In the library used-CD sale I mentioned earlier, I also picked up U*2*'s album W@A@R@. Better than the previous album, though the bombast level of the big hits is hard to swallow. "The Refugee" is just fully cringe. I couldn't make it through more than a minute. They were young, I guess. I have no room to talk about creating cringe content, though, given my discography.
When they turn down the bombast knob on "Drowning Man," it actually approaches OK. I'm trying to imagine a version of the band in which people blew smoke up their A@S@S@E@S@ for doing things like this as compared to "Sun*ay Bloo*y Sun*ay," saying, come on boys, less chanting, less rock hero vocals, make things weirder and less direct, maybe listen to Odyshape and take some notes. I wonder what that band's career arc looked like. Maybe it could have been OK.
Related: My new CD player as of earlier this summer is a garage-sale Denon DCD-620. The Emotiva ERC-3 that I'd been listening to earlier probably sounds better*, but this one responds quicker, sounds fine, and, most importantly, has much more pleasant buttons, including ones that you can use to directly access tracks 1 through 10. I guess I could use a mouse or a touchscreen to do the same, but there's something more authoritative about pressing a button that's made for the purpose of playing track 5.
*Note: CD players all sound fine and my ears are old
