Irenic Road

U2: Magnificent

After reading Jim Fusilli’s review of “No Line on the Horizon,” I had to hear the album myself. I’m no U2 expert, but seriously, wow. I definitely agree this is excellent work. While Fusilli claims it has “no consistent flow and no musical arc” I found it quite unified stylistically. It’s utterly U2, but achieves an expansiveness that is by turns questing and wandering. I’m not explaining it very well, but several of the songs have a spiritual depth that took me aback. Even driving rock tracks like “Breathe” have an element of this. I was expecting Christian and social justice messages, more concrete like “Walk On” or “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” but was touched by the subtle insights of “Moment of Surrender.” (Alan Jacobs details a similar reaction here.) “Magnificent” blew me away. It features a soaring riff from The Edge while Bono declares

I was born to be with you
In this space and time
After that and ever after I haven’t had a clue
Only to break rhyme
This foolishness can leave a heart black and blue

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love can heal such a scar

It’s a pretty simple song, I suppose, but this glorification of God and acknowledgment of personal brokenness is the fruit of much hard experience.

Jesus tells the disciples at the Last Supper, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”¹ It’s safe to say U2 has fulfilled that scripture.

1. John 15:8