U2, Brute?

I've spent a weird amount of time in the last couple of weeks defending four multibillionaires whom I have never met. The Biggest Band in the World, U2, managed to surprise all but the most die-hard Apple fanatics by releasing a new album seemingly out of the blue. Not only that, but they flat out gave it away to anyone with an active iTunes account. Back when I was in college, the thought of something like this happening would be insane. I remember the guy in the dorm room next to me paying something like $200 for bootleg CDs of rough recordings of rehearsal sessions for the Zooropa and Pop albums. There were lines down the hall just to give it a listen!

By that time, U2 had long cemented themselves as one of the all-time great rock bands. They sold out stadiums wherever and whenever they wanted to, and they had released arguably the album of both the 80's and the 90's. Add to that the longevity, stability, and almost total lack of controversy among their band members, and their willingness to get deeply involved in humanitarian and social issues, and it's tough to find their equal. In the intervening years, their popularity has not waned, even if their cred may have. Their last tour, three years ago, was only the highest grossing of all time. No big deal.

So why is everyone so pissed off at them?

I suppose it's not U2 people are mad at right now. The anger is mostly directed at Apple, and for good reason. They took what we all considered to be a one way street and brazenly drove right down it in the wrong direction. Apple used its iTunes infrastructure not just to make the surprise U2 album free to anyone who wanted it, but to actually push the album out to every. single. iTunes. user. It was a major misstep. Two things you do not mess with are peoples' computers, and their music collections. In a microsecond, Apple did both, and it's going to take a while for them to gain back some folks' trust.

As people were understandably griping about this invasion, they would casually add some offhand insult to the album on question. When a band has won more Grammys than any other, and has released at least three world class albums, it's hard to make friends with new music. It's easy to say, "It's not as good as their old stuff,"  and in this case it's likely true, to some extent. But there's a long way between saying that, and saying something sucks.

A band like U2 seems to be in a tough spot. You can't just recycle your sound or you will be accused of sitting on your past success. But at the same time, if you stray from the formula that brought you to where you are, you have betrayed your true fan base. So what is it we want from them anyway? To simply stop? Have they reached a level of accomplishment that we deem to be sufficient, so that's all they get? Absurd. So they have only one real option, which is to continue to explore their medium.

Madonna gets more credit for constantly reinventing herself, but I think U2 have done a similarly masterful job of it over the years. The Joshua Tree was such a powerful album, it really felt like they perfected something with it. After a quick postcard to music, they set out to try something new. Achtung Baby is an equally brilliant collection of songs that has very little in common with Joshua Tree. The creative arc of this version of U2 was the reverse of the previous one though, as Zooropa and Pop were less coherent explorations of the same sound.

In 2000, with the entire world feeling the pressure and joy of an entirely new century beginning, the quartet did it again, settling in to the current phase of their sound with yet another album-of-the-decade. All That You Can't Leave Behind was a strong leadoff and the subsequent albums have again been slightly lesser explorations, but it's hard for me to call these albums "bad."

Through it all, the core ethos of the sound has never wavered. Soaring, iconic guitar riffs matched with vocals slathered in relatable emotion, driving bass lines and grounded, raucous drums in lock step behind them. U2 songs are always instantly identifiable. And it's been that way for almost 40 years. No scandals. No ODs. Social activism. Political involvement. Amazing videos and concerts with the audience in mind, even if they are making a killing. Why the hell shouldn't they? And they gave away their latest album.

What, exactly, more do we want from a band?