Dez Reviews U2's Songs of Innocence, 2014

First let's dispense with the circumstances of the release. As I posted Tuesday, I opened iTunes and saw a big ad for a new U2 record. I clicked it and the album was there, available for download for free. Since then, I am now aware that U2 was a part of Apple's annual 'Here's All of the Amazing Stuff That You Will Not Be Able to Live Without' convention. They performed their new single, and then announced, with typical Bono drama, that their new record was available on iTunes RIGHT NOW!!!!! For free! It is for the people! I heard that supposedly it was automatically added to everyone's iTunes library? Didn't happen with me, I had to click to download. If that was the case, I am less pleased that Apple and U2 decided that everyone wanted it in their library. Again, though, so U2, right? Of course all 12 gazillion iTunes users want the new U2 album. So we'll save you the trouble and just insert it in your library. I guess it is the next step in surprise releases. Bowie came out of retirement and announced a record coming out the next month. Beyonce put her record out one day without any warning. Now U2 does it and gives it away for free. They have been working on this record for several years (it was to be titled Songs of Ascent, but the sessions have been troubled, and most people did not expect a new record until next year).

ABOVE: Bono and The Edge unveiling their new record along with Apple's new phone and watch

Anyway, on to the actual music. This is unlike any other U2 record. It is far and away the most personal and autobiographical lyrically. Although all lyrics are credited to "Bono and The Edge," in many ways it feels like a solo Bono record. It is a loose concept album, and thematically comparable to The Who's Quadrophenia (if not comparable in grandeur and kick-assedness). Many of the songs explicitly deal with Bono's growing up and the early days of the band. "The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)" recalls the teenage U2 sneaking into a Ramones show in the late 70's that was supposedly a crucial moment in U2's early formation and bonding. (In a bittersweet irony, "The Miracle" is about U2 being born, in a sense, at a Ramone's show while it is a widely reported fact that the last song Joey Ramone listened to before drifting off into the Great Beyond was U2's "In a Little While"). "California (There Is No End To Love)" recalls U2's first visit to California on one of their first tours. "Song For Someone" is an ode to Bono's wife, whom he met as a teenager, while "Iris (Hold Me Close)" is about Bono's mother who died when he was also in his teens. The terse "Raised By Wolves" recalls a bombing in Dublin that occurred on a street that Bono traveled almost every day at the time, and "Cedarwood Road" shares the name of the street where Bono lived growing up.

To me, all of this would sound promising. Unfortunately, the music is a letdown. Where the hell is Edge? This is the least guitar that I have ever heard on a U2 album. I do admire that Edge strips away almost all of his effects and plays with a more straightforward sound than we've heard since War. But, there is precious little guitar, and more importantly, Edge-y textures, to be heard. Sonically, they do seem to be traveling that same road that they have been on since 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind. What was nice in 2000 has by 2014 gotten pretty formulaic and old. As one review that I read said, "the new U2 record is absolutely gorgeous and absolutely boring." Agree.

There are a couple of highlights. "Every Breaking Wave" and "California" have the modern U2 single sound down of soaring and melodic choruses, plenty of "woa woa's" that will translate nicely in arenas, crescendos of emotion in all the right spots. They sound like U2 trying to be The Killers, which makes sense, since The Killers really want to be classic U2. There is only one song that echoes the thrilling experimentation of the early to mid-90's, and that is the brooding "Sleep Like a Baby Tonight."

There are no bad songs here. But no truly great ones either. Each song flows into the next with those emotional swoops that U2 can by now do in their sleep. While I appreciate the personal lyrics here, there is no adventure or stretching in sound. You listen to it and it all sounds good and nice while you are listening, but then when it is over you cannot pick out any individual song that really stands out from the rest. It sounds like middle of the road Coldplay or Killers. I like Coldplay and Killers, even middle of the road Coldplay and Killers, but I've always expected more from U2.

By the way, in the files of the absurd: this is the second U2 record in a row that Rolling Stone magazine has given *****, their highest rating, stating that "...even by the standards of transformation on 1987's The Joshua Tree and 1991's Achtung Baby, Songs of Innocence...is a triumph of dynamic, focused renaissance..." Uh huh.

*** out of *****