Bono has written some classics as a part of U2, such as “With or Without You” and “One.” But one of his best solo songs comes in a Sean Penn documentary called Citizen Penn: “Eden (To Find Love),” which Bono wrote with Linda Perry.
It is a slow-burn song like many of U2's greatest hits are, and Bono gives a unique vocal performance. He also sings various aphorisms like “The Fly.”
He almost begins with a whisper as he softly sings the opening verse. For most of the song, Bono uses his lower register akin to “Book of Your Heart” and U2's cover of “Get It On (Bang a Gong).”
“Is part of the attraction, that you wanna be destroyed? / I’m the spirit on the water, you are the formless void / When I heard your voice at first I was annoyed / You woke me,” he whispers in the first verse.
Bono has aged like a fine wine
Make no mistake: Bono can still belt at 64 like he did in his twenties. However, his ability to show restraint is present in “Eden (To Find Love).”
In recent U2 albums, he has occasionally shown off his deeper singing voice. The aforementioned “Book of Your Heart” and “Get It On (Bang a Gong)” are just two examples.
Songs of Surrender is an album of 40 re-recorded songs from the band's back catalog. Say what you want about the album on a track-by-track basis, some songs play into Bono's current strengths as a singer.
“All I Want Is You,” “With or Without You,” and “I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For” are a few of the vocal highlights from the singer.
A U2 tie-in
There is a clever connection to one of U2's songs in the lyrics. Early in the song, Bono says, “It was Adam not Eve that threw God out of the garden,” a playful twist on the Adam and Eve story from the Bible.
A couple of years later on Songs of Surrender, U2 recorded a new version of “Beautiful Day.” This stripped-down, acoustic arrangement featured a fresh set of lyrics in the middle eight.
During it, Bono sings a line that serves as a juxtaposition of the one in “Eden (To Find Love).”
“I saw Adam asking Eve for a pardon / It wasn’t a woman that threw God out of the garden,” he sang.
Perhaps Bono did not intentionally do this. Either way, it is a funny connection I spotted from the first listen last year.
The crescendo
All of this builds up to a wonderful crescendo. While Bono shows restraint in the early verses, he begins belting towards the end. He sings alongside backing vocals — it is unclear if that is Bono singing the backing track or perhaps Perry — in a manner like “Even Better Than the Real Thing.”
He sings a final few aphorisms: “Your eyes will find the silence / Inside the hurricane / You know you must do something other than complain.”
As the song ends, Bono sings the line, “To find love,” in full falsetto. He has not sung full lines in falsetto that well since “Lemon” and would again on Songs of Surrender.
Look, “Eden (To Find Love)” is not a classic U2 song — in fact, it is more of a Bono song than anything. But it is coded with the DNA of a U2 classic and features playfully ironic lines. It would be amazing to hear the band try it live once, but that is a pipedream.
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