Top 25 U2 Songs: Don't Let It Get Away

Wrapping up my countdown of my Top 25 U2 songs with these tracks from the band's third creative peak.

I’m finally returning to this countdown of my Top 25 U2 songs with the final 5 songs on the list. These songs all come from the latter-day, 21st century U2 that went out and reclaimed “The Best Band In The World” title after abdicating the throne during the 90s.

“Beautiful Day”

All That You Can’t Leave Behind is a seminal album for me—it’s was really my entry point into U2 fandom. While “One” was the song that I initially couldn’t turn away from and The Joshua Tree is my favorite album. But it was All That You Can’t Leave Behind, and the Elevation Tour, that kick-started by U2 obsession.

“Beautiful Day,” the first single off that comeback album, was both a return to form and sound for the group following the sonic explorations of Pop. While much of the 90s were spent with U2 amidst dance-club electronic rhythms and darkness, “Beautiful Day” returns the band to their ideal milieu with a soaring anthem of optimism (“it’s a beautiful day, don’t let it get away”) with a chiming guitar part from the Edge ringing out like a bell.

We don’t want bands to be stagnant and never change or grow or evolve. We don’t want our artists locked into one way of being, one form to create. But, particularly with popular musicians, I do think it’s a shame when one can create something so perfect—when a band can have a sound that’s so strong—and they move away from it. While U2’s diversions and progressions did yield some quite interesting results (obviously, Achtung Baby is a masterpiece), but hearing them get back to the sound with which they’re so closely associated was special. In a moment when “rock” music had lost its way, U2 returning with a song like this and reclaiming the distinction of being the biggest and best band in the world was a special moment.

“Stuck In a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of”

The one-two punch at the begging of ATYCLB is very Joshua Tree-esque as the band follows up the anthemic opening “Beautiful Day” with a kind of soul number in “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” that addresses the suicide of INXS’ frontman Michael Hutchence and Bono’s frustration at the senseless loss of life of his friend.

Bono’s lyrics strike a fascinating balance—as he notes, there’s some "toughness” to what he’s imagining saying to Hutchence (“I never thought you were a fool, but darling look at you”), but also with the affirming message that though you might be “stuck in a moment” that you might want to escape, “it’s just a moment, this time will pass.” The song is described as being a “gospel song,” which is certainly apropos with those lyrics.

When the song was performed during the Elevation Tour, it was always a highlight for me and that gospel element of the track really popped during those performances.

But I’ve also enjoyed “Stuck in a Moment” when it’s been reimagined as a stripped-down acoustic track like here (admittedly, they’re performing it here as part of a massive stadium show, but still it’s relatively stripped down).

“In a Little While”

This album/non-single cut from ATYCLB became a bit of a concert staple during the first leg of the Elevator Tour because of its association with Ramones frontman Joey Ramone. As the seminal punk band’s frontman lay in the hospital near the end of his life, he asked to hear the song played. Hearing about that, Bono described how the song went from "a song about a hangover” to “a gospel song.”

The bridge of the song—”A man dreams one day to fly, a man takes a rocket ship into the skies. He lives on a star that's dying in the night and follows in the trail the scatter of light”—also contributes to this mystical, peaceful sense that perhaps Joey Ramone was responding to in his final moments.

“In a Little While” also features one of my sneaky favorite Edge guitar parts while Adam Clayton’s bass gives the sound a soulful bounce.

These kinds of songs, these smaller and more grounded tracks, can be interesting for this group so adept at writing enormous anthems and ballads, and yet they also can be disposable and forgettable. Yet “In a Little While” is both a profoundly down to earth track while also rising above.

“City of Blinding Lights”

I’ve always felt the need to defend the post-ATYCLB albums, particularly the two immediately following (How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and No Line on the Horizon). But as the years have gone on and we’ve moved away from their release, I find myself less and less inclined to listen to them. Off of HTDAAB, “City of Blinding Lights” is the track that’s stood the test of time and proved to be worth revisiting. Part of why I remember it is Barack Obama’s use of the song throughout his campaigns and presidency.

Beyond that usage, "COBL” fits as a seminal U2 track because it too possesses that sweeping, grandiose scale the best of their music possesses. But rather than the sweeping natural vistas of “Where The Streets Have No Name,” you’ve moved into the urban space and yet the beauty is there—”Neon heart, dayglo eyes, a city lit by fireflies.” The Edge’s work on the track, the shimmering guitar sound, mirrors this image of an illuminated city scape, which the band certainly drew upon for their staging and lighting for the song’s concert performances.

Famously, the line in the chorus about “oh you look so beautiful tonight” is what Bono said as he looked out into the crowd at Madison Square Garden at a show closely after the 9/11 terrorists attacks and seeing people with tears in their eyes during “Streets.” I also enjoy the lines, “Time won't leave me as I am, but time won't take the boy out of this man,” which feels like a bit of a mission statement or core idea to the group. Though time will move forward and change us all, there’s also a spirit and joy that cannot be lost.

“Moment of Surrender”

The last U2 album I’ll really go to bat for is No Line on the Horizon. It came out while I was in the midst of my masters program—so I’d moved into graduate education but wasn’t that far removed from being an undergrad—and I went to three shows as part of the U2 360 Tour that accompanied the album. I think some of the songs get a bit of a bad wrap or overlooked (“Magnificent” is a bit of a slept-on U2 song and I also think “Breathe” and the album’s title track are pretty good too), but “Moment of Surrender” is the track off that album that can hang with the other U2 classics you’d encounter in concert. Between full performances (though none since the U2 360 tour) and snippets within other songs, it’s the most performed song off of that album.

Bono’s lyrics, which depict a narrative about a drug addict and a crisis of faith, have profound spiritual import, which is also emphasized by the prominent organ sound, which is what I really remember about this song.

Even when removed from the context of the narrative, I’ve found it to be a moving track. The idea of that moment in which one gives themselves over (it’s language that comes from Alcoholics Anonymous and that moment in which one must realize and accept that they’re not in control of themselves relative to alcohol) is quite powerful. A line repeated in the song that’s repeated (and was almost the title of the song) is “vision over visibility” and that idea of the vision that transcends just seeing (it makes me think of “Ultraviolet”) resonates.

That concludes my countdown of the my Top 25 U2 songs! What did I leave off? What albums need better representation?