The Overlying Theme of NLOTH the Album

[Utoo]

To me, the clear theme of the album is that of being lost or uncertain, and finding spiritual awakening or personal rebirth. It is perhaps the strongest factor that makes this such a cohesive album for me. I'd love to hear thoughts and comments. Below, I've outlined how the theme comes about:


Lost/Uncertain
1. NLOTH
- Title: No clear destination in site
- "You put me on pause"
- "Every night I have the same dream" --- Personally or spiritually stuck
- "It's me that wants to get away"

2. Moment of Surrender
- "I've been in every black hole....etc."
- "My body's...begging to get back....to my heart....to the rhythm of my soul...etc."
- "I did not notice the passersby, and they did not notice me"

3. Unknown Caller
- "I was lost between the midnight and the dawning/In a place of no consequence or company"
- "Speed dialing with no signal at all"
- "I was right there at the top of the bottom/At the edge of the known universe"

4. GOYB
- "Never seen a moon like this" -- Something uncertain is afoot!

5. White As Snow
- Basically, the character--a soldier dying in the snowy mountains of Afghanistan--is "lost" in a foreign land that's strange to him. He's from a place where "there were no hills at all," as opposed to Afghanistan. He's in a place that is unwelcoming ("dry ground..bears no fruit at all," "The road refuses strangers/The land the seeds we sow") and even scary to him ("Now the wolves are every passing stranger/Every face we cannot know")

6. Breathe
- "Doc says you're fine or you're dyin' "

7. Cedars of Lebanon
- "Yesterday I spent asleep/Woke up in my clothes in a dirty heap" --- A personal disorganization perhaps symbolizing an errant mind/spirit
- "I'm here 'cause I don't wanna go home"
- "Return the call to home" --- You've strayed too far.



Birth/Born Again/Spiritual Awakening
1. NLOTH
- "I'm trying to rewind and replay" --- trying to start anew

2. Magnificent -- just basic 'birth' terminology
- "I was born to be with you" and "I was born to sing for you"
- "My first cry, it was a joyful noise"

3. Moment of Surrender
- Title: The moment at which you give yourself up to something greater

4. Unknown Caller --- Perhaps the most crucial of all the tracks with regard to the message
- All of the lines in the choruses: The speaker (God?) encouraging the listener to give himself over to the speaker so that he may find himself, trust in himself (password "you"), and reboot and start afresh and anew

5. IGCIIDGCT -- encouraging the listener to strive for awakening
- "It's not a hill, it's a mountain/As you start out the climb"
- "We're gonna make it all the way to the light"

6. GOYB
- "You free me from a dark dream"
- "Let me in the sound" --- Let me into awakening, whether this be music, philosophical or whatever else.

7. Stand Up Comedy
- "Stand up for your love" --- Take the reigns, shake off the sleep, and recognize what's important to you

8. Fez - Being Born
- The echo of "Let me in the sound" -- could be the character's soul/spirit screaming to be let out, realized, activated
- The entire second verse clearly describes the birth of a child. Could be interpreted as a metaphor for an adult being "reborn"

9. White As Snow
- "Who can forgive forgiveness where forgiveness is not/Only the lamb as white as snow" -- Christians would see the lamb as Christ; the soldier's realization of this at his death is perhaps a religious awakening
- "If only a heart could be as white as snow" -- The desire to be able to start again and keep a clean heart; or, the realization of the importance of love toward all, even one's enemies

10. Breathe
- "Every day I die again, and again I'm reborn" --- pretty clear
- "Every day I have to find the courage......... I can breathe now" -- Making the effort to be, and now am, awakened
- "There's nothing you have that I need/I can breathe/Breathe now" --- I, my awakened self, my spirit--I'm self-sufficient
- "We are people born of sound" and "I found grace inside of sound" --- Could, perhaps, be seen as music is the saving grace, it's what allows one to shed all else and let one's spirit be free. Wasn't music or sound one of the initial matters of creation in Plato, Aristotle, or Socrates' writings (my ancient history is bad! ). Or I could just be thinking of Tolkien and The Silmarillion.

