Library Rock's Backpages

U2: A Perspective

Mark Cooper, Q, 1991

WHEN U2's recent Number 1 single 'The Fly' first came on the radio, it sounded like a confused mess, an irritating jangle of throbbing guitars juxtaposed with falsetto passages seemingly grafted on at random. Rumours of Achtung Baby's Berlin experiments and subsequent mixing problems had been circling for months; 'The Fly' seemed to confirm that in their desperation to move on from the American roots of Rattle And Hum, U2 had simply come unstuck. Three or four plays later, 'The Fly' sounded like the freshest thing on the airwaves and that falsetto transition grew stranger, more sudden and more beautiful. U2 had reinvented themselves once again.

Total word count of piece: 1151


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