Christians used to debate passionately whether U2 were really ‘one of us’ or not. They had begun their career so faithfully with songs like ‘40’ (after the psalm) that when their lyrics became more searching (most conspicuously in ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’), many felt they’d lost the plot.

It’s easier to see now, however, that this was a band ahead of its time, with a songwriter attuned to both the changing culture and the tensions felt – but rarely voiced – by many Christians. In ‘I Still Haven’t Found…’, Bono expressed a deep affirmation of faith which was dogged by an honest sense of restless doubt; and worship leaders who rewrote the chorus – to “I’ve finally found what I’m looking for” – surely missed the point. For those caught between the somewhat black-and-white theology of charismania and the dusty religiosity of the established church, U2 were, and still are, prophets of a kind.

Today, the Irish rockers remain on top of their game, and on top of the world. Their new album – How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb - went straight to number one last week, as did the single ‘Vertigo’.

HTDAAB is everything you’d expect from a U2 record – and, as such, it will disappoint those hoping for a surprise, while delighting others who love the winning formula. It’s powerful and melodic, with great bursts of energetic rock and some brooding anthems. And its lyrical content – ranging from personal vulnerability and romance through to a tougher kind of love, politics and God, has plenty of food for the soul.

HTDAAB effuses the earthy, honest spirituality that has both challenged us and given succour over 20 years. In ‘Crumbs From Your Table’, Bono tackles certain fundamentalist Christians about their attitude to Aids: “You speak of signs and wonders/But I need something other.” Meanwhile, on ‘Vertigo’, the singer, stuck in a nightclub feeling nervous and sick, focuses on the cross around a woman’s neck - which offers ‘a tiny fragment of salvation’ (as he says in one interview).

U2 have usually managed to combine the ‘sacred’ and the ‘secular’ in a way that brings heaven to earth, and earth to heaven. And as Bono’s voice lifts to ‘Yahweh’ in the final song (“Yahweh, Yahweh, why the dark before the dawn?”), once again it’s possible to glimpse how culture, at its best, can help to draw us home.

Brian Draper

additional resources

The band's official website, www.U2.com.

You can read all U2's lyrics at the excellent fan site www.atu2.com.

'Bono's American Prayer' - a look at Bono's faith in action from Christianity Today - at www.christianitytoday.com.

Steve Stockman, author of Walk On - the Spiritual Journey of U2 - has an excellent U2 blog at www.stocki.ni.org.

To read Brian Draper's exclusive interview for U2.com with Daniel Lanois, the producer of U2's previous album All That You Can't Leave Behind, visit www.licc.org.uk/culture/daniel-lanois.

Read Rolling Stone's review of HTDAAB at www.rollingstone.com.

Read Scott Calhoun's useful review in Christianity Today at www.christianitytoday.com.

Read 'How Bono wooed Washington' at www.guardian.co.uk

www.u2log.com, a U2 blog worth visiting.

Another fansite, at www.u2station.com.