11. Cedars of Lebanon
- "Return the call to home" --- Return to what's important to you to find yourself.

 

[TheEnd]

My take is that it's both. I see it has being reborn after a period of being lost or uncertain. In a sense it's an album about rediscovering who you are.

 

[U2girl]

Very existentialistic record indeed.

 

[Utoo]

Mods, could this be moved to Musical Journey? It'd probably be better suited there.

Thanks! And sorry

 

[LyricalDrug]

Mods, could this be moved to Musical Journey? It'd probably be better suited there.

Thanks! And sorry

Since that's where good threads go to die and everyone's hanging out here, I'd hope we can keep at least one intellectual, interesting thread like this one in here!

Bono has said that the album's theme is pilgrimage, and I think you're starting to scratch the surface here of what that means. There's a lot going on in the interplay between the music and Bono's lyrics on NLOTH.

To me, Moment of Surrender is the treasure trove and I'm still trying to figure it out. Google "stations of the cross" or read up about it on Wikipedia to get a deeper sense of what he's talking about. I've done that and it helps somewhat, but a lot of that song is still puzzling. What does he realize at the ATM machine?

 

[Utoo]

Since that's where good threads go to die and everyone's hanging out here, I'd hope we can keep at least one intellectual, interesting thread like this one in here!

Thanks! That's why I initially put it here, but it's quickly been drowned out by other stuff. Yet I'm fearful of it's agonizing death in Musical Journey!

To me, Moment of Surrender is the treasure trove and I'm still trying to figure it out. Google "stations of the cross" or read up about it on Wikipedia to get a deeper sense of what he's talking about.

Yeah, at first I thought it was just a play on Christ's Stations of the Cross and London's King's Cross Station, but I'm sure there's a mine of stuff to pull from that.

 

[biff]

Bono has said that the album's theme is pilgrimage

Actually, he has said that the next album, the more ambient one, will be about pilgrimage. Someone else (Eno, Lanois?) has said the theme of the album is surrender, with all of the numerous meanings of that word.

 

[purpleoscar]

Very existentialistic record indeed.

Yeah there's an epiphany in every song.

 

[Mrs. Garrison]

could be a distress signal / smoke signals to God.

or not

damn good music though

 

[Tripoli]

Well according to Bono it doesnt have a grand theme like youre suggesting. Its more about being on top and at the peak of success in whatever and seeing no end in sight.

And thats probably why Im not feeling this album because that theme cant be further from where Im at right now.

 

[Utoo]

Well according to Bono it doesnt have a grand theme like youre suggesting. Its more about being on top and at the peak of success in whatever and seeing no end in sight.

And thats probably why Im not feeling this album because that theme cant be further from where Im at right now.

Are you sure that's about the album? I think Bono was talking about the title itself, especially in relation to the band.

Sorry to hear you're not feeling so up.

 

[coemgen]

"I once was lost, but now I'm found."

This is easily one of the band's more spiritual albums.

"Magnificent" is a modern worship song.
"Moment of Surrender" is a modern Gospel song.
"Unknown Caller" is based on one of Bono's favorite verses, Jeremiah 33:3. (See the cover of ATYCLB — it didn't originally say J33:3 on the sign) He refers to this verse as God's telephone number — and we see the 33:3 again here and it's based on God talking through texting. Brilliant.
"Stand Up Comedy" is asking people of faith to stand of for God. A bold statement, indeed.
"White as Snow," based on the music of "Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel," has the obvious Christ references:

Once I knew there was a love divine
Then came a time I thought it knew me not
Who can forgive forgiveness where forgiveness is not
Only the lamb as white as snow

and

Now this dry ground, it bears no fruit at all
Only poppies laugh under the crescent moon
The road refuses strangers
The land, the seeds we sow
Where might we find the lamb as white as snow

Then there's, "Breathe," with lines like "Every day I die again, and again I’m reborn," which Bono said he takes very seriously in "Bono: In Conversation." Then there's:

I’ve found grace inside a sound
I found grace, it’s all that I found
And I can breathe

Those are just the more obvious spots. For me at least, where Bono's going with the lyrics is fascinating.

