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Radiohead download...
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IanB
IanB
6761 posts

Edited Oct 14, 2007, 19:59
Re: Radiohead download...
Oct 14, 2007, 07:21
Jasonaparkes wrote:
They ONLY demonstrate that they have quite good taste, but I hate them as they can afford to buy lots of records with the money made from less exciting records than U2 released in the 1990s .... I know there are very good arguments, some in Japrocksampler, about taking other's stuff and taking it elsewhere...and Bowie in his peak did that and went beyond. U2 were stranger anyway, especially with that Passengers record or parts of the Million Dollar Hotel soundtrack. I quite like U2 from 1991 to 1997 as I wasn't meant to - they're ain't nothing as good as Lemon here, or Theme for Great Cities by Simple Minds/Steve Hillage...


You're not wrong.

Not sure about Numb or Lemon as singles but it is true that U2 got a bad rap in the 90s (like REM) for being a stadium band when they were actually turning out some great stuff. Achtung Baby was by far the most interesting mega successful record since the days of Sulk, Tin Drum and New Gold Dream. And it was choc full of weird pop hits.

They worked the margins and snuck some good challenging stuff under the radar. They didn't mock their audience for the consumerism that made the band wealthy and they were not indifferent to the position of privilege they occupied. They didn't make creating music an exercise in self-hate. They even looked like they might have actually enjoyed what they were doing. Good heavens. Such heresy!

If they were English we would have been kissing the ring / carpet but they will never be admitted into the Art Rock pantheon (like Bowie like Fripp like Sylvian like Gabriel like Radiohead) because they dared to be huge and stay huge.

Oh and Theme For Great Cities is a bloody masterpiece.
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