(Songs from almost all fourteen of their albums are included nothing from 1981’s October or 2009’s No Line on the Horizon made the cut.) But this sprawling set represents a big swing from a group that’s never been afraid to take big swings-a grand statement about a Hall of Fame band’s songwriting legacy. There’s a grand tradition of rock stars stripping down or reworking their material, from Elvis in the boxing ring on the “comeback special” to the MTV Unplugged series to pretty much every time Bob Dylan steps on stage.

Inevitably, it’s a bit hit-or-miss, and likely not essential for those who aren’t superfans, but there are many pleasures and discoveries to be found. Consider the scene in the 2008 guitar documentary It Might Get Loud, when The Edge switches off all his pedals and effects-the rig that Bono once described to me as looking “like Cape Canaveral”-to show that the swaggering introduction to “Elevation” is actually just him plinking two simple chords.īut with their new collection Songs of Surrender, their first release in six years, Ireland’s Finest are taking that plunge, reinterpreting forty songs from their catalog with new arrangements that are mostly intimate and acoustic, and frequently replacing Edge’s electric arsenal with quiet keyboards. If there’s one band whose body of work challenges this rule completely, though, it’s U2, who have always been defined by the totality of their expansive, atmospheric sound more than just their words and notes on a page. Which is true to a point-but also plays into the idea that music production is somehow cheating, that sonic treatments are there to cover up flaws, not serve as actual compositional tools.

Listen to the track in full below.It has been said that you can measure the greatness of a song if it holds up accompanied by just a guitar or a piano. “Your Song Saved My Life” is U2’s newest offering since April’s The Virtual Road: iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE (Live In Paris) EP.

Will “Your Song Saved My Life” become their third Oscar contender? We’ll find out when the 94th annual Academy Award nominations are announced on Feb. U2 has received two Oscar nods for best original song, for “The Hands That Built America” from Gangs of New York (2002) and “Ordinary Love” from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013). It just says, ‘OK, here’s how we want your audience to feel as they leave the cinema.'” It’s just full of so much emotion and heart and literally did exactly what he said in that first phone call. Jennings said he “couldn’t believe enthusiasm for it,” and added, “The band recorded this amazing U2 song. After telling the celebrated rock icon that “some people sing for a living and some people sing to survive,” Bono was game to do a song for the soundtrack. Garth Jennings, director of Sing 2, told Entertainment Weekly that Bono was eager to sing on the movie’s soundtrack and didn’t need much convincing. U2 Join TikTok With Soaring Ballad 'Your Song Saved My Life'

U2 songs in sing 2