Ranking U2's Albums from Worst to First: #5 The Unforgettable Fire

 

In 1984, after wrapping up the War Tour, U2 had climbed nearly to the top of the mountain of rock n roll greatness without having quite yet summitted.  They had released three records with two of them being smash hits.  They had gradually gone from being the darlings of college radio to being a feature on FM pop and rock stations.  They had sold millions of albums, but they were also in danger of simply churning out the same kinds of songs that had given them success in the first place.  If they had climbed so close to the rock n roll peak, the last thing they wanted to do with their fourth record was plateau.  So, in early 1984, the band enlisted the assistance of ambient musician, Brian Eno (of Roxy Music fame) and the young but prodigious talent of Daniel Lanois to produce their next album.

Rather than going straight into a normal recording studio, the band decamped to Slane Castle for added inspiration as they created the soundscapes and audio tapestries that became The Unforgettable Fire.  This record is at once full of hit rock anthems, most notably Pride (In the Name of Love), while also featuring ambient and even esoteric tracks like Promenade, Elvis Presley and America, and MLK.  Somehow, Eno, Lanois, Hewson, Evans, Clayton, and Mullen held it all together, creating a classic record that was not bettered in the 1980s until three years later when the same group of men wrote, recorded, and produced The Joshua Tree.  If the latter record might be compared to an Ansel Adams photograph, the former album might be a Monet or Renoir painting.

     

U2 The Unforgettable Fire - Released October 1, 1984

Album Charts - #53 Ireland, #1 UK, #12 US.

Worldwide Sales to Date - 8.1 Million

Singles - Pride (In the Name of Love) #2 Ireland, #3 UK, #33 US.  The Unforgettable Fire #1 Ireland, #6 UK.  Wire #31 US Main Rock Chart.  Bad #19 US Main Rock Chart.

Standout Songs - A Sort of Homecoming, Pride (In the Name of Love), Wire, The Unforgettable Fire, Promenade, Bad, Elvis Presley and America, MLK.

Weakest Track - 4th of July

Hidden Gem - Promenade 

The Unforgettable Fire is an abstract masterpiece. - Shay

Ranking U2's Albums from Worst to First: #6 War

 

In the early 1980s, "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland were still raging.  For over 60 years Ireland had been divided into two separate political entities.  The Irish Free State, later becoming the Republic of Ireland, consisted of 26 counties and the majority of the island.  Six northeastern counties made up Northern Ireland which remained a part of the United Kingdom.  Hence the official name of the UK is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.  Most Roman Catholics, North and South in Ireland desired the UK to give up its control of the 6 northeastern counties and allow the entire island to be united under the government of the Republic of Ireland. However, in the late 20th century, Protestants (the descendants of Scottish and English planters first given land in Ireland under James I) still made up a majority of the population of Northern Ireland and wished to remain British.  Over time, the tension between the two communities in the north bubbled up into outright hostilities, climaxing in atrocities committed by both sides against one another (and sometimes even against each other).  The British army was called in to "keep the peace", but as is typical with occupying forces, at times the "shit hit the fan".  In January of 1972, British soldiers shot 26 unarmed peaceful nationalist protesters in Derry, killing 14.  It is this incident that informs the narrative of U2's classic song, Sunday Bloody Sunday, released on the War album in 1983.

"The Troubles" in Northern Ireland formed the basis for much of the themes on War, but the idea of human conflict in all of its various permutations is explored on this record.  From the Polish Solidarity struggle in New Year's Day, to the threat of global nuclear holocaust in Seconds, to the immigrant fleeing political violence in The Refugee, to the interpersonal struggles that dating and married couples experience in songs like Two Hearts Beat as One and Surrender, the album takes us down the human path of most resistance.  Bono jokes that it was on his honeymoon that many of the ideas for War came to him!  

Thematically, this album is tightly wound together, both lyrically and musically.  After a brilliant debut record and then a bit of a misstep on their second effort, U2 rebounded fantastically with War.  And with this output, they began to explore some new musical textures, adding violin to Sunday Bloody Sunday and horns to Red Light.  The album ends with a Davidic prayer taken directly from Psalm 40 and simply titled, 40. It is with this album and the subsequent tour that U2 grew from cult status to one of the biggest bands in the world.    

U2, War - Released February 28, 1983 

Album Charts - #16 Ireland, #1 UK, #12, US

Worldwide Sales to Date - 11 Million

Singles - New Year's Day, #2 Ireland, #10 UK, #53 US.  Sunday Bloody Sunday, #7 US Main Rock Chart.  Two Hearts Beat as One, #2 Ireland, #18 UK.  Surrender #27 US Main Rock Chart.

Standout Songs - Sunday Bloody Sunday, Seconds, New Year's Day, Drowning Man, Two Hearts Beat as One, 40.

