This really scares me. I have no clue why they called these albums SOI and SOE, if this is really true...
If it were to follow Blake's template, SOE would be much darker. Definitely not "celebratory".
Unfortunately I'm not a big fan of celebratory U2. It means no songs like SLABT, or The Troubles, or RBW...
If they mean something in the vein of TCB, then I would be happy. But just odd to me in general that they would call a celebratory album SOE. To me that fits the title SOA much better.
Yea..I wouldn't care so much if this was to be the only album title that references Blake, but the fact that they plan on releasing SOE makes me wish they paid more attention lyrically sometimes.
Starting, for instance, on The Miracle, instead of saying "I was chasing"... it would be "I'm chasing" or "I am chasing" - however, this song, like others, are told from the perspective of someone older, more experienced, raining down wisdom on the events of his past. So the idea of "chasing down the days of fear" would not occur to the younger person while it is happening, only much later after he's had time to reflect.
So, even in songs like Raised By Wolves, the verses have an immediacy to them, and seem to be taking place in the present even though it's past, and seems to be working...but then the chorus "we were raised by wolves" returns to the older person's POV again, and the whole song then becomes the man of experience thinking about a traumatic past. Whereas it would make more sense to just stick with the POV of the younger Bono.
Same thing happens with Cedarwood: You can't return to where you never left: That's not something the young Bono would've said.
Even Every Breaking Wave's poetic lines sound like they're coming from the mind of someone with a mature worldview shaped by years of experience.
So I'm nit-picking maybe but the album seems to be more about experience on the whole.