Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of by U2

Love is painful.
Love is impatient.
Love is frustrating.

Sometimes love requires us to be insistent, forceful and painfully honest. When we care about people, sometimes love can’t afford to be patient. In Bono’s case, his love may came too late. In reaction to the suicide of his friend, Michael Hutchence, Bono, wrote “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” describing the fight that he was never able to have with his friend.

"It's a row between mates. You're kinda trying to wake them up out of an idea. In my case it's a row I didn't have while he was alive. I feel the biggest respect I could pay to him was not to write some stupid soppy fucking song, so I wrote a really tough, nasty little number, slapping him around the head. And I'm sorry, but that's how it came out of me."

Bono may had felt that “Stuck in a Moment. . .” may have come out as “tough” but to this song sounds like pure love.

When U2 released, All That You Can’t Leave Behind in 2000, most people including myself weren’t really thinking about U2. I had a copy of The Joshua Tree and their greatest hits album and I figured I was set.

U2’s albums in the 1990s didn’t reach the heights of their masterpieces Achtung Baby and The Joshua Tree considered by critics and fans of two of the best albums recorded in popular music history. Though exploratory with a number of stand out songs, the albums of the 1990s did not resonate in popular culture like their previous albums which was reflected in their album sales.

When “Elevation” the first single from All That You Can’t Leave behind was released it was a refreshing reminder of not only how glorious pop music could be but how awesome it should be. In the midst of a resurgence in boy band-style pop music, the return of U2 reminded the world why many in the 1980s considered them the greatest rock band of all time.



As awesome as “Elevation” was, it didn’t convince me to dive into U2’s new album, and neither did the album reviews which called this album a masterpiece. What did it for me was hearing the last minute of “Stuck in a Moment. . .” on the radio.

What first caught my attention was The Edge’s light falsetto, soaring above the landscape of sound that was instantly recognizable as U2, but with a modern freshness. As The Edge lists of bad things that may happen, Bono’s masterful improvisatory vocal lines call out like preacher to a church, accenting the lines that The Edge was singing. At the end of the song, Bono, responds to these worries simply stating that they will all pass. Never in my life has a simple statement felt so powerful. After hearing the end of "Stuck in a Moment. . ." I felt like I needed to experience this whole song. There was something important in this song, I didn't know what, but I knew, I couldn't live without it.

Musically “Stuck in a Moment. . .” is the one of the best examples of U2's artistry and musical technique. Through this song, U2 saying to the pop music world: “I see all of you are really interested in ‘pop’ music right now, well let me show you how it’s done. We’re not going to play with the form at all, like we did in 'With Or Without You.’ The Edge is going to simplify his guitar sounds and play licks any of you could reproduce. We’re not going to do anything funny with our chord progressions. We don’t need any of that to prove that we are one of the greatest rock bands of all time.”

While many of the musical factors above are conventional, what is not is the lyrics and emotional complexity in this song. Sometimes the words are boastful, “I’m not afraid of anything in this world,” sometimes they are harsh “You are such fool” and other times they are insistent “you’ve got to get yourself together.” There is a sense of frustrating, but there’s also understanding, “I know it’s tough but you can never get enough of what you don’t really need.” Through all of these dark emotions, Bono reassures that the darkness will pass in end when we realize that at the center of all of these emotions is love.

When I first heard this song, I needed to be reassured that things would be okay and "Stuck in a Moment. . ." said it in a way that made the sun shine just a little bit brighter. Now that I’m older, I relate more to the person giving advice, the need to sometimes be tough with the ones you love.

It scares me to think I could lose someone the way Bono did and when I hear "Stuck in a Moment. . ." sometimes it feels like a warning to not take my friends for granted. More often, this song sounds like a celebration of the power of friendship, the glory of love and how great it feels to be alive.