Music for multiple senses

thought of the day: my body is the most expensive vehicle i will ever ride in.

Above you’ll see a little CD album cover I put together this afternoon (click to enlarge). It’s for the band Baoquan, titled The Loss of Sleep. That’s all fine and dandy, except it’s not real; the band is fake, and the album is doubly non-existent. It’s just a fun little exercise paired with a sub-cultural internet meme. I thought it quite a larf until all the pieces came together in either the wildest of profound coincidences or the most meaningless nonsense I’ve posted since some of my high school poetry appeared on this very site.

As for real bands, many followers of popular music—or at least those who begrudgingly endure my interests as I foist them about—will know that U2‘s new album, No Line on the Horizon, was released last week. Being my all-time favourite music-makers, it’s a momentous occasion for me; one that I embrace with nearly every waking thought in anticipation during the 2-3 months leading up to the street date.

Normally I am too pure of heart to even attempt listening to music from my choice bands before the release dates because the quality of such contraband is often an insult to both the bands’ efforts and my delicate/pretentious audiophile sensibilities, and also because as an artist, I respect the moment of unveiling; people cannot see my work until I’m damn good and ready to show it, so I grant the same courtesy to the two or three musical acts my conscience cannot transgress. However this time around I had access to a pristine, high-quality edition, and just couldn’t resist.

Maybe I jinxed it.

It turns out the first listen was bittersweet. The first couple tracks got me really enthused, but then it seemed to trail off into a confusing array of verses, bridges, and refrains like a plate of really loud spaghetti noodles. By the time I reached the end, all I could do was shift my eyes back and forth suspiciously and wonder if in fact what I’d just heard was even a legitimate copy of the album. It was completely legit. Seems that this album is ground-breaking in a whole new way for me, as U2 records go, insomuch that this time around, it’s one of those unfortunate albums that need to be heard a few times for things to sink in, whereas all their previous work has found me awestruck the first time through; it’s just not as immediately listenable.

U2 is a band whose heart is really in performing live. The trouble is that 30 years of touring have taken their toll on Bono’s voice… it’s not quite as flexible or flamboyant; it’s raspier and has lost some of its definition. instead of a range of blacks, whites and range of greys, it’s just the extremes. Normally, these are valuable qualities earned only with age and experience, but for most of Horizon, it seems Bono is using his stage voice for the studio recording. The difference is that on stage, you need to sing at a higher, louder register to project to a large, screaming audience, versus the tranquil acoustics of a studio that can afford softer melodies and performances. So for the first couple listens, instead of the sensitive nuances he’s known for, it sounds more like eleven tracks of him either yelling or tone speaking than actually singing.

The good news is that after about 5 complete listens, you start to make some sense out of the madness, much like immersion in a foreign land… after a short time, your brain begins finding patterns in the seemingly random chaos of the local language and things get a little clearer. For me, the weakest track is actually their premier single, “Get on your Boots”. It’s a rhapsody of about 6 disparate songs and styles all quilted into a single 3.5 minute ditty, and has a vibe reminiscent of the breakout single from their last album, “Vertigo”, which likely explains its choice as the radio thumbnail for the rest of the album, even though it doesn’t represent the other tracks at all; it’s something of a toe jutting from a hand while the other fingers tolerate its curious presence. For me, the strongest song is the title track, planted firmly at the beginning. Speaking of which, it’s been about 25 years since they’ve titled an album to match a song it contains, with one exception; just an interesting observation.

A tough call; I DO like the new album, and I’m not really disappointed, but at the same time—as a geeked out lifelong fan—it pains me to find such obvious critiques. Regardless, I’ll keep listening and memorise each detail right up to the moment of attending a show on their next tour, at which point, I’ll be yelling singing it all right back at the band along with waves of other fans from the sweaty sea of general admission.

listening to:
No Line On The Horizon [Limited Edition]
U2