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If I recall my U2 gossip (and I don’t claim to be as fervent about my fandom as others), I think the band recorded two albums’ worth of material a few years ago. First they gave away Songs of Innocence<\/em> (much to the chagrin of complainers averse to auto-downloaded iTunes library items) and now Songs of Experience<\/em>. If this is true, it makes perfect sense and these songs sound like companions and bookends of one another.<\/p>\n If I was to predict what this album would sound like before hearing a single note, I’d venture a guess that there’d be moments of joy, followed by brooding, somber moments that explode into a giant, healing and breathing release.<\/p>\n The album starts off with a whisper of a song, “Love is All We Have Left.”<\/p>\n Nothing to stop this being the best day ever Pockets of joy are found, like in the third track, “You’re the Best Thing About Me,” which is a really good love song. God bless Bono and his wife, Ali. It’s cool that as he celebrates the best in his life (her), he also juxtaposes the tenderness, vulnerability and frailty of human relationships.<\/p>\n “You’re the best thing about me I guess we need to enjoy the ones we love, but take care to never neglect, take for granted or damage. Thank you, Pastor Hewson.<\/p>\n Ultimately, for me, I can still have church with a U2 album. Speaking of church, perhaps she is the “Landlady” this wordsmith is singing about?<\/p>\n “What keeps us standing in this view, With all poetry, it’s just a guessing game. It’s like looking at a flower and telling someone what it means.<\/p>\n Right before the album closes, U2 blesses us with almost a doxology of “Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way.” Play that one for your congregation, worship leaders. Then, “There is a Light” closes with comfort:<\/p>\n When all you’ve left is leaving If there is a light ‘Cause this is a song I know the world is done All the airy atmosphere wouldn’t be the same or have as great an impact if there were not some rocking moments. The poetic politik moment here is found in “American Soul,” which sonically slaps you in the face like “Bullet the Blue Sky” did on the atmospheric Joshua Tree<\/em>\u00a0album. It starts off in the preceding song with a brilliant, ironic twist on the Beatitudes delivered by Kendrick Lamar in the outro of “Get Out of Your Own Way”:<\/p>\n Blessed are the arrogant “American Soul” then steps up with more:<\/p>\n Blessed are the bullies This is a true band effort. Adam Clayton delivers great bass lines in “The Little Things That You Give Away.” The Edge’s trademark atmospherics are all over the album, like dashes of salt on this four course meal. Bono’s crooning never sounded better. Larry Mullen’s solid drumming mostly hides in the background, staying silent when need-be and jumping in with a nice build-up, like in “Get Out of Your Own Way” or the full band accents in “American Soul” after each beatitude line is delivered.<\/p>\n “Red Flag Day” sounds like the musical companion to “Raised By Wolves,” even with its surfpunk guitar strumming intro. “The Showman” lyrically sounds like a great self mockery of rock’s most upfront frontman.<\/p>\n After reading a few remarks on this album from others before hearing a single lick, I was ready to be disappointed. I am anything but.<\/p>\n I’m ready to hear songs like “Blackout” in concert, with its infectious chorus and witty one-liners, like: “Earthquake always happen when you’re in bed, Fred.”<\/p>\n U2 is a career band, successfully navigating their creative muse over decades of self discovery, destruction, re-construction and revival. At this stage in their career, it’s impressive that they’re still making compelling art. U2 is an album band \u2014 at least for the U2 fan in me. I’ll devour the album from beginning to end for endless spins for that honeymoon phase surrounding each new release. As the years go by, however, it’s the songs that stick. Their library holds up as individual books that tell a story, but it’s the chapters or songs that stand taller over time.<\/p>\n This is the part of the album review where the self-important rock critic shows off his or her mastery of the band’s catalog. Please bear with me and exercise patience during this portion of the review. The flight will return to normal after this sudden turbulence is over.