This surprise release from U2 is a 6 track (5 songs, 1 poem) EP which arrives ahead of a forthcoming album proper. Bono has said these tracks “couldn’t wait”, and you can see why. U2 have always been political - often to the dismay of detractors or even their own band members - and while they have sometimes bounced away from that into pure escapist pop-rock or introspection (as on their last couple of albums Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience), they remain most powerful as a group when they channel rage into songs.
No, these songs couldn’t wait, not with the world they way it is, and not with the way Bono is. And this EP entirely justifies this. What’s interesting about these divisive times is the silence that now habitually rings out in artistic communities where any action receives an equal, or more vociferous, reaction. There’s too much to lose for many, or it’s too much hassle, or too uncontrollable. While plenty of artists are willing to make public (ie social media) statements in support of one cause or another, very few are actually building it into their music, instead taking up the stance Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead recently voiced, that, “music and art should be above and beyond political concerns.”
