I darted out and grabbed the CD and the vinyl set yesterday on my lunch break, and I'm slowly working my through it song by song. The title track is pretty funky, "Magnificent" is just that, and while I didn't like "Get On Your Boots" the first couple of times I heard it, it's now not uncommon to find me sitting at my work desk tapping my foot and murmuring "let me in the sound, let me in the sound..." Hopefully, I'll be able to get out and catch a show or two when they make their US tour swing later this year. Woot!
I have to raise my eyebrow, however, when people take shots at U2 (or any other rock band) for being pompous and over the top...that's pretty much par for the course for rockers, isn't it? You have to have a certain amount of ego to be able to get up in front of thousands of people and command them while entertaining them. Rock music, by its nature, is overblown and a bit overdone. Whether it be U2 taking over rooftops for illegal video shoots to Nickelback setting off enough fireworks to outdo 4th of July to Stewart hauling around a gong roughly the size of a small Buick, it's all part of what makes rock so much fun. So sit on back and enjoy the ride.
And if we're going to do top ten lists, then ten of my top U2 songs at the moment (in no particular order) are:
Elevation
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Mysterious Ways
I Will Follow
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
City of Blinding Lights
Bullet the Blue Sky
New Year's Day
Where the Streets Have No Name
(with honorable mentions to: Desire, Fast Cars, Until the End of the World, Magnificent, & Running to Stand Still)
