Today I want to take a quick look at “Every Breaking Wave”, another song from U2’s latest, Songs of Innocence. “Every Breaking Wave” was very nearly released five years ago as part of No Line on the Horizon. Of course, I’d love to hear a good quality studio recording of the song as it existed at that time, but if I were honest I’d have to say that I’m glad that the song was cut from No Line… at the last minute because it gave the band time to work on the song, rewriting it into the undeniable masterpiece that we got when Songs of Innocence was released a couple of weeks ago.

“Every Breaking Wave” came so close to being on No Line on the Horizon that it was still in the discussion when Rolling Stone magazine wrote their preview of the album for the issue cover dated January 22, 2009, just about five weeks before the album came out. At that time, the song was referred to by Bono as “Blue-eyed soul”, which makes me think of “In a Little While” or “A Man and a Woman”. I remember coming home from my trip to the store to buy No Line on the Horizon (sans “Every Breaking Wave”) and hearing the news that the album’s follow-up, Songs of Ascent, was imminent, and that “Every Breaking Wave” was to be the first single from that album. When the song was debuted live in Europe during the summer of 2010, the contemplative track certainly sounded as though it might be a good fit for Songs of Ascent, which was described as having a “meditative” sound. To be honest, though, I didn’t hear a single in any of the song’s three performances, and I inwardly worried that Songs of Ascent would be an even bigger failure than No Line on the Horizon. Years later, as the tour was winding down and recording for the next album began in earnest, I was secretly relieved when Adam said that the band felt a long way from the abandoned Songs of Ascent material. I thought that that was the end of “Every Breaking Wave”, and, at the time, I was glad for that.

When Songs of Innocence was given its surprise release earlier this month, I was completely shocked, of course, not only by the method U2 had chosen to release the record, but also by the inclusion of “Every Breaking Wave”, and I felt a brief moment of panic as the song started. It turns out that I shouldn’t have had more faith in U2. The chorus has been completely re-written, as have many of the song’s guitar chords. Lyrically, thanks to the new chorus, the song is a much stronger contemplation of the nature of monogamous relationships, and musically the song has one of the strongest hooks on an album full of great hooks. Obviously, the song wasn’t released as the first single, but in my mind it’s a definite contender for a future single release. It’s simply a great song. I fully expect the song to be a centerpiece of U2’s next live tour, and I can already imagine the lights going down as the band slows for the middle eight. As Bono sings “We know where are the rocks, and drowning is no sin”, he will motion for the audience to sing along and cheer as he continues singing. The band will then begin to subtly build toward the climax that will explode as everyone shouts “before we begin, before we begin” The lights will come back up and everyone will go nuts. It’s gonna be awesome. I guess the lesson to be learned from this, which will be repeated in arenas and stadiums all over the world starting next summer, is that we should never doubt U2.