Music Review: "Music from Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark"

I am a diehard U2 fan- no question there. Still, there is so much wrong with "Music from Spider- Man: Turn off the Dark" that even a hard core fan cannot ignore it.

It is an uncomfortable collage of classic Broadway tunes, classic U2 tunes, and… well, songs that defy category. Not only do the songs seem ill-suited to appear together in one show, but there are problems with the individual songs themselves. The ones that most succeed are the classic U2 offerings. But they only go so far. Bono is an excellent songwriter, but unless the style is far removed from his own (e.g. opera, Frank Sinatra, country), he can write well only for himself. Reeve Carney does an amazing job with the vocals, much better than anything I hoped for. Yet, his voice is not mature and strong enough to fully carry the emotional arc of a classic U2 song. The result is terrific songs that sputter just when they should soar- like an airplane straining the limits of its engines at the end of a runway that simply cannot lift off.

U2 are not a band adept at soundtrack writing and that shows in this attempt at Broadway. Their strength is and always has been live music. They made their name by touring relentlessly throughout the 1980s. Commercial album success was only achieved after long years spent building a cult following as an unequaled live experience. To this day, the paramount way to truly experience and appreciate them is in a live setting, though the albums are formidable in their own right. (DVD recordings of concerts do not count- the full experience doesn't translate.) Therefore, I am willing to consider the possibility that these songs work marvels if one sees them live as part of the actual musical. I have not yet had the opportunity to test that theory myself.

All that being said, the songs are strong enough as individuals pieces. (And there is nothing lacking in The Edge's contributions to them.) The foremost songs on the album are "Rise Above 1", "Rise Above 2", "If The World Should End", "Turn off the Dark", and "Boy Falls from the Sky". In fact, "Turn off the Dark" is easily the best song of the entire album. For this article, though, I will focus on " Boy Falls from the Sky", which is unique in that it was composed by the entire band, while the rest of the musical rests squarely on the shoulders of half of it, Bono and The Edge.

The guitar in "Boy Falls from the Sky" is such classic U2 that I thought it was pulled from an earlier song. It is used as the primary theme notes for the entire musical, as heard in the opening theme "NY Debut (Instrumental)", so it is important. After deliberating some time on this, I decided it was perhaps from "Electrical Storm". But a fresh listen to that early 2000s offering revealed that the Spider- Man guitar is original. Still, the mental referencing between the two songs is appropriate.

The official lyrics are very different from those Carney sings on the Original Cast Recording. To find them, I had to bounce my way through several fan sites. @u2 gives the official lyrics at http://www.atu2.com/lyrics/songinfo.src?SID=1086. The actual sung lyrics can be found on u2wanderer at http://u2wanderer.org/rtss/index.php?topic=848.0. One does not have to be a registered member to see these pages (otherwise, I would not have been able to access them). I post these links for comparative purposes and to illustrate the similarities in sentiment between "Boy Falls from the Sky" and "Electrical Storm".

"Electrical Storm" is about a strained romantic relationship and the efforts put forth to make it work. Bono once said that this was intended as a metaphor for the tension of our times. "Boy Falls from the Sky" comes from a similar place. This is a song about true love in seemingly impossible circumstances, a love perhaps abandoned (or better termed "delayed") that looks forward to the time when all impediments will be a thing of the past. It contains worlds of hurt and even more of hope. The humbling effect of such an experience is conveyed in the title. The idea in "Electrical Storm" was "If the sky can crack, there must be some way back to love and only love." "Boy Falls from the Sky" takes it a step further:

"You will always be in front of me
Even as I disappear from view
For I have done not a single thing
Without the thought of you

…

To let you go without regret
I will forever hold you always in my heart instead
Above the screams and the siren's wail
The only thing not up for sale

Are lovers like lights on a midnight train?
Hearts like thunder with no signs of rain
Lightning splits the sky and kisses your face
Yours to the sacrifice, yours to the grace".

Thus, it was natural that my mind went to "Electrical Storm" as the jump-off piece, the formative beginnings of this later work: a classic U2 theme for one of the most U2-ish moments in the musical. Other things that brand it as a work of Bono's poetry are lines such as

"The city conducts the symphony
I'll search through trash for a melody
That might lead us back to dignity
In this junkyard of humanity".

Sound a bit like an expanded thought on the opening verse of "Stuck in a Moment (You Can't Get Out Of)" and of a line in "Mofo"? And the first line of that example harkens back to albums like "War" and "Unforgettable Fire" where Bono was clearly attracted to urban imagery (which is natural, he is a Dubliner after all). He is also writing to his wife Ali Hewson, as he always does, with lines like

"I hear your voice inside my head/
I will listen to nobody, not to no one else."

My favorite part of the song, however, has to do with the notion that the very thing keeping the couple apart is the thing that will eventually bring them finally together:

"These are the threads that bind, the ones we have to weave
They will hold us true, I believe".

It is a beautiful idea that often rings true for those who have personal integrity both to themselves and to their personal principles and beliefs, to those who refuse to give up- no matter how great the obstacles to surmount. U2 are implying that, when it comes to love, belief and remaining firm in it are everything. Like the familiar Bible verse that reads: "Love… bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails." (1 Corinthians 13:7, 8). Ultimately, that is this song's message- again a classic theme for U2.

Musically, the song also follows the classic formula: slow start, gradual build-up of tension, well-placed high notes at the moment just before release, a middle eight/bridge of sorts that strains everything to its limit, and then lift-off: or, at least, what would be lift-off if Carney could vocally carry it. This is also the moment of poetic zenith. Finally, the brakes are applied rather forcefully, as if the landing runway was a necessarily short one, and we find when the music stops that we are firmly on the ground again.

In the end, I have to bow to the better songs on this album as worthy pieces. There is no doubt that with Bono behind the microphone in a live arena they can be as powerful as anything else U2 has done. But as a whole, as a Broadway musical? Judgment cannot be fairly rendered unless one has been to the Foxwoods Theatre to see and hear it as it was meant to be. However, as an album release, "Music from Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark" is mediocre and confusing.