(for the album from an established artist that was distinctly underwhelming)

U2 – How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

When All That You Can’t Leave Behind came out, I was struck by how the tracks on that album fell into two neat camps: Good Songs and U2-By-Numbers.

The first camp contained tracks that are a return to the form of their early years, when the band pumped out stonkingly good tracks with clever hooks and appropriately strong lyrics.

The second camp contained songs which Bono clearly wrote on the crapper, containing idiotic Dr-Seuss-a-like lyrics and/or forced
lyrical/political (polyrical?) points plus dreary jingly tunes which challenged no-one, least of all Edge, who was possibly asleep at the time of composition.

The nadir of the latter camp was probably Elevation, in which Bono mused lyrically about

A mole / living in a hole / digging up my soul…

Thereby ably proving that he had made good use of the rhyming dictionary he got for Christmas. Thanks for that, Bono. Certainly puts Pride (in the name of love) and One to shame, doesn’t it?

Another high (low) point on ATYCLB was New York, which seemed to consist of Bono boasting about his expanding property empire:

Just bought a place in New York / do-be-do-be-doooo

Thanks for sharing. I hope you manage to visit it more than once a year.

So why am I talking about ATYCLB when the album which underwhelmed me most this year was HTDAAB? In short, because the latter was just so underwhelming and meh, I can’t be bothered to even think about it. It wasn’t horrible, it just wasn’t amazing, you know?