydanie singla? a teledysk? [no, to drugie już nieaktualne, ale o to mi chodziło zanim się dowiedziałam o premierze ]

saferłel napisał(a):Na pewno menadżerowie i cały sztab już ostro pracują i wiedzą co robią

tak tak, ale w dość ślimaczym tempie.

to ja może jednak wkleję chociaż jedną recenzję z u2start, żeby Wam przybliżyć zarys albumu

Cytat:Time Out Sydney
U2's new album reviewed

U2 return with a new album. Sadly, it's Brian Eno's.
Island/Universal


By Andrew P Street



Disclaimer: This review is based on a single listen at the Universal Music offices rather than a week or so living with the album and being able to explore its nuances.

First impression is this: bully to U2 for trying. Here is a band that could plonk out any old bunch of songs secure in the knowledge that it would sell like sexy, sexy hot cakes regardless of quality. But no: after the longest break in their career, they've tried to incorporate some new sounds and textures into No Line on the Horizon, including Middle Eastern percussion and loads of squiggly keyboard sounds.

That said, they've also brought in their three most frequent producers – Steve Lillywhite, Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno – so any envelope-pushing is being done in very circumscribed areas. Eno is all over the album: damn near every song begins with some of his burbling mono synth action, which usually has a barely tangential connection with the song that follows. And for all that's new, there's no way that you'll mistake it for another band. The Edge has evidently found the bag of effects pedals he used circa The Unforgettable Fire and everything's covered in sustain and delay. Bono's still howling wordlessly away in most of the choruses. Larry Mullen, Jr pumps out his searingly competent drum work and Adam Clayton... well, he plays bass. As much as he usually does, anyway.

(Note for musical types: in fact, with everyone apparently so worried about the dangers of irresponsible drinking at the moment, why not use this opportunity to play the Adam Clayton Root Note Drinking Game? It's simple: take a shot every time that Adam plays anything that's more than two frets from the root note of the chord. You could play it with vodka filtered through absinthe and still be sober enough to pilot a commercial airliner.)

First impressions aside, let's get on with the tracks:

1. 'No Line on the Horizon'
A Bo Diddley beat heralds the beginning of Brian Eno's new album, featuring U2. In fact, the cluttered production and layers of keys sound not dissimilar to what Eno did with James circa Whiplash. And then they staple some ethnic percussion to the thing for no good reason.
(Clayton Root Note Drinking Game: No drink)

2. 'Magnificent'
Kind interpretation: this harkens back to Zooropa, especially in the electro introduction. Less-kind version: hey, it's REM's 'Orange Crush', as rewritten by short-lived 90s synth darlings Republica! It's here that Bono's lyrics come to the fore and you realise that he's followed Bruce Springsteen into the late-period creative cul-de-sac where he's incapable of speaking in anything other than clichés and meaningless waffle. "Only love can leave such a mark," he declares, leaving the listener to answer the question, "what the bloody hell is he on about?" for themselves.
(CRNDG: No drink)

3. 'Moment of Surrender'
After the Vangelis-via-Eno synth intro, Bono delivers a husky, passionate vocal for the album's first ballad, including what an early contender for Dumbest Line of 2009: "Playing with the fire, 'til the fire plays with you." The Edge pulls out a rudimentary slide guitar solo and then there's an oh-ah-oh wordless singalong that should be a hit at the half dozen shows where they try this one out before never playing it again.
(CRNDG: No drink)

4. 'Unknown Caller'
Eno has a good old fiddle until The Edge remembers what he did for 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' – which will make a sweet segue during the tour. There's some genuinely great tasteful fingerpicking here, but it's about this point you'll start thinking "Hold on, aren't U2 best known for their stick-in-your-head choruses? What happened? And how did the last song go?"
(CRNDG: Don't be fooled: that's some down-tuned Edge guitar you're hearing for the first third of the song, not bass. No drink for you)

