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"For me, that term 'pop' is like a candy bar. You buy it because you like it, you eat it, and then you throw it away." -- Edge |
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"For me, that term 'pop' is like a candy bar. You buy it because you like it, you eat it, and then you throw it away." -- Edge |
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Column: off the record..., vol. 12-533
@U2,
September 23, 2012
The last time I wrote an OTR, I mentioned that I thought the clarity of the Blu-ray release of U2 360 Live From The Rose Bowl was subpar compared with what I had come to expect from Blu-ray releases. Great sound, amazing colors, but there was this haze filling every moment of the movie. Mr. Matt McGee sent me a message saying he thought the image quality was fine on his end, and that perhaps I had a bum copy. From Boy to Rattle & Hum to How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, it is extraordinarily difficult to find promotional images or videos of U2 that don't use a gauze or a filter or a color wash to distort and blur, or that aren't of just a close-up chunk of the person, or that aren't fuzzy due to the quality of the original recording or volume of shadows. The October re-release has a few color pictures that are pretty clear, the U2 360 tour booklet has black-and-white (and heavily air-brushed) images, and PopMart Live From Mexico City has more black-and-white and airbrushed images. The only clear color image I could find of the boys in one of their releases was on the cover of U2 7, and even that has the airbrushing. Larry still looked fairly youthful at the time, but not that young. Bono will be receiving an award of the Órden del Águila Azteca from the Mexican government in recognition of his humanitarian work later this month. The first thing I thought of was the animosity that U2 held towards former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo for his security detail's treatment of U2's former head of security Jerry Mele. U2 refused to perform in Mexico for a time afterward, but have obviously returned since then. Realpolitik suggests that any sort of long-term grudge against the Mexican government would be unrealistic, but I still thought it was cool that Bono would accept the award, regardless of past history. Last week, Gary Boas wrote in his OTR that he wanted a "killer U2 half-album." He argued that albums like The Joshua Tree, No Line On The Horizon and All That You Can't Leave Behind started off extremely strong, but petered off as albums with their second halves and lost their way a bit. I would say Zooropa, Pop and War also suffered from this problem. All of the albums above have good, even great, songs on their second halves, but don't maintain the album coherence and consistent quality of their first halves. © Ryan/@U2, 2012.
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