Weakest Track - Red Light

Hidden Gem - Drowning Man

If Boy is possibly one of the most underrated debut records of all time, War is probably one of the most underrated rock albums of all time. - Shay 

Ranking U2's Albums from Worst to First: #7 Boy

The shimmering, echoey, and hopeful sounds of The Edge's guitar announced to the world that a band that was not so much rooted in the past but moored to the future had arrived as I Will Follow blasted from the needle of record players through hi-fi wires and out stereo speakers into the universe and beyond.  U2 had arrived with the martial wallop of Larry Mullen Jr.'s bombastic drumbeats, Adam Clayton's unorthodox bass lines, and Bono's earnest, if not quite yet refined shouting (I mean, singing).  I Will Follow might be the best lead-off track of any debut album in rock history.  45 years after the fact, the song and the album still sound fresh.  If all U2 had ever released was the album, Boy, it would have been enough to cement them as rock legends.  And yet, this first record of theirs is "only" #7 on this countdown of U2's albums from worst to first.  

U2 were not the most skillful musicians when they released their initial full-length album, but for the previous four years they had created a unique sound on the "toilet bowl" touring circuits of Ireland and the UK.  Since they weren't God's gift to musicianship, they were forced to create their own quirky, yet cool songs, rather than simply cover other artists works.  This, in the long run, forced them to craft their tunes in unconventional ways and when their playing caught up to their imaginations, they were on their way to the rock'n'roll hall of fame!

Boy explores the journey that all adolescent males traverse as they transition from boys to men, from teenagers to adults.  It is an album of loss and discovery.  It is a record of innocence as it transitions to the naive belief that you've arrived and have it all figured out at the age of 18, 19, or 20.  Boy is the journal in song of going, not so much from innocence to experience, but innocence to a false summit.  Oh, but what vistas are available, even from these pseudo-peaks.  If education is the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty, then Edge, Adam, Larry, and especially Bono are as confident and self-assured as any young man might be on their debut album.  Sure, at this point, they don't know what they don't know, but this first record of theirs is all the better for it.

U2 Boy - Released, October 20, 1980.

Album Charts - #52 UK, #63 US.

Worldwide Sales to Date - 5.7 Million

Single - I Will Follow, #81 US Charts.

Standout Songs - I Will Follow, Out of Control, The Ocean, A Day Without Me, The Electric Co.

Weakest Track - Twilight

Hidden Gem - The Ocean 

Boy is one of the most underrated debut albums of all time.  - Shay 

Ranking U2's Albums from Worst to First - #8 How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb

 In 2000, U2 stormed back into mainstream consciousness with the release of All That You Can't Leave Behind, an album that will feature later in this unofficial countdown of their 14 studio albums from "worst to first".  With the critical and commercial success of their 2000 release and subsequent world tour, the band carried much momentum with them into the studio for the follow up record.  Four years later, the band produced How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb which didn't quite live up to the critical or commercial success of its predecessor (it's hard to follow up an all-time classic) but is a solid record and has offered a number of tunes which still frequent current U2 touring playlists.

For this album U2 harnessed a gritty and almost "dirty" rock n roll sound on songs like Vertigo, All Because of You, and Love and Peace or Else (not that I particularly like this latter track - see below).  They also harkened back to some of their early 1980's material on songs like Miracle Drug and City of Blinding Lights.  It is a testament to U2's greatness that this is only the #8 album on my ranking and it is a record that spawned big hits and big sales - 10 million to date!  

U2 How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb - Released Nov 22, 2004

Album Charts - #1 Ireland, #1 UK, #1 US.

Worldwide Sales to Date - 10 Million

Singles - Vertigo, #1 Ireland, #1 UK, #31 US.  All Because of You, #4 Ireland, #4 UK.  Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own, #3 Ireland, #1 UK, #97 US.  City of Blinding Lights, #8 Ireland, #2 UK.

Standout Songs - Vertigo, Miracle Drug, One Step Closer, Original of the Species, Yahweh.

Weakest Track - Love and Peace or Else.

Hidden Gem - Miracle Drug

We are only half-way, and the best is yet to come.  In fact, it might be even better than the real thing! - Shay   

Ranking U2's Albums from Worst to First: #9 Songs of Innocence

 

On this date, September 9, eleven years ago, U2 released a digital version of their 13th studio album, Songs of Innocence without previously marketing it or letting either the press or the public know about it.  In fact, if you owned an apple phone, it was downloaded to your music library without your knowledge, or your consent.  Hey, free music - pretty cool.  At least that's what I would have thought.  I did not (nor still don't) own an apple phone and so had to manually download the album (still for free!), but many people who received the automatic download were appalled and offended by the seeming generosity of the band.  Others in the music industry felt it set a bad precedent to give away music for free.  At the end of the day, it was all a bit of a storm in a teacup.  

At any rate, 26 million people actively downloaded the album by the end of October 2014.  The physical release of the album "only" generated sales of about 1.1 million, but much of the focus on Songs of Innocence has centered around the band's "forcing" it down the public's throat, rather than on the artistic merits of the music.  

