Playlist 27.02.09

I've been glancing at the weekend papers and it seems that U2 bashing is in season. The band may be getting busy on corporation roofs and all over the rock monthlies, but there's a virulent opposition in news features, blogs and opinion columns.

Bono has been consistent in his defence of George Bush - certainly in terms of the former President's aid to Africa. That's quite a payback. The band seem to be better at defending their Dutch tax arrangements. The early interview with Q magazine found them rather flustered when the subject was raised. Most bands can shrug off the their financial dealings to the media, but as we know, Bono is asking a moral response from the rest of us.

So it's very hard to be objective about the actual music. The intense marketing may indeed produce an adverse reaction, something that 'Rattle And Hum' could never escape from. Which would be an unfair response to '...Horizon'. Now I've had some time to hear the album and it still seems to me that the album begins and ends with declarative statements and hurtling tunes. The middle of the record still sounds unfocussed. But 'Achtung Baby' sounded like an ungainly clatter at first, then the songs revealed themselves later. The summer tour will also give the music context. I believe it would be hasty to damn them too early.

Playlist 27.02.09

BBC Radio Ulster, 92-95 FM

Online: www.bbc.co.uk/radioulster

Fridays, ten - midnight

PP Arnold - Everything Is Gonna Be Alright (Immediate)

Dexys Midnight Runners - There There My Dear (EMI)

U2 - Magnificent (Mercury)

Neko Case - This Tornado Loves You (Anti)

Lowell Fulson - Reconsider Baby (Chess)

Great Lake Swimmers - Palmistry (Nettwerk)

U2 - Cedars Of Lebanon (Mercury)

The Handsome Family - A Thousand Diamond Rings (Loose)

Mississippi John Hurt - Stack O'Lee (Snapper)

Doves - There Goes The Fear (Heavenly)

Jack Penate - Tonight's Today (XL)

Caetano Veloso - Nao Enche (Wrasse)

The Acorn - Crooked Legs (Bella Union)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero (Geffen)

The Everly Brothers - Gone Gone Gone (Rhino)

Buddy and Julie Miller and Robert Plant - What You Gonna Do Leroy (New West)

Cashier No 9 - When Jackie Shone (Only Gone)

The Gaslight Anthem - Great Expectations (Side One Dummy)

Neko Case - Magpie To The Morning (Anti)

U2 - No Line On The Horizon (Mercury)

The Handsome Family - The Loneliness Of Magnets (Loose)

Webb Pierce -Sitting On Top Of The World (Proper)

Clem Snide - With All My Heart (Freeworld)

Billy Bragg- World Turned Upside Down (Go Discs)

Fever Ray - When I Grow Up (Rabid)

Thin Lizzy - Me And The Boys (live) (Thin Lizzy Productions)