Songs Of Experience

2014's Songs of Innocence was for me a very strong album particularly because it harked back somewhat to - especially during its second half - U2's earlier rock sound and even some of the sonic experimentation of their 1990s records. Admittedly, its free download to all users iTunes accounts is infamous now and a pompous misstep by the band but although it was certainly a mistake it at least introduced U2 to a new generation of music lovers. This new album Songs of Experience is a companion album to that 2014 record and fortunately the briefest time between U2 records since the early 90s with it similarly being recorded during successful tour dates like 1993's Zooropa.I must admit after hearing the first two singles I did approach this album with a bit of a sense of trepidation as it was clear it was going to be more of a pop record than Songs of Innocence was, and I had been one of the fans that was alienated by U2's 2000s output that had shared this style. But after a couple of listens I started to feel although there is more of an emphasis on pop than rock this time it does not matter too much because the actual songs are much stronger than most of the ones during that lost U2 decade for me. Although they are poppy, the melodies are much catchier and more memorable. Additionally, what makes Songs of Experience also superior to the noughties' records is the fact that there are a number of modern production touches which make the sound much more interesting and even some of the old, vintage U2 sound is returned to on occasions albeit in this generally poppier form.In terms of the record's production, you cannot help but feel that newcomers to the team like Andy Barlow, Jolyon Thomas and Brent Kutzle are responsible for widening U2's sonic palette a bit again while Ryan Tedder continues his role from Songs of Innocence and although he is primarily a pop producer you sense that he has an ability to get great tunes out of the band. I was concerned when I heard that old hands were returning like Steve Lillywhite and Jacknife Lee but unlike their stale production on 2004's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, they contribute a more anthemic, captivating and intriguing sound this time.Most of these songs concern Bono's recent brush with mortality and are consequently more personal about himself and his family - these tend to be the quieter, more ballad-like poppier tracks and there are plenty of them. Opener Love is All We Have Left is very electronic and serene but has a pretty melody and a contemporary treatment of Bono's vocals with the lyrics concerning his younger self and current, older person talking to each other. It is a strong first track while the first couple of singles - You're the Best Thing About Me and Get Out of Your Own Way - sound so much more powerful when you hear them from good record playing equipment compared to the internet. They grow on you and are decent songs with the former being like a poppier Even Better Than the Real Thing and the latter having some of the radio-friendly style of the Joshua Tree about it. As they are the biggest sounding and most commercial songs on the record they definitely deserved to be the first single releases from Songs of Experience.The high-quality Summer of Love is mainly acoustic with a shimmering synth and backing vocal climax from Lady Gaga. The self-deprecating of Bono in the role of the rock star, The Showman, is a catchy tune with a bit of rock about it amongst its obvious pop sound. Landlady - again about Bono's wife Ali like the first single - took about three listens to get into my consciousness but when it did it becomes like a poppy version of U2's Unforgettable Fire-era songs and very pleasant and dream-like. Meanwhile, the mesmerising Love is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way features yet more iconic lyrics and is quite anthemic. Although the closer 13 (There Is a Light) is like one other song a re-write of a Songs of Innocence track (namely Song for Someone), it is actually superior and more moving and after all as this album is a companion piece it does not matter that there are these couple of links between the two records.However, the absolute greatest of these quieter tracks has to be The Little Things That Give You Away and Lights of Home. The former is again very much in a pop style but there are some new production tricks used to keep it an interesting listen. I know it has been compared to Coldplay's Up and Up and while it is like that song a bit structurally really it is a great in its own right with some gorgeous atmospheres during the first half and an excellent guitar line by The Edge during the second half that gives it a bit of a rock balance too. The lyrics - like on all the other tracks throughout the album - are well written, thoughtful and emotional from Bono and the latter song contains the finest lines on the album including "I shouldn't be here cause I should be dead" and "Oh Jesus if I'm still your friend." Lights of Home for me differs from the other more poppy, ballad songs as it is more of a classic U2 rock anthem that could have been on many of their peak albums from the eighties and nineties and has a vintage Edge guitar solo to boot. Although its main blues riff is based on a bass line from a Haim song - who feature as backing vocalists - it is simply vintage U2 and could be the top track.In fact, while most of Songs of Experience is composed of quieter, more introspective pop songs there are still a few occasions where the band rock out and these are nearly all the more political tracks (Summer of Love excepted). Clearly these songs are motivated by the rise of the contemporary right wing like Brexit/Trump and so they are going to be louder to convey perhaps the bands' anger. But anyway, despite the fact that you are going to expect more ballads from them due to them being a bit older, it is really refreshing to have some rock anthems on this record to balance it out slightly. Although American Soul is the other song that is a connection back to Songs of Innocence and a blatant re-write of Volcano in parts, it is simply a great, fun rock song with some superb, heavy riffing from the Edge and booming vocals from Bono. Red Flag Day is similarly about refugees and is one of the very best songs with it in fact resurrecting the sound of the first three, very earliest U2 albums - particularly War - with their first producer Steve Lillywhite contributing to this revived sound.The Blackout on the other hand is clearly political and it is between this and Lights of Home for the title of finest track. I must admit when I heard it when released in its live form a few months ago I was disappointed as it sounded too much to me like a 2004 song. However, this is one of the not too often times when a U2 song actually sounds superior on record as opposed to live, as this studio version both rocks out with some imperious guitar riffing from The Edge but also has some delightful electronic flourishes at times. They complement the rock sound and provide it with an Achtung Baby-style electro-rock feel that the live version lacked. Like the songs on Depeche Mode's Spirit, it is a masterwork inspired by the current political state of the world.Overall, Songs of Experience is very much as mind-blowing as any of their 20th century output and is the pop record that the noughties albums could have been if they had better songs throughout. There are no weak links and all the tracks are up there with their best material with The Edge pulling off his trademark scintillating guitar work yet again. I understand too that sales of Songs of Experience have been generally lower but saying that all that matters is if I like it ultimately and I really do. Anyway, it has still gone to number one in America and top three or five in most of the other charts around the world and that is quite good really for a band in their late career while album sales have fallen generally somewhat for a lot of their contemporaries. Although Songs of Innocence was in its second half more in the vein of their classic rock sound, Songs of Experience is a superior companion piece with more consistently excellent tracks and realises the full potential of their pop side that their 00s albums failed to reach.