Songs of Innocence is a quality record with raw guitar riffs, catchy melodies, and tight bass and drum rhythms holding the songs together.  As mentioned in the previous post, it is the first of a two-part album, with Songs of Experience coming three years later.  And as the title implies, the album echoes some of the band's earliest recordings, but with an extra 35 years of writing, recording, and touring experience.  It also deliberately references some of the band's earliest musical influences, both lyrically and musically (The Ramones, The Clash, and even The Beach Boys). 

U2, Songs of Innocence - Released, September 9, 2014

Album Charts - #2 Ireland, #6 UK, #9 US.

Worldwide Sales to Date - 1.1 Million (26 Million Downloads)

Singles - The Miracle (of Joey Ramone) #1 US Adult Alternative Chart, Every Breaking Wave #23 US Adult Alternative Chart, Song for Someone #13 US Adult Alternative Chart. 

Standout Songs - The Miracle (of Joey Ramone), Every Breaking Wave, Song for Someone, Sleep Like a Baby Tonight, The Troubles.

Weakest Track - Raised by Wolves

Hidden Gem - The Troubles 

Songs of Innocence is a batch of tunes that could fit nicely alongside late 1970s and early 1980s hits, as well as next to tracks from the 21st Century. - Shay

Ranking U2's Albums from Worst to First, #10 Songs of Experience

 In the last part of 18th Century, English poet and artist William Blake published his joint book of poems and illustrations titled "Songs of Innocence and Experience".  In 2014, U2 released their 13th studio album, "Songs of Innocence".  And then in 2017, they released the follow up album, titled "Songs of Experience."  It is this album, U2's last of original material (the album "Songs of Surrender" in 2023 contained reworked, reimagined, and re-recorded tracks from their previous albums) that comes in at #10 on this unofficial countdown of the band's catalogue.

The 2014, "Songs of Innocence" had echoed some of the stripped down, early 1980s songs, both sonically and thematically.  "Songs of Experience" echoed some of the material from 2014, but took it in new directions, much like U2 pushed their sound into new territory in the 1990s.  On repeated listens to this album, what stands out are the melodies.  Bono has always been a fantastic singer and an excellent creator of melodic atmospheres, and where "Songs of Experience" might suffer a bit from over-production, it is full of rich and catchy melodies.  

U2, Songs of Experience - Released, December 1, 2017

Album Charts - #1 Ireland, #5 UK, #1 US.

Worldwide Sales to Date - 1.3 Million 

Singles - You're the Best Thing About Me, #66 Ireland, #92 UK, #1 US Adult Alternative Chart; Get Out of Your Own Way, #3 US Adult Alternative Chart; Love is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way, #25 US Hit Rock and Alternative Chart, Summer of Love (did not chart), Landlady (did not chart).

Standout Songs - Lights of Home, You're the Best Thing About Me, Get Out of Your Own Way, American Soul, 13 (There is a Light).

Weakest Track - The Blackout

Hidden Gem - 13 (There is a Light)

By the late 2010s, U2 had honed their craft so much that they could write and record very "professional sounding" tracks in their sleep.  That is a positive but can also be a negative.  Here's to hoping that U2 might rediscover some of their innocent naivete to combine with their experienced song-craft on their next album. - Shay    

Ranking U2's Albums from Worst to First, #11 Zooropa

In the middle of the European leg of the Zoo TV tour, in between concert dates, U2 traveled back and forth between Dublin and the tour locations to record their follow up to their smash hit album, Achtung Baby.  Initially these hastily recorded tracks were to form an EP rather than a full-length record, but as the creative juices continued to flow, the EP grew to an LP titled Zooropa and was released in early July 1993.  

If Achtung Baby had been experimental, Zooropa shot the experiment through with a big fat dose of steroids!  But if you were to strip away the tracks of their added electronic embellishments, you would be left with a batch of solid songs.  Adam's thundering bass mixed with a little less martial sounding drum beats from Larry create a powerful wall of rhythm and the dance beats and synthesizers just make the guitar tones a little more playful and edgy (pun intended).  Bono's melodious singing soars, especially on songs like Lemon and Stay (Faraway, So Close!).  Though the album loses a little momentum on the second half, it ends brilliantly with Johnny Cash bellowing over a space age riff on The Wanderer.  

U2 Zooropa - Released, July 5, 1993.

Album Charts - Ireland 1, UK 1, US 1.

Worldwide Sales to Date - 7 Million

Singles - Numb, #2 US Modern Rock Chart, Lemon, #3 US Modern Rock Chart, Zooropa, #13 US Modern Rock Chart, Stay (Faraway, So Close!), #15 US Modern Rock Chart.

Standout Songs - Zooropa, Babyface, Numb, Lemon, Stay (Faraway, So Close!), The Wanderer.

Weakest Track - Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car

Hidden Gem - The Wanderer 

We are not yet even in the top 10 on this list, but Zooropa is not so faraway, and oh so close to a classic record. - Shay