As U2's new album wraps itself around the nation today, possibly the world, it exudes, within it's bland fibres, a soothing warmth we haven't felt, or needed, for a long time. Not since the 1980's, the last great economic recession, have we been so ready, desperate even, to embrace the idea of absolute averageness. U2 have always provided this in spades.
The album even sounds like the 1980's. Bono's soaring, anthemic melodies and meaningless lyrics paired with The Edge's shimmering, shard-like lead-guitar provide a nice, cozy security blanket for the way we live today. The band have taken a few experimental deviations over the years, with border-line catastophic results, but they know better than that now. From now on, I'm sure, they'll stick to what they know best. Their medium is the median.
A well known rock journalist who I can't name for reasons too complicated to explain told me:
"Maybe the moral is, interesting isn't necessarily what the world wants. Maybe it just wants reassurance."
He did this via the medium of Twitter, by necessity, in less that 140 characters.
To borrow a line from the greatest rock band on the planet,
"No alarms and no suprises please"
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