My Review of Bono's 'Surrender'

Bono's memoir is a hefty tome. It's fascinating, frustrating and often quite moving, just like U2's music. I dove into Surrender over at InsideHook.

AFI Fest 2021: 'Sing 2' Review

So much singing, so much dancing, so little resonance. For Screen, I reviewed Sing 2.

The Least-Listened-To Songs on Great Albums

Recently, Spotify changed its layout, allowing you to see the play counts of every song on every album. For InsideHook, I checked out a bunch of classic albums to see which track was played least. Some of these songs are actually great -- I can't believe more folks don't listen to 'em. Here's my tribute to some underloved songs.

The Complicated Story Behind "Bono Is a Pox"

It's popular graffiti in Dublin, where the U2 frontman was born and still lives. Do the Irish really hate Bono? It's complicated ... and also really interesting. I enjoyed digging deep into this story for MEL.

A Short History of the Golden Globes' Strangest Nominations

The Golden Globes are dumb. To illustrate my point, let's take a quick look back at their most boneheaded nominations. (And, to make it fair, I didn't spotlight movies or performances that also got love elsewhere. You can't yell at them for liking Green Book when everybody else did as well.)

U2 - "Song for Someone"

It's been almost a year now since I woke up one morning during the Toronto Film Festival and discovered that U2 had put a new album in my iTunes. That album, Songs of Innocence, is easily the group's most derided, in large part because a whole lot of people were annoyed at the stunt. Giving the record a few spins, I wasn't enormously impressed -- it felt oddly dull and flavorless, especially considering that the group had worked on it for years.

But the album's latest single, "Song for Someone," has started to catch me off guard as it's begun to show up on radio stations. No revelation, the track is still rather lovely in that late-period U2 kind of way. At some point, I may have to finally give Songs of Innocence another shot.

U2 - "Discotheque"

For whatever reason, I was thinking about U2's Pop the other day. You may recall that people aren't too fond of that particular record. The pinnacle of their let's-drown-in-irony shtick, some say. The album they rushed to finish in time for their upcoming world tour, historians note. All true, but I still have a fondness for a few of its songs -- like "Discotheque," the lead track and first single. How can you resist the Edge in a shiny shirt?

u2 - numb

You know, I still really dig Zooropa.

'killing bono' review

U2 fans who want to know about the band's early days in Dublin will get a kick out of Neil McCormick's memoir, I Was Bono's Doppelganger. It tells about his childhood growing up with the band in the late '70s. U2 become superstars, but McCormick's rock 'n' roll dreams never materialized. Now there's a movie based on the book, but the tome's spirit, candor and insights are mostly scrubbed clean. I reviewed Killing Bono for Yahoo.

'kenny chesney: summer in 3D' review

2010 is shaping up to be a great year for concert documentaries. We've already had Neil Young Trunk Show and the White Stripes' Under Great White Northern Lights, and although it's not up to the level of those two films, Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3D is pretty damn impressive, too. It's made by the same people who brought us U2 3D, which first demonstrated the possibilities for marrying big arena shows with 3-D technology. My review of Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3D is here.

U2 - 'No Line on the Horizon' Review

I was not the biggest fan of U2's last two records, so I wasn't expecting much from No Line on the Horizon. How surprised I was when I ended up liking it so much. Here's a brief tease ...

U2’s albums this decade have struggled to return to the classic styles of established masterpieces like The Joshua Tree, but No Line on the Horizon successfully and winningly recaptures the yearning quality of the band’s early days while at the same time takes smart creative risks reminiscent of experimental ‘90s efforts like Achtung Baby.

The rest is here.

(Edit: This review is no longer available online. But a piece I wrote in 2021 about Ireland's complicated relationship with Bono is here and is very good.) 

jon stewart and the oscars

Last night's Academy Awards made for an entertaining evening, says I. Also in Consumables, I discuss U2 3D, Be Kind Rewind, and Diary of the Dead.