Songs of Experience by U2

Songs of Experience is U2's 2017 album, the companion to Songs of Innocence and the work of a band well into its later years. Built partly as letters to family, friends, and the world, it looks back over a long road with hard-won warmth. I came to it for that sense of an older voice taking stock, and it held me.

Why listen?

The sound is polished and full, big choruses set against quieter, more searching turns. The production is bright and modern, the Edge's guitar woven through layered keys. The lyrics speak of mortality, love, and the state of a troubled world, written by men who have seen much. There is a real sense of journey here, the record weighing what lasts against what fades. It rewards a patient, whole listen.

Favourite song: The Little Things That Give You Away

A slow, aching song about the small signs that reveal a person, building to one of the band's best late choruses. It lands with real weight.

It's the little things that give you away
The words you cannot say
Your big mouth in the way
It's the little things that tease and betray

The way the song notices the quiet tells that show who someone really is, then turns that gaze inward, is its lasting strength. It reminds me of walking beside an old friend and reading their mood from the set of their shoulders, no words needed. The song says we are known by our smallest habits, and that has stayed with me.

Key takeaway

Songs of Experience is a warm, reflective late-career record best heard whole. A gentle recommendation.

Tracklist

• Love Is All We Have Left
• Lights of Home
• You're the Best Thing About Me
• Get Out of Your Own Way
• American Soul
• Summer of Love
• Red Flag Day
• The Showman (Little More Better)
• The Little Things That Give You Away
• Landlady
• The Blackout
• Love Is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way
• 13 (There Is a Light)

Details

Listen on

• Apple Music
• Amazon
• Spotify

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