U2
U2 |
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Formed 1978 in Dublin, Ireland
Let the story of U2 be a lesson to you: if you're gonna dream, dream big. How else to account for the accomplishments of four lads from Dublin's Mount Temple High School, who grew up to be the biggest band in the world and then used their power to (in Bono's words) "f*** with the mainstream?" Their early work drew on the energy of punk, but exchanged the genre's no-future nihilism for an interest in progressive politics and Charismatic Christianity. After three albums of thundering arena rock (made, interestingly, before they played arenas), U2 began a long and fruitful collaboration with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, who tempered their bombast with washes of warm, ambient sound, and later, clanging metallic racket. Their most recent albums are among their most successful, but are also their most challenging sonically, which speaks to U2's continuing ability to reinvent themselves and to shape rather than merely react to current musical trends. Clearly, whichever way music may turn in the future, U2 will have some say in calling the tune.
Source: MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide
Personnel
| Bono Vox (b. Paul Hewson), vocals, guitar | |
| The Edge (b. David Evans), guitar, keyboards, vocals | |
| Adam Clayton, bass | |
| Larry Mullen Jr., drums |
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BOYOrder from: |
1. I Will
Follow |
There's little in U2's 1980 debut to suggest that this was a band bent on world domination. Indeed, there's a charming, if naive, coming-of-age urgency in songs such as "I Will Follow," "Stories for Boys" and "Out of Control" that may startle listeners more familiar with U2's latter-day bombast and stadium-scale theatrics. Bono's viewpoint, still tantalizingly vague and wide-eyed, showed that his penchant for strident polemics hadn't yet gotten the best of him; his anthems are those of a yearning Dubliner barely out of his teens rather than those of a world-weary multimillionaire. The band's sometimes-ragged musical chops work in its favor here, gently burnished to then-fresh new-wave sheen by producer Steve Lillywhite. If the Edge's dense, effects-laden guitar work seems overly familiar, it's only because this album was such a key influence on the whole "rock of the '80s" sound. Though not quite as moody or musically accomplished as October , arguably the band's first masterpiece, Boy still ranks as one of U2's best albums. |
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OCTOBEROrder from: |
1. Gloria |
U2: Bono (vocals); The Edge (guitar, piano); Adam Clayton (bass); Larry Mullen, Jr. (drums). Recorded at Windmill Lane, Dublin, Ireland in July and August 1981. Originally released on Island (90092). Though it's probably one of their least-acclaimed albums, OCTOBER is where it all began to come together for U2. The youthful exuberance they demonstrated on BOY was now a given, but for this, their second album, the conceptual end of things began to coalesce as well. The Edge had begun to expand his sonic palette, and the heavily-effected approach that he would rely on for the next several years came to full fruition here. There's further development of the bold, anthemic approach that would come to characterize the band's arrangements, and the songwriting is just plain better. Most affecting, and indicative of the group's progress is the emotional epic "Gloria," full of resounding major chords and throbbing rhythms, it's simultaneously an open admission of self-doubt and a call to arms to embrace life's uncertainties. This contrast is what makes OCTOBER, along with much of U2's early work, so effective. |
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UNDER A BLOOD RED SKYOrder from: |
1. Gloria |
There seem to be two major camps of U2 fans now: Those who dig the early albums (good and sensible people), and those who only like the ones from the '90s, putting everything previous down as "classic rock." But U2 only became a classic rock sort of band in 1984, with The Unforgettable Fire. The real early stuff, from '80 to '83, still comes off as edgy--and it's comparatively ignored. Here's a sampler: Under a Blood Red Sky is from a U.S. tour (1983's) in which U2 still thought of itself as a hungry little band from Ireland--and draws (fairly wisely) from the band's first three albums. There's nary a misstep on the entire disc, although it could stand a few more tracks. |
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WAROrder from: |
1. Sunday
Bloody Sunday |
