Deep Dives

Record #1007: U2 – No Line on the Horizon (2009)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Alright, let’s get the hot take out of the way right out of the gate. This is my favorite U2 record of the ’00s.

It certainly came as a surprise to me. As I was shotgunning their discography in order, the transcendent bliss of their ’90s work came crashing down when I got to All That You Can’t Leave Behind. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb didn’t do much to change my mind (note: I’ve largely come around on both now). I put on No Line on the Horizon, gritting my teeth to see why the reviews I had read were so unkind.

So imagine my surprise when I ended up enjoying it quite a bit.

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Record #1006: U2 – How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

After the success of 2000’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind, something funny happened. Namely, the Rock Revival, led by bands like The Strokes, Interpol, The Killers, and other students of the early 80s post-punk scene.

U2, themselves members of that original class, looked at the rise of these acts, then back at themselves, and sorta said, “didn’t we used to do that?” They then called up Steve Lillywhite, who produced their first three records, and set off to work on what Bono called “our first rock record,” a statement that’s probably rooted more in self-deprecation than accuracy.

In either case, it worked. It was an immediate commercial success, beloved by critics, and netted the group eight Grammys, as well as a few indelible hits. That said, it’s bogged down by some of the same self-consciousness of its predecessor, even if it is a bit more consistent.

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Record #1005: U2 – All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

“We are re-applying for the job of the best band in the world.”

Thus spake Bono at numerous occasions on the press tour that accompanied All That You Can’t Leave Behind. And I’m not sure it’s possible to find a more succinct description on this record.

Despite whatever artistic merit Pop had (read: heaps), it didn’t translate to commercial success. Dissatisfied with their slow fade from the pop charts, they set aside the fascination with electronica and dance music that carried them through the ’90s and returned to what brought them the most success.

But while their job application might display some compelling aptitude for the position, it falls short of living up to their monolithic legacy.

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Record #1004: U2 – Pop (1997)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

After Achtung Baby and Zooropa demolished my prejudices against them, I cast a suspicious glance further down the catalog and said, “I better flippin’ hate Pop.”

Where I had only heard Zooropa used as a punchline, Pop had an even less flattering reputation. Over the years, it has often come up as an example of respected band dropping a real stinker. The band’s own opinions on the record haven’t helped rebut that reputation, and being the last record before All That You Can’t Leave Behind’s alleged return to form, Pop became the scapegoat for U2’s ill-advised detour into dance music. Outside of its accompanying tour, the group has rarely played any of these songs live.

But somehow, despite its reputation among both fans and the band themselves, this is the last great record they made.

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Record #1003: U2 – Zooropa (1993)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

After having my perception of U2’s career shattered by the absolute bombshell that is Achtung Baby, I cast a suspicious glance at Zooropa. The only person I had ever heard speak positively about it said it was the only U2 album they liked, because it sounded nothing like U2. Other than that, it was used as a shorthand for how far the Irish post-punkers-turned-arena-heroes had gone off the rails. And coming online to U2’s existence around the time of All That You Can’t Leave Behind, even the band seemed to treat this record (and their 90s period in general) as an embarrassing and misguided detour.

So you can imagine my surprise when I found out it actually rules pretty hard.

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Record #1002: U2 – Achtung Baby (1991)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald / 1 Comment

I have always freely admitted that I have some glaring blind spots in my musical knowledge. And some of them are embarrassing. It’s not unusual for me to miss important artists in scenes that I follow closely—sometimes that have even toured with my favorite bands (see: Manchester Orchestra, Touché Amoré).

But what is unusual is ignoring what many regard as the best album from one of my favorite bands.

I had somehow gotten the impression that Achtung Baby was where U2 had jumped the shark. Per the joke I would repeat loudly and often, U2 fell off halfway through The Joshua Tree and never recovered. Somehow, it took until last month for someone to challenge that assertion.

And while Achtung Baby was indeed a massive shift for the band, it wasn’t downward. The group ripped up most of their playbook and radically reinvented themselves, kicking off perhaps their most forward-thinking decade of work.

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Record #1001: U2 – The Joshua Tree (1987)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

There are fixed points in music history. Records that are so singular that they transcend reality and become the thing of myth. For U2, that mythology is The Joshua Tree. While people can debate what their best record is all day, The Joshua Tree is certainly the U2-iest.

All of their tendencies are indulged to satiety. All of their sonic experimentation, spirituality, sociopolitical consciousness, rock and roll historicity, American fetishism, and grand ambitions are at play, without much restraint. It’s not a perfect record—a couple moments just don’t land just right.

But my word, when they do land…

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Record #1000: U2 – The Unforgettable Fire (1984)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

After War its subsequent tour made them into The Next Big Thing, U2 pushed back. Per Bono’s own account, the world was waiting for the next The Who or Led Zeppelin, and it seemed that they were poised to fill ascend to that throne.

But they didn’t want to be “the Next” whoever or other. They wanted to be the first U2. And so they eschewed the throne waiting for them and took a hard left turn instead. They rented a castle and hired Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois to produce (a decision that Bono had to talk both the label and Eno himself into). Eno and Lanois took the sense of atmosphere that had always been a spice on their albums and turned it into a main course.

The resulting album was unlike anything before or since, forecasting shoegaze and post rock in prescient detail. And even in the light of thirty years, The Unforgettable Fire remains the most consequential album they’ve ever made.

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Record #999: U2 – Under a Blood Red Sky (1983)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

For all of their innovation in the studio, it is impossible to fully grasp U2’s body of work without considering their live show. They are the posterboys for arena rock, which is less a genre than it is a touring designation, and a cursory look at any of their live shows will show you why. Even if you don’t consider their inventive use of multimedia elements (see: ZooTV, US 360º Tour, their recent residency at The Sphere), the electricity of the four Irishmen is often enough to captivate crowds in the tens of thousands.

On Under a Blood Red Sky, their first live record, they hadn’t yet become the entertainment juggernauts they would pupate into. However, the energy the group brings to the stage is palpable through the speakers.

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Record #998: U2 – War (1983)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

It’s hard to quantify just how big of a record War was.

Up to this point, U2’s brand of anthemic post-punk had brought them modest success, but they were hardly a household name to anyone. War, on the other hand, knocked Thriller off of the top spot on the UK charts.

Thirty-one years later, it remains one of the group’s most definitive and celebrated works, and with good reason. For my own part, it was a chance purchase of this record in a used bin when I first started collecting records that made me a U2 fan in the first place, and it was my favorite of theirs for quite a few years.

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