Damon Albarn once urged U2 to retire: ‘It doesn’t work, they should stop now’
Although they might have started as one of the most compelling acts to have emerged out of the post-punk era and even recorded The Unforgettable Fire masterpiece with Brian Eno, since the mid-1980s, U2 have been widely criticised for selling out and becoming something of a caricature of themselves. Whether it be Bono’s supposed messiah complex or The Edge’s heavy, almost comical reliance on delay, the quartet have attracted much flak, with one of their most prominent detractors being Blur’s Damon Albarn.
U2 fans might maintain that the Irish band are an easy target for sneering musical commentators who know nothing of their early power, and that is true. Still, even the group’s most unwavering loyalists would not deny that they haven’t made it easy for themselves. Later cuts such as ‘Vertigo’ and ‘Get On Your Boots’ pale compared to the lustre of their early material on offerings such as October and War and fall into the category of bland and laughable stadium rock.
For an artist such as Damon Albarn, who has prided himself on continually striving for refinement and committed to a variety of lauded projects outside of Blur – who also have maintained quality over the years – it makes a lot of sense that U2 should represent something closely resembling the antithesis, despite his own immense success. Like many people, the Gorillaz leader thinks Bono and his group should have quit long ago.
Speaking to Q in a past interview, Albarn clarified his pessimistic thoughts on U2, which ironically came years before their greatest cultural slight of popping up in everyone’s iTunes library without warning. It all started when he was asked if he ever liked Pink Floyd. After clarifying that his parents had Atom Heart Mother and that he loved it and Syd Barrett’s duo of records, he said while he doesn’t hate them, they’ve definitively contributed to the “bad-music imprint”.
Pressed if most big rock music had added to this, Albarn was in agreement, with the only band who didn’t bore him from this set being Arcade Fire. However, he asserted that U2 “should just stop now”.
The Blur leader commented: “Yeah. All of it. It doesn’t work, you know. The only bit of rock music I’ve heard that I could genuinely sit through and not to be irritated or bored shitless was Arcade Fire. I mean, to be honest with you, U2 should just stop now and let Arcade Fire take over because Arcade Fire are everything that U2 aren’t.”
Outlining the difference between the Canadian troupe and U2, he added: “Arcade Fire are playful, they’re democracy, they go onstage to find the spirit of music every time, it seems. And they invest in their audience that search, and sometimes they all find it together. U2 are just playing the same old songs to the same people and fulfilling Bono’s messiah complex.”
Listen to U2’s ‘Vertigo’ below.