Having been to 9 shows—and with a joshua tree tattood on my arm—I can feign no objectivity when it comes to U2. Yet as fan, I take the U2 canon too seriously to fawn over every album uncritically. Yes, I would contend that in 13 previous studio albums, they have yet to have a real embarrassment. But I would also concede that U2’s albums in the 2000’s (post-All That You Can’t Leave Behind) have fallen just short of greatness. Granted, the standards set by the back catalogue are impossibly high: the towering genius of consecutive rock classics in Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby, were followed by the apocalyptic Zooropa and the horrifically underrated Pop, both of which pulsed with brilliance in their own way. When U2 stopped trying to chop down The Joshua Tree and came to the new construction on the other side of the deconstruction, All That You Can’t Leave Behind was the sound of a band that had mastered the art of fully being themselves.Since then, vultures gather upon every release for signs of the band’s descent into irrelevance. But the restlessness at the center of U2 has remained in tact, and the albums that followed have still had the ache of a band straining for great songs, not infrequently finding them. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, No Line on the Horizon, and Songs of Innocence in fact contain some of their finest work—tracks like “Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own,” “City of Blinding Lights,” “Moment of Surrender,” and “Iris.”But then comes Songs of Experience.This album did the one thing I wasn’t sure if the veteran band could still do, especially after already hearing 4 pre-released tracks—it surprised me. The first full-listen was a little dizzying, because I felt the same sense of heights I did listening to Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby and All That You Can’t Leave Behind for the first time. That seemed a bit too lofty, so I listened again—and thought it might actually bump ATYCLB.Lyrically, Songs of Experience is Bono at his fragile best (and his bravest). It is an album soaked in mortality, music that faces death straight on—but with fearlessness. “Love is All We Have Left” is a disarming left hook of an opener, lush and gorgeous, a little bit into outer space. “Lights of Home” is more earth-bound, grittier and groovier, a track that reminds you this is not a band that has not yet given up on rock and roll. The lighter “You’re the Best Thing About Me,” captures the zest, vitality, and boyish energy of their early work. “Get Out of Your Own Way” is audaciously sincere and pastoral in the way only U2 can be, a summons to the foolishness of love in a time where pragmatism or cynicism make much more sense. Kendrick Lamar’s inverse beatitudes bridging into “American Soul” brings a prophetic edge into the center of the album, and “American Soul” itself, a protest song, is the world’s most mainstream rock act tapping into the authentic rage of the punk rock that first grabbed a hold of them, for love’s sake.The trinity of “Summer of Love,” “Red Flag Day,” and “The Showman” incorporates the sonic sense of mischief, slyness, and the lighter touch U2 honed in the 90’s, even while “Summer of Love” invokes images of Aleppo. “The Little Things That Give You Away,” my current favorite track of the album, is U2 at their most unabashedly U2—like “Beautiful Day,” a return to the sonic landscape they mastered, dragging me helplessly to euphoria (Bono’s vocal delivery on “Sometimes, the end is not coming…the end is already here” is the most devastating single moment on the album).Indeed, it is in the thick of these tracks that Songs of Experience proves that it belongs in the top-tier of U2’s canon—it is the first time since Achtung Baby that the second half of an album has been better than the first. Whereas, “The Little Things That Give You Away” takes us to the heights we partly always want U2 to take us, “The Landlady,” an exquisite love song to Bono’s wife Ali, embodies a beautiful restraint. “The Blackout” is a straight rocker with pop sensibilities, like many U2 songs, destined to be defined live. “Love is Stronger than Anything in It’s Way” takes a record swaddled in mortality into a defiant sendoff, the triumph of the human spirit in the face of the unknown. In experiencing the death of my most significant mentor last week, it has been the hymn that has carried me along. Finally, “13 (There is a Light)” both completes the album thematically and brings it full circle to where it began—to a place of meditation. It also bookends Songs of Experience perfectly with Songs of Innocence, both calling back to it’s predecessor, and transcending it.U2 has always swung for the high places, and yet existed as a high wire act—walking a tightrope of vulnerability and swagger, artistic soul music aspirations with stadium rock ambition. Theirs is a big an open sound, but a very delicate business that thrives off of contradiction. U2’s heart has always been on the sleeve, even when it was buried in irony. The irrepressible earnestness of spirit that underwrites the entire project walks a thin line between being too cool, and too awkward. And yet there are moments when they walk this thin line into a thin place, where the glory touches the ground. The singer becomes a shaman, Adam Clayton’s groove takes hold of your body, Larry Mullen kicks open the door to your soul, and The Edge takes us all the way through the portal. In that place, we are exposed, vulnerable, human…and somehow, something more.This is the magic U2 has always aspired to. When it works, there is nothing else like it.