Dead Bands: Passengers
Dead Bands is a recurring feature in which I review any given band which has produced its last album; these bands aren’t going to reform, and therefore their entire work can be considered as a whole.
The components of Passengers are still very much going concerns. U2 continue to tour, and Brian Eno is doubtless working on his billionth project. But despite this, there’ll be no follow-up to Original Soundtracks 1; in the 22 years after the previous effort, there’s not even the flicker of faint rumour of a sequel. Even No Line on the Horizon, which featured Eno in a songwriting capacity, didn’t kick-start anything on that front.
It’s a shame, because whilst the premise of soundtracks to imaginary films isn’t particularly new (and probably wasn’t in 1995, given Eno’s own Music for Films), OS1 is perhaps the most committed take on the subject. Its 1990s context — at the height of the ‘Music From and Inspired by the Motion Picture’ trend — also places it in a different light.
The album starts well, if slowly, with “United Colours”, which has all the fidgety, tense feel and jump scares the horror-movie premise associated with the song suggests. There’s a drive to it, too, a sense of forward momentum which makes it the flipside to Achtung Baby’s “Zoo Station”.
Things then downturn with “Slug”, a slow, gleaming track whose decent premise didn’t need to be four-and-half minutes. Given the album’s 58 minute running time, there’s fat which could’ve been trimmed, and a minute or two could have gone here.
Then comes “Your Blue Room”, which subsequently appeared on The Best Of 1990–2000 (whether this is or isn’t a genuine U2 album seems to be a waveform pre-collapse). It’s also the first to appear in an actual film (Beyond the Clouds, which I haven’t seen). Few of these tracks are fast, and “Your Blue Room” is the kind of slow which works, even down to the spoken-word outro. It is contained in its eponymous space, as opposed to “Always Forever Now”, which floats in a more aimless manner. Being somewhat similar to “Slug”, a kind of heavier counterpart, it could also be sliced in half without severe consequences.
When I first heard this album, “A Different Kind of Blue” was a favourite; now, I notice it has very little behind it, even accepting that it’s a processed a capella, and the lyrics seem to have little to do with the Philip K. Dick premise outlined in the liner notes. Similarly, “Beach Sequence”, whilst better, sounds like the slowest-possible track from R.E.M.’s Reveal (2001); whilst that album was relaxed, this is almost comatose, except for two lines which suggest a startled realisation at the end.
Which is a good lead-in for “Miss Sarajevo”. This also appeared on the Best Of — on the main disc, in fact, and rightly so. It is also the most U2-sounding of the tracks here, but as with much of their 1990s output, it isn’t all jangly guitars and standard stadium-rock. Most of it is an odd combination of epic — this isn’t designed for a small club gig — and hushed. It’s a song designed to get the world watching and listening — in this specific case, to the Bosnian War — and it raises the score of this album by at least a point.
The follow-up is “Ito Okashi”, featuring Holi. Japan is a notably common theme on the album (perhaps owing to the final leg of ZooTV ending in Tokyo) — the liner notes for “United Colours” also mentions it — but this is perhaps the least notable of said tracks. It’s another which drifts in its own space, not quite creating enough of a solid impression. Neither vocals nor music inform non-Japanese listeners what the track is about.
This isn’t true of “One Minute Warning”, an inverted “United Colours” in which the dangerous is being pursued instead of pursuing. Once again, being featured in an actual film seems to provide more focus and progression — in this case, it appeared in Ghost in the Shell (yes, that one).
The next four tracks represent another dip. Of these, the latter two — “Plot 180” and “Theme from The Swan” — are the best ones, and the least indulgent. All four, though, display Eno’s preference for letting music cycle round its themes, rather than displaying a complete narrative.
The final track — “Theme from Let’s Go Native” — is also in this mode, but also feels much more believable as a soundtrack (and I have indeed heard it used in at least 1 TV programme). It sounds like the start of a grand journey, one away from the sometimes listless, often downbeat tones of the previous tracks. It’s a strong counterpoint and a high note to end on.
So, was OS1, and Passengers, a failure? I don’t think so, although not every track worked, and the two non-album tracks — “Viva Davidoff” and “Bottoms” — could replace some tracks here. But the album was never going to be a multi-platinum success, and hence a band like U2 was never going to run with it.
It is, perhaps, a shame. But there are nonetheless indulgences on this album which suggest that an Original Soundtracks 2 might have run out of steam. Sometimes, very good bands ought to be dead anyway.
