by Scott
U2 achieved a sort of Rock N’ Roll Perfection with “Vertigo”; I’m not saying it’s their greatest song but, certainly, it is their best ‘rock song’: It has a tight groove a chorus that is both infectious and soaring at the same time and the riff, my God… that riff! I think in time it will be up there with “Start Me Up”, “My Generation”, “Sunshine of Your Love”, “Smells like Teen Spirit” and, dare I say it, “Satisfaction” in terms of greatest riffs of all time. To attempt to duplicate that would be futile or, at least, very lazy.
So, after two albums of straight ahead rockers and anthems, U2 have given us ‘No Line On The Horizon’; an album that abandons the straight ahead verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge chorus arrangement (the one, two, three, fourteens of pop music so to speak) in favor of far more ambitiously textured music held down by a solid groove. It’s not that there are no choruses or hooks to speak of; they are just more subtle; they don’t soar or stick with you immediately so much as they are intended to grow on you over time. As I’ve pointed out before, the song that comes the closest to “Vertigo”, “Get On Your Boots”, makes a subtle and slightly off putting adjustment to that formula. Rather than giving us the soaring chorus that we are expecting, it gives us something that much more closely resembles a pre-chorus, not quite bringing us to the climax we are expecting. Using the formula above its structured kind of like so: verse, pre-chorus, verse, pre-chorus, bridge/breakdown, pre-chorus, ride-out. This coupled with the oddly cadenced refrain on the title track, makes for several songs that have a sort of anti-chorus.
More so than in any album the band has released since ‘Zooropa’, the rhythm section takes center stage. Adam Clayton is not a great bass player because of any technical ability with the instrument; he is a great bass player because he has an innate understanding of what makes a simple but sturdy foundation on which to build a song. It is his throbbing pulse that is the star of this album, some times bringing unity to seemingly chaotic arrangements. This along with the always steady drums of Larry Mullen Jr. give the band’s music a reliable anchor that allows Bono’s vocals and Edge’s chiming guitars to soar off to the stratosphere while, at the same time, providing enough space for producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois (credited here the first time as co-songwriters with the band) to broaden the band’s soundscape with an assortment of strings, horns, keyboards and percussion.
With the rhythm section in the spotlight, Edge’s guitar takes more of a backseat than it has occupied on the last two albums. It isn’t that the guitars aren’t there, they are, in fact, almost ever present; it’s just that you tend to be less aware of them until Edge burst in with one of those unmistakable crystalline riffs or closes out a song with one of his trademark elegiac solos.
Lyrics are typically one of the last things that I tend to focus on with an album, at least in terms of their context. Initially, I’m more concerned with lyrics that ‘sound good’ rather than those that actually mean something. In many ways, this is perhaps the best way to appreciate Bono’s lyrics. After all, the man who once gave the Pope a pair of his ‘Fly’ shades isn’t one who is known for his subtlety. Occasionally, this can be cringe inducing to the uninitiated and, in all honesty, at their worst they can come off as the poetry of an overly precocious high school student. At their best, however, they possess a sort of divine naiveté and shamelessness (I use the latter term in the best possible sense). One of my favorite examples can be found on their last album, ‘How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb’, in the song “Miracle Drug” Bono sings, “Freedom has a scent like the top of a newborn baby’s head.” At first, it may seem a little precious but, when you really think about it, there is a sort of innocent beauty to statements like that.
