Saturday, January 2, 2010

Favorite Songs of the Decade #10, U2 "Wild Honey"

Truthfully, I really do love this song. But the main reason it's on my list is #1) to piss you off and #2) to give me a pretext for bitching about U2.

Regarding #1: putting "Wild Honey" on my best-of list will piss off two broad categories of people. First, it will annoy all the elitists who don't think U2 has been relevant since 1991 (or who, in retrospect, don't think they've ever been relevant). A lot of people who like good music think that U2, at their best, were nothing more than a particularly canny bunch of derivative rip-off artists who never had an original idea in their lives. Those people are wrong and stupid. The relative simplicity of U2's formula (layering textured guitars over hard rock rhythm) should never obfuscate the fact that they are better at using it than any band in the history of rock. Furthermore, Bono's peculiar brand of camera-whoring automessianism shouldn't lead us to forget what a subtle and complex persona he was once capable of projecting. War, U2's first brilliant album, was all punk rock; The Joshua Tree was an album full of anti-American Americana; and U2's best album, Achtung, Baby, played everything conceivable--theology, philosophy, politics, even romance--to the tune of Eurotrash erotica. Face facts: U2 really was once one of the best bands ever.

Regarding #2: it will also piss off all the people who buy into Bono's latent automessianism. Now, I haven't heard anything off of their latest album (the one with "horizon" in the title) except "Magnificent," but I did buy the atomic bomb album the day it came out, and I can personally attest that it is a five-alarm clusterfuck. God what an irredeemably wretched album. The best pop songs, "City of Blinding Lights" and "Original of the Species" lunge inexplicably in the general directly of profundity and miss. The political songs are criminally oversimplified, and the religious songs are trite. "Magnificent" is a good song, yes, but it lacks the complexity that made U2's best religious songs ("I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and "Until the End of the World") so rewarding. The best thing you can say about U2 now is that they're boring.

Then there is the song itself. This is the best pure pop song U2 has ever produced. Bono must have been on Xanax--something to turn off his insatiable need to sound Important. "Wild Honey" is so wonderful because it is content to be what it is: a sincere song about love and longing, one that starts with a playful metaphor (humanity's distant ancestors bearing humanity's best qualities) and never overextends it. The best thing I can say for "Wild Honey" is that it makes me understand why the singer yearns so poignantly for his love. What more can you ask for from a love song? Exactly.
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1 comment:

  1. Girl Meets This January 2, 2010 at 12:28 PM

    I have such a hard time with all this "modern" U2 stuff floatin' around. You are right - the best thing you can say about them is that they're boring now. You know I have a lot of awful things to say about them now. Say - annoying much?

    I am still shocked this made your list. As someone who would probably have to dig deep to make a list as such (mainly because I only care about music made in 1994 and 1995 - oh and maybe a little in 1992, I suppose). As with any decade of music - it seemed there was more junk than usual. I mean, I have more respect for the Spice Girls than I have for Soulja Boy.

    More importantly though, is the issue I have with U2. I can't do it. Not anymore. Bono has ruined everything for me. He makes me uncomfortable. Every time I hear his voice my gag reflex starts. U2 could probably make the most amazing song ever written and I would hate it. Just because of him. All I see is the Message and sunglasses in my head when I hear U2. Sorry.

    I am looking forward to seeing the rest of your list though...

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