Songs of Innocence (a music review post)

A couple of weeks ago, my wife walked in the door from work; as usual, I was cooking dinner. What was not usual was that I was listening to the new U2 album, Songs of Innocence. Now, it's not unusual for me to be listening to U2, but, you know, Innocence was a surprise, and she only knew about it because I had emailed her, more than slightly excitedly, about the fact that U2 had given it away! I'd been saying that there was a good chance that the next U2 album would be the last CD I ever bought (I'm pretty sure I haven't bought any CDs since their last album, No Line on the Horizon) but, instead of having to go out and buy it, U2 gave it to me! Although I might still have to buy the CD when it's released so that I can take it with me in the car.

But I digress...

So she walked in the door and said, "How is it?"
And I said, "Well, I'm not sure. I'm still getting used to it."
And she, completely understanding what I meant, said, "Ah, yeah. Because it's U2."

I want to make a point here: With other bands, when they release something new, you don't have to "get used to it." You may not know the specific songs, but the sound is almost always the same. This is seldom the case with U2.

Let's flashback to the summer of 1993 and the release of Zooropa. People were pissed. That was not the U2 they were looking for. And that wasn't the first time that had happened. I knew people who had liked pre-Joshua Tree U2 who swore them off when that album came out, people protested the new material on Rattle and Hum because what they'd really wanted was just more of The Joshua Tree. But the reaction to Zooropa was probably the worst. People just hated it.

Well... The worst until now. Which, you know, astounds me. I mean, people are actually offended that U2 gave away Songs of Innocence. Like it physically hurt them in some way. And, of course, the critics and reviewers are ripping it to shreds. And the thing that made me think of all this is because I was reading a review of the album (from Newsweek, I think) in which the reviewer was talking about all of the great things U2 did with Zooropa and Pop and, then, All That You Can't Leave Behind and how, in relation to those albums, how much of a disappointment Songs of Innocence is (including belittling Bono for writing a song about his mother). Of course, my reaction was, "Dude, I was there when Zooropa came out, and I know how much people hated it." Except me and this one friend of mine who I gamed with. We'd listen to it before everyone else got there (he loved "Lemon" and would crank it up and sing it... poorly) and have to listen to them complain as they arrived: "Turn that shit off." So, yeah, I know what people thought of Zooropa at the time and it wasn't that it was a great anything other than, maybe, a steaming turd on the cold ground.

It seems that it has aged well.

Which makes me wonder how people will feel about this one in a couple of years once they've adjusted to another change in U2's sound. As for me, I knew it had won me over the next morning when I got up with one of the songs running through my head. Not that I knew what the song was; I just had this song, the music, in my head. As I busied myself with making breakfast, I started trying to push it out and started humming it trying to figure out what it was. It only took a few minutes for me to realize it was a song from Innocence, so I put it on. Since then, I've had probably half a dozen of the songs from the album bubble up in my head when I'm doing other things, so I know I like it. A lot. There are great lyrics on this album.

Here's the breakdown so far:
My top pick -- "Every Breaking Wave"
It's actually, probably, my #2 song, but it's my wife's favorite, which bumps it to the #1 spot, because it's a very close #2 for me. Favorite line -- "I thought I heard the Captain's voice, but it's hard to listen while you preach."

The close second -- "Song for Someone"
This was the song running through my head that morning. This one starts out with a startling line that I love and just keeps building: "You got a face not spoiled by beauty." I wish I had thought of that line. But my favorite line: "...I'm a long way from where I was and where I need to be."

But the song that really lingers with me a lot the more I listen (though it's still at third) -- "Iris (Hold Me Close)," the song Bono wrote about his mother, which I think is pretty great, but that one reviewer finds offensive that Bono would dare to write a personal song.
My favorite line: "Free yourself to be yourself. If only you could see yourself."

Currently at fourth, because my daughter loves this one -- "Raised By Wolves"
I'm just assuming for the moment that this song is about all the conflict in Ireland when U2 were teens. That's what makes sense to me. Favorite line: "The worst things in the world are justified by belief."

There are some other of the songs vying for attention in my head, too, so it's possible that that list could change. There's a great group of lines, for instance, in "The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)": "We got language so we can't communicate, religion so I can love and hate, music so I can exaggerate my pain and give it a name." This is a great song with which to lead off this album. It's all about how music, how a song, can change your life. That one song that catches in you and changes the way you view the world. For me, that song came from U2. I remember where I was, the very moment I first heard "With Or Without You." I'd never heard a song like that before. And thing is, I wasn't even really listening to the music that was playing. It was just a friend's car stereo that was on as background noise while a bunch of us were hanging out. But that song came on and caught me.

