Matt McGee ([email protected])
Thu, 12 Nov 1998 10:58:12 -0800
U2
The B-Sides: The Best of 1980-1990
(Island Records)
Hard to believe U2's first record (Boy) hit stores 18 years ago; harder
still to believe they're regarded as futurists even now, the fathers and
sons of post-modern rock and roll. Until this double-disc
"limited-edition" collection arrived last week, it felt like not so long
ago that George Gimarc was playing "New Year's Day" and "I Will Follow"
on his old Sunday-night show, promising a new-rock revolution around the
corner. But listening to these songs so many years later reveals that
they've turned to empty echoes, their promise having been reduced to
threats (cf. Live). Never mind that from the get-go, U2 made music for
the arenas; never mind that their obvious role models weren't so much the
punks but the dinosaurs who had yet to turn to oil (Zeppelin was, after
all, still around). Somehow, U2 has managed to keep on keepin' on by
staying one step ahead of the trend without getting too far out front.
That they're heralded as revolutionaries (Achtung Baby, maybe Zooropa,
definitely not Pop) with each successive disc must make quite the joke to
the kids who've grown old listening to Bono Vox turn into Robert Plant.
Almost two years after Pop went poof � and the ABC-TV special U2: A Year
in Pop became the lowest-rated television show in the history of the
medium � comes this best-of-and-rest-of, divided into the ubiquitous
A-sides and B-for-Better-Left-Alone sides. In other words, here are songs
everybody in the world already owns, and a few you didn't need. The
A-sides that make up disc one � every damned one of 'em, save the add-on
"rare" single "Sweetest Thing" � are monster hits, the stuff of
classic-rock radio triple-shots. From "Pride (In the Name of Love)" to
"Desire" to "All I Want is You," there isn't one that would sound out of
place on KZPS-FM; ain't a single one of them you didn't burn out on a
decade ago, before Bono fell in love with himself and the Edge discovered
Ambient 1: Music for Airports.
There's nothing here post-Rattle and Hum, none of the ironic,
between-the-quotes rock and roll that would propel U2 from the arenas to
the stadiums. Also missing are the deep cuts that make the early records
bearable; would that "The Electric Co." was among its odds-and-ends.
Instead, both discs include "Sweetest Thing," as though such a winsome
toss-off was worthy of double duty; ironic how a band given to
grander-than-life aphorisms could turn in such a muted Elton John yelp.
The Patti Smith cover, writ in such histrionic understatement, is outdone
only by the droningly overwrought "Unchained Melody." Proof that U2 is
and always has been "alternative" only for people who don't really like
new music and wonder whatever became of the Alarm.
� Robert Wilonsky
_______________________
Matt McGee / [email protected]
@U2 Home Page
http://www.atu2.com
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