NEW MUSIC
[ SELECTIVE HEARING | Robert Berman ]
U2 his heart, track by track. Some will
Songs of Experience be disappointed by this directness,
preferring the playful ambiguities and
U2 occupy a curious place at the top of ambivalence of yesteryear. But these
the pop music food chain. Their songs songs truthfully mark Bono’s life and
aren’t covered constantly, but their faith today as much as “I Will Follow” or
sound informs the whole landscape, “Love Rescue Me” once did.
from Coldplay to Hillsong, so ubiquitously
as to be taken for granted. They are the So, what does Bono want talk about?
oxygen, the water, the invisible bonds His imperfectly realized love for his wife
between the atoms of pop music. Alison, and her grounding influence in
his life (Red Flag Day, Landlady, You’re
In the process, the band has walked the Best Thing About Me). His Christian
through the stages of its life with its concern for the weak and distressed
core fan base: from the brash post- of the world (Summer of Love). His
punk teens who made October, to the hope for America to live up to its own
global superstars of The Joshua Tree, to ideals as a city on a hill (American Soul,
the sarcastic experimenters of Zooropa The Blackout). The silliness of his own
and Passengers, before settling into breaks. Except for the shimmering first track, stardom (Get Out of Your Own Way,
the “this is who we are” synthesis of sounds Edge sticks to his most familiar effects: delay The Showman, The Little Things That Give You
on their 21st century albums. Along the way, pedal, octaver, slide. Adam’s eighth note bass Away). And a new emphasis on life beyond the
two tensions have defined the band’s output: lines and Larry’s steady 50s/60s drum stylings grave, which informs the twin openers (Love Is
First, Bono’s focus on “What do I want to say?” stick to basics. True to their previous word, the All We Have Left, Lights of Home). He’s visited
against Edge’s fascination with “What sounds band is no longer chasing every breaking wave these themes before, but he’s rarely spoken
do I want to hear?” Second, the tension of new musical fashion. That makes this an so frankly.
between “What cool things can we do in the album with plenty of “Yeah,” but free of both studio?” and “What can we reproduce live?” “Ugh” and “Wow.” It’s a smoothly satisfying This album is simply U2 being U2, and inviting
album for the fans, not so much an album that listeners to walk through their world, a world
Musically, the quartet committed to make this will make new fans. It exists because U2 enjoys well worth visiting. Album highlight “The Little
album an expression of who they are individually existing and enjoys making music. Things That Give You Away” shows all their
and collectively in the late 2010s. This time, the
imitators how to do “whisper to a roar” grandeur
music is all them. No celebrity duets, brass The album also exists because Bono has some properly while baring the singer’s (and our)
sections, string orchestras, gospel choirs, things to say, and people listen most raptly anxieties and hypocrisies. And album closer
“millennial whoop” gang vocals, or scratching when he’s singing. Intended for release in “13 (There Is a Light)” reprises previous track
DJs. No endless layers of overdubbed guitars. 2015, the album was delayed until almost 2018 “Song for Someone,” reiterating the words that
Just four guys who’ve been playing together in part because Bono suffered a serious health could well serve as a mission statement for a
since high school, augmented by a few others event that birthed in him a deep desire to be band that has seen and done so much: “There
(sister trio Haim appear on one track, for heard and understood clearly. He’s set aside is a light we can’t always see, and there is a
instance) so subtly that you wouldn’t know it. the coy allusions and inside jokes that caused world we can’t always be. If there is a dark, that
Just a tip of the hat to their younger peers. some previous songs to make sense only to we shouldn’t doubt. And there is a light. Don’t
his close friends or most erudite fans. Not only let it go out.”
This is also a modest version of U2. Bono’s are the songs themselves less opaque, but the
voice remains strong, but he avoids long falsetto liner notes contain a lengthy essay explaining
Robert Berman
Robert is a Sunday School teacher, music nerd,
and acoustic guitar enthusiast. He lives in rural
Tennessee with his wife and three boys.