This week on Popcast: Jon Pareles on the U2 album you most likely own, like it or not.
“Songs of Innocence” automatically dropped into individual users’ iTunes libraries this week. It is a where-are-we-going-and-where-did-we-come-from album — a very famous band sweating itself for relevance and passion, trying to remember who it was in the ’80s.
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The unusual method of delivery — Apple telling half a billion people in nearly two-thirds of the world’s countries “we assume you’ll want this” — may overshadow the more delicate questions about the record’s strengths and weaknesses. Is this a valuable report on where U2 is now, as musicians and songwriters? Or is it a dense and foggy self-assessment often sounding like the band’s second-level imitators?
This program contains an argument between critics. Jon Pareles defends from a position of knowledge — the “where are we going” position — and I attack with whatever I’ve got.
Listen above, download the MP3 or subscribe in iTunes.
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