U2 is still catching me. Even when they change their sound, I still come away with  their words and their music running through my head. So the reviewers and critics can bash them all they want (and complain about how intrusive it is to be given something completely free (seriously, what the heck?)), but my bet is that once people get over being all irate and offended and actually listen to the album that they will also find songs running in their heads. And at some point, when U2 has changed their sound yet again, some reviewer will be hearkening back to the great Songs of Innocence and wondering why U2 can't do it that way again.

The U2 Countdown

I've made no secret of my love for U2. Their music is great, but the band itself is a source of great inspiration. Their road to success is one that writers should probably look at (I talked about that here), because it wasn't overnight. They pursued it and worked at it even after they achieved it. But they are so much more than just a band (a great book about that is Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas).

As my wife was saying, the reason for this post may just be an excuse for me to get to listen to a lot of U2. And, believe me, I've done just that. In the last few days, I've gone back through every album, some of them more than once (just because I'd forgotten how good, say, Zooropa actually is) and listed out all of my favorite songs from each album. Of course, there's also that I've been saying I should do this for, probably, over a year, so, since this is the list time of year, I figured it was as good a time as any. And, then, there was the listening to U2. What I've found is that boiling U2 down to 10 songs may be impossible, so let's see how I do with that.

But, before I go on to the list, I did make an interesting observation: the degree to which I like an album may not be related to how much I like the individual songs on it. For instance, I love No Line on the Horizon. It has a great overall sound and continuity, but I don't love the songs individually as much as I like songs on other albums, albums which I may not actually like as much as No Line. In fact, many of my favorite songs come from The Joshua Tree, but it's not higher than third on my list of albums from them (which does not change my mind on the fact that I think it's probably the greatest album of all time and, yet, I still love Achtung Baby more).

At any rate, U2 has probably been the most significant band in history, which is not to say that a lot of people wouldn't argue about that, but, mostly, people will argue from the place of what they prefer rather than what it means to be significant. The Beatles are probably the only real contender as most significant band, but, applying some objective measures to what each band has accomplished, other than make music, The Beatles didn't really accomplish all that much. Then, again, I'm biased, which is why I say people may want to argue about it. I'll say this as a comparison, though: I love the band The Alarm, but I would never try to make an argument for them being significant. Anyway... I don't suppose any of that is really all that important. A band's significance has nothing to do with whether anyone will like or not like their music. I don't much care for The Beatles, but I can't deny their significance.

One other thing I should say about me and music: I'm highly attracted to lyric content. By that I mean I want my songs to say something. It's not uncommon that I will like a song when I first hear it because I like the music, but, once I figure out the words, I will quit liking it either because I don't like the message or it just doesn't have one. U2 appeals to me in that their music is about something. Often, their songs are about conflict, both external and internal, and those contradictions appeal to me. That being said, some of the double listings (but not all) are for songs that are thematically equivalent (at least, in my mind). Mostly, the double listings are just because I couldn't pull a top 10 out of the 40+ songs I had listed.

Okay! On to the list! My top songs by U2 (links provided if you want to listen to the songs):

10. "October" from October and "40" from War

• "October" -- I just love this one. Beautiful music and a powerful message.
• "40" -- How could I not include the song they used to end all of their concerts with? Besides, the lyrics are pulled from "Psalm 40," just like the title says.

9. "Window in the Skies" from U218

• Like many of U2's best songs, this one has a meaning under the obvious one, not that the obvious one isn't good enough for a song. You'd have to do away with nearly every love song out there if love wasn't a strong enough message, but it's more than just a song about love, because it's a song about the transformative power of Love. And, then, the song goes deeper than that.

8. "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" from How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" from All That You Can't Leave Behind

• These two songs speak to me on the same level; both are about people not being able to admit that they need help. Too many people can't or won't admit they need help, and, sometimes, I'm one of those people. I hate when I hit a situation that I just can't deal with. Often, there are people on the outside of those situations saying, "Hey, I can help," but we just don't want to listen.

7. "One" from Achtung Baby and "All I Want Is You" from Rattle and Hum

• These two songs are simultaneously alike and different. I mean, completely alike as in almost the same and, yet, completely opposed to one another. Listen to the songs if you want to figure that out.

6. "The First Time" from Zooropa

• I don't know what to say about this song without actually going through the whole thing, which I'm not going to do. It just has some amazing lyric images, especially about how we may respond to unconditional love.

