U2

It didn't seem a marriage made in heaven. The world's most innovative company launches a new product with the help of a band that were last 'relevant' more than 20 years ago. But that flippant assessment is an easy jibe against a band that were once the biggest in the world.

But even as a fan it might have surprised you to find U2 turning up alongside Tim Cook at the launch of the future of wrist-wear - and certainly a new album from the band appearing as if by magic was a shock. Not a Kate Bush return to the stage surprise but still, a well kept secret. The record has been talked about for a while now - and a proper release is due later this year. For now, everyone who has an iTunes account gets a copy - free. So that IS everyone then. Or at least every music fan.

Like Coldplay, U2 are a band that in their prime divided people - they were loved and hated in almost equal measure. Five and a half years after their last album, U2 have disappeared from a generation's music radar. It's fair to say that the band would need Apple, more than they need the band's support.

Brushing all that aside, the question is - is the music any good? Those that care are obviously the band's fans. But new, casual listeners, might end up being impressed. Because this is the sound, not of a tired monolith chugging out replica sounds of their hey day. As the title suggests, this is an album that takes you back to U2's routes. Sure, there are hallmarks of the band throughout, drops of The Joshua Tree and even Zooropa, but the band sounds re-energised.

The nostalgia is evident from the title of the opener. The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone) is a tribute to one of the band's heroes - and is a more raw Vertigo. It sets the tone for the rest of the album. U2 haven't sounded this raw, this simple, since War. No surprise then that there is no sign of long time collaborators and producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. Instead, the likes of Danger Mouse have leant a hand. Also featured is pop's Mr Hit, Ryan Tedder.

The best place to point for U2 fans to imagine what the whole album sounds like is 2004's Led Zeppelin-lite of Love And Peace Or Else. The Edge's guitar crunches through the likes of Volcano, Raised By Wolves and particularly on Cedarwood Road (about a road from Bono's childhood in Dublin). The most U2-like song is Song for Someone (co-produced by Tedder) - although that's followed by a bass straight from Where The Streets Have No Name on Iris (Hold Me Close) - a song about the singer's late-mother.

Any U2 fan knows that they like an emotional ballad to end an album. Think Love Is Blindness for the closer The Troubles, which features vocals from Lykke Li. Lyrics were never a Bono strong point, and the most profound he gets here is on Every Breaking Wave - where he tells us that "every gambler knows to lose is what you are here for". There's some terrible cheese on Volcano - "your eyes were like landing lights", while on Raised By Wolves, Bono tells us "my body’s not a canvas, my body’s now a toilet wall". The song is actually about a car bombing in Northern Ireland in 1974 and despite those lyrical slips - this forms part of some challenging material. Like Sleep Like A Baby Tonight - a cutting rebuke to the Catholic church's history of abuse.

At the end of the day, while the album's arrival was a surprise, the music is not that shocking or ground breaking. But the nods to their childhood and formative rock years - musically and lyrically - are pleasing, for a band not known for being humble. Unlikely to win over anyone at this stage of the career - U2 have managed to prove that they can still make interesting music. No mean achievement for a group that were formed 40 years ago.