Boy to men
A typically grand gesture: U2 revisit their songbook and rediscover themselves. By Tom Doyle.
U2 ★★★★
Songs Of Surrender
Peace attack: U2 (from left) Larry Mullen Jr, Adam Clayton, Bono, The Edge.
ISLAND. CD/DL/LP
FOR A BAND who’ve tended to avoid the past, U2 have turned to face it in recent years. There have, however, been certain self-imposed conditions. 2017’s The Joshua Tree revival tour sought to find the modern resonances in 30-year-old songs, and so again it proves here with this mammoth 40-track, “re-imagined” and re-recorded deep dive into their back catalogue – the idea being life-experienced perspectives on material that is sometimes more than four decades old.