5. "Elevation" from All That You Can't Leave Behind and "Pride (In the Name of Love)" from The Unforgettable Fire

• "Elevation" -- Immediately my favorite song from All That You Can't Leave Behind, which is probably my second favorite album and has a lot of songs on it that I just love. My oldest was four when the album came out, and we used to blast this song in the car and sing it together. Yes, it has some sentimental value to it. The video's a lot of fun, too.
• "Pride (In the Name of Love)" -- A tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. with an obvious meaning and message. It's a great song.

4. "New Year's Day" from War

• I almost put this song with "Pride," but I really do like it more. It's probably actually in competition for a spot higher than this, but it just gets edged down the list, hitting #4. It wants to be higher but can't quite overpower the powerhouse of Joshua Tree. "Gold is the reason for the wars we wage."

3. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and "Where the Streets Have No Name" from The Joshua Tree

• "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" -- This is, in many ways, the quintessential U2 song for me. More than any other song, it openly displays the conflict between belief and, well, belief. I believe, but I'm not satisfied with the options. I'm still looking. I believe, help my unbelief.
• "Where the Streets Have No Name" -- This song is so linked to "Still Haven't Found" for me that I can't separate them. Different songs with a similar theme in that they both deal with what we, as humans, are striving for. This one, though, is the reach for a better place, a place where we are not judged by what street we live on, a place where the streets have no name. Heaven. When I was in high school, my youth pastor made a snide remark to me about listening to this song, to which I replied, "Mike, what place do you think they mean when they say 'where the streets have no name?'" He just sort of stared at me for a moment and turned and walked away. One of my favorite performances of this song was done by the band Mercy Me at a Christian music festival. They ended with this song, saying it was their favorite song from their teens about heaven. After they finished, the host came out on stage and said something like how "even a band like U2" can give us praise music... "even a band like U2." Talk about being ignorant of your subject matter. But, then, I suppose Jesus faced the same kind of thing from the pharisees. Which is not to draw a comparison between U2 and Jesus, but...

2. "With Or Without You" from The Joshua Tree

• This song, which I love, gets the #2 spot largely for sentimental reasons. I do think they have better songs, but this was the first song I ever heard by them, and it caught my attention the very first time I heard it. I had one of those "who is that?" moments, which I don't actually have all that often and had never had before. None of the people I was with knew who it was, either. I'm not sure what that says about any of us. Actually, I know what it says about me: Prior to U2 I listened to what was classified as "light" rock, stuff like Air Supply. "With Or Without You" was the first song that fit the music profile of the radio station I listened to back then, so it was the first song I heard by them because it was the first song my station ever played by them. However, I have nothing to say for my friends, since they all listened to rock music and really have no excuse for not at least knowing who U2 was.

1. "Bad" from The Unforgettable Fire

• Bono has said that the writing in this song isn't actually very good, but that it manages to be a good song anyway. In fact, he never really even finished writing it. Nevertheless, it's been my favorite song by them since shortly after I found it during my U2 exploration. I worked my way back through all of their albums, and, even with as much as I love Joshua Tree, I love this song more. It's the discordant images.

Honorable mentions:

"Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)" -- Not my favorite U2 song, but almost my favorite Christmas song. Yeah, sure, if I have to choose, there are Christmas songs I like more, but, still, it's not Christmas for me without this song. The one thing it does do is make me wish U2 would do a Christmas album.

"Sweetest Thing" -- U2 is the only band I know of that have had numerous B-sides go on to become hits. As it's been said by many people in the music industry, U2 discards songs to B-sides that most bands would be more than happy to lead with from an album. "Sweetest Thing" is my favorite of U2s B-sides, and it almost made the top "10."

"Silver and Gold" -- Another B-side that has become a big hit for them. Great song.

"Unchained Melody" -- My favorite cover by U2. I like the original, but I like U2's even better.

There you go, my top 15 "Top 10" U2 songs. Plus a few more. And, I just have to say, this post took me longer to research and write than any other post I've ever done, which is actually saying something. But it was great fun. And, yes, I know I probably know more about U2 than is normal, but I also know even more about Lewis and Tolkien, and I bet none of you think that's weird. And none of that comes close to what I know about Star Wars, and, hey, compared to what some people know, what I know about Star Wars is practically normal.

U2 and the Quest for a #1

I love the band U2, of which I've made no secret. I've loved them since the first time I ever heard them. They're my favorite band, and have been for, well, a long, long time. Unfortunately, I missed out on their formative years, because I just didn't listen to that type of music at that time.

