U2: Overrated?

"Be Here Now" is one of the biggest first-listen album letdowns of all time, in that the first track, "D'You Know What I Mean?" is soooooo fucking good, and most of the rest of it is shit.

 

Here it is:

The soaring nothingness of U2.

 

I've started doing deep dives on bands of which I only knew the hits, and I went through this run for Thin Lizzy. They're freaking criminally underrated.

 

A Night At The Opera - A Day At The Races - News Of The World

 

I'd go the other way:

News Of The World - Jazz - The Game.

 

Interesting. Their was a terrific episode of Malcolm McDowell's "Revisionist History" in which he argued that what made country music superior to a lot of rock and roll was it's specificity.

 

Horse Feathers - Duck Soup - A Night at the Opera

 

No issues extending it from Sheer Heart Attack through The Game actually. But I'm a slappy.

 

It is fascinating (really) to me that you people can remember all this shit in such detail.

I remember I had some Glen Campbell albums as a kid, but I couldn't name them without looking them up.

 

I have a brother like this and I know a few others for whom music is not memorable. But I cannot imagine my life without music being a significant part. I'm sure I'm not alone in the bulk of my memories -- from childhood to the present day -- being attached to a soundtrack.

 

If not for the shite Springsteen tribute album Neon Bible, Arcade Fire would be riding a five-album streak.

 

Do not get Arcade Fire. I'll try again at some point probably but their music does nothing for me.