Has music ever made you feel high? I don’t mean high like at an Allman Brothers Band Concert or like Keith Richards before, during and after he fell out of that tree. I’m talking about a feeling of lifting off and just soaring, free from all bonds imposed by gravity and without a care in the world. Although U2 dreamed big like Michelangelo, Radiohead turned inward to paint tortured lyrics in the same way Van Gogh painted Starry Night and Coldplay merged them to produce an inward looking but still optimistic artist my knowledge of art history doesn’t cover. All three made music that just sounds big. Turn the lights down, put on your big dj headphones, close your eyes and just lose yourself.
Just put on the previous clip and read on. The slow opening synth chords move into the Edge’s guitar and the driving rhythm section which culminates into Bono‘s voice. Like many other U2 songs, especially on the album The Joshua Tree, “Where the Streets Have No Name” makes a political and social message sound so damn cool by adding layers of synthesizers and the Edge’s unique talent for making his electric guitar more than just a guitar. The rest of the album is just as good. Throughout their career, U2 has changed their sound by combining elements of other genres, especially in the 90’s, but they can never be accused of dreaming small either in sound or in message. Their early albums (The Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum) capture these ideas at their finest, but checkout the following video for one of their later songs that is maybe not filled with overwhelming sound, but with overwhelming execution.
Upon writing this, I didn’t realize how much I could say in the introduction or about U2 so I decided that I’m going to do a second article about the other major bands I was going to talk about. There is one band that I wasn’t sure if I would have the space to write about, but apparently now I do. They are Explosions in the Sky.
If you’re one of those people that listen to music for the lyrics, then these guys are certainly not for you considering they have no vocalist or lyrics. They do, however, convey emotion just as, if not even more powerful, through three guitars and a single drummer. The following song, like most of their others, builds slowly and uses different effects operating on separate guitars that come together to surround the listener in a dome of sound.
The Music Court 
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