 

[rihannsu]

Don't remember where he said it but Bono talked about the album being a series of personal epiphanies. Also, Daniel Lanois said that Bono wanted to write modern spiritual or hymns.

Dana

 

[coemgen]

Don't remember where he said it but Bono talked about the album being a series of personal epiphanies. Also, Daniel Lanois said that Bono wanted to write modern spiritual or hymns.

Dana

He's definitely done that.

 

[bsp77]

Well according to Bono it doesnt have a grand theme like youre suggesting. Its more about being on top and at the peak of success in whatever and seeing no end in sight.

And thats probably why Im not feeling this album because that theme cant be further from where Im at right now.

Regardless of what Bono may or may not have said, you can't possibly get that theme from listening to the album. TC's theory makes more sense and could potentially be helpful for you.

 

[bsp77]

Oh, and Utoo, how does the Cockatoo fit into the theme?

 

[Tripoli]

let me go back and quote him, brb

and thanks Utoo, I hope something happens to snap me out of this soon

 

[last unicorn]

Very existentialistic record indeed.

Absolutely.

That was one of the first thing that came to my mind after listening to it.

 

[Salome]

I think U2 have never before made an album that was so perfectly a snapshot of the times we live in
and they have been pretty good at doing that anyway

to me the album shows a time where political and economic insecurities are finally overwhelming us and the only peace we will find is within us (within love/ God from a religious point of view)

U2 have always about reaching out, but this album seems to cebrate the strength that can be gathered from reaching within oneself and sharing that


I guess White as Snow is the overlying theme of the album to me
the realisation of the glory of a heart as white as snow set against a times where the political landscape is one of war
but then a lot more eloquent of course

 

[Sainterman]

I think that like a lot of U2's albums U2 have again allowed the listener to make up their own mind, and have again allowed us to take what we want from the album, be it spiritual, literal or just that emotional feeling it can stir in you.

So many of their albums and songs have multiple meanings, and I remember Bono commenting long ago that this was something U2 tried hard to make a part of the listening experience. Certainly AB was like this, and its not alone in their magnificent collection.

I do remember reading somewhere that the "peripheral" was a theme of this album, and to me that makes sense. Having so many characters and stories makes you think about the world around you and at the same time the small things seem to have a focus placed on them here too.

Certainly can see the loss and surrender too. Unknown Caller to me is an amazing song, it has so much going on atmospherically and then those lyrics. They seem so simple but I just dont see them like that. To me it focuses on the mundane ("puch it in", "move to trash", "speed dialing"), and almost seems to me to be about a man lost in technology, punching away at all the technological mediums when really he could be resting, or experiencing some of the other joys life has to offer. That's just my interpretation, and maybe its because I sometimes find myself up and doing things on auto pilot at 3.33am!

Anyway, I just love the way this album flows, for me it flows as best as an album has since AB. In saying that I do think each album since then has had its merits too.

I know I will be listening to it over and over again, and I know I will find relevance to my own life each time, even when different feelings and journies are occuring for me. That's one of the things I love about U2's albums, I can go back and listen to them and find some new sound buried deep, or some piece of advice from Bono, or just something new to think about.

 

[Marko]

What does he realize at the ATM machine?

I think that he realizes the futility and shallowness of his life and his priorities - money, material worth, everyday issues that have no real substance etc...
He realizes that he has no idea what is important to him, that he goes through life without thinking about what is important, about the purpose or sense... routine ATM reminds him that he is not really alive, he is just going through the motions...and he needs something more...

This is what I pull out of these few words

 

[Salome]

I think that like a lot of U2's albums U2 have again allowed the listener to make up their own mind, and have again allowed us to take what we want from the album, be it spiritual, literal or just that emotional feeling it can stir in you.

I like it that the songs that are more open to interpretation are also musically more layered
fitting

 

[zwervers2]

Well according to Bono it doesnt have a grand theme like youre suggesting. Its more about being on top and at the peak of success in whatever and seeing no end in sight.

And thats probably why Im not feeling this album because that theme cant be further from where Im at right now.

I am getting married to a beautiful girl and Boots still sucks so.
Nice threat though