Novel Eye

This has been a strange week for music. On Monday I was mentally writing the next section in my lengthy post on taste as I drove to Target and thinking about the first two albums of rock and roll that interested me (the reasons for that will become clear when I post this opus--hopefully tomorrow), David Bowie's Let's Dance , and Duran Duran's reissue of Duran Duran (their first album which they re-released as their third album after their second album Rio and it's hot videos put them on the map, not to be confused with their 10 th album, also called Duran Duran but referred to as The Wedding Album because of the cover art which...oh, never mind). Anyway, I flicked on a radio show here in Boston called "Left Over Lunch" with DJ Julie Kramer which plays 80's and early 90's music (and some 70's glam) between noon and one and which I never get to listen to because of reception. The first song being played was Modern Love from Let's Dance --we...

I don't like U2. I don't hate U2, I just don't think they're very good. Certainly not as good as many people think. I think they are on a juggernaut that seems unlikely to stop anytime soon, but so is American Idol. I've been thinking about this post for some time, debating when and where to write it. I don't say this to be controversial, or provocative and I don't do it to antagonize my many friends who do like U2, really, really like U2. Oh, I could give you lots of reasons why. That Bono seems to have a Messianic complex, that the Edge has been playing the same 3 cords since the beginning of their career (even on his soundtrack for The Batman --animated series {not to be confused with the vastly superior Batman, the Animated Series }). That somehow, because they were Irish and sang a few songs with a message, they were anointed by the British music press and could do no wrong. That they have consistently ripped off their sound from lesser known bands (w...