Bono worked as hard as he ever has on this album's lyrics, typing out draft after draft. When they're not packed with epigrammatic punch lines -- "Stand up to rock stars/Napoleon is in high heels/Josephine, be careful/Of small men with big ideas" -- they're laced with allusions: to James Joyce, to the documentary Man on Wire and especially to the Bible. Unknown Caller references Jeremiah 33:3 -- "Call unto me, and I will answer"; Breathe is set on June 16, the same day as Joyce's Ulysses; and Magnificent was inspired by the Magnificat, a passage from the Gospel of Luke in the voice of the Virgin Mary that was previously set to music by Bach. "There's this theme running through the album of surrender and devotion and all the things I find really difficult," Bono says. "All music for me is worship of one kind or another."