<\/p>\n I insist on having these songs on my Apple device (though this review is not sponsored by this worldwide conglomerate, I assure you). They are: “A Day Without Me,” “October” and “Rejoice” (from Boy<\/em> and October<\/em>) “40” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday” (War<\/em>) “The Unforgettable Fire,” “A Sort of Homecoming” and the musical precursor to “Where the Streets Have No Name” \u2014 “Bad.” Their Joshua Tree<\/em> masterpiece, like all their albums, can be enjoyed from beginning to end, but it also has at least three stand-alone standouts\u00a0\u2014 “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” “With or Without You” and the afore-mentioned show-stopper, “Streets…” Their deconstruct-reconstruction facelift album, Achtung Baby<\/em>, gave us “Love is Blindness,” “Mysterious Ways,” “One” and “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses.” Zooropa<\/em> is my forgettable album of choice. Everyone’s favorite U2 album to throw away (Pop<\/em>) delivered “If God Will Send His Angels,” which gave us a treatise on their heartfelt faith \u2014 if the lines “I believe in the kingdom come, when all the colors fade into one…You carried the cross of my shame” wasn’t enough from the evangeli-troubling song titled, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.”<\/p>\n All That You Can’t Leave Behind<\/em> ushered in a revival or return to the anthemic tunes of the Joshua Tree<\/em> era with its post-9\/11 wake-up call, “It’s A Beautiful Day.” I also keep coming back to the thundering passion of “New York” on that one. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb<\/em> was chock full of time-lasters, like “City of Blinding Lights,” “All Because of You” and “Miracle Drug.” No Line on the Horizon<\/em> gave us “Magnificent,” “Moment of Surrender” and “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight.” Songs of Innocence<\/em> featured “Sleep Like A Baby Tonight,” which surely belongs in their retrospective canon. It also dropped “Raised by Wolves” and the roots of joyous discovery of “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone).” I think “You’re the Best Thing About Me” and perhaps “Get Out of Your Own Way” (from Songs of Experience<\/em>) will live on long after the calendar flips forward a few times.<\/p>\n 13 tracks is just right here, feeding the need. Sometimes less is more. I mean, aren’t you glad “Poor Tom” didn’t make it onto Zeppelin IV<\/em>? Ever since the 74-minute CD format came out in the ’80s, it seems bands have been trying to fill every second of that disc. Now that the compressed mp3 is the new delivery vehicle, this is not necessary, but sometimes it’s good. It is good here.\u00a0I don’t want this musical journey from Ireland’s best to end until I’ve had enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If I recall my U2 gossip (and I don’t claim to be as fervent about my fandom as others), I think the band recorded two albums’ worth of material a few years ago. First they gave away Songs of Innocence (much to the chagrin of complainers averse to auto-downloaded iTunes library items) and now Songs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":25176,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[4066,4067,4065,3343],"class_list":["post-25174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-ireland","tag-songs-of-experience","tag-songs-of-innocence","tag-u2","cat-17-id"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nNothing to keep us from where we should be
\nI wanted the world but you knew better
\nAnd that all we have is immortality
\nLove and love is all we have left…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nThe best things are easy to destroy…”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nis the view that we can be brand new
\nLandlady, takes me up in the air
\nI go. I go where I would not dare
\nLandlady, shows me the stars up there
\nI’m weightless, weightless when she is there
\nAnd I’ll never know
\nnever know what starving poets meant,
\nbecause when I was broke, it was you that always paid the rent.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nAnd all you got is grieving
\nAnd all you know is needing<\/p>\n
\nWe can’t always see
\nAnd there is a world
\nWe can’t always be
\nIf there is a dark
\nNow we shouldn’t doubt
\nAnd there is a light
\nDon’t let it go out<\/p>\n
\nA song for someone
\nSomeone like me<\/p>\n
\nBut you don’t have to be
\nI’ve got a question for the child in you before it leaves
\nAre you tough enough to be kind?
\nDo you know your heart has its own mind?
\nDarkness gathers around the light
\nHold on
\nHold on<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nFor there is the kingdom of their own company
\nBlessed are the superstars
\nFor the magnificence in their light
\nWe understand better our own insignificance
\nBlessed are the filthy rich
\nFor you can only truly own what you give away
\nLike your pain<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nFor one day they will have to stand up to themselves
\nBlessed are the liars
\nFor the truth can be awkward<\/p><\/blockquote>\n