I have a much different take on tracks 3 through 5 than most here… I think Best Thing and Get Out absolutely belong on this record, and fit and flow well. The two tracks that I think stick out, thematically, are an obvious and not so obvious choice – American Soul and Summer of Love. Now I don’t hate American Soul as much as others, and I think Summer of Love is a great tune – but they’re both clearly about current events, whereas the rest of the album is incredibly personal in nature.
The first two tracks floor me in every possible way. This is the strongest 1-2 punch from a U2 album since Achtung Baby. First with Love Is All We Have Left – an ethereal song about one’s own mortality. But Lights of Home (and btw I’ll differ again in that I MUCH prefer the album version to the strings version, which doesn’t work for me) is where it really kicks in, especially when you tie it back to Iris. This song could go so many different ways in interpretation (Bono’s best lyrics always do) – but I think this is Bono contemplating death, the afterlife, and if his mom will recognize him in heaven. He references the bike crash pretty directly here…
“shouldn’t be here ‘cause I should be dead”…
”thought my head was harder than ground”…
“hey, I’ve been waiting to get home a long time…”
“do you know my name? … in your eyes I see it, the lights of home”
Then with the callback to Iris… specifically a part that was written as if it was Bono’s mom talking to him “see yourself to be yourself”… almost as if his mom is calling down to him telling him he’s going to be okay.
And with this thought, Best Thing makes much more sense… especially the start… “when you look so good, the pain in your face doesn’t show”. Very tongue and cheek reference to his cracked face. This life altering event took place, and now he’s reflecting back.
Get Out has always been more personal in nature than political… and I’ve changed my mind about who the letter is written to. I don’t think it’s a letter to his daughters (nor did I ever think it was a silly letter to America). I think it’s a letter to himself. The Kendrick Lamar part actually makes significantly more sense when you look at the song this way.
American Soul is where it changes… but I guess when you consider Bono and how politically active he is it’s hard to think of him not dragging politics into it somehow. As I said earlier, I don’t hate American Soul as much as many… but if there’s a clunker, this is it. I’d have been happy if the political diversion was left at Summer of Love.
Summer of Love is a terrific tune – thematically it doesn’t fit the album, but it would have been a shame to have left it out. It also is one of those lyrics that people could see as a love song rather than a song about Aleppo, so it works better than American Soul in that vein.
Red Flag Day is a nice transition out of the political diversion – I can see it as a song about refugees fleeing Syria, but I can also see it as a song about Ali – with a little tie back to Every Breaking Wave “I’ll meet you where the waves are breaking”. Another one of Bono’s lyrics that can be read in different ways.
The Showman & The Little Things That Give You Away are partners. Showman is the upbeat, tongue and cheek critique of singers – a self-deprecating look at Bono’s struggles. I do wonder if Bono maybe struggled with depression – and that’s tied into this mysterious ailment that nobody seems to want to talk about. Showman talks about being up late at night, unable to sleep - which ties directly to Little Things, which is absolutely gorgeous and a stunner. I absolutely think this one is also autobiographical – with younger Bono talking to current self through the first half, and then the “sometimes…” part is the current Bono talking about his inner demons. The end… “the pane of glass shatters, and you’re the only thing that matters, but I can’t see you through the tears…” is now about Ali helping him get through these demons.
Which comes into Landlady… a beautiful take on coming to the realization that you’ve been taking your loved one for granted. I think it’s intentional that this is the start of “part 3” of the album and not merely a timing thing. This is now the letters to his loved ones part of the album.
I don’t see Blackout as political whatsoever. Sure, maybe he tweaked a lyric to make it have multiple meetings, but Blackout is Bono’s letter to the Adam, Larry and Edge – their struggle for late career relevance and the missteps (see Songs of Innocence & Apple), the uncertainty over Bono’s future (be it from the bike crash or whatever other incident may have occurred... when the lights go out could be taken literally about bono’s noggin or metaphorically about celebrity) … but don’t you ever doubt the light that we can really be.
Love Is Bigger is to his kids. This is the cliché’ song, but the music and message is beautiful and it works.
13 I think is current Bono writing a letter to himself – specifically his 13 year old self, the last year of his life before his mom died and his life turned upside down, and this whole crazy journey started.
This is a terrific album – musically and lyrically. It’s been a long time since they’ve put out something this cohesive from top to bottom. As good as Songs of Innocence was, it never had that “magic” that really good U2 albums have. It’s as if it was polished away in the studio. This also seems like one work, built from the group up with a mission and theme and that they stuck with it, as opposed to the disjointed nature of Innocence and No Line On The Horizon, where the split in producers, where they knew they were going to go in a different direction, is evident and brings down both works.
This is a deep and dark album, but not depressingly so, with touches of joy throughout. It reconnects with the ethereal/classic U2 sound without being derivative, remaining fresh and modern sounding. There are warts, but they’re fewer and further between than the past two works.
As for criticisms? Yea, American Soul sticks out as the clunker of the bunch, but it’s not as bad as a Boots or Stand Up Comedy. I also think that Bono’s voice sounds so good that they probably did a lot of studio magic on it, and I’m not sure how some of the songs will translate live (Love Is Bigger, for example). And the single choices aren’t reflective of the album at all (even though I think Best Things and Get Out work well on the album). If they needed an uptempo number for the first single, Lights of Home or Red Flag Day would have been my choices. Alas… I’m hoping they really explore some of the tracks beyond Best Thing and Get Out on these upcoming promo appearances (and please god that doesn’t mean American Soul). If it were up to me I’d have them play Little Things and Lights of Home for SNL, and then drop in Best Thing as the “third song during the closing credits” if they get it.
I think I’ve gone on long enough now
