I've been thinking for a long, long time about compiling a list of the worst songs ever. It's harder than you'd think. It's not that much fun being mean, especially as I don't actually know a single thing about music and, deep down, admire anyone who manages to get a single song written and listend to, and also, most songs that are bad are not bad in an interesting way, or a way I can bring any insight to.
The kind of bad I'm interested in, of which there is less than you'd think, is when something tries too hard to be good, or when pomposity and bad faith takes overwhelms everything.
Anyway, U2 ...
Sometimes, with U2, I'm not entirely sure what my problem is, and I recognise the solid, anthemic rock band with good tunes which millions around the world have loved for years. You don't have to hate anything, David, and are you really sure this is something to hate? Poor Edge. Edge seems nice.
Really, they all seem nice, in their way.
But, on other days, when I really notice how much U2 (let's say Bono, cos it's Bono that people mean when they don't like U2) have always been trying so hard to be some-thing, to do some-thing, that I understand fully why they inspire such loathing, in me and in others.
Trying so hard to be sincere and meaningful in the 80s, then trying so hard to be ironic and funny in the early 90s, then trying so hard to be modern and hip in the mid-90s, then trying so hard to sound like Gay Dad's 'To Earth With Love' in the early 2000s. There's something about a massive band copying a song by a smaller band and having massive success with it which is pretty annoying.
Anyway, I'm not really explaining this well, I guess it's just that every song by U2 is either 'Student Demonstration Time' by The Beach Boys, 'SYMM' by the Manic Street Preachers, 'Closing Time' by Semisonic, or 'Crazy Beat' by Blur.
That's the thing.
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