Today my better half and I took advantage of the beautiful sunshine and mild temps to tour a historic home which is currently on the real estate market. The Mediterranean icon, built in 1925, sits on over a half acre in very desirable historic area near downtown. While there are quite a few repairs needed to restore this classic back to it's original state, one can certainly appreciate the elegance and splendor of what this mansion once was, and what it will again someday be.
I took a moment to duck the crowded interior to go out on the back patio area and look over the property grounds. This is when i noticed a gentleman leaning on the wall gazing at the ground. Trying to make polite conversation, i greeted him and said something to the effect of "there sure is a lot of work to be done, but this place has a ton of potential." At this point the gentleman seemed a bit disturbed, he mumbled to himself what i believe was "some people wouldn't appreciate Art if it bit them in the arse!"
Figuring that i must have hit a nerve, i smiled to myself and decided to go check out the tiered fountain in a garden area. At this point i hear my better half appear from behind, asking who it was that i was speaking to. I turned around to golden hair and eyes of blue and pointed over to the gentleman who was leaning on the wall - except he was no longer there. Surprised, i quickly scanned the property, he was nowhere to be found. How had he disappeared to so quickly...it's as if he had vanished into thin air...
Thinking of u2, which albums do you consider to be Art, and why?
It would be easy to name the most successful albums, JT and AB, however i am not going to do this. These iconic albums are also so very successful that the singles (while great) are just not exclusive. There are plenty of examples of Art on both of these albums, however can you truly say the entire album is Art from start to finish? For AB, songs like UTEOTW are absolute examples of fine art, however i cannot say the same for a song like EBTTRT (another great song, but...is it fine art?). The same could be said for JT, where 'streets' is indeed art, a song such as 'bullet' is more bombastic and not quite as elusive.
So for me, it really comes down to 3 albums:
The Unforgettable Fire - something about this is a journey into exquisite territory. Where songs like 'pride' and 'bad' soar high above the land on the wings of eagles, it's other songs like 'indian summer sky' and MLK that paint an eternal vision with their lyrics and sounds. The magic is there from Homecoming to the elegant finish, hitting all of the right synths along the way. It is an elegant masterpiece and worthy of the castle on the cover and gold lettering. The whole is indeed better than the sum of it's parts. Here we have a glimpse of what this band is capable of, and what they would become in a few years.
Zooropa - no surprise here. We start out in this brave new world with a ton of uncertainty, a future as exciting as it is bleak. For all of the suffering in the world, the promise of new technologies and medicine is frightening and fascinating. And the state of affairs in Europe is a major player in the realm of this tense portrait. Where will we go from here? Do the statues of angels fallen from grace, pleading to the heavens to let them come back, remind us of anything? Along the way we meet several characters, some of them familiar, some are not, words spoken of kingdoms and treasure, images of castles in the skies. Eventually an icon comes in to remind us that our dreams are just as big of a mystery today as they were before we though we had it all figured out.
Pop - for an album that was and not what it was supposed to have been. It starts out as if you are in an exotic locale somewhere, perhaps the kind of place you might run into James Bond at the bar, ordering his signature drink. Later on you meet the object of your desires, you leave with them and just when you think things are great - you wake up the next day with a massive hangover and come to realize they disappeared from you life in the middle of the night. Later on in the album, we get to ride the rainbow and witness the eternal promise firsthand from God himself, only to come crashing down afterwards to the realization that there wasn't a pot of gold waiting for us at the end. At least we have Miami though, and this time it's the Bond girls relaxing at the pool and not the secret agent himself, although you might catch a knowing wink from him at the Playboy mansion, but it's only just for a moment. Back to the Bond girls, the moon is a mirror ball, do make the best use of that. After all is said and done, it occurs to you that this journey has been a bit too much, and you are going to need a lot of redemption to cleanse your soul and relieve the guilt. If only you could talk to God again. Would he listen if he could?
