Five years ago today: U2 released Songs of Experience

‘LOVE IS ALL WE HAVE LEFT’
“Nothing to stop this being the best day ever/ Nothing to keep us from where we should be/ I wanted the world but you knew better/ and that all we have is immortality.”
An eerie opener that sees Bono singing to his younger self, made all the more strange and poignant by the digital distortion of his vocals at midpoint. It is an intriguing way to open the album.

‘LIGHTS OF HOME’
“I shouldn’t be here cause I should be dead/ I can see the lights in front of me/ I believe my best days are ahead/ I can see the lights in front of me.”
The opening lines of ‘Lights of Home' reference the singer’s brush with his own mortality last year. L.A. rockers Haim assist on the chorus. Fascinatingly, the song’s main riff is lifted from their 2014 single ‘My Song 5’. A classic piece of U2 re-positioning, then...

‘YOU’RE THE BEST THING ABOUT ME’
“When you look so good/ the pain in your face doesn’t show/ When you look so good/ and baby you don’t even know.”
This is the first of two songs that are written with impressive directness about Bono’s wife, Ali Hewson. The first single from the album was apparently inspired by a disparaging comment onetime U2 biographer Eamon Dunphy made about the band’s lead singer: “The best thing about Bono is Ali.”

‘GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY’
“Love hurts/ Now you’re the girl who’s left with no words/ Your heart’s a balloon but then it bursts/ It doesn’t take a cannon just a pin/ Your skin’s no covering.”
Imagined as an open letter to Bono’s daughters, the latest single ends with a brilliant Kendrick Lamar “cracked preacher” rant segueing into the next track. The fact that the band have formed a mutual appreciation society with one of the most crucial figures in hip hop gives an effective two fingers to the naysayers.

‘AMERICAN SOUL’
“It’s not a place/ This country is to me/ a sound of drum and bass.”
This is not, needless to say, the first time U2 have written a song about America (nor is it the first time we've heard these particular lines - they featured in Kendrick Lamar's 'XXX.' track earlier this year). But, in a world distorted by Trump’s low rent presidency, its rousing chorus of “You are rock ‘n’ roll” ensures that this one is going to be a live favourite during next year’s Experience + Innocence Tour.

‘SUMMER OF LOVE’
“I’ve been thinking ‘bout the west coast/ Not the one that everyone knows/ In the rubble of Aleppo/ blooming in the shadows/ for a summer of love.”
This is a perfect way to follow a song about America. Hauntingly melodic and impassioned, ‘Summer of Love’ is the first of two tracks addressing the Syrian refugee crisis.

‘RED FLAG DAY’
“I am made of all that I’m afraid of/ Most afraid of losing you/ Hell’s the season/ You’re the reason/ That I even dreamt of getting through.”
This is an old school-sounding rocker that flashes back to U2’s mid-‘80s period – and will appeal to long-standing fans of the band in particular.

‘THE SHOWMAN (LITTLE MORE BETTER)’
“Baby’s crying cause it’s born to sing/ Singers cry about everything/ Still in the playground falling off a swing/ But you know that I know.”
Anyone who thinks that U2 take themselves too seriously hasn’t got a clue. This is a hugely self-deprecating snapshot of a rock ‘n’ roll star. Wonder who it could be…

‘THE LITTLE THINGS THAT GIVE YOU AWAY
“The night gave you a song/ A light had been turned on/ You walked out in the world/ like you belonged there.”
This haunting ballad is a serious grower. It was the only track from Songs of Experience that U2 played on The Joshua Tree Tour and I gave them stick for the fact that they closed their Dublin show with it. But here you can tell that it is one aster

‘LANDLADY’
“And I’ll never know/ never know what starving poets meant/ Cause when I was broke/ It was you that always paid the rent.”
Another impassioned love letter to Ali. It may be a long time since Bono was broke, but the truth is that – like most young rock ’n’ roll bands – U2 had to battle through a stage when very few people turned up for gigs and earning money was next-to-impossible. Could Bono have carried it off without Ali, who was earning a wage at the time? Either way this is his ‘thank you’ note.

‘THE BLACKOUT’
“Dinosaur wonders why it still walks the Earth/ Yeah, a meteor, promises it’s not gonna hurt, yeah.”
Some people might see this as the album’s ‘Bullet The Blue Sky’. One of the heavier-sounding songs on Songs of Experience, ‘The Blackout’ sees Bono addressing the political turmoil in the world: “Statues fall/ democracy is flat on its back, Jack.” Time to hit the road?

‘LOVE IS BIGGER THAN ANYTHING IN ITS WAY’
“If the moonlight caught you crying on Killiney Bay?/ Oh sing your song/ Let your song be sung/ If you listen you can hear the silence say/ When you think you’re done/ You’ve just begun.”
There is an element of introspection here. The sentiment is an optimistic one, despite an undercurrent of sadness. That said, the lyrics are harder to decipher than is most often true of U2. Clearly, Bono had some kind of late night epiphany on the beach in front of his house.

'13 (THERE IS A LIGHT)’
“I’ve got a question for the child in you before it leaves/ Are you tough enough to be kind?/ Do you know that your heart has its own mind?”
This is another classic U2 strategy, ending the album on a kind of hymnal note. Addressed to Bono’s sons, this beautiful album closer nods back to Songs of Innocence track ‘Song For Someone’. It is one that you can hear being sung by huge, stadium-sized crowds.