There is a point on U2’s new single “Silencio” where the band seem to stop worrying about sounding like U2 and simply decide to have a good time.

That might explain one particularly sharp-eared YouTube reaction to the track: “It sounds like Elevation and Vertigo had a baby.”

It is a neat description of what makes “Silencio” interesting. At just two minutes and 35 seconds, the song is unusually compact by U2 standards, swapping the band's familiar widescreen build-ups for something faster, rougher and more immediate.

U2 themselves describe it as an homage to the irreverence and energy of early surf-punk, and you can hear that attitude in the track's driving rhythm, urgent bass and raw guitar sound. The Edge still gets his unmistakable sense of lift into the mix, but this is not a song that seems interested in slowly gathering momentum. It arrives already moving.

That makes “Silencio” a curious lead single for Carnaval De Luz, U2's first album of new material in nine years. The record is being presented as a more experimental and unruly collection, with themes of spirituality, friendship, freedom and endurance running through its 12 songs.

There is also something deliberately playful about the details. The Edge points out that this is the first U2 recording to feature flat-wound guitar strings, while Bono's description of the album promises “loud guitars, deep bass” and “ecstatic rhythms.”

In other words, U2 appear to be leaning into the noise.

“Silencio” is not an attempt to recreate the grandiosity of classic U2. If anything, its appeal is that it feels like four musicians who have been doing this for 50 years deciding they can still make a short, loud, slightly unruly rock song.

And if “Elevation” and “Vertigo” really did have a baby, this would be a pretty convincing birth announcement.

Author: Andrew Braithwaite

Andrew is the founder and chief editor of Music Talkers. He's also a keen music enthusiast and plays the guitar.