U2: Bono (vocals), The Edge (guitar, lap steel, piano, background vocals), Adam Clayton (bass), Larry Mullen, Jr. (drums, percussion). Additional personnel: Steve Wickham (electric violin), Kenny Fradley (trumpet), Cheryl Poirier, Adriana Kaegi, Taryn Hagey, Jessica Felton (background vocals). Recorded at Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin, Ireland. All songs written by U2. WAR, U2's first gold album, established them as one of the great cutting edge bands in all of contemporary music. From the insularity and ruminative splendor of their studio work, U2 blossomed into a visceral live band capable of turning elegant webs of sound into in-your-face rock and roll. The Edge's innovative guitar work was now augmented by his piano playing (particularly on the hit single "New Year's Day"), while Bono's lyrics turned explicitly to politics for the first time ("Sunday Bloody Sunday"). |
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THE UNFORGETTABLE FIREOrder from: |
1. Sort Of
Homecoming, A |
An appreciable leap forward in almost every fashion from the group's first trio of albums, The Unforgettable Fire is its first with the production team of Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. And while they take a strong hand in wrestling U2's music out of the mainstream and into a more individualistic area, it's the songs themselves that demand a more subtle approach. Moody gems such as "A Sort of Homecoming" and the entrancing "Bad" set the table for more explosive fare such as "Pride," "Wire," and the title track. This is the album that made U2 a career act, showing that their music could grow by leaps and bounds, even at the hand of another, without sacrificing its soul. |
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WIDE AWAKE IN AMERICAOrder from: |
1. Bad -
(live) |
U2: Bono (vocals); Dave "The Edge" Evans (guitar, keyboards, vocals); Adam Clayton (bass); Larry Mullen, Jr. (drums). Additional producers: Tony Visconti, U2, Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. Additional engineers: Ron St. Germain, Paul Thomas, Kevin Moloney, Kevin Killen. Live recordings and out-takes from the "Unforgettable Fire" tour and album, 1984-85. Put together as a follow-up to the phenomenally successful THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE, the EP WIDE AWAKE IN AMERICA captures two of that album's finest cuts as recorded live. While the studio version of "Bad" displayed U2's trademark whisper-to-a-scream structure, the slow burn is extended even further in the live arena. "A Sort Of Homecoming" is given the same over-the-top dramatic treatment. Throughout, Bono soars, evoking a drama of near-biblical proportions atop the studied, controlled intricacies of the Edge's effect-laden soundscapes. As a bonus, the EP includes two previously unreleased tracks from THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE sessions ("Three Sunrises" and the rootsier "Love Comes Tumbling"), breathing new life into what was already a classic rock album. |
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THE JOSHUA TREEOrder from: |
1. Where The
Streets Have No Name |
U2: Bono (vocals, harmonica); The Edge (guitar, keyboards, background vocals); Adam Clayton (bass); Larry Mullen Jnr. (drums). Additional personnel includes: Daniel Lanois (guitar, keyboards, tambourine, background vocals); Brian Eno (keyboards, programming, background vocals). Engineers include: Flood. Recorded at Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin, Ireland. THE JOSHUA TREE won the 1987 Grammy award for album of the year. After their arresting appearance at Live Aid, U2 album sales went berserk across the globe, and the world waited impatiently for their next release. The Joshua Tree arrived, and fans were not disappointed. There are few weaknesses, musical or lyrical, in this album. The pure power of the music and patent honesty of the lyrics steer the band clear of whimsy and self-indulgence. The anguish and questioning is shot through with faith as they chant and stomp and batter their way through instant classics such as 'Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For', 'Where The Streets Have No Name' and 'With Or Without You', leaving the listener bruised but elated. |
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RATTLE AND HUMOrder from: |
1. Helter
Skelter - (live) |
