Originally posted by Billboard > Link
Had Apple not been readying the launch of its new iPhone 6, U2 might have had to invent the thing itself. In a bold move only this band could pull off, Bono and the gang hijacked the tech giant's Sept. 9 unveiling and announced the release -- free to all 500 million iTunes users -- of their 13th studio album, an 11-song set five years in the making. Songs of Innocence is a colossal-sounding record from rock's ultimate stadium wreckers, and a quick listen reveals why no other marketing strategy would have worked.
In interviews accompanying the surprise release, Bono and guitarist the Edge cited some of their boyhood heroes as major influences on the record. The opening track, a heavily processed rocker called "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)," is an almost comically reverent tribute to the Ramones, while "This Is Where You Can Reach Me" is a kind of howling, skanking disco-punk homage to the Clash. If U2's hearts and minds are in the '70s, though, its instruments are plugged into whatever electronic doohickeys modern-day disciples (Imagine Dragons, Coldplay, the Killers, etc.) use to mimic their spacey grandiosity.
Not that anyone who's been following U2's trajectory for the last 30 years should have been expecting a return to the pointy post-punk of early albums like Boy (1980) and October (1981). Instead, the foursome saves the nostalgia for the lyrics. "California (There Is No End to Love)," a more blustery version of the synthed-out rock that producer Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton makes with his side project Broken Bells, deals with the band's first trip to Los Angeles. "Cedarwood Road" -- another Bells-y cut whose falsetto backing vocals might as well belong to that duo's singer, James Mercer -- is all about the Dublin street where Bono grew up.
The closest U2 comes to marrying throwback sounds with sentimental lyrics is "Iris (Hold Me Close)," written for Bono's mother, who died when the singer was 14. Here, the Edge's signature '80s-era refracted-light riffage, not to mention bass and piano accents reminiscent of 1983's "New Year's Day," are good fits for lines like, "Hold me close and don't let me go" -- pleas Bono delivers with taste and restraint.
Elsewhere, U2 serves up tastefully restrained rocking of a more modern variety. On tunes about IRA car bombings ("Raised by Wolves"), youthful anger (the sludgy, bass-driven standout "Volcano") and the hopeful dreams of common men ("Sleep Like a Baby Tonight"), the group tweaks the sound of its last three albums just enough to prove its been paying attention, and to up the ante for the next crop of imitators.
"Are we ready to be swept off our feet?" Bono asks on "Every Breaking Wave," a song that's neither a tsunami nor a ripple. It's one U2 might play live just before "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," and unless Apple has some super amazing new apps up its sleeve, it -- like so much of Songs of Innocence -- is strong enough to keep fans from messing with their iPhones.
Three best songs: "Volcano," "This Is Where You Can Reach Me," "Iris (Hold Me Close)"
U2
Songs of Innocence
Producers: Danger Mouse, Declan Gaffney, Paul Epworth, Ryan Tedder, Flood
Score: 4 of 5 stars
Originally posted by Toronto > Link
Act globally, think locally.
If anybody can pull that one off, it’s U2. And so they have. On Tuesday afternoon, the biggest band on the planet executed what could be the biggest album release in history, giving away their 13th disc Songs of Innocence free to an estimated 500 million iTunes users. (For those who still want something to hold in their hands, the CD and vinyl versions come out Oct. 13.)
That should satisfy the rest of the world. But remarkably, U2 also seem to be interested in satisfying themselves with Songs of Innocence. The 48-minute, 11-track disc is far and away the band’s most personal work in years. As its title suggests, it’s something of a loose concept album based on reminiscence, recall and regret — there are songs celebrating influences from Joey Ramone and Joe Strummer; songs that honour Bono’s mother and close family friends; songs that recall their tough youth in the streets of Northern Ireland amid the Troubles. Musically, it also feels more intimate, with softer edges, more keyboards and strings, stronger melodies and some buffed textures from superstar producer Danger Mouse (one of several studio rats employed on the tracks). At its heart, though, it remains a U2 album, full of soaring choruses, heartfelt emotions and songs that aim high — and usually hit the mark.
