By now we have heard all about the extended hiatus from U2, which lead to numerous announcements of their intention to release music ‘sooner than later’. Since 2009, the band have kept the fans on tenterhooks for a release, punctuated by Bono’s claim that a follow-up to ‘No Line on the Horizon’, titled ‘Songs of Ascent’ was due by the close of 2009, and then the live performance of 6 unreleased tunes throughout 2010 and 2011 as part of the 360 Tour. A few false starts at the close of 2013, and then in February 2014 following the release of stand-alone single ‘Invisible’, and fan frustration began to boil over. In a move that appears designed to make reparations for the teasing 5 and a half year wait, U2 not only performed and released a new single as part of Apple’s iPhone 6 announcement, but dropped their new album, now titled ‘Songs of Innocence’ instantly. For free.
Unsurprisingly, this sent fans into a frenzy of panic, hyper-activity, hyperbole and heart palpitations.
U2’s new long-player is 11 tracks that represent 5 and a half years of toil and self-doubt. By all accounts, this is the most fraught album process they have been through since 1991’s notoriously difficult ‘Achtung Baby’. And after a handful of spins, it is clear that they produce their best work under this kind of pressure. Sure, most of it is self-inflicted with ambitions that far out-reach any other band that have lasted into their 50s, but anyone who doubted the band that produced such ground-breaking reinventions like the aforementioned ‘Achtung Baby’, 1987’s ‘The Joshua Tree’, or 2000’s ‘All That You Can’t Leave Behind’ will soon be eating their words.
Musically, the album is a natural progression from fan favourite ‘Fez/Being Born’ from ‘No Line on the Horizon’. It expands on the more experimental moments of the last decade, and adds in a good measure of trance-inducing hooks, and some of the most mature instrumentation of their careers. It is also one of their most cohesive; thematically drawing on their roots, and their upbringing in 1970s Dublin. That said, it is also certainly an album of two halves.
It opens (rather traditionally for recent U2) with the lead single ‘The Miracle (of Joey Ramone), a crunchy, gritty rock song about the inspiration a young U2 drew from the Ramones. Soaring vocals lead into an a-typically dirty guitar riff (and was that a pickslide!) that builds to a rollicking, catchy verse that is sure to see crowds jumping and swelling in time. The chorus is more expansive and anthemic than the build-up suggests, but it works all the same. Still, this is probably the weakest track here, though its place as lead single rests on the catchy vocal hooks.
Following on is one of the songs debuted on the 360 tour. ‘Every Breaking Wave’ opens with a pulsing drum and bass riff that harks back to seminal track ‘With or Without You’. Lyrically, this track is really the foundation of a resurgence from Bono that paints pictures without suffering from recent bouts of verbal diarrhoea – “I thought I heard the Captain’s voice, but it’s hard to listen while you preach, like every broken wave on the shore this was as far as I could reach” Bono croons over Edge’s measured arpeggio’s that channel Sting’s classic ‘Every Breath You Take’. One of the strongest songs on the record, you can pencil this in as the second single now.
‘California (There is no End to Love)’ rounds out the first three, which really fit together as the most radio-friendly songs on the album. At this stage in the record, the listener really gets a feeling that they are loading the front with single-worthy tracks, and it is a direct response to criticisms of the preceding effort – that the songs lacked hooks and melodic development. And what’s that? An Edge guitar solo?!
‘Song For Someone’ is an unashamed ballad that rather overtly is about the beginnings of Bono’s relationship with wife Ali. The soaring ‘oh’s’ are back in the chorus, and the personal lyric style continues apace “and I’m a long way from where I was, where I need to be”.
