U2 fans call one album a ‘misstep’ as band prepare to record new record

Fans believe legendary pop-rock outfit U2 made a “misstep” with one album.

The group are reportedly working on new material following the so-called “Surrender” era of songwriting. While there is no timeframe for when the album will be released, The Edge has confirmed the band is back together in the studio. The news had fans excited for what was to come, and also noted the disappointment of the most recent releases from the group. One fan’s post to the r/U2 subreddit saw the group’s Songs of Surrender effort dubbed a “Bono vanity project,” and some appeared to agree with this assessment of the group’s 2023 release.

Their post reads: “Having seen the hype that the Apple TV+ release has caused and listened to some of the ‘Stories’ versions of the songs, I’m starting to wonder whether Songs of Surrender was even needed as a creative tool.

“Not to take anything away from The Edge’s involvement, but the entire Songs of Surrender felt a bit like a Bono vanity project, similar to his side jaunts in the early 2000s with Wyclef, etc, except this time he gave himself permission to tinker with U2 material.

“I never really got why they did the album and certainly didn’t understand the effort to do forty Songs. There are some good ones, but many are unequivocally bad, and annoy me when SiriusXM favours them over the original.”

Fans believe the biggest misstep of the album was allowing The Edge to produce it. One fan wrote: “The misstep was allowing the Edge to produce the album. He failed to acknowledge his limitations. The songs from Stories of Surrender, produced by Jacknife Lee, were significantly better.”

Another added: “A lot could be fixed just by putting the vox a little further in the back.” A third said that while they were glad it was released, they considered it a “lockdown album” project.

They wrote: “I’m glad it was released. I see it as a lockdown album. Their version of an MTV Unplugged performance that has never materialised. It’s good to hear a different version sometimes.

“For me, it breathed new life into songs like Pride especially. I like listening to different live versions, demo versions, and now Surrender versions. Some songs are better than others.”

Others have suggested that, during the streaming era, an album is only a dud if people stop listening. They wrote: “Nothing is a misstep during the streaming era. Release it. If people like it, they listen. If not, they don’t.”

Another agreed and further explained that the “timeline” for U2’s album releases was thrown off by the Coronavirus pandemic. The fan wrote: “You have to remember that Songs of Surrender was a bit of an accidental album. That album only exists because the pandemic happened.

“They were hoping to be working on their next proper studio album when COVID arrived out of the blue. That’s also why the Sphere shows didn’t happen in 2021 as well – U2’s whole intended timeline (and the planet’s) was thrown off by that virus.

“I generally don’t like artists revisiting their older material. The original, even if it isn’t ‘perfect’ in every way, becomes the definitive version of a song. Once in a while, such reworkings can be as good as the original, but the newer versions are very rarely better.

“Now, I’m happy that they were happy with what they came up with, and a sizable percentage of the fanbase seems to like at least some of it (if not most/all of it). However, this album wasn’t my cup of tea. I got the 1-CD version to be a “team player”, but I may have only played it once or twice. It just doesn’t move me.”