Myusic in My Mind

OK, so I’ve been sitting on writing this damn post for more than a week now. Here’s the problem, I didn’t know what to say. I listened and listened and listened to U2′s latest disc waiting for it to hit me… and it never happened! I wanted my karaoke song. I wanted my anthem. I wanted my party starter. Instead, I got a good album of nice songs that are none of the above. Some attempt, for better or worse, but most are just the chill songs that U2 does well, but you rarely hear on the radio.

What’s most confounding, I suppose, is that so many articles cited “I’ll Go Crazy if I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” as that very song I was looking for. They said it would be the party song of the year. They said it was infectious and would be irrepressible. Honestly, I listen to that song and I wait for Bono to go crazy. I wait for that big hook that just never comes.

The title track is ok, but not especially memorable. It sounds a little like they’re trying to channel Coldplay. I like Coldplay and you can certainly argue that they’ve borrowed plenty from U2, but they needed to. U2 does not.

Probably the biggest crimes of this album are the marketing pushes for “Get on Your Boots” and “Magnificent.” Boots is just weird and twitchy. It strikes me that they were trying hard to make something that sounded unique, which only fuels that theory that they’re insanely jealous of Radiohead. I don’t know if I really buy that rumor, but I do know they made a weird for the sake of weird song. And “Magnificent” just isn’t. For a band with the pop prowess of U2, you’d have to be quite magnanimous to describe that song as “Magnificent.” Average would suffice.

Now, just to make sure it doesn’t seem like I hated the album, because I did not, here’s what I liked. “Moment of Surrender” would work on any of their great albums. Not as a radio song, but as a strong supporting track.

My favorite moment, though, comes about 4:30 into “Unknown Caller.” The stilted verses stop and an organ hits, straight out of Arcade Fire’s “Neon Bible.” From there, it enters a groove with some Sgt. Pepper’s horns, followed by a guitar melody that would have fit on one of Bruce Springsteen’s recent two albums. Stay with me. From there, The Edge launches into a solo that sounds like a Bruce solo, to be honest, but is better. It’s better, because he’s a better guitarist.

That moment saves the album for me. It makes me come back for more, over and over, looking for more moments like that. I’m not sure there are many more of them there, but I will say this: the biggest U2 fan I know swears by No Line on the Horizon. If you love the band, take his word over mine.