U2

For as much as I appreciate their persona, U2 couldn't have made me feeling more disgusted now - two reasons why I started feeling that way; 'Achtung Baby' (think Negativland?) and Bono pushing himself over messiah-wannabe issues while on the other hand he's just a clever businessman...

U2 of the 80s seemed to be an intelligent albeit highly ambitious bunch of Irish youths - each and every album from 'Boy' to 'Rattle & Hum' fulfills their mission as 'saviours on earth' (at least we all believed and followed them with pride) - dedicated themselves to the third world's obsolete issues, U2 managed to give their feeling that 'music CAN change the world'... but then again, why should it? Doing America in their own way, U2 slowly turned into pop-mastodonts, mesmerised by the US of A's respective reception (and influence). Since their first three (at my personal taste their best) albums, every next one stepped further into the country-esque territory so the 'European' 'Achtung Baby' was more than welcome a breath of fresh air into their catalogue. Sadly that's when Bono and The Edge realised electronic music is beautiful to mess about so we got the worst of U2 - or ironically, 'Even better than the real thing'. Depending on what 'Real Thing' they meant better than but listening to U2 in a Technotronic kinda way made me realise that was one of the most sad ends in rock. 'Achtung Baby' as an album remains their last considerable station - excellent but a mistake later diagnosed in sequels - 'Zooropa' or 'Pop' - that even with 'All that you can´t leave behind' wasn't enough appeal to repair the damage. With their last effort 'How To Dismantle the Atomic Bomb' they brought their being even more into irony - HOW indeed? The answer thay obviously don't know.

While they have nothing to do with ambient/noise/experimental scene, what makes U2 interesting for an average electronic music fan is the digital gloss added by producers like Brian Eno and Flood. Forget the snobbery - few people can deny that "One", "Please" and some of their other songs are really deep and meaningful. But then there's that stupid "holier than thou" approach which is exemplified by flag waving. Sometimes Bono is making a parody at himself and rock in general, but it comes out like a forced joke more than a real attempt to laugh at himself and his own band. Even with all the notorious producers, most of their albums are patchy at best with many songs destroyed by useless pomposity. Its Too bad, since, like it was said before, not all of their output is atrocious, but they somehow manage to butcher many of potentially good tracks.

Although i'm a House/Techno-head, i'm a big fan of U2's work. Combining very good songs with producers like Flood, Howie B & Brian Eno and working with excellent engineers like Mark Stent: it gives their songs a strong musical background. Listen carefully to some tracks and u'll notice the experiments with the guitar-sounds and the drums.