I love the band. I love the music. And I’m losing sleep over the upcoming Sphere shows.

BUT… my beef:

I bought the Complete U2 from iTunes 19 or so years ago. This was back with everything was still iPod. I had every single U2 song all in a tiny device the size of a small wallet (even b-sides and live albums!). This was such a revolutionary thing at the time. Right off the back of carting around binders full of CDs and hoping your car didn’t get broken in to while you were in the grocery store. Just take your music in the store with you! Amazing.

Eventually — and I don’t know how it happened so slowly, yet so quickly — we suddenly had everything on-demand. That beloved iTunes purchase became mostly obsolete. I say mostly, because there are some gems on there that aren’t on any streaming services. It’s a collectors box set for the age of techies.

The problem is that now, through the miracle of iPhones and Bluetooth and futuristic cars, every car ride starts with a U2 track, whether I like it or not. I’m not sure why, but that’s the default. I don’t know what happened to the rest of my old iTunes library, but the Complete U2 has withstood the slow migration away from locally stored music while everything else has disappeared. And instead of playing whatever I was playing when I turned the car off last, I just get U2. I know I could probably delete the discography, but it kinda seems wrong. I paid for that shit!

Kinda funny, and kinda annoying, but it has also kinda made me seek out U2 less and less, sadly. Still love ‘em, but mostly just look forward to new releases and concerts now. My instinct when U2 comes on streaming services now is to change the track. I guess it’s muscle memory thing.

Funny side story:

My mom doesn’t listen to music. She’s in her 80s. Thus, she’s never downloaded a single song to her phone (at least on purpose). The only thing on there is SOI, and we all know how that got there. Now, due to a similar technical oddity as I experience with the U2 catalog, every single car ride of hers starts with the Miracle of Joey Ramone.

Anyway, really looking forward to the Sphere, and hopefully some new music. But if I hear Big Girls are Best one more god damn time, I’m gonna flip a lid. I give Numb and Lemon a pass, though. And Gone.

Thanks for hearing me out. ✌️