Rating: 5/5 stars
On March 17, Irish rock band U2 (“Sunday Bloody Sunday”) released a huge album titled “Songs of Surrender,” comprising 40 tracks from the band’s discography selected by all four members.
It demands its listeners to really sit with each piece, getting to know each one all over again or, for the first time. It is best enjoyed in small doses rather than all at once. Each of the four members have their 10 chosen songs on their respective disks. If fans still cannot get enough, there are also 16 and 20-track physical versions to choose from.
It was the U2’s guitarist and backing vocalist, David Howell Evans, better known as The Edge, who first hatched the idea during 2021 to try re-recording some songs. Lead singer Bono released his memoir titled “Surrender” in November 2022 and named 40 chapters after different U2 songs. “Songs of Surrender” is meant to act as a sort of companion to the book.
The pandemic seemed to prompt a number of artists to turn inward and create and U2 was no exception. There have been many creations born from the peak of COVID-19 in varying styles, from Elton John (“The Lockdown Sessions”) to Danny Elfman (“Big Mess”). The Edge and Bono in particular decided to use that time to reflect on and revise songs.
With this colossal body of work, U2 is asking its audience to see them in a new and more mature light. In their early days they were young musicians trying to hit it big, playing faster paced loud numbers. But now in middle age, they have gone back and revisited their catalog to bring out a softer and more refined sound.
“There was also the thought that some of our early songs were recorded when we were very young men,” Edge said in a recent interview with Rolling Stone. “Bono as a singer had not really found his feet yet…Often Bono’s vocals or the melodies he was trying to sing were at the top of his range, that very intense part of his range.”
Their new, stripped-down version of “Beautiful Day” is even more goosebump-inducing than the original. Without the drums to dominate, Bono’s voice and thoughtful vocals have a chance to show their strength. It feels cinematic and very intimate, especially when he sings “Saw Adam asking Eve for pardon/it wasn’t a woman who threw God out of the garden.”
In a similar tone, “The Little Things That Give You Away” was reimagined to be solemn yet sweet. It tells a story in such poetic form that might otherwise go unnoticed against more powerful instrumentals. It is the kind of song one might enjoy playing as background music to sit on the floor and paint to.
The release comes after “Songs of Experience” which was dropped back in 2017. That may seem like a large gap in material, but for U2 it is not. They released material steadily between the two releases including videos for “American Soul” and “Love Is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way” amid touring in 2018.
A band reintroducing itself is not a radically new idea, but in the way that U2 has done it, it is a welcome gift to their fans both old and new. U2 is unique in that they have such an abundance of material to choose from, and yet they still have energy to create even more. The Edge confirmed to Rolling Stone that new material could be expected “as soon as possible.”
Image from U2 via Twitter
