Ultraviolet (Light My Way) - Reception

Reception

Rolling Stone noted that "Ultraviolet" was one of the album's songs that hearkened more to the group's past than their new sound, saying that Edge's "soaring peals on are instantly recognizable". Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote that compared to much of the album's grim depictions of personal relations, "Ultraviolet" depicts love as a haven. The Boston Globe heard echoes of The Rolling Stones' 1966 song "Out of Time" in the chorus of "Ultraviolet". Entertainment Weekly called it the album's highlight, "where Bono's soaring voice and the Edge's pointillistic guitar meld to create one of those uplifting moments we listen to U2 for". Cedarville University literature professor Scott Calhoun says of one lyrical portion of "Ultraviolet", "That's so evocative and works as beautiful writing away from the music. It can stand on its own on the page and, of course, it's even more effective when accompanied by the music."

Other writers were less enthusiastic. Q magazine felt that the song was weak and that "Bono falls back on his old habit of trying to be 'inspirational' by banging up the heat from simmer to meltdown between the verse and chorus." U2 chroniclers Bill Graham and Caroline van Oosten de Boer also see the song as a throwback to the group's earlier sound, but say that "the band doesn't sufficiently develop the initial idea to warrant the five minutes of 'Ultra Violet'".

While "Ultraviolet" was not released as a single, it has appeared in other contexts. It was used in a scene in the 2006 Adam Sandler film Click, and was featured in the 2007 film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. The beginning of the song was also sampled by Enigma in their 1994 song "The Eyes of Truth". The name Ultra Violet was also given to one of U2's improvised mid-1990s business initiatives, a joint merchandising venture with MCA Inc.'s Winterland division; the partnership soon dissolved, but not before producing several hundred thousand pairs of Bono "Fly" glasses.