U2 lifts up a prayer on the “Street of Dreams”
U2’s "Street of Dreams" blends what they do at their best and their worst at the same time. It's prayerful, poetic, and joyous, but also silly and packed with platitudes.
God hear me shout
Lend your ear to my prayer
When I'm far from anywhere
Down to my last breath of air
My day began with this song, this video, this prayer. You’ve probably already seen and heard it a few times. But it would be out of character for me not to acknowledge its arrival.
U2 are always talking about a “new album,” but when we get to this stage, with official singles and videos, it starts to seem real. If the album is as good as the two EPs that came out earlier this year, I’ll be very pleased indeed.
Having said that, I always prefer U2 recordings that either have a live-in-the-studio quality, or that are wildly experimental with sound. When the two approaches mix, it starts to sound like band is playing, but playing far away, separated from us by layers of production. So much of this single sounds vigorously and digitally processed. I hope this doesn’t represent the soundscape of the whole upcoming record.
And the lyrics of the song — they’re kind of a mix of the psalm-like poetry that Bono composes on his best songwriting days and the trite, pep-talk sloganeering that he writes on his worst. So, again, I hope they’re not leading with what they think is the strongest track. We’ll see. I rather like this version of the chorus:
La calle, calle de los sueños
All the doors are open on the street of dreams
La calle, calle de los sueños
Broken are the chosen on the street of dreams...
Pitchfork has the story behind the making of this playful, joyful video.