The rock album Cillian Murphy calls “perfect”
It’s well known that actor Cillian Murphy is a big music fan, as well as all things relating to his cinematic profession. The Irish star has gone on record several times over the years to state his admiration for some of the greatest musicians of all time, most notably The Beatles, and he also writes his own music too.
While The Beatles are arguably the biggest musical love of Murphy, he’s also got widespread tastes, and during a new interview with Marc Maron on the WTF podcast, the actor expressed his love for his fellow countrymen, the legendary, sometimes misunderstood, alternative rock band U2.
The part of the conversation began with Maron explaining that he’d recently been listening and rewatching things from his youth. “It’s weird, man, lately I’ve been going back and listening to things and watching things that I saw as a younger man,” Maron said, “And thought I understood, and then I watch them years later, and I’m like, ‘I didn’t even get any of this’.”
“I did that with U2,” the podcast host and comedian continued. “It’s not that I didn’t get them, but you get so overwhelmed with U2 as a modern rock band, but if you listen to those first two albums, they just sound like some guys playing and that goes away.”
When Maron asked Murphy about his relationship with the Irish rock band, the actor admitted that his admiration for them came a little later in their career. “Totally, but for me, it kind of started around The Joshua Tree. I think that’s a perfect album. I think it’s absolutely perfect.”
“Actually, when you listen back to it, it’s a gospel record,” he added. Maron then suggested that much of U2’s music is about religion, but Murphy said that “it’s less on the nose”.
He continued, “I adore that record; I put it on regularly, like on a drive. It’s just a magnificent record.”
Murphy had The Joshua Tree on cassette, which served as his introduction to the band in general, even though they were a massive deal in Ireland before then. “They were huge in Ireland. They were the biggest thing. They were over here [in America] being famous and playing stadiums.”
It’s refreshing to hear Murphy speak so glowingly of U2, clearly understanding what the Irish rock heroes are all about and being around at the time before Bono and The Edge had weakened their appeal to a younger audience. Take a listen to the U2 album Cillian Murphy considers “perfect”.
