With the long weekend behind me, it was time to get back on the CD Odyssey horse. This particular album I almost finished listening to on Saturday, and consequently I got another almost full listen in today on the drive home.
This is a good thing, since I don't know it very well, and it let us get better acquainted.
Disc 176 is...War
Artist: U2
Year of Release: 1983
What’s Up With The Cover?: The boy from the "Boy" cover appears again - but now he's older and angrier. He looks like a nasty, maladjusted kid, but I think U2 is trying to convey what war does to the young. At least, that's my take.
How I Came To Know It: I have known a couple of songs on this album for a long time, as it was a big deal back when I was in junior high. I bought this album (as well as "Boy") because I had the greatest hits from 1980-1990 and I wanted to see what the studio albums were like from the period I didn't know very well.
How It Stacks Up: In addition to the greatest hits album (which doesn't really count) I have seven U2 albums. I'd put "War" in at #5. It isn't that I didn't like it, it is just that I liked the other 4 albums better.
Rating: 3 stars, but close to 4.
"War" is one of those early U2 albums that long standing U2 fans will always bring up when someone says how much they like "The Joshua Tree".
'The Joshua Tree is OK', they say, 'but War is the greatest U2 album ever made.' There are variations on this theme, and I think they date roughly from when the speaker got hooked on the band - it ranges from the first album, "Boy" all the way up to album following this one, "The Unforgettable Fire". The important thing is that your favourite is not "The Joshua Tree" or anything after it, if you want to be really cool. It's just like the Metallica "Black Album" thing, except without as much justification.
Personally, I have a hard time picking my favourite U2 album, but "War" isn't it.
That said, I like this album. It is in U2's early period, where they sang about inportant political topics - and more importantly, they did it well. The first three tracks, "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Seconds" and "New Years Day" cover the subjects of Irish massacres in Northern Ireland, Nuclear War and the Solidarity movement in Poland. Two of the three became massive hits for the band (since they're massive hits, I don't need to tell you which two). The third isn't as strong, but it is a good song, and its only crime is being sandwiched between two rock classics.
Bono is at his best on "Sunday Bloody Sunday", a song about the bloody conflict in Northern Ireland. U2 avoids taking any side, and instead calls for peace amidst the carnage, with Bono singing:
"Broken bottles under children's feet
Bodies strewn across the dead-end street
But I won't heed the battle call
It puts my back up, puts my back up against the wall."
The rest of the album doesn't match this initial intensity. It isn't that the songs are particularly bad, but they don't stand out until the final track, "40", which is a real hidden gem on this record, akin to what "MLK" delivers at the end of "Unforgettable Fire". Beautifully understated, and spiritual without getting religion, "40" gave this album a nice positive sign-off after a lot of preceding tracks focused on the problems in society.
At times I was disappointed with the choice of instrumentation, and the production. For example, on "Red Light" trumpets make a bizarre appearance where trumpets are clearly not called for alongside equally weird and incongruous 'hammer hitting metal' clanks. There is an unpleasant drum machine sound to the percussion on many of the tracks. While whacky percussion and ill-used horn sections are a crime common to records from this period, it still must be pointed out that they detract from the album's gravitas.
Because of this, I couldn't give "War" 4 stars, even though songs like "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "New Year's Day" are individually worthy of 5 stars. That said, it is a solid album, by a band that has proved itself many times over since.
Best tracks: Sunday Bloody Sunday, Seconds, New Years Day, 40
This is a good thing, since I don't know it very well, and it let us get better acquainted.
Disc 176 is...War
Artist: U2Year of Release: 1983
What’s Up With The Cover?: The boy from the "Boy" cover appears again - but now he's older and angrier. He looks like a nasty, maladjusted kid, but I think U2 is trying to convey what war does to the young. At least, that's my take.
How I Came To Know It: I have known a couple of songs on this album for a long time, as it was a big deal back when I was in junior high. I bought this album (as well as "Boy") because I had the greatest hits from 1980-1990 and I wanted to see what the studio albums were like from the period I didn't know very well.
How It Stacks Up: In addition to the greatest hits album (which doesn't really count) I have seven U2 albums. I'd put "War" in at #5. It isn't that I didn't like it, it is just that I liked the other 4 albums better.
Rating: 3 stars, but close to 4.
"War" is one of those early U2 albums that long standing U2 fans will always bring up when someone says how much they like "The Joshua Tree".
'The Joshua Tree is OK', they say, 'but War is the greatest U2 album ever made.' There are variations on this theme, and I think they date roughly from when the speaker got hooked on the band - it ranges from the first album, "Boy" all the way up to album following this one, "The Unforgettable Fire". The important thing is that your favourite is not "The Joshua Tree" or anything after it, if you want to be really cool. It's just like the Metallica "Black Album" thing, except without as much justification.
Personally, I have a hard time picking my favourite U2 album, but "War" isn't it.
That said, I like this album. It is in U2's early period, where they sang about inportant political topics - and more importantly, they did it well. The first three tracks, "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Seconds" and "New Years Day" cover the subjects of Irish massacres in Northern Ireland, Nuclear War and the Solidarity movement in Poland. Two of the three became massive hits for the band (since they're massive hits, I don't need to tell you which two). The third isn't as strong, but it is a good song, and its only crime is being sandwiched between two rock classics.
Bono is at his best on "Sunday Bloody Sunday", a song about the bloody conflict in Northern Ireland. U2 avoids taking any side, and instead calls for peace amidst the carnage, with Bono singing:
"Broken bottles under children's feet
Bodies strewn across the dead-end street
But I won't heed the battle call
It puts my back up, puts my back up against the wall."
The rest of the album doesn't match this initial intensity. It isn't that the songs are particularly bad, but they don't stand out until the final track, "40", which is a real hidden gem on this record, akin to what "MLK" delivers at the end of "Unforgettable Fire". Beautifully understated, and spiritual without getting religion, "40" gave this album a nice positive sign-off after a lot of preceding tracks focused on the problems in society.
At times I was disappointed with the choice of instrumentation, and the production. For example, on "Red Light" trumpets make a bizarre appearance where trumpets are clearly not called for alongside equally weird and incongruous 'hammer hitting metal' clanks. There is an unpleasant drum machine sound to the percussion on many of the tracks. While whacky percussion and ill-used horn sections are a crime common to records from this period, it still must be pointed out that they detract from the album's gravitas.
Because of this, I couldn't give "War" 4 stars, even though songs like "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "New Year's Day" are individually worthy of 5 stars. That said, it is a solid album, by a band that has proved itself many times over since.
Best tracks: Sunday Bloody Sunday, Seconds, New Years Day, 40
No comments:
Post a Comment