(Credits: Far Out / Joe Ahorro)
Fri 15 August 2025 13:00, UK
Every artist has those moments when they’re trying to reach for that one classic song. It can be hard for anyone to try to make a masterpiece, but when working with a band like U2, The Edge knew when the band had pushed themselves far enough to the point where a song had reached its final form.
During the early stages of the band, though, they were still trying to figure out what made a great song even work. There had been moments where they would try to shoehorn in some of their ideas every now and again, but since Bono and Edge would clash with their loves of punk and prog, respectively, it was much easier for each of them to compromise and make the kind of song that would please both of them.
Compromise might be the hardest word for them to learn, but when looking at the great moments on War, they were definitely moving in the right direction. All that was left was to have a great concept to drape over everything, and when listening to The Joshua Tree, you would have sworn that they took every part of their sound and channelled it into making a portrait of America. But when you hit the ceiling like that, where the hell are you supposed to go afterwards?
After all, the band had grown into a new version of themselves, and while it was enticing to repeat the formula, Achtung Baby took everything they were great at and threw it out the window. All of the self-righteous posturing was replaced with a post-modern irony in every single photo, and when listening to ‘The Fly’, people were taken aback by how much electronic filters were on everything.
The band were progressing by leaps and bounds by this point, but every one of them realised that ‘One’ wasn’t something to be trifled with. This pure rock and roll song took everything that was snarky and smug about their image around this time and added a dash of sincerity into the mix, and when listening to the first playback of the tune, The Edge knew that nothing was going to get better than what they laid down.
Compared to the albums that seemed to stretch on for months on end, The Edge realised ‘One’ had the same magic as many of their iconic songs, saying, “Powerful ideas are usually the simplest. “One” is a two-chord progression with only the slightest variation. It’s an inarguable piece of work. If we put anything more into it, it would suffer; it wouldn’t get better.” While the band did add to it using a few overdubs, even those were only subtle touches.
And while the guitar is a lot more of a background instrument for Bono’s powerhouse vocals, it might be some of the most tasteful playing that The Edge ever laid down. The subtle rhythm accents in the verses are incredibly emotional, and when he does break out a handful of electric licks, he always chooses them wisely, never overplaying and knowing when to drop out so as to not overpower what everyone else is doing.
U2 might have the reputation of putting too much religious iconography beside many of their hits, but it makes complete sense why Bono refers to many of their songs as such when listening to a track like this. Nothing about it is meant to be religious in any way, but in terms of human connection and how we all relate to each other in this thing called life, this is practically a hymn for anyone wanting to see the world turn into a better place.
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