"It must be quite embarrassing for God that these shallow shit is devoted to Him."
(Bono on Grammy Awards)
God - still a subject for the no-longer-that-young guys from Dublin ("I'm a man and not a child") and who are - unbelievable - still together. And still producing such splendid records. Definitely.
Should something like "eternal love" really exist? Should 'God' still exist? Is there still something like 'hope'? Hope for a better life and hope to fight the oppression? "Yes" - is our biographer's answer from Ireland.
But according to Johnny Cash everything is gathered together on that maybe most engaged recording since the days of Joshua Tree: God, Love and Murder.
Lines like "Love, lift me out of these blues / Won't you tell me something true / I believe in you" (Elevator) or "Heaven on Earth / We need it now / I'm sick of all of this / Hanging around / Sick of sorrow / Sick of pain" (Peace on Earth) are showing us the well versed Bible reader who notes that he's still reading "every day" that book (like The Edge) - and this obviously shaped him. And for that reason built a sort of modern psalmist.
But good news - the four lost their early years' pathos a long time ago. Everything stands side by side: The emotion, the disillusionment. The faith, the doubt. The life, the death. The love, the void. The fullness, the fear. Different to the many of rock heroes during the last 25 years Adam, Larry, Bono and The Edge are allowing us a view in their inner life. And this makes us breathless at some points and is never embarrassing. It's also a pleasant that - and this in our oh-so-ironic times - even the ironic, the aggravation hasn't that big room, like in MacPhisto's times. Because with Zooropa (and partly with POP) this was in danger to burst away into the almost cynical.
No - Room should be for the truth, the honest, the frank and the engagement. How different could it come that the song "Walk on" is dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under "house arrest" in Burma since 1989. Amnesty is greeting and we're glad about this! Also about the engagement for Sierra Leone, the movement Jubilee 2000 or the long lasting love for Greenpeace and War Child.
"Arts ever influenced politics. It makes people dream political visions beneath the possible", says The Edge in an interview in the latest Rolling Stone issue. And he seems to be not that naïve as 15 years ago. The engagement is authentic and not at least Bono belongs to the jet set of lobbyists for world's humanity.
At the first spot the music of "All That You Can't Leave Behind" is a little bit confusing - yes, there are a lot of beautiful songs (all the tracks are real songs, actually). But first you think there's a lot of non-U2 stuff. And on the other hand it sounds like U2. If you listen to it carefully. Maybe it's coming from that interesting mixture of producers. All of them are old fellows: Steve Lillywhite ("War" - ancient, kids!), Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno ("The Joshua Tree", "Achtung Baby"). A beautiful, good mixture. And a bill that is very right. But - as already said - at first the confusion. Maybe for the reason of the soundtrack's release for Wim Wender's "The Million Dollar Hotel" earlier this year, giving me different - misleading? - expectations. Or it is the fact that Bono has (such simple!) 'the best voice ever' and is able to sing even long and high melodies in a quite merciless good manner. In addition to that there is his brilliant soul voice ("In A Little While") - leaving behind us old fans, taking our breath away. See, the Bono!
Anyway - U2 are not using anymore that electronic chitchat and the lavish programmed periphery. Good for the last recordings, actually bringing them up to the front (in my ears). But nowadays it just would flood the raw material of U2's music: Larry, The Edge, Adam and Bono.
At last the question about the joke, the wit. Well, I'd say: Take the beatlesk piece "Wild Honey": "In the days / When we where swinging from the trees / I was a monkey" - it will not work, totally free from irony. But every smile drives the record's worth into the height. Hear it, I just can say.