5. 'I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight'
There are two ways that a song with this title should go. The first and most obvious is a Bon Jovi/Poison good time blues-rock party anthem, with a kick-ass guitar solo (preferably heralded with Jon Bon Jovi/Sebastian Bach screeching "Guitar!") and maybe some sweet harmonica in the coda. The other, less obvious but equally suitable way would be as a Bryan Adams/Aerosmith power ballad, which would also have a kick-ass guitar solo but would be less about partying and more about how crazy the love of a woman can drive a man, which would be a thinly-veiled sex metaphor. "I'm not perfect baby, as anyone can see," Adams/Steven Tyler would sing just before the chorus, "And though you drive me crazy, I'm still as crazy as a man can be." See? The song writes itself. The third option, which is the one that U2 went for, is to do an unmemorable mid-paced song with lyrics like "She's a rainbow, she loves the peaceful life" and a guitar riff lifted from Altered Images' 'I Could Be Happy'. My versions are so, so much better.
(CRNDG: No drink)

6. 'Get on Your Boots'
The first single, and oh, Escape Club – how wonderful you must be feeling at this moment! Ever since 'Wild, Wild West' vanished from the charts in 1988 you've been waiting for a sign that you were something more than just another one hit wonder, so hearing U2 re-write the song must warm the cockles of your heart. And Elvis Costello must be smiling too, humming 'Pump It Up' under his breath as he dials his lawyers and wonders what sort of settlement to demand.
(CRNDG: It's a repeated riff bassline, so take a few much-needed shots)

7. 'Stand Up Comedy'
Sorry, Red Hot Chili Peppers: just in case you were thinking of recording a version of The Stone Roses' career-ending 'Love Spreads', be advised that U2 have beaten you to the punch. Bono says something about the Twin Towers and falling down and standing up, and then drops the line "Cross the road like a little old lady". You'd think that a band of U2's status could extend a deadline so that their lead singer could write some lyrics, surely?
(CRNDG: Sure, take a drink. Who cares?)

8. 'FEZ - Being Born'
Starts off like incidental music from the last Prince of Persia video game, then snaps into a prog rock section while Bono sings about fire. Dammit, we should have started a drinking game based on references to fire. Too late now, I suppose.
(CRNDG: No drink)

9. 'White as Snow'
The absolute highlight without any doubt: a superb country lament. Bono makes a decent fist of it with Edge's down-tuned guitar the perfect accompaniment, but it would have been utterly perfect for the late Johnny Cash to wrap his weathered voice around (and would be one hell of a companion piece to the Cash/U2 collaboration 'The Wanderer'). Bono's nature references – seeds, earth, snow, fruit – make perfect sense in this context. See, Bono, you can do it when you try.
(CRNDG: No drink)

10. 'Breathe'
Frantically bowed strings hit harmonics over Mullen, Jr's thundering tom toms, before the rest of the band burst in at cross-rhythms and Bono starts up a scansion-free declamatory vocal like a third-rate Bob Dylan. Still, once it locks in the chorus it all makes sense. Either the album's picking up towards the end or I'm undergoing some sort of musical Stockholm Syndrome in which I fall in love with my captors as a coping mechanism. That said, Edge does pull out a three-note guitar solo that suggests he's never even seen a guitar before, and it's nice of Tears For Fears to let U2 use their keyboard sounds.
(CRNDG: Yeah, Edge and Adam lock on a riff. Have a quick one)

11. 'Cedars of Lebanon'
Yep, they close on a ballad – and it's about world suffering. "Squeeze a complicated life into a simple headline," Bono sighs, and we all agree. "Yes, Bono," we weep, as one. "Oh media, when will you learn?" Then we go to a different perspective, that of a displaced person in a warzone. "A soldier brings oranges," Bono sings, "he got out of a tank." And with that clanging line the magic is dispelled, like the unexpected slam of a toilet door. It's a nice idea, and the tune's a good one, but honestly: some sort of lyric editor would have been wise.
(CRNDG: There's a breakdown where Edge and Adam play a riff with slightly dodgy intonation. Have a deep, last drink)

a przeciekom plażowym [tym w tragicznej jakości] odpowiadają następujące utwory:
1 - Unknown Caller
2 - Breathe
3 - Get On Your Boots
4 - Magnificient