On St. Patrick’s Day, U2 will unveil their new album Songs of Surrender. Taking a page from Taylor Swift, the forthcoming collection sees the band reimagine 40 songs from their back catalog.

U2’s The Edge previewed the project in a handwritten note sent to fans. “The fact is that most of our work was written and recorded when we were a bunch of very young men. Those songs mean something quite different to us now,” The Edge wrote. “Some have grown with us. Some we have outgrown. But we have not lost sight of what propelled us to write those songs in the first place. The essence of those songs is still in us, but how to reconnect with that essence when we have moved on, and grown so much?”

“Music allows you to time travel and so we started to imagine what it would be like to bring these songs back with us to the present day and give them the benefit or otherwise, of a 21st century re-imagining,” The Edge added. “What started as an experiment quickly became a personal obsession as so many early U2 songs yielded to a new interpretation. Intimacy replaced post-punk urgency. New keys. New chords. New tempos and new lyrics arrived. It turns out that great song is kind of indestructible. Once we surrendered our reverence for the original version each song started to open up to a new authentic voice of this time, of the people we are, and particularly the singer Bono has become.”

Separately, Bono discussed the project in the afterword of his recent memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story. “During lockdown, we were able to reimagine 40 U2 tracks for the Songs of Surrender collection, which gave me a chance to live inside those songs again as I wrote this memoir. It also meant I could deal with something that’s been nagging me for some time. The lyrics on a few songs that I’ve always felt were never quite written. They are now. (I think.)”

Pride is my favourite U2 song. This acoustic version is awful, reminds me of someone singing it in a TV talent show.

doesn't any of the 'old guys" write anything new anymore?

what artist, among the 'old guys' was the last to release an album of new songs?

ignoring quality, is van morrison?......neil young?...........john melllencamp?

scroll down the entire first 2 pages of 'new releases" .......there is nothing.

remember now....'old guys (and gals)"

I know the timing of the looking affects things, but I see quite a few on the new release page (not diving into whether they're all bona fide new songs), but I see Uriah Heep, Peter Gabriel, the Zombies, Lindsey Buckingham, to name just a few. And Alan Parsons has had a few the last few years.

Obviously can't speak to the quality of the new material, but I don't think it's realistic to expect 60/70/80 year olds to write the kind of music they wrote in their teens and 20s. And frankly, *we* are part of the problem, the audience at large (not "we" personally). We head to the bathrooms and concession stands when they play new material. We turn the radio station when the new stuff comes on. Not that radio is innocent in that regard.