With all due respect, the article linked above is anything but an album review... I'd sooner call it a communist manifest or the transcript of a trial than an album review. The article ends by him calling them guilty, doesn't it?
I've read Blake years ago FWIW. I get the reference. It's a
reference. As in: tip of the hat. The album isn't a rewrite of Blake's work. It's inspired by the bands early days, when it all was new. So, Songs of Innocence.
I read through the article and I saw a bitter and very immature guy who's searching for a saviour who's pissed because Bono won't really save the world and he isn't perfect.
Sad, really...
I've listened to the album tonight, though not really carefully.
It managed to make me smile a few times. It isn't bad at all, imho.
There are some pretty awesome guitar tones on it as well.
At some point, I realized that the things that annoyed me did so because so many bands have copied those things from U2 in the last 20 years that I just can't stand them anymore.
As for the rest, as someone who's no big fan of them and who doesn't like Bono...
1 - Yes, they are rich, obscenely so. So what?
2 - Bono is not perfect. But then again, none of his critic is either.
3 - Most critics I've read have a messiah complex ten times as big as Bono. They're on a mission to save us from U2, and to enlighten us on everything from poetry to music to moral to economics. It's quite surprising how vast and all-encompassing is their expertise, really.
4 - U2 is 4 human beings - they do some nice things, they do some questionable one - like every one of us. I know of no one who's first thought upon getting a raise is "Man, I'll give all that extra money to charity!"
Being so negative and overly critic is easy and trendy.