U2's Songs of Experience

To be filed under Ways I Am Changing In My Older Days: U2's new record has been out for over two months now and I've owned it since it was released, but I've yet to listen to it other then a few short song samples online which left me with no impression at all.

What the hell is going on with me? I used to feel a genuine excitement and urgency about certain things ..... like listening to new offerings from a favorite band but something has apparently changed. Now it's like, "I'll get around to it eventually." And who knows how many 'get around to it's' I have remaining on the timeline of life?

So that's my goal this weekend. To give the sounds a listen!!

The Joshua Tree

It's difficult to realize that this album is almost thirty years old.

How did U2 come up with the ideas for this collection of songs? There's not a single song that could be thought of as just existing in order to fill space on the record. When finished, did they pause and wonder how they could ever match this effort?

As recalled, there was a huge build up leading up to its release in 1987. It seemed to be considered a masterpiece before it was released. You don't see that any more where the release of a record was a major event. A significant moment or landmark in cultural history. That's how I remember this record. It's differfent today and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's what I used to wonder about .... that you would reach a point in time where with a finite number of musical notes available to be used in the writing of songs, that eventually songwriters would run out of combinations of those notes to leep music truly evolving and original

I intially fell in love with side one of the record and rarely listened to side two. Maybe it was due to it being the height of the music video age on television and the anointed radio hits of the day were all on side one. It was years later before I truly listened to and discovered the beauty of side two. It's just as strong as the first side if not moreso.