[kj] 1000 SUNS Outside Gate and PHANTASMAGORIA

[TB]

"Phillipps Marc" wrote:



> >The stuff they've done since? Not as much.

>

> They have become increasingly patchy . . I quite enjoyed Vertigo but 

> haven't

> really heard anything else from their current stuff that I could say I

> actually liked . .


I really liked about 1/2 of the "All You Can't Leave Behind" album, 
especially "Kite" and "Beautiful Day" but I think they've kind of fallen in 
a rut aside from being able to produce a couple standout tracks on each of 
the past 2 albums. Bono's lyrics are especially getting lazy "Elevation" and 
the awful "Yahweh" are two good examples. This last single, "Windows in the 
Sky" is second rate Beatles crap, imo. If they wanna go that route, get Jeff 
Lynne from Electric Light Orchestra to produce their next album and not Rick 
Rubin who did that song.

Still, as a live band they still deliver the  goods and I'd argue that this 
past tour as a band, especially The Edge, they are playing better then they 
have in a long time. Bono's voice, which seemed to sound almost blown out on 
a lot of the shows around 1997 is in much better shape this past tour. I 
caught 3 of the first 6 shows including opening night at the beginning of 
the Vertigo tour and was happily surprised not only by the fact they had 
their shit together at the beginning of the tour (very unusual for them) but 
that they were really mixing up the setlist and playing a lot of obscure 
deep cuts off the very first album "Boy."

T.B.