U2
U2:
BONO: Lead vocals, Guitar
THE EDGE: Guitars, Keyboards, Vocals
ADAM CLAYTON: Bass Guitar
LARRY MULLEN JR.: Drums and Percussion
Lyrics composed by Bono and The Edge
Music composed by U2
Produced by Danger Mouse
with additional production by Flood, Paul Epworth, Ryan Tedder, Declan Gaffney
Released September 9, 2014
Why THANK YOU, Bono!! And you too, to The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. That was indeed a surprise.
Forget Beyonce and, to a degree, even Radiohead. The surprise FREE release of U2's latest album "Songs Of Innocence" on Tuesday, September 9th knocked me off of my feet and it was as unexpected as when David Bowie revealed "The Next Day" (released March 8, 2013) after a ten year absence from public view, or when Nine Inch Nails unveiled "The Slip" (released July 22, 2008) without announcement and for FREE and even moreso, when The Smashing Pumpkins self-released the FREE collection "MACHINA II/The Friend And Enemies Of Modern Music" all the way back on September 5, 2000 (yes, they did it first!). But, I have to admit that there was something that felt almost magical to me to simply open up my I-Tunes and find the album in full already in my files and without having to have gone through any clicks of buttons to receive the actual download. Of course, Apple paid a gargantuan amount of loot to obtain the album for such exclusivity but hey, if it's FREE for me, then why should I look that gift horse in the mouth, even when it is from such a conglomerate?
Certainly I am still going to purchase the physical release of the album on October 13th (I will forever love the tactile experience of album releases) and for now, I do not care at all about the promotion. This is all about the music and in the spirit of this album's release, I just wanted to scribble down some initial thoughts as I have only listened to "Songs Of Innocence" once as of this time of writing. Even with such unfamiliarity, emotions and words began to form...
As Bono himself explained in a corresponding interview given to Rolling Stone magazine, "Songs Of Innocence," for U2, is "a very personal album...Let's try to figure out why we wanted to be in a band, the relationships around the band, our friendships, our lovers, our family. The whole album is first journeys--first journeys geographically, spiritually, sexually. And that's hard. But we went there."
And "went there" they did as evidenced immediately on the album's very first song "The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)" when Bono sings the following:
"I woke up at the moment when the miracle occurred
Heard a song that made some sense out of the world
Everything I ever lost now has been returned
The most beautiful sound I ever heard"
Eloquently direct and to the point, "The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)" serves as a mission statement for the album as a whole, as well as for why any of us devotees of music ever fell in love with it in the first place.
As I continued listening to "Songs Of Innocence," the first word that popped into my head about this experience was "intimate." To paraphrase one of U2's own song titles, this is a band that has always attempted to throw their collective arms around the world. Yet "Songs Of Innocence," another album of intended connection with listeners, actually sounds as if U2 are sharing stories with each and every listener as if in individual conversations with us in a pub or coffee shop, instead of collectively via a massive stadium, despite the typical anthemic choruses that pop up throughout the album. This is not to say that "Songs Of Innocence" is polite, toothless Starbucks music or anything like that...although some of you may feel exactly that way when you hear it. To my ears, it is an album that does indeed sound exactly like its title, songs of beginnings and first impressions, or better yet the remembrance of those beginnings and first impressions. After five years away, the album sounds like not much more than a greeting. While that may not necessarily make for one the of great U2 albums or even one of the great albums of 2014, it is an album that, to my ears, is more personal than anything else in the band's discography. And for that, it is surprisingly much warmer than I had thought that it could be.
"Songs Of Innocence" is not an album of grand political statements and U2 does not place themselves in the position of trying to change or save the world through music. It is not an album where the band attempts to reclaim or re-assert themselves as the greatest rock and roll band in the world either. Additionally, this is not even one of their art rock albums, the ones drenched in irony, alter-egos and sonic experimentation (my personal favorites). But as with all of their albums, "Songs Of Innocence" is undeniably earnest and filled with the type of spiritual deliverance that has become U2's calling card but it is written with the subtlety and nuance that arrives with aging and performed with an infectious exuberance. Even Bono's singing sounds more youthful than it did even just five years ago on the vastly underrated "No Line On The Horizon" (released February 2, 2009), my personal favorite U2 album.
I have to admit that I had been more than a little worried about this new album due to the lengthiness of its gestation, the delayed release dates and the arsenal of producers the band collaborated with and the mountain of material that has been recorded over the last five years. The Edge himself has even expressed that they have amassed possibly over four albums worth of material (or even five, if you count "Songs Of Ascent," the album that was originally supposed to quickly follow "No Line On The Horizon" but never arrived). And somehow, the album does not sound labored or overly fussy and tinkered with to the degree that it has become almost hermetically sealed and nearly emotionless as R.E.M. found itself with their hugely disappointing "Around the Sun" (released October 5, 2004) album. Even though you just know that every sound on the album is meticulously placed. to me, it all felt like four guys in a room playing together. And despite all of the producers involved, the album sounds just like U2. They still sound only like themselves.
