U2 - Rattle and Hum (CD)

Should have only been studio tracks

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Oct 14, 2001

I feel that Rattle and Hum would have been a solid four star album if U2 had stuck with the studio tracks, dismissing the horrid blues/gospel tinge of nearly all the live tracks and the American-infatuated pretensions which gave U2 a bad name (and wh...ich I have to agree with to an extent).First, the good. Nearly all of the new songs work as solid U2 material, continuing with the American feel of the Joshua Tree. Even though this album is billed as an adventure into southern-style blues, only Desire ever really approaches this. Songs like All I Want Is You, God Part 2, and Angel of Harlem preety much are an extension of what U2 has done successfully up to that point. However, only in Desire and BB King's cameo in When Love Comes to Town is there a true rhythm and blues influence of Edge's guitar licks and Larry's drumming. Songs like Heartland and Love Rescue Me are treated unfairly as a result of U2's arrogance to believing that they if they call themselves a blues band and can understand life in America(especially the Midwest in Heartland), then it is so. These ARE solid songs, though whoever it is that told Bono to scream throughout the album rather than sing should not be recording albums anymore.This leads to the two biggest problems I see with the album. First, the live songs are HORRID. Yes, U2 is a great live band; however, this is not them at their best. Only Bullet the Blue Sky and Silver and Gold are bearable and that's because U2 remembers to be themselves. When Bono becomes a southern gospel choir member, this album becomes terrible to swallow. Pointless covers like a terrible version of All Along the Watchtower make the flow of Rattle and Hum a muddled mess. Second was the worrisome(at least in 1988) U2 infatuation of all things American. Paying homage to legends like Hendrix and Dylan is fine, but putting yourself on a pedestal with them by trying to sound like them and including them on an album of four Irishmen who began as British punk rockers not only is laughable in its execution but worthy of criticism in its premise alone.Still, Rattle and Hum has some great U2 songs and its failure did lead to bigger and better things in the 90's. However, U2 did deserve the jokes that came at the expense of this album. Read more Less