U2’s everlasting relevance

I recently found myself trying to experiment with new music, but just wasn’t getting hooked. So I turned to an old favourite band – U2 – whose recent music I hadn’t quite sampled yet, thanks to all the reviews. Except that I was pleasantly surprised listening to ‘Songs of Experience’. For the diehard U2 fans, it won’t sound terribly new or anywhere close to its career high points (obvs) but it does have its moments. It reminded me of ‘All that you can’t leave behind’. The song ‘Love is bigger than anything in its way’ happens to be my current favourite, not the least because at a time when cynicism is most in vogue, U2 sticks to its guns in spreading the message of love. It is quite moving, actually. 

The thing, though, is this. Despite the lack of edge in some of its recent music, this isn’t a band to shy away from talking about hard issues. I mean it’s been taking political stances forever. Consider ‘Ordinary Love’, which was a tribute to Mandela (and featured in the film by the same name) or ‘Walk On’ for the long house-arrested Myanmar leader Suu Kyi and some of its early songs like ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ which refer to political events in Northern Ireland.



Most recently, I was struck by the fact that even far more personal sounding songs like ‘With or without you’ can be given quite the spin. It’s a song that resonates with almost everyone for reasons that don’t even need elucidating, which also explains its eternal popularity.

But, for anyone who’s a fan of the TV series ‘The Americans’ (concluded in 2018), about deep cover Soviet spies living ostensibly as regular people in the US, the use of this song in the climax would be unmissable. Set in 1987 when the spies are being extracted from the US as the cold war nears its end, the song plays in the background as a reflection of their mind’s state and also shows how the other side isn't the same person who came into the situation either.

I’m sure it’s no coincidence that it’s in this year that the very song was ruling the airwaves. I haven’t seen some of the last seasons of the series, but was very curious to see how it ends and of course it’s there on YouTube, with the song used to most brilliant effect. It's in two parts, both of which are below.

My larger point is this: After my latest brush with U2’s music, I am now wondering if it can ever lose its relevance, popularity or not. Maybe we’ll forever keep circling back to its eternal themes. It’s not one of the biggest bands ever for no reason.

P.S. For anyone who might be interested, Bono has written a foreword to a book ‘The End of Poverty’, written by the economist Jeffrey Sachs, whose works I have admired a lot over the years. Is there ever a reason not to like U2?