Here’s a quick spin through the album:
The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone) | 4:15
Bono and co. open the disc by paying tribute to one of their earliest influences. The bouncy stomp-beat behind the song is more glam than punk, but Edge’s jagged power chords make up for it.
TELLING LINE: “I woke up at the moment when the miracle occurred / Heard a song that made some sense out of the world.”
Every Breaking Wave | 4:12
It starts with softly chugging midtempo ripples, then crashes up into a big romantic anthem that ebbs and flows accordingly — and sports some water imagery to get the lyrical job done.
TELLING LINE: “If you go your way and I go mine, are we so helpless against the tide.”
California (There Is No End to Love) | 4:00
A seaside theme continues — and adds a dash of Beach Boys surf-pop — as Bono sings of love and loss while the band gently rocks and Danger Mouse adds squiggles.
TELLING LINE: “I’ve seen for myself / There’s no end to grief / And that’s how I know … that there is no end to love.”
Song for Someone | 3:47
But not just anyone, clearly. Bono addresses a lover in another romantic outing, while the band switches between plucked acoustic-guitar verses and rich soaring choruses.
TELLING LINE: “You’ve got eyes that can see right through me / You’re not afraid of anything they’ve seen.”
Iris (Hold Me Close) | 5:19
Bono honours his mother with a truly moving lyric, while Edge’s signature guitar clang and Larry Mullen’s snare-heavy beat make this the most U2-like song of the disc so far.
TELLING LINE: “I’ve got your life inside of me.”
Volcano | 3:14
Adam Clayton’s bassline powers a tense low-rocker that rumbles along solidly — and features some fine twangy licks from Edge — but never quite delivers a full-scale eruption.
TELLING LINE: “Something in you wants to blow.”
Raised By Wolves | 4:06
One of two tunes that reference Northern Ireland’s Troubles, this stylishly produced track balances understated piano and tom-toms with brash guitars and grim lyrics.
TELLING LINE: “Blood in the house, blood on the street, the worst things in the world are justified by belief.”
Cedarwood Road | 4:25
Not all the streets have no name. Bono goes home again, recalling his hardscrabble youth while Edge’s low-neck riff and a solid rhythmic punch make this the album’s heaviest song.
TELLING LINE: “It was a war zone in my teens / I’m still standing on that street.”
Sleep Like a Baby Tonight | 5:02
Underscored with pulsing synthesizers and topped with strings and a ringing melody, this slow-burner has a lulling quality — until Edge’s buzzy guitar riff and Bono’s bleak lyrics break the spell.
TELLING LINE: “It’s a dirty business, dreaming / Where there is silence and not screaming.”
This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now | 5:05
It’s dedicated to The Clash’s Joe Strummer — who would approve of the musical polyglot that blends wah-wah reggae guitar and a four-on-the-floor beat with a bassline worthy of Paul Simonon.
TELLING LINE: “If you won’t let us in your world / Your world just isn’t there.”
The Troubles | 4:46
Last but far from least, the mandatory closing ballad boasts strings, guest vocals from Swedish singer Lykke Li, plenty of emotion from Bono and some piercing guitar tones from Edge.
TELLING LINE: “Somebody stepped inside your soul / Little by little they robbed and stole.”
darryl.sterdan@sunmedia.ca
Originally posted by Independent.ie > Link
Bono, glittering Edge solos, mid-tempo ballads that hum with spiritual yearning – devotees may be pleased to know U2 have dived into their wardrobe of cliches and emerged with arms full. Not since 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind have U2 sounded so fully comfortable with the idea of being U2.
Throughout Songs Of Innocence, the quartet's 30 year catalogue is rifled shamelessly. The cloud scraping 'woah-oah-oah' of The Miracle of (Joey Ramone), which kicks the LP off, has tinges of early 2000s hit Elevation; the processed grandiosity of California (There Is No End To Love) suggests a missing outtake from How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.
