5 March 1992
The further along we go from ‘The Fly’, the more New U2 reverts to Old U2. ‘One’ could definitely have fitted onto The Joshua Tree or The Unforgettable Fire. No funk basslines or dance beats, no alter-egos or natty shades: it’s U2 back to their earnest, serious selves. Whatever way you slice it, any song that goes “Love is a temple / Love the higher law” and “One love, one blood / One life, you got to do what you should” is Christian rock: perhaps inspiring if you’re a Christian too, or if English isn’t your first language.
‘One’ is quintessential U2, gaseously vague (“You gave me nothing, now it’s all I got”) yet absolutely sincere and melodramatic about it. Bono’s stadium-sized soft rock platitudes here and in subsequent U2 songs call to mind a social media-era life coach grabbing you by the shoulders, exhorting you to “be your best self”, and charging you by the hour for that blistering insight. I suppose ‘One’ isn’t as maudlin as REM’s ‘Everybody Hurts’ or as bloodless as the Coldplay oeuvre, but that’s not saying much.
