Monday, February 06, 2006

Bono speaks

I'm not going to comment here other than to say that Bono is one of those rare people whose prose is as persuasive as his song lyrics. Enjoy.

Quick side note: Coldplay is, never will be and never intended to be the next U2, as some have suggested. They are the next Radiohead. Erratic, occasionally full of themselves, but capable of beautiful music that touches us on a political rather than personal level. (U2, of course, can do both. But it's an unfair comparison, and we shouldn't forget that U2 had five or six rotten years between Achtung Baby and All That You Can't Leave Behind.)

3 comments:

Neel Mehta said...

Quick side note: Coldplay is, never will be and never intended to be the next U2, as some have suggested. They are the next Radiohead.

Officially, I agree. They reminded me of Radiohead from the get-go, and for a while I wondered if members from Radiohead had helped form Coldplay. (Musically, it might have made sense.)

Off the record, so to speak, I've noticed that Coldplay singles get the kind of attention that U2 used to get, because U2's absence on the singles charts has left a huge void. The industry and fans embrace them like U2, but they are not U2.

Chris Martin & Co. know how they are regarded, but I'm not sure how they feel about the comparison. I suspect that they've prematurely embraced the label; it cannot be a coincidence that lifelong U2 photographer Anton Corbijn directed the "Speed of Sound" video.

bdure said...

Fair point, though couldn't you argue that in the UK -- where Radiohead was revered to the point that it clearly drove them inside -- that Coldplay singles are filling the void left by Thom Yorke and company?

Neel Mehta said...

I suppose. I don't really know a whole lot about the UK music industry. Radiohead was perceived stateside as more of an album band (like Pearl Jam, I suppose).