U2 were rumoured to have pulled the album's release date in March, fearful the project lacked a knock-out hit (they were stung when Get On Your Boots, the lead single from No Line On The Horizon, flopped in 2009). They appear to have remedied that issue by hooking up with producer and songwriter Ryan Tedder on Song For Someone, a brash, buoyant radio clarion call that, as it achieves escape velocity, practically explodes from the subwoofer (even if, as will be the case for many, your first experience of listening to the album is on tinny computer speakers ).
But though U2 are self-evidently eager to continue their reign as world's biggest band – a title increasingly under threat from younger acts such as Coldplay, The Killers and Arcade Fire – Songs Of Innocence is about looking back as much as forward. Bono, especially, seems to be wrestling with growing older, and his changing relationship with the past. On Raised By Wolves and Cedarwood Road he ruminates on his upbringing on the Northside of Dublin ( there are further Irish references on soulful closer, The Troubles ,with backing warblings from Sweden's Lykke Li). The chiming Iris (Hold Me Close) will, for its part, be interpreted as a valentine to his mother (for whom, one assumes, it is named).
With its ghostly, glittering groove Iris is one of several tracks where the influence of producer Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton can be detected. Burton was originally due to oversee the entire record. However, following the release push back in spring, U2 returned to tried and trusted collaborators such as Mark Ellis (aka Flood) and engineer Declan Gaffney as well as Adele producer Paul Epworth and the aforementioned Tedder. Together they have concocted a grandiose, in places slightly ridiculous LP, richly provisioned with thumping riffs, histrionic vocals and Technicolor choruses. Recoiling from the monochrome bombast of No Line On The Horizon, U2's 13th album is their most unrestrained in quite a while – it may well be one of their finest too.
Originally posted by NY > Link
With ‘Songs of Innocence,’ U2 Recasts Its Youth
Memories are a blast on “Songs of Innocence,” the album that U2 released on Tuesday afternoon as a worldwide giveaway. With a title that echoes William Blake, the album is a blast of discoveries, hopes, losses, fears and newfound resolve in lyrics that are openly autobiographical. It’s also a blast of unapologetic arena rock and cathedral-scale production, equally gigantic and detailed, in the music that carries them.
The immediate news was that “Songs of Innocence” (Interscope) can be downloaded free until Oct. 13 by everyone with an iTunes Store account: half a billion people in 119 countries. (Physical and digital versions of the album go on sale Oct. 14.) The giveaway is a dream scenario for U2, a band that has always wanted everyone to feel its choruses and sing along. Apple has made distribution the easy part; the bigger challenge for U2 is to make people care about a new statement from a familiar band.
During its five years between albums, U2, which released its first recording in 1979, publicly pondered how to stay relevant. Its solution, on “Songs of Innocence,” is to reimagine its young, retrospectively innocent selves and recall what fired them up: family, neighbors, lovers, street action and of course, music. Liner notes by Bono, the band’s lead singer and main lyricist, fill in many of the back stories, describing the songs as “first journeys.”
There are tributes to Joey Ramone, whose example showed Bono how to sing melodically but feel punk, and to Joe Strummer of the Clash, whose social consciousness inspired U2. In other songs, traumas are as significant as joys. “Songs of Innocence” includes “Raised By Wolves,” about a terrorist car bombing in Dublin in 1974 and its aftermath; “Sleep Like a Baby Tonight,” a prettily sinister depiction of a pedophile priest; and a nostalgia-defying song about “Cedarwood Road,” the Dublin street where Bono grew up. In the song he calls it “a war zone in my teens.”
The music on “Songs of Innocence” doesn’t hark back to the open spaces of early U2; it exults in multitrack possibilities. But it connects emotionally to a time when, as Bono sings in “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone),” “I wanted to be the melody/Above the noise, above the hurt/I was young/Not dumb.”
As U2 worked on the album, producers came and went, including some now-vanished flirtations with dance-music hitmakers and the back-to-basics guru Rick Rubin. Of U2’s longtime production brain trust — Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Steve Lillywhite, Flood — only Flood has a few credits on “Songs of Innocence.” Instead, the album credits Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley, Broken Bells) as overall producer, with frequent collaborations from Paul Epworth (Adele) and Ryan Tedder (OneRepublic). And U2 sticks decisively to rock.