My friends and I call lines like these ‘Bono Lines’ and he is able to get away with them because, as ridiculous or laughable as some might find them, HE believes in them. He admits as much in the song “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” when he says, “The right to be ridiculous is something that I hold dear.” My favorite track, “Breathe”, is definitely guilty of having a few ‘Bono Lines’: “We are people borne of sound/the sounds are in our eyes/gonna wear them like a crown” and “I’ve found grace inside a sound.” On the one hand, they’re a bit much but on the other hand aren’t they also kind of awesome? (another great line that doesn’t quite fall into this category is from the closer “Cedars of Lebanon” and says “I got a head like a lit cigarette”… I have no idea what it means as I have yet to put it into context but I think it might be my favorite line on the album)
One of my other favorite lines so far comes from one of three best tracks on the album, “Moment of Surrender” when he sings, “I was speeding on the subway through the stations of the cross.” Who or what is being surrendered to is unclear; it could be lover or it could be God. This lover/God dichotomy is not an uncommon motif in Bono’s lyrical canon. Songs where Bono could be singing about the relationship between two people could just as easily be seen as being about a relationship with God. “With Or Without You” was an early example but, among others, “Until the End of The World”, “One” and “Mysterious Ways” all play with the idea in some way (the last of those, “Mysterious Ways”, not only blurring the line between spirituality and sensuality but also plays with the concept of a distinctly feminine deity).
This isn’t an album that is going to win them any new fans; if you don’t like U2, you probably won’t like it. I can’t say that this is their “best album since such and such”, partially because I really loved their last two albums. What I can say is, that with those last two albums, individual tracks stuck with me a lot more whereas, with this album, the album as a whole sticks with me a lot more. And, in the end, isn’t that what a great album should do? The whole should be greater than the sum of its parts. Still, you have to admire their audacity. In an age where the album is supposed to be dead, U2 have, quite unapologetically, made one.
Best Tracks:
“Magnificent”, “Moment of Surrender” (possibly the most beautiful song they’ve recorded since “One”), “Breathe” (this slouching rocker where Bono’s vocals cadence similar to post-Beatles Lennon, is probably my favorite on the album)
Friday, March 06, 2009
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Jason Powell on Uncanny X-Men #202
[Guest Blogger Jason Powell continues his issue by issue look at Chris Claremont’s X-Men run. For more in this series, see the toolbar on the right.]
“I’ve Gone to Kill – The Beyonder!”
Forced by Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter to devote this issue and the next to Shooter’s absurdly bloated vanity project Secret Wars II, Claremont still accomplishes enough here to make the issue not seem like a mindless cog in a giant crossover machine. For one, he consolidates Rachel Summers’ convoluted back-story via a brief but helpful flashback. In the days before trade paperbacks were SOP as a means of keeping old issues in print, such reminders of old storylines were necessary – doubly so given Claremont’s penchant for open-ended, elliptical storytelling. The way for a reader to get the most out of Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men -- which by 1985 was not so much a narrative straight line as a huge, ever-widening, two-dimensional field of characters and plot threads – is to constantly keep all these things in his or her head while reading.
Since that aforementioned narrative field largely has to be ignored in Uncanny #202 so that the X-Men can fight the Beyonder, Claremont gets into action-mode. Aided by Romita Jr. and guest-inker Al Williamson (whose rough style fits Romita like a glove), the author produces an extended fight sequence that demonstrates imaginative use of the protagonists’ super-powers. In battle with a Sentinel, Magneto uses his powers to “create a magnetic vortex ... to suck super-cold air from the very top of the atmosphere to sea-level,” which is very fun -- both the idea and the poetically sci-fi diction of Claremont’s description.
More entertaining is the stratagem exercised by Colossus and Shadowcat a few pages on, with Kitty hiding herself inside of Peter so that his strength and her phasing ability can be utilized in tandem. A clever idea in its own right, the image has an added narrative crackle when one considers that the two characters are ex-lovers. The idea of merging bodies can’t help but take on a sexual level, and there is something oddly realistic about the notion. The reader is invited to imagine that the two characters would never have conceived of such an intimate use of their own powers had they not, at one time, been romantically involved.
This is not quite using superheroes as metaphor, but there is definitely a unique energy in what Claremont accomplishes with the oblique sexuality of the Colossus/Shadowcat idea shown here. Like the asymmetry between Xavier’s mutant power and Magneto’s, which Geoff so cannily observed is oddly realistic on some strange level, the Peter/Kitty merger is another intuitive cross-wiring of pure fantasy with psychological realism that, to me at least, seems like something altogether different than what writers like Alan Moore do, with their relentlessly dark take on superheroes. I’m not sure if there’s a name for it, but Claremont is the only mainstream superhero writer I’ve ever known to achieve this peculiarly enjoyable trick.
