Interesting how U2's experimental/ironic '90s were welcomed and
lauded at the time; the band celebrated for leaving behind their
earnestness and breaking from its past. It was a new decade and U2 were supposedly discarding the trappings of their collective '80s persona, embracing irony and fun, their reinvention hailed everywhere. Yet 20 odd years later, it seems
like a 'what-were-they-thinking?' revisionism has started to take hold.
Hmm...
Truth is, those guys wrote great songs AND lackluster songs before, during and after Achtung Baby [Island-1991], Zooropa [Island-1993], and Pop [Island-1997]. Our only beef with them is they let critics and not their own vision dictate their path. As none other than Bruce Springsteen himself stated in his speech at U2's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, "[H]old the McDonald's arches on the stage set, boys, we are not ironists. We are creations of the heart and of the earth and of the stations of the cross -- there's no getting out of it."
Amen.
Truth is, those guys wrote great songs AND lackluster songs before, during and after Achtung Baby [Island-1991], Zooropa [Island-1993], and Pop [Island-1997]. Our only beef with them is they let critics and not their own vision dictate their path. As none other than Bruce Springsteen himself stated in his speech at U2's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, "[H]old the McDonald's arches on the stage set, boys, we are not ironists. We are creations of the heart and of the earth and of the stations of the cross -- there's no getting out of it."
Amen.