Clearly determined to compete for radio play with the many younger rockers who studiously emulate U2, most of the album puts a higher gloss, and sometimes a heavier fuzz tone, on the band’s instantly recognizable sound. The music is still defined by Bono’s buttonholing vocals, the Edge’s echoing guitars, Adam Clayton’s brawny bass lines and the steadfast march beats of Larry Mullen Jr. on drums. But there’s a newly eruptive sense of dynamics in these tracks; when the band assembles a celestial vocal choir or a gorgeous swirl of guitars and keyboards, a pummel or a distorted roar is rarely far behind.
U2 also makes clear its sense of history. The first verse of the Joe Strummer tribute, “This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now,” looks back to the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” before switching to a Clash beat. An homage to the Beach Boys — a chorale of vocal harmonies and then a surf-tinged beat — runs through “California (There Is No End to Love),” a song about U2’s first visit to Los Angeles and broader thoughts. “There’s no end to grief,” Bono sings. “That’s how I know/And why I need to know there is no end to love.”
The songs ground philosophical musings and high-flown imagery in concrete reminiscences and events. “The star that gives us light has been gone a while/But it’s not an illusion,” Bono declares in “Iris (Hold Me Close),” which memorializes Bono’s mother, Iris Hewson, who died in 1974. It has the album’s most poignant chorus: “Hold me close,” he sings, “I’ve got your light inside of me.”
Conscious of mortality and tied to personal stories, most of U2’s new songs don’t sell themselves to teenagers like the generalized pop anthems of current U2 imitators (including Mr. Tedder’s OneRepublic) or, for that matter, the 1980s U2 that came up with songs like “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” Even the album’s two most direct songs about romance, with sturdy melodies and straightforward buildups — “Song for Someone,” about meeting a soul mate, and “Every Breaking Wave,” about a looming breakup — are tinged with misgivings and ambivalences. U2 can’t return to innocence, and knows it.
The album’s closing song, “The Troubles,” moves abruptly away from glimpses of volatile youthful aspirations to envision lingering adult disillusion. The arrangement moves U2 considerably closer to Danger Mouse’s songs with Broken Bells. Over minor chords backed by a string section, a guest vocal by the Swedish pop singer Lykke Li warns, “Somebody stepped inside your soul,” and Bono follows up: “You think it’s easier to put your finger on the trouble/When the trouble is you.” It’s a dark postscript, a reminder that growing up doesn’t resolve youth’s contradictions; it brings sorrows of its own.
Originally posted by 411mania.com > LINK
U2 - Songs of Innocence Review
Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 09.10.2014
U2 has surprised the world by releasing their new album Songs of Innocence for free on iTunes! But is it worth your time to download? 411's Jeremy Thomas checks in with his full review!
It's safe to say that no one outside of a very select circle expected to be listening to new U2 music today. The rock icons have been working on their follow-up to 2009's No Line on the Horizon for a while now and there was some speculation earlier this year whether we would even be getting a new album by the end of 2014. The band held steadfast to their claim that their new album would be released this year though and on Tuesday they delivered on that promise in spectacular fashion. Songs of Innocence was unveiled and released free to iTunes users following Apple's iPhone and Apple Watch media event, making the album available to millions at no cost. (A physical release will follow on October 14th.) The release is a moment that actually manages to outshine Beyonce's impromptu album release last December, one-upping the queen of R&B with the no-cost strategy.
But headline-grabbing business aspects aside, there's still an important question to be answered: how good is it? U2 has always been a band that marches to their own beat and comes in cycles. The group has a tendency to come back big and then go off on experimental methods, for which results will vary from fan to fan. No Line was less well-received than their previous two efforts by critics and fans both. With a five-year layoff marking the longest time between albums for the band yet, one might expect that Songs of Innocence might represent a new anthemic effort along the lines of The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby and All That You Can't Leave Behind. Innocence doesn't take hold of the high bar set by those LPs, but it does represent a bit of a return to form for the group.
