Review Summary: Not bad, and actually pretty good overall, a mellow sounding album that doesn't quite live up to its status as one of the greatest albums of its time.
U2 swept the world off of their collective feet when they came out with this album. In the midst of 80's glamour, they had a political crusade and spoke out for their beliefs. They were the only popular band of their time to do this ('Punk? never heard of it'), catching everyone off guard in time to be heard.
At the same time, they came across as deeply spiritual, seriously communicating a message of love and peace that, coupled with their spacious style of playing, compelled listeners everywhere, from every walk of life. The three lead singles from the album all charted extremely well and are mainstays on lists for 'Best Songs of the 80's' and would by themselves speak for the album if it was necessary. The band utterly surpassed all of their peers and would go on to even greater heights by jamming with BB King, Johnny Cash, and Bob Dylan in the next few years, all while promoting their ever-noble causes of anti-poverty, anti-war, and being in touch with one's spirituality.
Those fans are so damn annoying; let's try again.
Losing their high-powered edge from their early albums, U2 managed to ride the wave of some catchy, faux-thought-provoking songs while slowly disappearing up their respective backsides, an event known to have happened shortly before the release of 1993's Zooropa. The themes presented are so blatantly pretentious for a group of well-to-do white boys from Ireland that it's revolting to listen to. In addition, the musicianship is lazy, each song follows the typical verse/chorus format with no show of skill from any of the band members, with special mention going to The Edge, for his overuse of delay and reverb clumsily disguising his inability to write an interesting piece of music.
No, that's not right either.
U2 is somewhat polarizing, with hordes of fans and legions of haters. The truth is, for this album, it's hardly a masterpiece. The music is very soft, never really picking up tempo except in 'In God's Country', and it's all quite simple (U2 never pretended to be amazing musicians, after all). The themes are religion-heavy, with Bono's Catholicism influencing his character greatly, and sometimes (particularly 'Where the Streets Have No Name' and 'Bullet the Blue Sky') political, almost coming off as slightly preachy.
That said, it's an enjoyable listen. The hooks are quite good, and the soft atmosphere can be refreshing depending on the mood you're in. The songs are pretty consistent throughout, although it's worth mentioning that the live version of 'Bullet the Blue Sky' from Rattle and Hum is far superior to the version on this. 'Exit' and 'Running to Stand Still' are personal favorites of mine, and to say that the entire album is terrible and the band is made up of pretentious idiots is simply not true. Regarding the three singles that open the album, 'With or Without You' is certainly an overplayed radio song, and 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' is, for all its catchiness, too long and starts to grate by the third verse. 'Where the Streets Have No Name' is a better song than the version on the album (the band has expressed their dissatisfaction with the studio product), but in my opinion is a superior song than the other two.
Overall, it's hard to understand how the album was such a success, but at the same time it's more than good and a solid effort by a band that has done a good job of making sure they don't appeal to lots of people. Worth a listen if you're in the mood for something mellow and catchy, but not truly ground-breaking and amazing.
