Author: Jernej Vene
Artist: U2
Label: Island Records
Released: 2017
Runtime: 51:07
Rating: 3.5/5
In popular music, only a handful of bands have stayed alive and kicking for more than thirty years. The Rolling Stones, The Moody Blues, The Who, Uriah Heep, ZZ Top, Rush, Aerosmith, and then we’re already running out of names… Most of them split over money or artistic differences, just like married couples bound by law. Some take longer breaks, which they use to recharge the batteries and revise their positions, as they used to say in the old country.
Chances are the members of U2 didn’t count on such a long career decades ago either. Even though in 2017 they were back on stages all over the world, packing stadiums and padding their bank accounts with a megalomaniac tour for the thirtieth anniversary of the classic The Joshua Tree, they did give fans something new, especially after the fleeting Songs Of Innocene from 2014. Back then, what stung more than the music itself was the free-album stunt, sent to every owner of an Apple phone with an account in their online music store, whether they asked for it or not. Bono and company have taken heavy flak over the years for selling out, for having nothing left to say, for sucking up to world politicians, the Dalai Lama above all. So what? Maybe some of us would too, if we got the chance?
The loudest critics are usually people who get a pile of information over the internet and, lacking more constructive ways to fill their free time, comment on it with gusto and usually go all out trashing it. Hardly anyone stops for even a second to ask how much time it takes for new lyrics or music or both to come together. Where does the author go for inspiration, who do they confide their inner impulses to first, how do they pitch it to their collaborators? And it’s not just U2, everyone who creates is in the same boat, except it’s a bit easier for them since they’ve long been financially independent. Still, they managed to make a lovely, pleasant record. With a bag full of cash it’s easy, sure, but still.
Can Bono and friends convince listeners to believe them when they sing about universal world peace and love, and do they really mean what they preach? In recent years the Syrian tragedy has spread, and no normal person can say the terrible news from there doesn’t move them. Evil has never known borders throughout history. Whether U2 can change anything with their position, I doubt it, since they’ve been trying for at least twenty-five years.
The nineties were years of experiments for U2, especially Zooropa and Pop. The album All That You Can’t Leave Behind brought them back to their old form, How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb kept it going, while No Line On The Horizon and Songs Of Innocence are a bit lackluster. Songs Of Experience also brings a few tracks worthy of the band’s name. Among them are You’re The Best Thing About Me, Get Out Of Your Way, Summer Of Love and Blackout. Together with the previous record, U2 leaned on the poetry collections of the same names by William Blake. But it’s not all dark and sad, and most of the record is pretty cheerful and bright. Production-wise they trusted an old collaborator, the master Steve Lillywhite, and the OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder, who took care of the more modern sounds. It’s exactly with these contemporary approaches that The Edge’s natural guitar sound often gets lost, run over by excessive effects.
Songs of Experience is the work of a seasoned band. It stands comfortably next to everything they’ve done in the last two decades, but it’s still a long way from a masterpiece.
Lineup
Bono – vocals
The Edge – guitar, vocals
Adam Clayton – bass guitar, vocals
Larry Mullen Jr. – drums
Production
Ryan Tedder, Steve Lillywhite, Dangermouse, Andy Wright
Tracklist
1. Love Is All We Have Left
2. Lights Of Home
3. You’re The Best Thing About Me
4. Get Out Of Your Own Way
5. American Soul
6. Summer Of Love
7. Red Flag Day
8. The Showman (Little More Better)
9. The Little Things That Give You Away
10. Landlady
11.The Blackout
12. Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way
13.(There Is A Light)
