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    Thanks to the power of the Internet, I was able to get my mitts on U2's new album two and a half weeks before its release.
    Before I get into any review, I have to point out what a big fan I was of them, back in college. I first started listening to them after "October" came out, but didn't actually buy anything until "Under a Blood Red Sky". After that though I got everything I could get my hands on: LPs, CDs, singles, EPs, imports, and bootlegs out of Heidelberg. Which is to say, what first attracted me was their original "chiming guitar" sound, and the image that stays with me is that of four guys in peacoats singing in the snow.     So it's taken considerable adjusting to get used to their unfathomable need to be a dance band. In fact, I don't think I have adjusted. "Zooropa" and "Pop" pale for me alongside enduring classics like "War" and "Joshua Tree". And when Bono said, during the making of this new album, they were rediscovering guitar bass and drums I let out a hearty "It's about @%&*$ time!" Of course, I should've known better. I guess U2 saying their returning to their old sound is like Paul McCartney's publicist saying his next album "really rocks".
    My fears seemed justified when I caught my first snippet of "Beautiful Day" a few weeks ago. A chintzy little drum machine leads the boys through a wash of synthesized Eno while Bono's vocals are mixed far too forward for such an uninvolving melody. However, as with almost all U2, the stupid thing has grown on me. And now that I have the full album, courtesy of Usenet, I can say that it's not nearly as bad as I'd feared, though still less than I'd hoped.
    The second song "Elevation", sounds like it was created for some VW Bug ad. I can't help but picture a bunch of wildly dressed twenty-somethings jumping around some set, dancing in front of the distorted lens of the camera, eating burgers, enjoying their cola, or showing off their Gap clothing.
    Things get better with the third track which, despite Bono's obligatory rap, sounds like the anthem U2 haven't written in a while. The fourth song, "Stuck in a Moment", has an infectious singalong chorus; it may not be the best track on the album but it's the one I find myself humming afterwards. "Peace on Earth" sounds like a companion to "If God Will Send His Angels". It has an interesting lyric but goes on too long. The same could almost be said about the next song, "Kite", which seems to exist mostly for Edge's slide guitar. I guess "New York" is the companion piece to "Pop"'s "Miami"; however it's a much better song, despite being about as lightweight. (Does this mean Bono's got a place in New York now? It's been a while since I kept up on band member gossip. But the admission in the lyric intrigues me.)
    "In a Little While" seems most noteworthy since it seems to boast actual guitar work -- as opposed to Eno-manipulated guitar noises and washes -- and, could it be?, actual drums. "Wild Honey" is fun to listen to, and I got a kick out of the "If you go then go with me" line since it seems to echo their old old "Party Girl" song. (Now that's more like it.) But I have a hard time picturing a monkey eating honey.
    "When I Look at the World" is one of the few songs, like perhaps "Walk On", which I liked instantly. "Grace" reminds me a bit of their old "4th of July" instrumental. I like the message of the song, but it's way too repetitive. The didactic opening is rather annoying, with Bono seemingly reading out of a dictionary, and he struggles too much on the low notes.
    I've been listening to the album continuously since Thursday (October 12); and unlike some of their recent offerings this has not been a chore. I was not completely won over, but I like the album more than I'd expected to. Unlike "Pop" and "Zooropa", there aren't any dogs on it; any songs which I feel compelled to skip. That might be noteworthy in itself. Still, I really wish U2 would drop Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno. They got rid of Steve Lillywhite after three albums so they could find a new sound; but here they are with Eno/Lanois after six albums, stuck in dance band mode, and getting farther and farther away from the meaningful rock band which inspired me so.
    One aspect in particular bugs me. Get Larry some real damned drums! His drumming is so processed or buried behind drum machines that it sounds like he's tapping a Quaker Oats container rather than hitting a snare. Since pretty much every track has this tinny and thin drum sound I can only assume Larry actually prefers this. I do not know why. I can only hope this changes when my friends and I see U2 in concert next year. Probably then we'll be able to hear the full potential of their newest eleven songs. (The bonus non-album tracks on the CD singles actually sound better, since I guess they were hidden away from Eno's omnipresent meddling, and thus they boast some actual recognizable drum work.)
    Ultimately I feel the need to stress that, all things considered, this album is quite good. Out of their recent ilk, it's probably the best and I look forward to buying it on October 31.

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    I made a big deal on my Movies page about the upcoming DVD releases of The Wicker Man and The Stunt Man, from Anchor Bay. I have since found out that The Wicker Man is not scheduled for release until Mid 2001 with The Stunt Man in late 2001.
    Just didn't want to get everyone's hopes up.
    You can get more information from Anchor Bay Entertainment.

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    What would a vacation be without some computer trouble? I've been noticing a lot of large files clogging up my hard drives, with generic names like "00093284.wav" or "00094726.avi". And more recently I discovered these files were being orphaned by Windows. The OS was claiming it was deleting these files, but it wasn't. It would say my drives had plenty of free space, but then programs I'd run off these drives would crash.
    What was most troubling was Windows Explorer would say I'd have hundreds of MBs open, but my Norton Speed Disk would show the drive as being practically full, with many files bearing similar names to what I mention above.
    So I got around this by simply wiping my C:\ drive and starting fresh. Drastic, perhaps; but I guess it was around time for a fresh reinstall anyway. Which meant I spent most of Sunday reinstalling all my programs, and making constant visits to the Windows Update site to make sure I had the latest patches and fixes.
    An interesting sidelight is that the more updates I loaded in, the buggier Windows seemed to act.
    Hmmm...

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