“I’ve Gone to Kill – The Beyonder!”
Forced by Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter to devote this issue and the next to Shooter’s absurdly bloated vanity project Secret Wars II, Claremont still accomplishes enough here to make the issue not seem like a mindless cog in a giant crossover machine. For one, he consolidates Rachel Summers’ convoluted back-story via a brief but helpful flashback. In the days before trade paperbacks were SOP as a means of keeping old issues in print, such reminders of old storylines were necessary – doubly so given Claremont’s penchant for open-ended, elliptical storytelling. The way for a reader to get the most out of Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men -- which by 1985 was not so much a narrative straight line as a huge, ever-widening, two-dimensional field of characters and plot threads – is to constantly keep all these things in his or her head while reading.
Since that aforementioned narrative field largely has to be ignored in Uncanny #202 so that the X-Men can fight the Beyonder, Claremont gets into action-mode. Aided by Romita Jr. and guest-inker Al Williamson (whose rough style fits Romita like a glove), the author produces an extended fight sequence that demonstrates imaginative use of the protagonists’ super-powers. In battle with a Sentinel, Magneto uses his powers to “create a magnetic vortex ... to suck super-cold air from the very top of the atmosphere to sea-level,” which is very fun -- both the idea and the poetically sci-fi diction of Claremont’s description.
More entertaining is the stratagem exercised by Colossus and Shadowcat a few pages on, with Kitty hiding herself inside of Peter so that his strength and her phasing ability can be utilized in tandem. A clever idea in its own right, the image has an added narrative crackle when one considers that the two characters are ex-lovers. The idea of merging bodies can’t help but take on a sexual level, and there is something oddly realistic about the notion. The reader is invited to imagine that the two characters would never have conceived of such an intimate use of their own powers had they not, at one time, been romantically involved.
This is not quite using superheroes as metaphor, but there is definitely a unique energy in what Claremont accomplishes with the oblique sexuality of the Colossus/Shadowcat idea shown here. Like the asymmetry between Xavier’s mutant power and Magneto’s, which Geoff so cannily observed is oddly realistic on some strange level, the Peter/Kitty merger is another intuitive cross-wiring of pure fantasy with psychological realism that, to me at least, seems like something altogether different than what writers like Alan Moore do, with their relentlessly dark take on superheroes. I’m not sure if there’s a name for it, but Claremont is the only mainstream superhero writer I’ve ever known to achieve this peculiarly enjoyable trick.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Bono’s New Song
by Scott
Leave it to a secular rock band to do a better job examining faith than just about any given so-called ‘contemporary christian’ artists. Not just any rock group either but, quite possibly, one of the biggest bands in the world: U2. (For those of you that don’t know, I’m a really big U2 fan) U2 have always used Christian imagery in their songs and, at one point early in their career, they were even labeled a ‘Christian Band.’ Much of the band’s spirituality can be traced to their involvement with Shalom, a charismatic evangelical youth group, which three of the four members, Bono, The Edge and Larry Mullen Jr., belonged to. This group’s influence was so great on the band that, following the recording of October, U2 nearly broke up due to pressure from Shalom; they did not feel the band could reconcile their Christian beliefs with ‘the Rock N’ Roll lifestyle.’ Ultimately, it was the band that would severe ties with the group and, perhaps, this is when Bono and crew first grew suspicious of this particular brand of faith and decided to carve out their own path to enlightenment.
As the band’s principal lyricist, we can credit much of this exploration to Bono (with the occasional contribution from The Edge). On their first album following their departure from Shalom, War, Bono would begin exploring faith through the use of a common theme first revealed in the song ‘40’. Bono actually didn’t write these lyrics; he stole them, they are lifted directly from the 40th Psalm:
“I waited patiently for the lord/he inclined and heard my cry/ he sat my feet upon the rock/ and made my footsteps firm”
Bono has long expressed his admiration for the Psalms saying that he felt they were, basically, David singing the blues. They are reflections of a man who believes in God, is grateful for all that God has given him and, yet, still has his doubts. In the song’s refrain, Bono Sings: “How Long To Sing This Song?” He is asking how long he must wait for God to answer him. He is impatient and wants God to take action and make his presence known.
