Magnificent Not

I noticed today that Magnificent has only reached 42 in the UK singles charts since it's release. What a shame, such a wonderful song has fallen below the radar. Some of the blame must rest with U2's PR, there was little promotion on it's release and of course the video came out after the single which is madness - plus that video was not an attention grabber. I have rarely even heard the song being played on the radio.

Another possible reason for the low chart position is that, to my knowledge, this is the first U2 single not released on CD in the UK. I know downloading music is what a lot of people do nowadays (including myself), but also there are still many - often older people who form a large proportion of U2's fans - who still prefer to buy CDs. Maybe this was a mis-calculation on the record company's part. And it's not just the UK, the song has performed badly pretty much worldwide.

Of course chart positions are not everything, Magnificent is a fabulous song no matter where it gets to in the charts. But it makes me wonder what lies in store for the band in the future, something I've been thinking about a lot recently and will write more about soon.

Magnificent Video

Here's the video for Magnificent. It's not bad, it's always nice to have close ups of the band . But I do feel that in general it's a bit unadventurious and predictable. The sheet imagery could have created a beautiful mysterious atmosphere, an "unveiling" had it been handled better, and that would have really fitted with the song. Also, it's a pity the beauty of Fez was not used to it's full advantage. It's not a terrible video, but after the ground-breaking Get On Your Boots video I expected more. Shame because Magnificent is a much better song.

Magnificent

Magnificent (which truly lives up to its name IMO), the second single from No Line On The Horizon, will be released on 4th May. U2 recently made a video to accompany the song in Morocco and this will be available to watch on U2.com soon. Meanwhile here's the cover of the single.