U2 is up there for me with Coldplay, The Beatles, Radiohead, Travis, and Delirious? as my favorite bands of all time. Do you see a similarity? I prefer music from the Isles. So March 3rd has been on my calendar for a long long time. I used Christmas gift cards to preorder the album weeks and weeks ago. After dozens of listens in the last 2 weeks, I love the record more and more all the time. Yesterday I read Art and the Bible by Francis Shaeffer. Shaeffer talks about the minor and major themes of the biblical story, the minor theme being the abnormality of the revolting world, and the major theme being the meaningfulness and purposefullness of life. In art, namely Christian art, these things must be held in balance, in tension. They create two parts to one beautiful story. So much Christian art, and I'm thinking mostly now of music, errors too heavily to one side or the other. Teen angst Christian music focuses too much on the minor theme. And KLove (positive, encouraging) focuses too much on the major theme. I think U2 holds these things in balance. On this record, No Line on the Horizon, they do it exceptionally well. My favorite song is 'Moment of Surrender.' Here are the lyrics in full.
I tied myself with wire
To let the horses run free
Playing with the fire
Until the fire played with me
The stone was semi precious
We were barely conscious
Two souls too smart to be
In the realm of certainty
Even on our wedding day
We set ourselves on fire
A girl could not deny her
Its not if I believe in love
If love believes in me
Oh believe in me
At the moment of surrender
I'm falling to my knees
I did not notice the passers by
And they did not notice me
I’ve been in every black hole
At the alter of a Dark star
My body s now begging
Though it’s begging to get back
Begging to get back
To my heart
To the rhythm of my soul
To the rhythm of my consciousness
To the rhythm of yes
To be released from control
I was punching in the numbers at the ATM machine
I could see in the reflection
A face staring back at me
At the moment of surrender
Of vision over visibility
I did notice the passers by
And they did not notice me
I was speeding off the subway
Through the stations of the cross
Every eye looking every other way
Counting down till the pain will stop
At the moment of surrender
Of vision over visibility
I did not notice the passers by
And they did not notice me
Of course, in addition to this 'conversion' ballad, the boys from Ireland rock out on Get On Your Boots, No Line on the Horizon, and I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight.
Another highlight for me is Magnificent. It is classic U2. It will remind you of the first few tracks of Joshua Tree all grown up. In the second verse, Bono makes his sacrifice of praise:
I was born
I was born to sing for you
I didn’t have a choice but to lift you up
And sing whatever song you wanted me to
I give you back my voice
From the womb my first cry, it was a joyful noise…
I just hope that Bono, The Edge, Adam, and Larry keep making music for years to come. I look forward to my son discovering them in my dusty, outdated MP3 files in 10 years or so (just as I discovered the White Album on LP among my dad's collection when I was in middle school). Keep making noise, boys.
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