This concept of the unsatisfied believer would further be explored to greater effect, not to mention much greater success, in the band’s biggest hit, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” After telling us that he has “kissed honey lips […] spoke with the tongue of an Angel [and that he] believes in the kingdom come” Bono then reaches the chorus where he sings (sing along at home if you like), “I Stiiiiiiilll haven’t Foooouuuunnd What I’m lookin’ For!” Once again, we have a man who has seen the miracles that God has to offer but he still wants more; he’s still searching for something. He feels that what God is offering him is not enough.
Ten years later, in the band’s most underrated work, Pop, U2 would close the album with the haunting “Wake Up Dead Man.” The song opens with the line, “Jesus, Jesus help me. I’m alone in this world and a fucked up world it is too.” Like the previous examples, this is a man who has faith in God but finds it hard to have faith when he looks at the world around him. The next verse states, “Jesus, I’m waiting here boss, I know you’re looking out for us but maybe your hands aren’t free.” The part about Christ’s hands not being free immediately evokes images of the crucifixion; his hands aren’t free because they’re nailed to a frickin’ cross. The effect is both darkly comic and incredibly poignant. There are too many in the Christian faith who overemphasize the importance of the crucifixion (Mel Gibson, I’m looking in your direction); the importance of the sacrifice is given precedence over the ideals that Christ was willing to died for. The chorus of the song reflects the title, “Wake Up, Dead Man.” We are living in the age when God has been declared dead and the speaker, while he has faith, is growing impatient with a God who refuses to prove his own existence.
The wonderful All That You Can’t Leave Behind, most well known for the exuberant “Beautiful Day”, also contains the track “When I Look at The World.”
Bono begins the song by asking, “When you look at the world, what is it that you see?”
He is contemplating how God can look at a world as “fucked up” as this one and see anything worth saving and ultimately laments his own inability to see anything redemptive in the chaos that surrounds him, “I just can’t see what you see, when I look at the world.”
While Bono may take a lot of flack for his charity work, when one examines his work, the reasoning behind it becomes quite clear: he has learned that faith itself is not enough but that faith must be put into action. Perhaps, most crucially, an often misheard lyric in the song “One” sums up this notion; the line “We GET to carry each other” is often misheard as “We GOTTA carry each other.” To Bono, helping each other is not a burden (GOTTA) but a privilege (GET TO) He is attempting to find God through helping man that, maybe, if he tries just hard enough he might be able to “see what [God] sees”….
Note: It will be interesting to see how Bono plays with this new notion on the new album.
Leave it to a secular rock band to do a better job examining faith than just about any given so-called ‘contemporary christian’ artists. Not just any rock group either but, quite possibly, one of the biggest bands in the world: U2. (For those of you that don’t know, I’m a really big U2 fan) U2 have always used Christian imagery in their songs and, at one point early in their career, they were even labeled a ‘Christian Band.’ Much of the band’s spirituality can be traced to their involvement with Shalom, a charismatic evangelical youth group, which three of the four members, Bono, The Edge and Larry Mullen Jr., belonged to. This group’s influence was so great on the band that, following the recording of October, U2 nearly broke up due to pressure from Shalom; they did not feel the band could reconcile their Christian beliefs with ‘the Rock N’ Roll lifestyle.’ Ultimately, it was the band that would severe ties with the group and, perhaps, this is when Bono and crew first grew suspicious of this particular brand of faith and decided to carve out their own path to enlightenment.
As the band’s principal lyricist, we can credit much of this exploration to Bono (with the occasional contribution from The Edge). On their first album following their departure from Shalom, War, Bono would begin exploring faith through the use of a common theme first revealed in the song ‘40’. Bono actually didn’t write these lyrics; he stole them, they are lifted directly from the 40th Psalm:
“I waited patiently for the lord/he inclined and heard my cry/ he sat my feet upon the rock/ and made my footsteps firm”
Bono has long expressed his admiration for the Psalms saying that he felt they were, basically, David singing the blues. They are reflections of a man who believes in God, is grateful for all that God has given him and, yet, still has his doubts. In the song’s refrain, Bono Sings: “How Long To Sing This Song?” He is asking how long he must wait for God to answer him. He is impatient and wants God to take action and make his presence known.
