arena rock

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 #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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Record #676: Journey – Infinity (1978)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

If you were to conduct a survey to find the most important rock bands of the 1980s, the name “Journey” would be somewhere in the top five most common answers. Their huge hooks and virtuosic guitar solos have given them a permanent spot in “Yesterday and Today” radio stations across the country.

That legacy of hard-hitting singalongs started on Infinity, their fourth studio album, and their first with vocalist Steve Perry. That addition was the perfect ingredient to take them from an obscure progressive outfit to hit-making, bonafide arena rockers.

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Record #428: Journey –  Escape (1981)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald
Journey gets some hate among punk, metal, and hipster circles (note: these are all of my circles).
Nearly all of that hate is due to one song: “Don’t Stop Believin’,” which is the opening track of this album.
But that’s all misdirected. Hate the cultural obsession and Glee  version all you want. But the track itself is still solid gold. And there’s only more where that came from.

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