The ill will that initially greeted Rattle and Hum--the follow-up to the band's massively successful Joshua Tree album--was due in large part to the bloated and self-important feature film that accompanied it, which showed the band as being simultaneously naive and pretentious as it "discovered" America. But as the film mercifully slips from memory, the music has remained, from the furious swirl of "Desire" and a clutch of live hits to insightful musical nods to heroes such as Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and Billie Holiday. Songs like "When Love Comes to Town," a supercharged blues duet with B.B. King, suggests the quartet knew more about America from listening to its music than Phil Joanou's unintentional mockumentary suggested. |
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ACHTUNG, BABYOrder from: |
1. Zoo
Station |
U2: Bono (vocals, guitar); The Edge (guitar, keyboards, vocals); Adam Clayton (bass); Larry Mullen (drums). Additional personnel: Daniel Lanois (guitar); Brian Eno (keyboards). Recorded at Hansa Ton Studios, Berlin, Germany; Dog Town, S.T.S. and Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin, Ireland. All songs written by U2. A conscious reaction against "the myth of U2" (as guitarist The Edge put it), ACHTUNG, BABY was the result of two years work in Berlin and Dublin. Attempting to withdraw from the musical world and "re-invent" U2, the band secluded itself in studios, writing hours of material that was whittled down to 12 songs. The band's secrecy about the project aroused so much curiosity that early master tapes were stolen and bootlegged in Europe. ACHTUNG, BABY reflects the band's interest in differing musical sounds. The quasi-industrial opening to "Zoo Station" and the hip-hop influence in "Mysterious Ways," define U2 as a group of musicians determined to challenge themselves and their audience. |
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ZOOROPAOrder from: |
1. Zooropa |
U2: Bono (vocals, guitar); The Edge (guitar, piano, synthesizers, vocals); Adam Clayton (bass); Larry Mullen, Jr. (drums, percussion, background vocals). Additional personnel: Johnny Cash (vocals); Brian Eno (keyboards, synthesizer); Des Broadbery, Flood (programming). Additional engineers: Robbie Adams, Daniel Lanois, Flood. Recorded at The Factory, Windmill Lane Studios and Westland Studios, Dublin, Ireland in spring 1993. All songs written by members of U2. Contains samples from "Fanfare" (from the album LENIN'S FAVORITE SONGS) and "The City Sleeps" (as performed by MC 900 Ft. Jesus). ZOOROPA won the 1994 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album. If you study the wild computer graphics on the sleeve you could be expecting something frantic and electric. In fact, this is the most relaxing U2 album to date, and one on which they sound content to cruise instead of sermonizing. Brian Eno's prescence no doubt added the ambient feel that is present on most of the tracks. Bono even manages to sound like Roland Gift (Fine Young Cannibals) on 'Lemon' and a monosyllabic Lou Reed on 'Numb'. U2 took risks with this album because it broke a familiar pattern by not sounding like a U2 record. They sailed through the audition. |
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POPOrder from: |
1.
Discotheque |
U2: Bono (vocals, guitar); The Edge (vocals, guitar, organ, keyboards); Adam Clayton (bass); Larry Mullen, Jr. (drums, percussion, programming). Additional personnel: Steve Osborne, Howie B., Flood, Marius De Vries (keyboards); Ben Hillier (programming). Engineers: Mark "Spike" Stent, Howie B., Alan Moulder. Recorded at South Beach Studios, Miami, Florida; Hanover, Windmill Lane Recording Studios and The Works, Dublin, Ireland. POP was nominated for a 1998 Grammy for Best Rock Album. Like much pop music in the mid-1990s, POP is cobbled together out of buzzy synthesizers and reverberant keyboards, techno drum loops and funky live drums, guitars distorted into clouds of metal, vocals you sometimes have to work to hear, and songs that seek God and sex and other important stuff in the world's trash heaps. And it's obsessed, more than anything else, with pop itself. At its most frisky, as on the dance-club single "Discotheque," POP sounds like Oasis backed by the Chemical Brothers (see that combo's recent single "Setting Sun" for comparison). Drop the club beat and add a bright acoustic guitar, as on "Staring At The Sun," and POP sounds like, well, Oasis. This is the kind of future-pop U2 introduced on its watershed 1991 album ACHTUNG, BABY, and POP completes a sort of trilogy. Whereas 1993's ZOOROPA played up the "art" side of this experiment, POP, which finds art-rock influence Brian Eno gone from the producer's seat and techno wiz kid Howie B. taking up some of his space, plays up the pop side. It's the most playful album U2 has ever made, with grooves made for dancing, not thinking, and melodies that explode in your face like bubblegum. Lyrically, U2 is still looking for what it hasn't found, in such places as nouveau-riche "Miami" and the celebrity trash receptacle that is "The Playboy Mansion." Musically, though, U2 seems to have found it, in the simple, ecstatic click of a dance beat. |
