You've read it and heard it many times before: I'm Roger, and this is U2. We're the same age, and we've grown up together. These Irishmen unwittingly wrote lengthy portions of the soundtrack of my life, most prominently as accompanying my European travels. I'm an unreconstructed fan. Did anyone believe I wouldn't have a new U2 album in the top five?
You see, when you've grown up with something like this, your separate narratives eventually blend together. I'm only able to be as objective about U2 as I am about myself, and while my sense of self is fairly well formed at this point, there are inevitable blind spots.
The "free" release of Songs of Innocence was controversial, and reviews have oscillated wildly. I imagine the chats:
Critic: How dare they force me to accept free music.
Roger: #firstworldproblems
C: How dare U2 reinforce the scandal of unpaid musicians.
R: Well, actually they did get remunerated by Apple.
C: Exactly -- paid by Apple. See, fatally compromised by corporate ties.
R: Okay, you've got me on that one.
C: I have big problems with Bono's ego.
R: Old news; everyone does at this point ... but The Edge is forever cool.
C: Worst of all, it still sounds like U2.
R: Isn't that what it's supposed to sound like?
And so on, and so forth. But the net result is that everyone was talking about U2 ... and it doesn't require the reincarnation of PT Barnum to grasp the impact of "free" publicity.
Of the album reviews I've read, Irving Tan's at Sputnik Music comes closest to my personal point of view. It's all about the strength of the songs, and there are some good ones here.
Even after taking all of those weaknesses into consideration, the fact remains that Songs of Innocence ultimately feels like a crucial upswing in U2’s discography, especially since it comes at such a late stage in their careers. Now, I imagine that it will be rather difficult to make any sort of proper commentary on the strength of the commercial response to this album, given that most of us have already received it for a sum total of zero cents, but if nothing else, it is worth noting that U2 have contrived to put out a record that is capable of reviving the flagging levels of interest in their brand. In other words, this is the kind of album that could just make you believe in their legacy all over again.
One crucial aspect of the legacy to which Tan refers is this.
U2 are an outfit whose entire career arc has been defined by their ability to respond to periods of strife.
Once again, at the present time I resemble that remark. No Lines on the Horizon, U2's previous album, landed as Bank Street Brewhouse opened for business in 2009. Songs of Innocence comes a few months after we shuttered the kitchen, and I began brainstorming a different path forward.
"We wanted to make a very personal album," said Bono to Rolling Stone's Gus Wenner the day before Apple Live. "The whole album is first journeys – first journeys geographically, spiritually, sexually. And that's hard. But we went there." When viewed through that prism, U2’s thirteenth album represents a complete turnaround in the band’s compositional philosophy; the perfect antithesis to albums like Achtung Baby or Zooropa.
Art and commerce; bands and pubs. Aligned, yet again.
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