U2 Hits Cruise Control On ‘Songs of Experience’ (ALBUM REVIEW)

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Music and politics has a weird relationship. Of that there is no doubt. Inextricably linked and invariably representative of the vast diversity inherent in both aspects of life, over the years music has worked as vehicle social and political change, a powerful tool of protest, a precious cultural asset and a controversial subject in its commodification within increasingly capitalist societies. Some view the two as necessarily connected, others wish they would have nothing to do with each other. To say U2 have flirted with politics over their career would be like saying James Bond has flirted with several women over the course of screen life – they’ve jumped in feet first and made no bones about it.

It’s something that has dominated latest record Songs of Experience, which was delayed after Donald Trump was elected president of the USA as the band had to “give ourselves a moment to think about the record and how it relates to what’s going on in the world…as I think you’d agree, the world is a now a different place.” It’s bold and understandable, but the trouble with overtly politicising, and then as a result delaying, a hugely anticipated release like this is you’d better make damn sure you have something interesting to say and have an interesting way of saying it. It’s something U2 have done very well in the past. The Joshua Tree, the band’s 1987 magnum opus which they have toured in full throughout this year, was a record that spoke to its time – and indeed to this one – as it expertly held up the injustices and inequalities of the world and framed them in pertinent questions of the existence, unity, desperation and futility of humanity. But most importantly, the music was excellent. Unfortunately for the veteran Irish rockers, on their latest release they don’t quite manage to achieve either.

The sister-album to 2014’s Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience suffers from many of the same pitfalls that snagged the band three years ago. Experienced they may be – and the quality of the production here is proof of that – but in the same way an uninspiring employee can climb the ranks through their ‘experience’, it unfortunately holds that experience can breed as much naivety as innocence. It’s not that these are particularly bad songs. This is U2 after all, they do know how to write. But Songs of Experience plays out somewhat as a series of modern trope-ridden pop tracks written by old men desperately searching for a radio hit, and as a result there is little sense of togetherness or inspiration through the record despite the thematic emphasis on that very idea. That may sound a little harsh, but some things are hard to ignore. Opener ‘Love is All We Have Left’ would hold up as a lovely enough U2 ballad were it not for a misguided auto-tuned vocal part that comes out of nowhere; while the radio-friendly pop catchiness of tracks like lead single ‘You’re the Best Thing About Me’ and ‘The Showman (Little More Better)’ ultimately come across as lesser versions of something that recent Coldplay or even One Direction would churn out with their shouted call-and-response choruses and simplistic pop-rock riffage.

U2’s attempts to remain contemporary are laudable, you can’t accuse them of holding onto past success as many of their still-active 80s peers have done, and it certainly sometimes works. The presence of Kendrick Lamar does no harm to one of the album’s early successes, ‘Get Out of Your Own Way’, which manages to grasp the inspirational tone and message the album seeks to reach even if it borrows more than a little from the success of ‘Beautiful Day’. Meanwhile ‘American Soul’ manages to restrain itself from turning into a preachy rehash of ‘Elevation’ with some interesting ideas. But in a way these comparisons sums up the issue. U2 sound best when they sound like U2 used to sound. The distinctive delay and reverb of The Edge’s classic sound are hugely welcome when they finally arrive on ‘The Little Things That Give You Away’ and U2 start to revert to type as it leads into ‘Landlady’, a lovely demonstration of the voice and songwriting of Bono of old. It’s when they attempt to modernise that U2 fall into the derivative and uninspired .

But if this is the ultimate flaw with the music, it’s the opposite affliction that haunts the message. The modern political climate might well reflect that of the Thatcher/Reagan era that early U2 stood against, but it crucially is affecting a very different generation who view the world in a very different way. It’s all well and good – admirable even – to sing about unity, togetherness and love being “all we have left” and “bigger than anything in its way”, but that’s a difficult thing for a disgruntled modern world to hold onto when it’s seen similar movements based on similar platitudes brushed aside by formidable and forbidding powers. You get the sense people are starting to feel that perhaps love isn’t in fact bigger than everything in its way and ultimately want something that digs deeper and gives them an idea to hold onto. It may all sound a bit cynical, and is intended as anything but, but expressions like “seeing the lights of home”, “being unafraid of what of what we fear” and “flowers blooming in the shadows of Aleppo” just lack the necessary bite or fight that captures the current mood in the way that other politically charged albums of this year, like Algiers Underside of Power or even Kendrick Lamar’s U2-assisted DAMN., have managed to.

Ultimately though, if U2’s greatest crime is being a bit too nice and sounding a little too much like themselves trying to be hip, it’s difficult to be too critical. There’s a reason U2 sell out stadiums around the world and Songs of Experience is a nice enough listen, with any ill-feeling seeming to stem from the idea that one of the world’s biggest bands is no longer making some of the world’s best music. Sure, it all feels a little like they’re driving on cruise control over ground they’ve well and truly driven over before – a factor that is a bit hard to swallow given the political circumstances of the record’s release that suggested more – but even U2 on cruise control provides a sure and steady ride and in that sense, these really are songs of experience.