Deep In The Heart

You don’t get a much more U2ish a song title than “Deep In The Heart” which naturally seems to echo “Into The Heart” off Boy. It’s also the b-side to “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”, which happens to be one of the most typically U2ish singles going as well. All of this suggests either a sublime song that suggests the purest essence of what the band represent, or else it signals U2 at their most utterly generic. So what’s the result? Well, kind of both and neither.

Lyrical imagery is fairly standard – use of the word “heart” (naturally), angels, doors being closed, being denied light and so forth. That said, the chorus – Deep in the heart/Deep in the heart…of this place – is suitably sticky. Edge’s guitar squeals and pitches about in a way that is dramatic, but ultimately his playing here seems to be pegged to what we might call the Edge standard. The real revelations here, then, are with Adam and Larry, who provide a slow creeping funk that actually seems to be proto-Massive Attack – compare Larry’s drumming in particular with, say, “Live With Me“. It’s ultimately a mixed bag then, a great groove upon which an only-OK song is built.

~ by 4trak on May 15, 2008.