In a positive review, Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph called Songs of Innocence "fresh and cohesive... an album of big, colourful, attacking rock with fluid melodies, bright anthemic choruses and bold lyrical ideas." In Rolling Stone, David Fricke wrote that the record was a "triumph of dynamic, focused renaissance" and "the first time U2 have told their own tales so directly, with the strengths and expression they have accumulated as songwriters and record-makers." Spins Carl Wilson said the album's songs were "more compact and direct, and eschew the global-overmind scale" of U2's previous material "for intimate and personal perspectives." Wilson praised U2 for hiring contemporary producers to help them "join rather than beat the 2014 mainstream". Tom Doyle of Mojo called Songs of Innocence "the most startlingly fresh, energetic and cohesive U2 album in years," praising the personal themes. He felt that the album "reconnects U2 with the strident, searching, wide awake band of their nascency, reminding not only us, but themselves, of their against-the-odds beginnings". In The New York Times, Jon Pareles said that he found the record enjoyable for its grandiose musical style and emotionally varied, nostalgic lyrics: "The songs ground philosophical musings and high-flown imagery in concrete reminiscences and events."
