I already expressed as much in this comparatively ancient post, but today is evidently Bono’s birthday, so here we go again.
If I’m being honest, I was a sizable U2 fan for many years and have seen them perform more times than I can count. Despite being hoary and earnest and about as subtle as a ball-peen hammer to the face, U2 – if you are of a certain age – were nigh on inescapable. While they were essentially the anti-Killing Joke, they were verily the soundtrack to my school years. Up until, say, Pop, I pretty much know all those albums back to front, bought all the singles to get the b-sides and sought out bootlegs and rare tracks from them from the far corners of the globe. I’ve seen them play at Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium and Giants Stadium, among other places, including Philadelphia, Las Goddamn Vegas and in the ground floor of my local Astor Place K-Mart for a botched promotional stunt.
Then, at some point, I just … stopped. I came to a point wherein I felt I had all the U2 I needed. Circa How to Dismantle All That You Can't Achtung (or whatever it was called), I just stopped following them. I still love a lot of those early records, but I’m just not a member of the U2 army anymore.
This was the first I’d ever heard from them, and despite being somewhat uncomfortably churchy, it’s still pretty damn great.
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