Nothing like a beautiful sunset to end the day with. Wish I could have been at this one – oh, yeah.
Sunset
Reply
Category Archives: U Monthly Blog
And Now For Something Completely Different
Now that I have the U2 thing out of my system (I am Irish, you know), I can move on to some stuff from other parts of the world that I want to highlight.
I’ve been getting into world music a lot recently. I’ve found out that there is a lot more to world music than what you can find at our local CD stores. The world music “sections” there tend to be one or two rows of Celtic Inspirations Valu-Price CD’s and a Ravi Shankar album. If you are in a really big store, you might get a Latino section.
But there is a lot more out there that seems to get missed by the music industry. Whether it’s the underground sounds of Christopher Lee Freeman mixing a sitar with crunching rock instrumentals, or Ozomatli mixing Arabic, Hispanic, and Urban styles all in one song, I want to take some time to highlight some of the cool stuff out there that reflects the diverse cultures present in the Waco area.
Not to mention the number of Waco bands that need greater recognition. I was going to do a “review” of the Pride and Joy songs that they have on their site for download, until I went back to the site and found they have an actual CD out. Opps. I better get off my lazy rear and get that CD. Maybe I’ll still review those downloads for the mean time. They rock.
U2 – How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
I am a big U2 fan. Before you read what I have to say, you need to know that. I’m not afraid of their spiritual side, and I’m not offended by their honest examinations of reality. It seems like people that have a problem with U2 seem to have a problem with one of those two issues. they are either too religious for the secular world or too worldly for the Christian world.
My wife is a big U2 fan, too. But when she gets into something, she will play it over and over again, daily, for about a year, and then she’ll move on to something else. So, I can now say I have listened to How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb at least a hundred times now.
Everything I have read about Atomic Bomb has compared it to the reviewer’s favorite U2 album. I have given up trying to find a favorite U2 album. What I tend to ask myself now is “What U2 am I in the mood for now?” Because here’s the shocker – I even like Pop and Zooropa.
Blasphemy, yes, I know. I have to admit that if I had to rate U2’s music, these two albums would be somewhere at the bottom of the list. But that would still put them way above most an other album that I like. With the exception of Michael Knott, but that’s another story.
So, I find myself in the mood for Atomic Bomb U2 a lot. How can you not like the song “Vertigo” if you like guitar? It’s just what rock should be, pure and simple. If it wasn’t U2 and the music buying world wasn’t so snobbish, it would have been the biggest smash hit of the decade. Even though so many people did turn their nose up at it because it was U2, it still made a huge splash. A splash that most bands only dream of.
The next song on the disc comes as a bit of a shocker. U2 rocks you like a hurricane, and then downshifts about 8 or 9 gears into “Miracle Drug.” That’s about my only gripe with this album – I would switch this song with a slightly faster song like “Love and Peace or Else” to make the album flow better, but that’s what the programming function on the ole’ CD player is for. “City of Blinding Lights,” “All Because of You,” and “Yahweh” are some of the other songs I find myself singing over and over again as I go throughout the day.
And for all those who say that U2 has turned their backs on God, check out “Yahweh” for heaven\s sake.
Something to point out is that there is a really cool bonus track that is only available on the Japanese version called “Fast Cars.” Why the Japanese always get the bonus tracks, I’ll never know. Yeah, yeah, something about CD’s being more expensive over there. But if you have iTunes, find the song and fork over the extra 99 cents for it.
And I know that some people find Bono a bit egotistical. But think about this: Do you think anyone would care about the AIDS crisis in Africa (or any other cause he has championed) if he wasn’t that way?