I grew up, as most people do, on my parents' music (more specifically, my mother's music). Not that everyone grew up on my parents' music, because I don't remember you all at my house when I was a kid, so I expect that you grew up on your parents' music. My mother was into folk stuff: Simon and Garfunkel; Peter, Paul, and Mary; Bob Dylan. There was a little Beatles thrown in, but I was never into them (my mom still (at least I hope it's still) has the white album and Sgt. Pepper on vinyl). Oh, and the Beach Boys. At any rate, when I finally got into music on my own (at the very old age of 15), I tended toward that kind of music and listened to a "light rock" station that played "hits from the 60s, 70s, and 80s." I was really into Air Supply if that tells you anything. What the station I listened to didn't play was actual rock music which meant that the station did not play U2.

The first time I ever remember hearing of U2 was my junior year of high school. I was dating this girl that was constantly asking me about songs of theirs, especially "Sunday Bloody Sunday." She couldn't seem to hold it in her head that I had never heard of U2 before she mentioned them, and I continued to not try to figure out who they were 1. because she wouldn't leave me alone about them. 2. because her other favorite group was Pink Floyd, and I was certainly not interested in them (thank you very much).

So it wasn't until the release of "With or Without You," a song that the station I listened to would play, that I finally heard a U2 song. I was instantly hooked. I loved that song. I had to know who that group was, and I was kind of not happy to find out that it was U2 1. because my (by then) ex-girlfriend had bugged me about them all the time. 2. because I wished I'd taken the time to see who they were when she was bugging me about them all the time. I dived into all of their older stuff along with The Joshua Tree and 1987 became my own personal year of U2 quite aside from what was going on with them and the rest of the world.

But what did it take for them to finally get my attention? A #1 single. And a #1 single was something that U2 actively sought. They were striving for it. This highlights the question for me of "Is it art if it's commercial?" And that's a whole different discussion, the difference between what is and what is not art, so I'm not really going to go into that; however, it has some bearing on where I'm going with this, so it had to be mentioned.

When U2 first got together, they didn't know what they were doing. Larry Mullen was the only one that really knew anything about music. They were just a bunch of kids that wanted to be in a band. But they practiced hard and learned. Not just learning to make music but learning who they were. That bit, the bit of learning themselves, learning their voice, was just as important as learning how to make music. One was learning the technical skills and the other was learning their specific art, their voice.

Skipping the history lesson, all of this lead to their first album, Boy. Boy and, later, October were received well critically, but they failed to achieve the kind of commercial success that they and Island Records wanted. They were making art, good art, but no one was seeing it. Well, hearing it. They wanted a #1 single, and they set about to get it. They wanted, in short, commercial success.

This is where a lot of people would say they "sold out." They let their desire to be commercially successful destroy their art. (Not that I know if anyone would actually say this about U2, but it would be said about a lot of other people in this position.) It's at this point that a lot of bands, writers, painters, artists of whatever stripe would have sold out. They would have looked around at what was popular and tried to mimic that, subverting their art into something that it wasn't in hopes of becoming popular so that "one day" they could return to what they really wanted to do.

U2 didn't do that. The used their desire for commercial success to drive them to become, well, to become more them. They didn't look around at what was popular in music and try to do that; they just kept pushing to get better. I look at it like what Michelangelo said about his sculpture David, (and this is a paraphrase) "I chipped away everything that wasn't David." I think U2 chipped away everything that wasn't U2 in becoming the band that released three #1 singles from The Joshua Tree. Certainly, they did not pattern themselves after  the things that were popular at the time as often what they were doing was at right angles to what everyone else was doing.

Often people look down on artists that want commercial success. It's as if the desire to be successful somehow makes them less. Makes them, in short, a sellout. Like it's a choice. You can either do art or you can be commercial. The truth is, though, that it's not a choice. Sure, so many of us think that it is that we frequently make it into a choice. For instance, the choice between writing a vampire/zombie novel (commercial) or writing about the long road trip through the desert (art).

The real problem is that too many people never figure out their specific art before trying to get the #1. They don't spend the time discovering their own voice so that they can become more of themselves when they're ready to reach for the goal of making their art a commercial success. Instead, they just strive for commercial success and leave their art behind hoping to go back to it one day.

The truth is that there doesn't have to be a choice. If you know your art, if you've spent time with it, learning it, discovering it, becoming it, when it comes time to achieve, you do that by becoming more "it." You chip away everything that's not "you," and you take your art along with you.

Yeah, yeah, I know, that doesn't guarantee that you get the #1. But, then, nothing guarantees that you get the #1. But, if you do, no one can call you a sellout, right? And you're still you. I think that's the key to all real success and to being happy in your success. The ability to become more of who you are, not becoming something you're not.

Learn your art. Become your art. Become more you.


I really wish I could give you my top 10 U2 songs or something, but I can't get it down to 10. I even like Pop and Zooropa, if that tells you anything. I'll think more about this one and, maybe, give you a top 10 countdown at some point.