Great article, but I think the author’s wrong to call it melodramatic - because the scale of the passion in those songs is appropriate for their subject matter, and the emotions they convey. Sure, U2 have done overblown (Rattle and Hum, etc.) but on the Joshua Tree, songs like I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For are actually impressively restrained - though Bono is incredibly passionate, the rest of the band plays incredibly bare parts, resisting the urge for power-ballad solos or even big chords, and somehow the softer approach works brilliantly. Now, Cher’s version - or any of the million American Idol covers’ blander arrangements and hammy, gritless vocal theatrics - THAT’S overblown.
But I really am thankful for this article - because U2’s back catalogue deserves greater evaluation like this. Many of my generation, having been born after the ’80s, seem to have one of two attitudes towards U2; either “U2 sucks” snobbery based largely on their inferior ‘00s output, or “Elevation/Vertigo rocks!!” – with apathy towards their older stuff, never realising their beloved Kings of Leon/Killers/Arcade Fire’s debt to ‘80s U2. My response is always “listen to the Joshua Tree/Achtung Baby” – glad to see in this case, it’s paid off!
