by Ian McIvor
U2 has released a 40-track compilation, re-recording and reinterpreting songs from their back catalog in a stripped-down fashion.
What Worked
Diehard U2 fans will enjoy the new version of the songs, but that is about it. Fortunately, a few of the deeper cuts and lesser known singles sound interesting on the album, such as “11 O’Clock Tick Tock” from “Boy,” “Bad” from “The Unforgettable Fire,” and “Dirty Day” from “Zooropa;” the bigger, well-known songs and singles miss the mark and lose a lot of the energy and anthemic qualities U2 is known for. For this reason, it will harm the causal fans’ interest in the album, especially with the pre-released songs doing little to create excitement in the project outside of U2’s dedicated fan base.
Any publicity is good publicity, Bono is getting an accompanying album for his recently released book, Surrender (which shares song titles from the album as chapter titles), and U2 is continuing to get coverage with the upcoming Vegas residency with no new album in the foreseeable future.
What Didn’t Work
There is nothing attractive about Songs of Surrender to the general public, and it is a bigger misstep than automatically downloading Songs of Innocence onto everyone’s Apple accounts (ironically, that album’s lead single, “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)” is one of the better reworked songs). With several bands remaining productive and releasing music over the past couple of years, people are going to look at Songs of Surrender and wonder, “So this is all you could come up with?”
While it is true fans can go back and listen to the original versions, Songs of Surrender adds nothing to the songs and is a very uneven package. Bono stated in early 2022 that he is “embarrassed by most U2 songs,” giving the impression that the songs with reworked or additional lyrics are George Lucas Special Editions. Whether these versions and lyrics will carry over to the upcoming residency remains to be seen; if they do, it will confirm the band’s opinion of their back catalogue.
This is purely for diehard fans, and may have worked better as an EP (or series of EPs) available as a perk to u2.com subscribers. Or even as a single disc version with the deeper cuts for the fans, not tied down with the bigger songs to generate public interest. Songs of Surrender is an apt title, as it sounds like U2 is defeated and has thrown in the towel.
U2 - Songs Of Surrender