As for the songs themselves, I liked the autobiographical tone of "Songs Of Innocence" in songs like "This Is Where You Can Reach Me," which carries a vague similarity to The Clash's reggae tinged selections and more specifically, "Song For Someone" about Bono's wife, "Cedarwood Road," about the street Bono grew up on, and the hypnotic "Iris (Hold Me Close)" about Bono's Mother. Those tracks specifically charmed me as again I hadn't expected Bono's lyrics, which are often cloaked either in allegories and shadows or either through worldwide gestures, to be so direct.
Even the album's mid-section, which contains the triptych of rockers "Volcano," "Raised By Wolves" and the aforementioned "Cedarwood Road" and deal with adolescent and young adulthood rites of passage like obtaining tattoos as well as the forming of political awareness due to the first hand witnessing of car bombings, also feel to be more insular and less roof raising. These are all songs that seem to be Bono speaking plainly and openly of himself while simultaneously speaking about his bandmates and furthermore, the way these songs are presented also allow us to go backwards in our own minds to our own formative times.
That said, the tracks that really leapt out at me all arrived in the second half of the album, which does contain a little more of the sonic experimentation that I like best about the band. The sinister "Sleep Like A Baby" and the moody closing track "The Troubles" (which almost sounds like it could have been lifted from The Roots' latest album of all things) are the clear standouts as they sound like extensions of what was heard on the unfairly maligned "Pop" (released March 4, 1997) or even the mysterious "Original Soundtracks 1" (released November 1995) as performed by the band with Brian Eno under their pseudonym Passengers. But for the songs that really stick, I can say that even as I write, the melodies of "Every Breaking Wave" have lodged themselves into my brain. And I do have to make a special mention of Adam Clayton who remains the band's secret weapon as the grooves he creates with the always inventive Larry Mullen Jr. further confirms that they remain one of rock music's greatest rhythm sections.
Even with just one listen and having the album for one day, the reviews have been pouring in and have to say that I am just so surprised how based they all seem to be within the cult of personality and not quite for the actual songs contained on "Songs Of Innocence." From the shockingly high and completely predictable rating from Rolling Stone (so much so that it could not be blamed if people wondered if the magazine was on the U2 payroll) there was equally predictable lambasting from the likes of the uber hipster dreck known as Pitchfork, who would have bashed any album U2 released regardless of actual quality. In answer to the immense praise, as I said "Songs Of Innocence" has not jumped straight to my heart of hearts (at least on this first listen) as other U2 albums have in the past and frankly, I do not think that it was necessarily designed to do so, as it feels to be a relatively quieter and undeniably more meditative and nostalgic affair.
As for the criticisms, well...when it comes to the remarks about how "Songs Of Innocence" is not like this album or doesn't contain certain elements from that album, to a degree I just tend to find all of that irrelevant. Face it, U2 will never make "War" (released February 28, 1983), "The Joshua Tree" (released March 9, 1987), "Achtung Baby!" (released November 18, 1991) or "All That You Can't Leave Behind" (released October 30, 2000) ever again so why blame them because "Songs Of Innocence" is not like something that it just cannot be? Now, if you hear the album and you find that these new songs as songs to be too dry, too flat, too uninteresting and so on, then so be it. But to complain that it is not a sequel to what already has been is nonsense.
For those who have spent most of a review about music to complain about U2's deal with Apple and perhaps being too beholden to remaining at the forefront of public consciousness at the expense of making great art, then you may have some valid points to make. But for me, U2 has ALWAYS been a populist band, a foursome who openly courted the masses so this particular deal is just a 21st century way to accomplish what they have always done, so more power to them if it works. And besides, the deal has nothing to do with the actual songs. They will either move you or they won't and I was moved.
For me, on this first listen, it doesn't feel as if U2 phoned it in or were lazy, especially considering the large amount of time they have been in the studio. "Songs Of Innocence" feels to be a surprisingly cohesive work that represents precisely what they did set out to make, for better or for worse. You may love it, like it or even loathe it but just judge it for what they have presented this time around. Maybe U2 just isn't making music for you as a listener anymore, and if that is the case, that doesn't necessarily negate them as artists. Who knows? Perhaps "Songs Of Excellence," a subsequent album which Bono has already teased as arriving soon (I'll believe it when it's released) may be the album that contains precisely what some feel is lacking and it may even inform the experience of "Songs Of Innocence" in the process. Only time will tell.
Another worthy question to ask is whether "Songs Of Innocence" will have the staying power to become a repeated listen, especially as I am devouring Ryan Adams' new album and EP and a ton of new releases, including two new Prince albums are immediately forthcoming. The answer remains to be seen as well.
But for this first listen, I really liked what I heard. It spoke to me. It charmed and warmed me. It made me see a new shade to a band for whom I thought I'd seen it all.
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