This concept of the unsatisfied believer would further be explored to greater effect, not to mention much greater success, in the band’s biggest hit, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” After telling us that he has “kissed honey lips […] spoke with the tongue of an Angel [and that he] believes in the kingdom come” Bono then reaches the chorus where he sings (sing along at home if you like), “I Stiiiiiiilll haven’t Foooouuuunnd What I’m lookin’ For!” Once again, we have a man who has seen the miracles that God has to offer but he still wants more; he’s still searching for something. He feels that what God is offering him is not enough.
Ten years later, in the band’s most underrated work, Pop, U2 would close the album with the haunting “Wake Up Dead Man.” The song opens with the line, “Jesus, Jesus help me. I’m alone in this world and a fucked up world it is too.” Like the previous examples, this is a man who has faith in God but finds it hard to have faith when he looks at the world around him. The next verse states, “Jesus, I’m waiting here boss, I know you’re looking out for us but maybe your hands aren’t free.” The part about Christ’s hands not being free immediately evokes images of the crucifixion; his hands aren’t free because they’re nailed to a frickin’ cross. The effect is both darkly comic and incredibly poignant. There are too many in the Christian faith who overemphasize the importance of the crucifixion (Mel Gibson, I’m looking in your direction); the importance of the sacrifice is given precedence over the ideals that Christ was willing to died for. The chorus of the song reflects the title, “Wake Up, Dead Man.” We are living in the age when God has been declared dead and the speaker, while he has faith, is growing impatient with a God who refuses to prove his own existence.
The wonderful All That You Can’t Leave Behind, most well known for the exuberant “Beautiful Day”, also contains the track “When I Look at The World.”
Bono begins the song by asking, “When you look at the world, what is it that you see?”
He is contemplating how God can look at a world as “fucked up” as this one and see anything worth saving and ultimately laments his own inability to see anything redemptive in the chaos that surrounds him, “I just can’t see what you see, when I look at the world.”
While Bono may take a lot of flack for his charity work, when one examines his work, the reasoning behind it becomes quite clear: he has learned that faith itself is not enough but that faith must be put into action. Perhaps, most crucially, an often misheard lyric in the song “One” sums up this notion; the line “We GET to carry each other” is often misheard as “We GOTTA carry each other.” To Bono, helping each other is not a burden (GOTTA) but a privilege (GET TO) He is attempting to find God through helping man that, maybe, if he tries just hard enough he might be able to “see what [God] sees”….
Note: It will be interesting to see how Bono plays with this new notion on the new album.
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You do not have to have a blogger account or gmail account to post a comment -- you can write a comment, write your name at the bottom of your comment like an e mail, and then post using the "anonymous" option.
WRITING FOR THIS BLOG. If I see a big free form comment that deserves more attention, I will pull it and make it its own post, with a label on the post and on the sidebar that will always link to all the posts you write for this blog. I am always looking for reviews of games, tv, movies, music and books.
ALSO. You can use this space to re-ask me questions you asked me before that I failed to answer because I was too busy.
AND you can use this space to comment on posts that are old enough that no one is reading the comments threads anymore.
You do not have to have a blogger account or gmail account to post a comment -- you can write a comment, write your name at the bottom of your comment like an e mail, and then post using the "anonymous" option.
WRITING FOR THIS BLOG. If I see a big free form comment that deserves more attention, I will pull it and make it its own post, with a label on the post and on the sidebar that will always link to all the posts you write for this blog. I am always looking for reviews of games, tv, movies, music and books.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Jason Powell on Uncanny X-Men #201
[Guest Blogger Jason Powell continues his issue by issue look at Chris Claremont’s X-Men run. For more in this series, see the toolbar on the right.]
