Erasing the muscular power of an amplified rock combo, Edge explores ways to let other elements shine. SOS was conjured up during pandemic lockdown by the band’s gifted multi-instrumentalist The Edge. It is such altered perspectives that make this measured, inventive, introspective collection so compelling, as U2 turn their own songs inside out in search of new nuances and meanings. “You can hold onto something so tight, you’ve already lost it,” Bono growls. Thirty years on, Bono himself might embody that father figure fretting about the passage of time, while his own son, Eli Hewson, leads out thrilling young rock combo Inhaler. Stripped down for voice and cello, Dirty Day from 1993’s Zooropa becomes a cracked rumination on mortality, so that when Bono whispers about how “days run away like horses over the hill” you wonder if he is reflecting on his own shrinking horizons?īack when the song was composed, Bono was 34 and addressing his own distant father. Sixty-two-year-old frontman Bono’s recent autobiography was also titled Surrender, and opened with an account of heart surgery that saved his life in 2016. Rather, it is made up of re-recorded (or in marketing parlance “re-imagined”) versions of 40 tracks spanning U2’s career, a mixture of hits and signature anthems (Pride, One, Beautiful Day, Vertigo) with off-beat selections including a beautifully sombre reading of 1995 ballad If God Will Send His Angels and 2014’s The Miracle (of Joey Ramone) revitalized with a jazzy swing built for cocktail bars rather than stadiums.Īge catches up with everybody in the end, even leather-trousered rock stars. SOS is billed as U2’s 15th studio album, yet does not actually feature any new songs.

But here they are, all in their 60s, breaking out acoustic guitars, dropping keys and tempos for Songs of Surrender, an album where even the initials might imply a cry for help. Are U2 ready to wave the white flag and give up bragging rights to be the greatest rock band in the world? The Irish quartet have been a vital force for over 40 years, from sparky new wave crusaders to imperial giants of sci-fi stadium rock.

Black linkedin logo