Songs of Surrender by U2

Songs of Surrender is a 2023 album on which U2 re-record forty songs from across their long career. The Edge led the work, stripping the arrangements back to acoustic guitar, piano, and a closer voice. The theme is surrender, looking again at old songs with older eyes and letting them soften. I was drawn to the calm and the chance to hear familiar lines anew.

Why listen?

The sound is quiet and bare, the band trading scale for intimacy. Bono sings lower and slower, finding new meaning in words he has carried for decades. The production keeps the room small, the playing plain. There is a path through the record from noise toward stillness, the long view of a life looked back upon. It rewards an attentive, patient ear.

Favourite song: With or Without You

Slowed and hushed, the old anthem becomes a near-whispered confession. It is the clearest proof of the album's whole idea.

And you give yourself away
And you give yourself away
And you give, and you give
And you give yourself away
With or without you
With or without you

The way the line hangs in the quiet lets its ache settle rather than soar. It reminds me of returning to a long-known hill and finding it changed by the years between visits. The song does not chase its old peak; it sits down beside you, and that nearness is its gift.

Key takeaway

Songs of Surrender is a calm, reflective re-reading of a great catalogue, best heard alone and unhurried. A gentle recommendation.

Tracklist

• One
• Where the Streets Have No Name
• Stories for Boys
• 11 O'Clock Tick Tock
• Out of Control
• Beautiful Day
• Bad
• Every Breaking Wave
• Walk On (Ukraine)
• Pride (In the Name of Love)
• Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
• Get Out of Your Own Way
• Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of
• Red Hill Mining Town
• Ordinary Love
• Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own
• Invisible
• Dirty Day
• The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)
• City of Blinding Lights
• Vertigo
• I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
• Electrical Storm
• The Fly
• If God Will Send His Angels
• Desire
• Until the End of the World
• Song for Someone
• All I Want Is You
• Peace on Earth
• With or Without You
• Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
• Sunday Bloody Sunday
• Lights of Home
• Cedarwood Road
• I Will Follow
• Two Hearts Beat as One
• Miracle Drug
• The Little Things That Give You Away
• 40

Details

Listen on

• Apple Music
• Amazon
• Spotify

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