U2 surprised everyone when the group suddenly dropped its 13th studio album Songs of Innocence on September 9, free, exclusively on iTunes. The band from Dublin, Ireland came together back in 1976 and has since sold 150 million records worldwide.
The legendary group consists of lead singer Bono (Paul Hewson), guitarist and keyboardist The Edge (David Evans), drummer Larry Mullen Jr., and bass guitarist Adam Clayton.
The lyrics on the album, written by Bono and The Edge, are very philosophical and poetic. The main focus is on love and societal ills.
The second track on the album is “Every Breaking Wave.” It is a pretty mellow piece in which love is compared to the sea, capable of being friend or foe. It would seem the waves are supposed to represent the heart which break on the sand, one after the other. The singer asks if we are so helpless, getting carried away in love with the tide.
The following song is a beautiful-sounding piece entitled “California.” Bono says in the song that we should get out and experience love because there is no end to it. He knows this because there is no end to grief. Santa Barbara, California is used as part of a metaphor in which the sun is love, and Barbara is the love interest’s name.
Bono sings, “California—the blood orange sunset brings you to your knees,” being crushed by the fact that love is ending. But just when we have thought that love is gone forever, the dawn surprises us.
“Iris (Hold Me Close)” is the fifth track and is a pleasant work. It is about him living in the darkness of a broken heart for a thousand years until a woman named Iris comes into his life. There is something in her eyes that he recognizes. She is familiar, as though he has met her before. He tells her, “I’ve got your life inside of me” and that he dreams to find her.
The sixth song “Volcano” speaks about a life with edginess, spontaneity, and wildness, as if it’s long vacation. He compares this life to standing on ground above a volcano ready to blow.
U2 compares society to wolves in “Raised By Wolves,” or people being no better than wolves. The singer wonders how there can be mass murders among human beings, and how religion can justify hate.
Bono, at several points, cries out, “I don’t believe anymore,” as if he has given up on the benefits of religion, or maybe on the uprightness civilized society.
The eighth track on the eleven-track album, “Cedarwood Road,” is a cool and slick tune about a friend rescuing Bono from fear. Bono also reminisces on his teen years on Cedarwood, how his fear caused him to need an enemy, and that sometimes fear is the only place we can call home.
In all, U2’s Songs of Innocence is a good album. There is a range of different moods and tempos. The band has been together for nearly 40 years, and there is no end in sight.
Dahnje Marceo
Staff Writer
dmarceo@ucmerced.edu