“Duel”
The first half of this issue features Claremont very much in his precious mode. Material such as Rachel getting tickled by Nightcrawler, plus all the cooing over Madelyne and Scott’s newborn baby, might grate on readers who lack a sweet tooth. Those of us with enough of an affinity for cutesiness can find plenty to enjoy, however: Colossus’ line to Logan while they’re all gathered around the baby, “To think Wolverine – you, also, once looked like that,” is quite a lovely character bit, for example.
Other sequences are irredeemably awful by any standard – in particular Rogue’s confrontation with Ronald Reagan, which is just cringe-inducing.
And then there are a few questionable attempts that sort of walk the line – Nightcrawler tickling Rachel is silly, but Tom Orzechowski’s rendering of Rachel’s word balloon elevates the potentially stupid moment into something rather elegant just on the level of craftsmanship.
Cyclops is a complete jerk once again. How anyone can interpret his scenes with Madelyne differently is mind-boggling. In Uncanny #201, he presumes that Madelyne will quit her job as a pilot so that she can raise the baby – pretty much solo, apparently – while he goes back to being leader of the X-Men. When Madelyne points out with stainless logic that she’s the one with skills and a paying career, and that the X-Men seem capable of getting by without Scott, he has no response. He departs the scene without a word to his wife and goes to fight a duel with Storm for leadership of the team. He’s incredibly unkind – which primes the character perfectly for writer Bob Layton’s treatment of him in X-Factor #1, wherein Cyclops leaves Madelyne in Alaska and heads straight to New York when he learns Jean is alive. He deigns not to tell Madelyen where he’s going or why. He then spends two weeks in New York by himself, but never once calls his wife in that time. These are not the actions of a hero. From this point on, the character is destroyed.
Claremont may just be playing by the rules – writing Cyclops with an eye toward how Bob Layton will write him in X-Factor (which debuted contemporaneously with Uncanny #202). But he does the job too well. Claremont has complained in interviews of how X-Factor ruined Scott as a character, but Claremont – thanks to his writing both here and in the previous issue – is undeniably complicit in that crime.
“Duel”
The first half of this issue features Claremont very much in his precious mode. Material such as Rachel getting tickled by Nightcrawler, plus all the cooing over Madelyne and Scott’s newborn baby, might grate on readers who lack a sweet tooth. Those of us with enough of an affinity for cutesiness can find plenty to enjoy, however: Colossus’ line to Logan while they’re all gathered around the baby, “To think Wolverine – you, also, once looked like that,” is quite a lovely character bit, for example.
Other sequences are irredeemably awful by any standard – in particular Rogue’s confrontation with Ronald Reagan, which is just cringe-inducing.
And then there are a few questionable attempts that sort of walk the line – Nightcrawler tickling Rachel is silly, but Tom Orzechowski’s rendering of Rachel’s word balloon elevates the potentially stupid moment into something rather elegant just on the level of craftsmanship.
Cyclops is a complete jerk once again. How anyone can interpret his scenes with Madelyne differently is mind-boggling. In Uncanny #201, he presumes that Madelyne will quit her job as a pilot so that she can raise the baby – pretty much solo, apparently – while he goes back to being leader of the X-Men. When Madelyne points out with stainless logic that she’s the one with skills and a paying career, and that the X-Men seem capable of getting by without Scott, he has no response. He departs the scene without a word to his wife and goes to fight a duel with Storm for leadership of the team. He’s incredibly unkind – which primes the character perfectly for writer Bob Layton’s treatment of him in X-Factor #1, wherein Cyclops leaves Madelyne in Alaska and heads straight to New York when he learns Jean is alive. He deigns not to tell Madelyen where he’s going or why. He then spends two weeks in New York by himself, but never once calls his wife in that time. These are not the actions of a hero. From this point on, the character is destroyed.
Claremont may just be playing by the rules – writing Cyclops with an eye toward how Bob Layton will write him in X-Factor (which debuted contemporaneously with Uncanny #202). But he does the job too well. Claremont has complained in interviews of how X-Factor ruined Scott as a character, but Claremont – thanks to his writing both here and in the previous issue – is undeniably complicit in that crime.
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