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.

U2 has always had something to say and has also always acted upon their wishes and desires for the world. It is no hidden secret that Bono and the rest of the band are deeply involved in philanthropic humanitarian efforts. Though before they became political, primarily through their actions, they did it mainly with their words.

In the documentary ‘Bono: Stories of Surrender,’ the U2 frontman talks about his late mother and the distant relationship with his father as well as his experience of stardom and activism. Bono insists that U2 never had a leader, that the four of them were equal, but the truth is he was perceived as the leader, not only because he is the frontman, but because of his involvement in multiple humanitarian causes, from hunger to AIDS to the war in Bosnia and the debt of the Global South. He was seen meeting with George W. Bush and Tony Blair, giving speeches at the Davos Forum, in the U.S. Congress and in the European People’s Party. For many, his do-gooder activism became burdensome, too intense. It seemed he always had a sermon to deliver, but he has something to say about that.

There will again be significant domestic interest at the upcoming Cannes film festival. Bono is expected to be in the city for the premiere of Bono: Stories of Surrender, a documentary for Apple TV+, based on the singer’s memoir, from Australian director Andrew Dominik. Paul Mescal, whose Aftersun, for which he received his first Oscar nomination, premiered here in 2022, will be walking the red carpet for Oliver Hermanus’s period drama The History of Sound.

It has somehow been 20 years since U2 released How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb— the one with “Vertigo” — and the band is rolling out a “shadow album” of ten outtakes from it, dubbed How to Reassemble an Atomic Bomb, on Nov. 22. The band already dropped one of the songs, the chiming mid-tempo anthem “Country Mile” and now they’ve released a second track, “Happiness,” which is a bigger sonic surprise. In the wake of mixed reactions to their underrated 1997 album Pop, which incorporated some electronic dance beats into their sound, U2 shied away from their funkier instincts for a while. But “For this anniversary edition I went into my personal archive to see if there were any unreleased gems and I hit the jackpot,” the Edge recently wrote. “We chose ten that really spoke to us."