Following on is the start of the second half of the album; not mathematically, but certainly sonically. The first half oozed with pop hooks and modern, fresh tones, but now we see U2 permeate this freshness into songs progressively more inspired by the darkness of ‘Achtung Baby’. ‘Iris (Hold Me Close)’ is one of the most naked and personal tracks in the U2 catalogue. A rolling, indie-infused song, that closes with a list of all the fading memories Bono has of his mother, who died when he was 14. One listen in, and it feels as though we’ve known this song our whole lives. Powered from both sides by Bono’s personal recollections of his mother, and Adam’s urgent and driving bass line. The single word chorus is delivered with bone-chilling beauty as Bono slides “Iris” into the sonic landscape.
‘Volcano’ opens with some Larry Mullen Jr thick, dirty beats and Adam taking centre-stage with another commanding bass line. This song oozes Arctic Monkeys, with the reverb on the lead guitar recalling 2013’s ‘AM’, something I had hoped they would channel on this record. Bono utilises the vocal effects seen when performing ‘The Fly’ on the documentary ‘From the Sky Down’, and they set the mood for the remainder of the album; combining the hooks and pop precision of the first half with some heavier music and themes.
Bono recalls a 1974 car bombing in ‘Raised By Wolves’, featuring one of the most evocative lines of the album “body’s not a canvass, body’s now a toilet wall”. The way this song builds with that rolling, rhythmic piano and opens into a sweetly sung pre-chorus section does not prepare you for the chorus. Bono hits a register he never has before with almost ecstatic ease offering a counter-point to the darker themes of the song. This one is a real contender for song of the album.
The immediate impression of ‘Cedarwood Road’ is that this song is everything 2009’s ‘Stand Up Comedy’ wanted to be. But where ‘Stand Up Comedy’ tried too hard to mix the rocking backing track with tongue-in-cheek lyricism, this song has infinitely more going on. The textures and counter melodies show an enormous advance in the song-writing between the two songs. In fact, those two elements combine to make this record stand head and shoulders over most of ‘No Line on the Horizon’, an album that was ambitiously crafted, yet was released as a predominantly safe and uninspiring effort, watered down by self-doubt and a lack of confidence in what they were doing. This song is the emphatic reminder that the confidence is back. The final verse and coda are quite possibly the best moments on the record.
The pumping synth intro to ‘Sleep Like a Baby Tonight’ again show some musical development from the previous record. They aren’t afraid to build soundscapes on strong chord progressions and strong melodies. Bono isn’t dominating songs with line-o-rama style singing, and he is back to using his voice as an instrument, not a megaphone. This song is slow, throbbing, slick and heart-breaking. The song also sees the successful return of the falsetto, hitting it as well as he did at the age of 33 throughout the ‘Zooropa’ record.
Immediate thoughts in the introduction to ‘This is Where You Can Reach Me Now’ is a combination of the atmospheric clunks and twangs of ‘Slug’ from the ‘Original Soundtracks: 1’ album, and the bird noises in The Beatles ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’. These give way to a reggae-tinged wah riff from The Edge, and again, more solid bass work from Adam – he really stepped up on this album. It’s either the marriage or the haircut, but who cares! Larry finds some really interesting ways of driving this song along as well, never over-playing, but keeping things grooving the way only Larry Mullen Jr. can.
The final track ends on a somewhat dark note. Lykke Li gives a haunting vocal performance singing the chorus “somebody stepped inside your soul, little by little they robbed and stole, until someone else was in control”. Notable for its musical restraint, interesting that they chose what is the strongest melodic hook on the record and went in the opposite direction. They play down all the strengths present in the mix here, and it works emphatically well. Punctuated at the end by another Edge mini-solo, and the album is over, and way too soon at that.
Overall, this record does many things. It paints U2, a band that has existed for 38 years made up of men approaching their mid-fifties in a fresh new light. It lets experimentation and risk taking off the leash, but keeps them in check with good song writing, solid hooks and melodies, and a vastly improved lyrical performance from Bono (it has to be more than coincidence that Edge gets lyrical credits on every song). In the end, U2 delivered the record that no-one thought they could. They erased 5 and a half years of false starts with a complete record in the age of singles and EPs. If this is a window into U2 4.0, I am on board, and can’t wait for whatever comes next. A-
