Songs Of Innocence

Sounds like U2.

You can do what I did and spin this record right round time after time, waiting for it to improve. It won't; it will grow on you, though. "Songs of Innocence" isn't the reinvention that "The Unforgettable Fire" was in 1984 or "Achtung Baby" was in 1991. Neither is it the high-flying get-yer-mojo-back experience of 2000's "All That You Can't Leave Behind." But U2, solidly holding forth on their musical home turf - that's this new disc all over.

The album kicks off with "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)," a look back at a moment of sonic discovery and "the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard." It's a fine entr�e - a power anthem that foreshadows the backwards-gazing, sometimes wistful, songs that follow.

With the second track, Bono and the boys deliver the album's first ballad, the catchy, get-stuck-in-you-head "Every Breaking Wave," a meditation on the joys and risks of settling down and committing to someone.

"California (There Is No End to Love)" starts off almost sounding like a Beach Boys riff, with a chorus of "Bar- Bar- Barbara, Santa Barbara," before the band's signature guitars sweep in to remind you whose record this is. It's a peppy and forgettable song.

The ballad "Song for Someone," similarly, sounds smooth but superficial; there's so little passion here that you don't even find yourself wondering who the "someone" referred to in the title might be.

"Iris (Hold Me Close) features some guitar-fueled tension an a sweetly delivered hook that contrasts emotional distance and physical intimacy. There's a whooping, yelping chorus that suggests passion without igniting it; you'll tap your toe to this, absently, but it won't hold your attention.

"Volcano" does cause the ears to prick up, partly because it's such a perfect throwback to mid-80s music. It sounds like it's meant seriously; it'll prompt a laugh of retro pleasure.

Easier to take seriously is "Raised by Wolves," a driving, dark, cinematic song that would be perfect if played over movie credits.

But it's "Cedarwood Road" that first commands full attention - a song that brims with longing and jumps out as a stage-ready, arena filling rocker.

Coming off "Cedarwood Road" with a limp synth line that sounds like something from DEVO, circa 1983, is "Sleep Like A Baby Tonight." Or, to put it without varnish, through this track. The song does improve, with a delicate keyboard line and some gusty guitar licks; Bono takes some dodgy lyrics and invests himself in them to salvage the song, but it remains more like a refugee from the larky "Zooropa" than a hearkening to "Achtung, Baby."

"This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now" takes us back to the 1980s alt-rock scene once again, kitted out with some fresh gloss but no significant sense of invention.

"The Troubles," featuring Lykke Li, on the other hand, is another standout track that cheekily parallels a former flame's talent for disruption with the social and political upheavals of more tumultuous times past. This is straight-up quintessential U2, and maybe the album's strongest song.

"Lucifer's Hands" shakes things up, sounding less like a U2 song than a diabolical fusion of Dengue Fever and T. Rex. If Beck had written this song, it would carry a nastier sting - U2 do a credible job, if a little too neat and tucked-up. This would be a treat if done raw and live.

"The Crystal Ballroom" is aptly named, being a disco-encrusted and slightly sinister pop exercise with one foot in the '70s. It's a cheerful, maybe sarky, way of closing out the set, but like most of the material that's preceded it, it's not going to ratchet up your pulse rate.

Leave that to the behind-the-stage, after-party-esque clutch of remixes and alternate takes that appears on the deluxe version of the album. This is where U2 seemingly takes off the mantle of Biggest Band in the World, undoes a few buttons, and plays music just for the fun of it. These bonus tracks start with a stripped-down acoustic version of "Every Breaking Wave" that's been slowed down, spruced up with a little violin, and allowed to showcase Bono's vocals front and center. It's almost heartbreaking, and an improvement on the album version.

Similarly, the acoustic take of "California (There Is No End to Love)" is rejiggered, with a lighter, more sprightly version that loses the naff "Bar- Bar- Barbara" intro and sticks to horns, drums, and a galloping pace.

The "acoustic sessions" version of "Raised by Wolves" keeps the drive of the album version, but turns the song into a leaner and grittier entity. Bono's pitch is a little uncertain here, but it sounds like he's putting his soul into it.

"Cedarwood Road," in an acoustic re-imagining, is plainer, even a little homely take that sounds a little off-the-cuff; it's the only instance in which the acoustic version seems to lose energy rather than pick it up, but imagine it played in a living room with the band slouching around, and you get a friendly, tight vibe from this version.

"Song for Someone" also gains intimacy from the acoustic treatment. The outlines of a much better song emerge here; if "someone" was, in the first version, an academic question, here it's much more a palpably interesting one because "someone," in this case, could be you.

The "Busker Version" of "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone) lacks the full-throated production of the album version, and is saddled with some pretty thin handclapping, but this version really does resemble something a talented street musician might play to earn a few coins.

The "Alternative Version" of "The Troubles" underscores the underlying links between this song and the band's classic song "One," but also brings some more playful rhythms and flourishes to the track. This is a little more ornamented, but it's still a strong entry.

Tchad Blake's "Alternative Perspective Mix" of "Sleep Like a Baby Tonight" saves the song from the rubbish tip. Diminished is the DEVO thing, replaced with languid synth figures and textured, fuzzy instrumentation, while Bono's voice is given some over the top and yet effective reverb. It's almost like Blake has gotten in touch with the ghost of what the song should have been from the start and channeled that to us.

Part of the same ten-and-a-half-minute track, but very much its own thing, is the riff-raffy, "Invisible," which isn't even included on the new album - it's the single that premiered on iTunes earlier this year and served as a harbinger of the album to come. It's fitting to find "Invisible" lurking here, uncredited: It brings us right back to where we started, but in a happier mode. This is U2, sounding like U2. Nothing more is needed - but when more is found, as in these extra tracks, it's worth the while.

U2
"Songs of Innocence"
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