U2MoL

No Line on the Horizon

Moment of Surrender

  1. It's a tale of spiritual awakening at an ATM machine -Rob Laing, MusicRadar.com February 19, 2009

    Jonas Steverud (Maintainer of U2MoL) ( 1st of March 2009)

  2. The moment of surrender is THE moment of realization of what we have and are doing to ourselves and turning it over to some other authority... much like 12 step programs. Given the bands on-going religious themes in songs, I'd venture a guess that it is to God. Taking the lines from the 2nd stanza, "It's not if I believe in love, but if love believes in me." If you substitute God for love, using "God is love", you get "It's not if I believe in God, but if God believes in me." A common theme among people undergoing this transformation and questioning whether they are worthy. The next line is "Oh believe in me"... praying that he is worthy. In short I believe it is THE MOMENT (that place in time) where we surrender our life undo God.

    Robert labgeek2007@gmail.com ( 6th of May 2009)

  3. I have listened to this song quite alot over the last couple of weeks as I first found it hard to get into, not my favourite from the new album, but the more I listen the more I get the meaning and the more I like it.

    Moment of Surrender is the story of a man who has come to the end of a relationship and has has almost a complete mental and physical breakdown from the stress he has caused himself and others. The first verse talks of "playing with fire" and "two souls too smart to be in the realm of certainty" which makes reference to the start of the relationship not being as strong or as 'certain' as maybe it should have been. Even a reference to the engagement ring being "semi-precious" is symbolic to the relationship.

    Then the song briefly talks about the end of the relationship - "we set ourselves on fire" - before going on to the man at the point of mental and physical collapse - the Moment of Surrender. The big question is what is he surrendering to? Is it God, or suicide?

    At first I thought it was suicide, but the words "speeding on the subway, through the stations of the cross" create a vision of a man desperately praying using Rosary Beads and therefore I believe he is trying to put his faith and whole life into God's hands - "to be released from control".

    Nick Bibby nickbibby@yahoo.co.uk (30th of June 2009)