"Moment of Surrender" | ||||||||
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Song by U2 from the album No Line on the Horizon | ||||||||
Released | 27 February 2009 | |||||||
Recorded | May – June 2007 at Riad El Yacout in Fez, Morocco | |||||||
Genre | Rock, gospel | |||||||
Length | 7:24 | |||||||
Label | Island | |||||||
Writer(s) | U2, Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois (music); Bono (lyrics) | |||||||
Producer(s) | Eno, Lanois | |||||||
No Line on the Horizon track listing | ||||||||
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"Moment of Surrender" is a song by rock band U2 and the third track on their 2009 album No Line on the Horizon. During the initial recording sessions for the album in 2007 in Fez, Morocco, the band wrote the song with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois within a few hours. Together, they recorded the song in a single take; Eno called the song's recording "the most amazing studio experience [he's] ever had". According to him and Lanois, the track is the closest the band came to realising their original concept for the album of writing "future hymns". The seven-minute song features gospel-like vocals in the chorus, along with a predominantly organ- and piano-based musical accompaniment. Lyrically, the song is about a drug addict who is undergoing a crisis of faith.
"Moment of Surrender" was praised by critics, many of whom called it one of the album's stand-out tracks. The song was compared to the group's earlier ballads "With or Without You" and "One". It was performed at all but two of the band's concerts on the U2 360° Tour, most often as the closing song. During performances, the stage lights were dimmed and fans were urged to hold up their mobile phones to create "a stadium full of tiny stars". Although it was not released as a single, Rolling Stone named "Moment of Surrender" the best song of 2009, and in 2010, they ranked it 160th on their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
"Moment of Surrender" was written by U2 and No Line on the Horizon producers/co-writers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois during a two-week recording session in Fez, Morocco between May and June 2007. The song was developed within a few hours, and then recorded in a single take in a riad of the hotel Riad El Yacout. Eno began by creating a percussion loop of a "rolling hand drum" so that the band would have something to improvise along with when they joined him for songwriting and recording. However, Eno had not arranged the loop properly and the result was a strange, uneven beat that he compared to "a wheeled carriage that had one of the wheels a bit cracked" or "the way a camel moves". Although Eno was trying to fix the loop, drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. began playing along to it. Eno then asked guitarist the Edge to play some chords. After a quick discussion about the chord changes and the meter (in which they decided to have a "funny layout" that was not based on "eighths or sixteenths"), the six of them improvised the entirety of the piece.