U2’s Bold Return on “Songs of Experience”

 

I can still remember the moment I became a U2 fan. I was 11 years old and the band had just released its fifth studio album, “The Joshua Tree”. The single was “Where the Streets Have No Name” and the video had just dropped on MuchMusic. I was an avid fan of the station which had just started airing a few years earlier and used to tune in to watch new video releases and programs such as Pepsi Power Hour or VJ Erica Ehm. I became an immediate fan of the song and the video and wanted more. The Joshua Tree became one of the first albums I owned on vinyl, along with Van Halen’s “1984”, Huey Lewis and the News “Fore” and The Beatles “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”.

Since “The Joshua Tree”, U2 has released a number of albums that have demonstrated the bands capacity to challenge themselves, reinvent their sound, or aim for themes in both their albums and live shows that really show their capacity for audaciousness and daring. Say what you will about the band or their music, they’ve never been boring.

Most recently the band launched a hugely successful world tour celebrating the 30^th anniversary of “The Joshua Tree”, which points to the bands enduring success as well as the album’s lasting appeal. It seems fitting then that they would release an album right at the conclusion of the tour called “Songs of Experience”.

“Songs of Experience” is the follow up to “Songs of Innocence”, an album whose release was a bit of a PR nightmare when millions of iTunes users woke up one day to it being automatically downloaded to their devices. The album’s front cover features a photograph of band members’ teenage children Eli Hewson and Sian Evan as photographed by U2’s long-time visual collaborator Anton Corbijn. Perhaps his most famous and longest standing association is with U2, which includes taking pictures of the band on their first US tour, taking pictures for their albums The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby albums and directing a number of accompanying videos.

“Songs of Experience” opens with the track “Love is All We Have Left”, a somber tune that carries Bono’s lyrics of facing his own mortality. As Bono explains in a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine: “At the end of the song, experience breaks down and admits his deepest fears, having been called out on it by his younger, braver, bolder self. That same conversation also opens the album with a song called “Love Is All We Have Left.” My favorite opening line to a U2 album: “There’s nothing to stop this being the best day ever.” In the second verse, innocence admonishes experience: “Now you’re at the other end of the telescope, seven billion stars in her eyes, so many stars so many ways of seeing, hey, this is no time not to be alive.” It’s a chilling moment – in the chorus I was pretending to be Frank Sinatra singing on the moon, a sci-fi torch song “love, love is all we have left, a baby cries on the doorstep, love is all we have left.”

The theme continues into “Lights of Home”, as Bono sings, “I shouldn’t be here ‘cause I should be dead. I believe the best days are ahead of me. I can see the lights in front of me.” A lot of Bono’s lyrics on this album point to our mortality, and given his recent health scare, details of which he’s kept secret, it’s no surprise that it’s central to “Songs of Experience”.

You might think that a band 40 years going and whose past three tours have generated over a billion dollars in revenue might not really care whether or not they make any kind of meaningful album or be inclined to take things too seriously. That is certainly not the case here. Although “Songs of Experience” was ready to be released in 2016, the band delayed it and went back to the studio as events such as Trump’s election or Bono’s own health crisis gave them an impetus to write more songs. Even at this point in their illustrious careers, U2 is not just going through the motions to cash in.

U2 is and always has been a sum of all its parts. Bono is always center stage and writes the lyrics for their songs, the other members of the band, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr. and The Edge, write and perform all the music for every track. Years ago the band said in an interview that one of the reasons they’ve lasted this long and continue to get along is that they’ve always divided everything equally four ways with work, money and credit.

Although this is certainly the case with “Songs of Experience”, even with The Edge’s typical guitar sound and Bono’s lyrical genius, I can’t help but feel that Mullen Jr. and Clayton’s work is really emphasized with solid bass and drum work that not only anchors the album, but often commands it.

“You’re the Best Thing About Me” really showcases Clayton’s bass with a solid beat backed by the always great Mullen Jr. The album includes a bonus remix of this track done by Kygo, a sure to be pop radio hit. “Red Flag Day”, a track that continues a message of not being afraid to take risks and live within the moment, features more of Clayton and Mullen’s dominating rhythm, playing over a stripped down guitar riff from The Edge.

True to the bands strong political views, a central theme to many of their songs over the past four decades, they’ve written songs here that point to the decline of democracy and the state of affairs in Trump’s America. In “The Blackout” Bono sings, “Statues fall, democracy is flat on its back, Jack.” Once more, Clayton and Mullen shine with solid, competent rhythm, anchoring the song and paving the way for The Edge to bring in some eerie guitar sounds over Bono’s vocals. “Get Out of Your Own Way”, possibly the strongest track on the album is a political statement about the greatness of America in decline under Donald Trump. Kendrick Lamar adds to the beginning of the next song, “American Soul”, “Blessed are the bullies, for one day they will have to stand up to themselves,” he says. “Blessed are the liars, for the truth can be awkward.” Other lyrics on this track are taken directly from Lamar’s “XXX” on his recent album “Damn” which also features U2.

U2 worked with a number of different producers on the album: Jacknife Lee (R.E.M, The Killers, Snow Patrol, Bloc Party), Ryan Tedder (Adele, Beyonce), Steve Lillywhite (Talking Heads, Morrissey, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Peter Gabriel), Andy Barlow and Jolyon Thomas, all of whom contribute greatly to the albums sonic landscapes and slick production values. The sounds and songs coming off “Songs of Experience” are the best the band has released in the past 20 years.

U2 has been the subject of a lot of criticism, a lot of it valid and warranted, over the many years they’ve been recording and touring. They don’t always fit into a neat and clearly defined view their fans have of them. Many may be inclined to pass on “Songs of Experience” because they’re just plain tired of it all. That would be a shame because this is not only the best work they’ve done in ages, it’s hands down one of the best albums of the year and worthy of a listen. If like me, you once loved this band but somewhere along the line stopped paying attention, give “Songs of Experience” a try and rediscover what made U2 one of the biggest band’s on the planet in the first place.