Songs of Experience (2018)
1. Love is All We Have Left 2. Lights of Home 3. You're the Best Thing About Me 4. Get Out of Your Own Way 5. American Soul 6. Summer of Love 7. Red Flag Day 8. The Showman (Little More Better) 9. The Little Things That Give You Away 10.Landlady 11.The Blackout 12.Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way 13.13 (There is a Light) 14.Ordinary Love (Extraordinary Mix) 15.Book of Your Heart
Intended as a companion piece to 2014’s Songs of Innocence, U2’s follow-up, Songs of Experience, arrives with the weight of expectation and the shadow of its predecessor looming large. Unfortunately, it shares many of the same flaws. Once again, a strong set of songs is undercut by flat production and a curious sense of restraint. The band sounds like it’s operating with the handbrake on—aware of its legacy, perhaps too aware, and unwilling to take the kind of creative risks that once defined their best work.
Gone are the grand gestures, the sonic curveballs, the artistic gambles. What we’re left with is an album that feels… careful. And for a band that once thrived on the edge of reinvention, careful can be dangerous territory. The release, in contrast to the Apple debacle of the previous album, was refreshingly low-key. No surprise digital drops. No unsolicited appearances in music libraries. The band, stung by the backlash from Songs of Innocence’s rollout, opted for a more traditional approach. There was talk that the album had been finished a year earlier, only to be reworked in light of “changing global circumstances.” But there’s little evidence of seismic commentary or daring revisionism in the final product. If there were grand intentions, they’ve been muted in the mix.
That’s not to say the material is weak—far from it. There are glimpses of brilliance scattered throughout. Love Is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way carries emotional weight, The Little Things That Give You Away builds with quiet grace, and Lights of Home attempts something darker and more brooding. But even at their best, these songs rarely leap from the speakers. They linger. They float. What they don’t do—what they used to do—is ignite.
The production is again a recurring issue. Much of the album bleeds together, with tracks washing into one another when they should stand apart. Summer of Love and Red Flag Day, sequenced back-to-back, are virtually indistinguishable beyond a slight tempo shift. Likewise, 13 (There Is a Light) revisits Song for Someone from the last album, to diminishing effect. The thematic callback may have been intended as cyclical, but it lands more like repetition.
It’s all deeply professional, of course. No band this seasoned could make an outright bad album at this stage. But Songs of Experience reveals a group leaning more on craft than inspiration. For a band that once followed The Joshua Tree with Achtung Baby—a reinvention of sound, style, and spirit—this album feels less like evolution and more like maintenance.
Ironically, U2’s boldest years were their most polarizing. Fans didn’t know what to expect, and the band seemed to thrive on that tension. Now, with experience comes predictability. The songwriting is still strong. The lyrics, often deeply personal, remain earnest. But the spark—the sense that anything could happen—is in short supply.
Perhaps what’s needed is precisely what once alarmed critics and thrilled fans: a shake-up. Something strange. Something jarring. Something that pushes the band out of its comfort zone. Because if Songs of Innocence was about memory, and Songs of Experience about reflection, then perhaps the next chapter needs to be about disruption.
U2 hasn’t lost its talent. But it may have temporarily misplaced its sense of daring.