To be fair to the band however, it doesn't sound like an attempt to reach those heights. There is a certain level of insecurity that you tend to find in musical acts. The conventional wisdom is that you're only as good as your last album, but U2 has been around long enough to buck that mantra. Instead of trying to create instantly iconic songs, the band has decided to look to their past and find a new connection with, appropriately enough, the innocence of their early days. There's a lot of their 1980s work that you can hear in the album's sound, while Bono and The Edge's lyrics speak back to their younger years. On opening track "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)," Bono sings about the joy of discovering music through the titular rock icon with lines like "I woke up at the moment when the miracle occurred/heard a song that made some sense out of the world." The song, produced by Danger Mouse and Ryan Tedder, sounds on first listen like an attempt to one-up their successors like The Killers and even Fall Out Boy with a tribal voice between chorus and verse. But the anthemic rock song is something that U2 are the unheralded masters of and at moments when the chorus expands out or Edge fires off a show-stopping riff, it's clear that they're following in no one's footsteps but their own.
The nostalgia takes a much more overt tone musically on "Every Breaking Wave," which sounds like it could have easily come from The Unforgettable Fire or perhaps Joshua Tree. With a melancholy opening riff that sounds like a close descendant of "With Or Without You," the song still manages to stand on its own with a more current feel. The lyrics are actually less nostalgic than the sound; instead of looking back, it handles more universal themes of long-term relationships and the futility of trying to chase that next new thing. It relies quite a bit on the wave metaphor but it holds together and the classic sound of the instrumentation nicely complements Bono's vocals. It's a fantastic effort, saved from the period just after No Line and given an impressive rework. It also flows very nicely into "California (There is no End to Love)," which summons to mind the Beach Boys with its "Ba, ba, Barbara, Santa Barbara" fade-in. It's a light reference though and quickly disposed of so it can go on its own into the album's first real great song. This is the kind of mid-tempo anthem that we've come to expect from U2 when they're really on top of their game.
U2 isn't just about the anthems here, though. Part of looking back means that you remember the quieter times as well as the momentous ones, and the teasingly-titled "Song for Someone" is one of the former. It's a retrospective tale of new love healing a wounded soul with the right arrangement to inspire a thousand lighters in the air (or cell phones these days, I suppose). The breakdown toward the end features a simple but inspired riff by The Edge that resonates particularly nicely. The album trips up a little bit on "Iris (Hold Me Close)," a song that just sounds a little too much like the band is going through the motions. It doesn't sound bad but musically it's uninspired and the lyrics are a bit too Chris Martin-esque to really work in a U2 song.
Fortunately the album gets right back on track on "Volcano," a handclap-punctuated sludgy rocker that sees Bono hitting those upper reaches of his register to good effect. And on "Raised By Wolves," the group contributes their most overtly political track to the song. With ominous whispers and huffs punctuating the background, Bono references a 1974 IRA car bombing and sings, "Blood in the house, blood on the street/worst things in the world are justified by belief." It's a powerful track and shows that for all that people complain about Bono's arrogance, he (and they) can still deliver a knockout rock song with a message.
If the last third of the album doesn't quite hold up to the middle, it's still quite good. From the abrasive gristle of "Cedarwood Road" to the funk-laced edge of "This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now," the album closes out on a strong trajectory right into the etheric "The Troubles," which subtly references the IRA/UK conflict that inspired the song's name. The only dip in the final third is "Sleep Like a Baby Tonight," which tries to touch on the band's best-forgotten electronica era of to Pop and Europa to minimal effect.
Standout Tracks: "Every Breaking Wave," "California (There is no End to Love)," "Song For Someone," "Volcano," "Raised By Wolves"
Skippable: "Iris (Hold Me Close)"
The 411: Most people will be talking about U2's Songs of Innocence in terms of the surprising nature of its release strategy. But what people should be talking about—and what may be unfortunately lost in the Beyonce comparisons—is how good of an album it is. The band isn't aiming to make their best work here but they really come close to the heights of The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby, or at least The Unforgettable Fire. While the album's legacy may be in its Apple branding and free release, many of the songs deserve to be powering U2 setlists for years to come.
411 Elite Award
Final Score: 8.5 [ Very Good ]
Originally posted by germcevoy:Just don't read the comments.
