I hit on this piano approach that’s so different from the original. I thought, There really is something to this.įor me, the pivot was “Stories for Boys,” from the first album. As it happened, the more I got into it, the more excited I got. We could have done a couple of weeks on it, and if we weren’t excited by the results, it never would have seen the light of day. When we started this project, there was no expectation. Usually we talk about some new wild sound you’ve come up with or a new pedal you’ve discovered. You’re one of the most distinctive and copied players of the past 40 years. “It was, ‘What happens when you take the band away and you remove from the mix everything we’re famous for?’ You allow the songs to stand on their own.” “For this to be meaningful, we didn’t want to re-create something that was already out there and was well-recognized,” he says.

He’s keenly aware that “going in with jack boots” was going to be met with varying responses – and if anything, that appears to be the overarching point. We left just the bare skeletons of the original arrangements in terms of themes and hooks, taking things down to a really light touch.” So my thought here was, Let’s take minimalism to the nth degree, if it’s appropriate.’ And on a lot of these songs, it worked. There was always an intense pitch to our music early on. “Our challenge was always to get to that guy at the back of the room, somebody who isn’t really a fan or isn’t paying attention. “It’s not something we’re famous for, because we grew up onstage in little sweaty clubs in America and Europe,” he says. The Edge takes it on directly and thoughtfully. The biggest revelation perhaps comes in the form of a question: Just why would a band so revered for its sense of grandeur want to reel it all in? For the most part, though, the emphasis is on reinvention, and each track brings with it a new surprise. “Vertigo” and “Desire” (here with heavily treated acoustics) still rock and swing as hard as ever, and in their new spare forms, they’re the best damn campfire songs around. Our challenge was always to get to that guy at the back of the room, somebody who isn’t really a fan or isn’t paying attention The Edge On cuts like “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Until the End of the World,” he performs virtual note-for-note versions of his famous solos, while on “The Fly,” now a slinky and sultry mood piece, he splashes twangy licks over a booming bed of bass guitars. Throughout most of the album, however, over minimal and sometimes no percussion at all, he’s briskly strumming and chugging away (and on a few songs, notably “Ordinary Love,” he demonstrates he’s an artful and creative fingerpicker), breaking down chordal and lead arrangements to their bare essentials. Similarly, “Stories for Boys,” sung by The Edge and devoid of the guitarist’s cavernous leads, has been transformed from a surging rocker into an absorbing piano elegy. The chiming electric rhythm of “Where the Streets Have No Name” is nowhere to be found on what is now a haunting hymn framed by synths and strings. On some tracks, he dispenses with guitars altogether.

Likewise, the youthful hormonic urgency of “11 O’Clock Tick Tock” now moves at a more mature pace, with The Edge performing a delicately plucked nylon-string solo in place of the original’s jarring electric lead. It doesn’t so much confront you as it gradually seeps into your senses. The once anthemic “Pride (In the Name of Love)” is now stripped down, slowed down and sung by Bono in a lower register. Writer(s): vearaLyrics powered by Edge performs with U2 at the US Festival in Devore, California in May 1983 (Image credit: Larry Hulst/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) Relieving the pressure inside by moving on with our lives. Feeling the pressure inside, we keep wondering why we have so many secrets to hide. We'll throw regret to the wind, while we smile and wave. Hanging on to mistakes we've made can get carried away. But when you get there you figure out where to start over. Standing back up on your own takes more than you know. All those times I took the fall and laid there. Moments that keep running through my mind.

Feeling the pressure inside, I keep wondering why I have so many secrets to hide. I'll throw regret to the wind, while I smile and wave. Hanging on to mistakes I've made can get carried away.

The tug-of-war against myself is tearing me apart. These days I feel like all my thoughts are pulling at my strings. Gasping for a breath of fresh air from choking on my foot again. Can I climb out of this ditch I've dug? This guilt won't let me free.

No more secrets lyrics