At 7:24, this is the longest track on the disc, but I’m not holding that against it. For me, this isn’t one of the highlights of the album, but it does have one line that has stuck with me better than most from most other songs. I guess that’s a good thing!
The music starts off with a fairly long intro with some sweet background loops, solid drumming, synth, and maybe something else hidden back there. Bono’s voice comes in at 1:19, and the rest of the song sounds like a U2 song in the vocal melodies. I really like the solid drumming throughout with minimal fills, and the bass line that rocks it along. The organ is also a good touch, enough movement to have some interest, but not so much as to really grab your attention so it sits nicely in the background. The chorus has fairly epic loose background vocals if I can say that (not epiclly loose, just bold and fairly loose like U2 usually does… not polished like you’d excpect on most top 40 songs). The slide solo is… somewhat boring honestly. It’s not bad, but it doesn’t grab my attention like some of the stuff the edge does. Ah well, I won’t hold it against him. The “oh oh ohhh oh oh ohh”s at the end of the song is nice, no complaints here about that.
Lyrically, I’m not quite sure what he’s trying to say in a big picture sense, but there are lots of bits and pieces that I connect with really well. For some reason, this chorus has been one of the most memorable of the album:
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 / A vision of a visibility / I did notice the passers by / And they did not notice me
The second verse about a wedding is also really interesting. The idea that “two souls too smart to be / in the realm of certainty” is one that I’ll have to ponder a bit more. I think he’s saying that love is something that lasts because of it’s surrender and uncertainty because it’s based on people who are generally not reliable. It’s a good thing that people don’t think entirely logically on their wedding days… I think if relationships were built with logic, there would be a lot less babies in the world.
I need to think about this one some more. There are enough lyrics here that I don’t think I’m going to really get it in one blog… or ever, knowing how Bono writes broadly and provocatively.
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