So Cruel
Bassist Adam Clayton and Flood noted that the technology in the studio was crucial in transforming the acoustic song into the final mix.
[1] During the recording at Elsinore, while working on another song, audio engineer Flood changed the reel to listen to an earlier take.
[4] Author John D. Luerssen interpreted the song as beginning "with the same kind of basic approach to songcraft that gave wings to 'She's a Mystery to Me'".
[8] Clayton explained that while the original acoustic version "wasn't something one could imagine being on the record", it "was lifted up by studio trickery.
"[9] The Edge explained that travelling to Berlin to write and record provided him with an escape from his failing marriage: "I was disappearing into the music for a different reason.
"[9] Hot Press editor Niall Stokes noted that in the lyrics, "Bono is clearly drawing on the experiences of those close to him, and particularly on the emotional turmoil that the Edge and Aislinn had been going through.
"[6] Uncut contributor Gavin Martin said "the lyrics of the song reinforce the idea of Achtung Baby as a kind of romantic masque, where images of love, debased or abandoned, abound.
"[11] Elizabeth Wurtzel of The New Yorker noted "with its lovely string arrangements, winding keyboards, and frothy, hypnotic melodies, is reminiscent of Tommy James's "Crimson and Clover", except that every lovingly sweet line is contrasted with a bitterly ironic counter line", citing the lyric "I disappeared in you / You disappeared from me / I gave you everything you wanted / It wasn't what you wanted" as an example.
Quoting the lyric "Head of heaven, fingers in the mire", they said "if we are essentially dual in this way, then any attempt to overcome one side in favour of the other inevitably ends in despair", comparing the underlying philosophy to Blaise Pascal's Pensées.
[14] Quoting the lyric "Her skin is pale like God's only dove / Screams like an angel for your love / Then she makes you watch her from above / And you need her like a drug", he added "The man is manipulated by the woman's sexual power.
Cogan concluded by saying "unlike the classical torch song, this one ends with the man seemingly deciding to leave the woman...
The lyrics that describe her 'like an angel' are immediately juxtaposed with a more sordid description that pictures her love as an addictive and manipulative drug.
Instead of the subtle and vivifying transcendence of a heavenly angel, when she offers to take her lover higher, he is forced to watch her while she controls him 'from above'.
Hot Press editor Niall Stokes called it "dark, bitter, intense and masochistic", believing the lyrics to be the aspect that made the song memorable.
He added, "As a statement about marital infidelity, the sense of betrayal that accompanies it and the rage that almost inevitably follows, it would be hard to surpass.
He said that "the Edge's looped five-note piano motif is encircled by a sabre-rattling guitar and a fine synthesized string part; lushly multi-dimensional, pregnant with poise and feeling" and that the theme of "marital disharmony and emotional desolation" underpinning Achtung Baby was especially evident on the song.
[16] Elysa Gardner of Rolling Stone said, "Bono sounds humbler and more vulnerable than in the past", noting that he "[acknowledges] his own potential for hypocrisy and inadequacy, and addressing basic human weaknesses rather than the failings of society at large".
[19] Writing for the Boston Herald, Julie Romandetta called "So Cruel" a "broken-hearted [lament]" that was "lushly orchestrated".
The first appearance was on 22 May 1992 in Milan, Italy, on the second leg of the tour when, at the end of "Bad", Bono sang a few lines of "So Cruel" in place of "All I Want Is You".
"We first heard Achtung Baby working on Songs of Faith and Devotion with Flood," remarked Martin Gore.
Bono used reverse psychology in his email (requesting the band's participation in the tribute album), saying he totally understood why we'd say no.