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THE BEST OF 1980-1990Order from: |
1. Pride (In
The Name Of Love) |
U2: The Edge (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Bono (vocals, guitar); Adam Clayton (bass); Larry Mullen, Jr. (drums, percussion). Additional personnel: B.B. King (vocals, guitar); Una O'Kane, Nicola Cleary, Aengus O'Connor, Nicholas Milne (strings); The Memphis Horns (horns); Joey Miskulin (organ); Benmont Tench (keyboards); Ms. Bobbye Hall (percussion); Rebecca Evans Russell, Phillis Duncan, Helen Duncan (background vocals). Producers: Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Steve Lillywhite, Jimmy Lovine. Engineers include: Kevin Killen, Paul Thomas, Flood. Digitally remastered by Arnie Acosta. They burst onto the scene at the onset of the '80s with a majestic, uplifting, earnest approach and a unique textural sound that endeared them to fans and critics alike. U2 spent the rest of the decade growing up in public, solidifying their status as post-punk icons, marrying the good intentions of old school alternative rock with the epic sonic scale of classic '70s rockers, never sounding less than totally original and never pausing for a hits compilation--until now. BEST OF offers a good representation of the complex body of work that made the band a legend. Fittingly, the album begins with the debut's "I Will Follow" a statement of commitment to pursuing truth and spirituality despite continual and inevitable misgivings. "Desire" mates Bono's lyrical fervor with a modified Bo Diddley beat to fine effect. New world meets old on the bluesy B.B. King collaboration "When Love Comes to Town." Closing things out, "All I Want is You" shows the moody, reflective side of the band, giving Bono a chance to croon and the rest of the band to exhibit the understated side of their instrumental might. |
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The Making Of
U2's The Joshua Tree |
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| This stunning concert documentary sheds fresh light on U2's controversial 1997 Popmart tour, the Irish rockers' gaudy, epic trek in support of their electronica-edged Pop album. Mixed reactions to the pulsing, dance friendly music on Pop and disappointing ticket sales to stateside Popmart shows were interpreted as evidence that the band's new sound and look were merely opportunistic. Yet one need only view Popmart Live alongside the Rolling Stones' contemporaneous Bridges to Babylon 1998 long-form video to grasp U2's underlying passion and conviction. While Popmart trumps the Stones (ringmasters of the original rock & roll circus and among the principal inventors of stadium rock) in terms of sheer scale, U2's presentation still strikes thematic sparks missing from the Stones' more conservative designs for the Bridges stage. With its vast, ramped stage and enveloping video backdrop, the Popmart set serves the band's posttechno impulses, yet the music remains rooted in U2's passionate, high-flying rock style, using its skittering dance rhythms and garish pop-art motifs to support the band's underlying themes, not replace them. Filmed in Mexico City before a huge reverent crowd, the concert balances close-ups against the quartet's often mesmerizing staging effects; the camera work sustains a sense of the show's outsized physical setting, while expertly closing the distance between us and the band. The band also shrewdly integrates older songs into the pumped up, burnished arranging style heard on Pop while stripping down newer material in less varnished, more vulnerable settings. A series of duets with just Bono and the Edge on acoustic guitars underscores that strategy. | |
| This is not a film for anyone looking for an introduction to Irish band U2's career in the 1980s, but it is a vibrant portrait of an established group making its musical pilgrimage through the America it has always imagined through blues, gospel, and early rock 'n' roll. Filmmaker Phil Joanou (Heaven's Prisoners), a veteran music-video director and maker of the distractingly kinetic Three O'Clock High, finds a suitable outlet for his high energy in this juggernaut of a journey, which finds U2 collaborating with a black gospel choir and B.B. King, recording inside the legendary Sun Records studio, dropping by Graceland, and in a moment of fearlessness, performing the Beatles' "Helter Skelter" to exorcise Charles Manson's sick claim on the song. | |
