Released: 1984
Tracks: A Sort of Homecoming; Pride; Wire; The Unforgettable Fire; Promenade; 4th of July; Bad; Indian Summer Sky; Elvis Presley and America; MLK
Best track: Bad
Track to skip: nope!
I’ve never approached this album in a critical way, I’ve always just listened to it and said that it’s great. It IS great, but that’s not my point. I never realized how much U2 were aiming this album at America. Songs like Pride (about Martin Luther King Jr.) and then you have the song titles ‘4th of July’ (an instrumental), ‘Elvis Presley and America’ and ‘MLK’. So the whole obsession with America didn’t happen with Rattle and Hum, it really took off on this album. It might’ve been there on the earlier stuff, I don’t have them yet so I’m not sure. But this one especially, and the rest of them on and off, is totally aiming at the radios and record players of America.
Bad is an INCREDIBLE song. The whole ‘orgasmic building’ part of it is an easy technique, but it works beautifully. And when Bono sings “I’m Wide Awake” you really get a bigger impression of this band as a whole. U2 were quite good before this one, but I think that particular moment was when it all came together.
There are a couple of weaker tracks, but they’re still totally engaging. I would recommend this to anyone who remotely likes U2…and everyone else too. The album isn’t as near as over played as Joshua Tree is (OK, except for Pride and Bad to an extent) and it has power at every turn. For some serious power, dig into MLK. They really had some serious balls to put out music like this back in the horrible pop days of 1984. There was no place for intelligent music in 1984. I think this album helped fix that.
Rating: 93
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