First off, the Killing Bono OST contains only one U2 recording, ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’ (plus an early U2 song ‘Street Mission’ re-worked by Martin McCann and The Killing Bono early U2 incarnation, The Hype to no great point). The rest are written and performed by others, such as Joe Echo, Ivan McCormick and his brother Neil, the latter having written the book that inspired the film.
Tracks like ‘The Great Beyond’, sung by Ed Kowalski, and ‘Love Never Dies’ (with Echo’s vocal) capture the spirit of early U2. If anything, they arguably have a roundedness missing from much of U2’s earliest efforts. Echo, Ben Barnes and Robert Sheehan rip it up on ‘Do Anything You Wanna Do’, with its Stones-y cadences. The same bods turn in a decent reggaefied opus with ‘Better Way’, although since Dublin then was more Diceman that Rastaman, it’s hard to see where it fits historically. Stephen Warwick’s instrumental ‘Dublin’ adds touches of The Who; ‘Stop The World’ is all ‘80s synth pop, a fine example of what The McCormicks’ were capable of, had anybody cared enough. This collection deserves to be treated as a work in its own right, rather than as mere merch for the film foyer, and should appeal to more than just U2 completists.