i certainly have enjoyed the various slams of the spider-man musical. for one thing, it finally dawned on someone that however admirable bono might be as a humanitarian, or however monumental his sunglasses, the music is incessant, pretentious, trivial, and profoundly tiresome. it's funny because once rolling stone or whomever anoints someone, all the rock critics fall into line, as i found out to my cost in 1984 when i tried to slam springsteen's born in the usa for rolling stone's sub-mag record. really go back and listen to that song again, though the album has some moments: it reminded me too much of my own chronic pounding headaches for me actually to endorse it wholeheartedly. anyway, in music criticism there's always a consensus. but confront theater critics with the same thing and they see it from a different angle or don't feel the same pressure.