Review Summary: If you begin by setting aside the hyperbole that accompanies any U2 activity (and your feelings about Bono's pompousness) and simply focus on the music, this is pretty good.
It’s rather a long time since U2 released anything essential, groundbreaking, or in any way innovative. It would be stretching the truth to say that
Songs of Innocence bucks that trend. Despite that, it is rather surprisingly splendid.
If you begin by setting aside the hyperbole that accompanies any U2 activity, accompany that thought by pretending that Bono isn’t one of the most irritating and pompous human beings on the planet, and simply focus on the music, you’ll find that this is amongst the best works U2 have ever produced. If a comparison is what you’re looking for, think
Joshua Tree/
Rattle and Hum rather than any of the more ‘recent’ misfiring works, and it’s all the better for it.
Bono (is anyone else in the band allowed to speak?) has described it as ‘the most personal album we've written.’ Certainly there is an intensity to the lyrics not found in the bands music for many a long year. Recollections of childhood, musical influence, grief and loss fight for space with thumping guitars and anthemic choruses, and whilst sometimes- as on ‘Sleep Like A Baby Tonight‘- they lose that battle, there is enough to maintain the interest of even those of us who don’t hang on the bands’ every word.
The lead single, ‘The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)' opens the album. A solid start, it isn't the best song you’ll find there, but it is a good indicator of what you’ll get if you continue listening. Crashing riffs, choral chanting- at times Chris Martin should be asking for a credit- it will leave you wanting more, and what comes next is even better. ‘Every Breaking Wave,’ ‘California‘ and ‘Song for Someone,’ the trio of tracks immediately following, are going to be adored by radio stations the world over; indeed if you’re re-reading this review twelve months after release there is every likelihood you’ll be sick to death of them by now. At this point, however, they’ll leave you tapping your feet, nodding your head or, in the case of the last one, waving a glowing e-cigarette in the air; surely nobody has a lighter anymore? I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For for the 21st Century.
The rest of the album doesn't quite reach these heights. It tries, and it has its moments, but it peaks rather early. That said, there is nothing that should leave you wanting to press the forward or back buttons, even less the off switch. The odd track- ‘This is Where You Can Reach Me Now‘ stands out- seems a little overproduced, but all in all the entire eleven song package is worthy of our time.
By force feeding the album free to everyone in the world who has an iTunes account, all half a billion of them, U2 demonstrate a shrewdness that sometimes they may not be credited with. Whilst this tactic has had a mixed reaction, with some apple customers protesting about an invasion of privacy (don’t worry, the band won’t get to see your nude photos in exchange), the truth is that many people who wouldn't have listened to their music - and let’s be fair, their commercial peak may have been thought to have passed - will now engage with an album that they wouldn't have bought in a million years. Given the quality of what’s being offered, that may lead to far more success for the band in the future, so as a marketing ploy it should serve them well.
