Description
The final album of U2’s early period, before the group broadened its sonic palette and lyrical vision, War is a brilliantly conflicted album, sounding martial and majestic while its very purpose is to tear down false idols propped up by politics. “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “40” take the subject of Northern Ireland’s troubles head-on, while its the subtext of “New Years Day”, which is about a sundered love relationship symbolic of a greater division. “Torn in two, we can be one,” Bono pleads, as Edges guitar scratches and snarls behind him. Songs such as “Two Hearts Beat as One” and the delicate “Drowning Man” take a back seat here, but they help make War a compelling and well-rounded album.
WAR, U2’s first gold album, established them as one of the great cutting edge bands in all of contemporary music. From the insularity and ruminative splendour of their studio work, U2 blossomed into a visceral live band capable of turning elegant webs of sound into in-your-face rock and roll. The Edges innovative guitar work was now augmented by his piano playing (particularly on the hit single “New Years Day”), while Bono’s lyrics turned explicitly to politics for the first time (“Sunday Bloody Sunday”).
Label: Island Records
Catalog#: ILPS 9733
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album Gatefold
Country: UK
Released: 28 Feb 1983
Genre: Rock
Check all SAMPLES: http://chirb.it/qwFEBq
Tracklist
A1 Sunday Bloody Sunday 4:38 (Violin [Electric] – Steve Wickham)
A2 Seconds 3:09
A3 New Years Day 5:38
A4 Like A Song… 4:48
A5 Drowning Man 4:12 (Violin [Electric] – Steve Wickham)
Why Is This ” Drowning Man” Melody So Interesting?
B1 The Refugee 3:40 [Mixed By – Steve Lillywhite. Producer – Bill Whelan]
B2 Two Hearts Beats As One 4:00
B3 Red Light 3:46 [Backing Vocals – Adriana Kaegi , Cheryl Poirier , Jessica Felton , Taryn Hagey]
B4 Surrender` 5:34 [Backing Vocals – Adriana Kaegi , Cheryl Poirier , Jessica Felton , Taryn Hagey]
B5 “40” 2:36
1983 Original sound recording by Island Records
Barcode: 5 014474 107337
Matrix Number: ILPS 9733 A-1U-1-1
Matrix Number: ILPS 9733 B-1U-1-1
U2 are a rock band from Dublin, Ireland. The band consists of Bono (vocals and guitar), The Edge (guitar, keyboards, and vocals), Adam Clayton (bass guitar) and Larry Mullen Jr. (drums and percussion). The band formed in 1976 when the members were teenagers with limited musical proficiency. By the mid-1980s, however, the band had become a top international act, noted for their anthemic sound, Bono s impassioned vocals, and The Edges textural guitar playing. War was their third album released in 1983.
“New Year’s Day” – the famous U2 song that changed it all
U2’s song “New Year’s Day,” an instant pop hit of its time, has become a rock classic to be rolled out at the end of the year simply because of its festive name. But the true meaning behind the song remains elusive to many.
The 1983 song was released as the lead single from the album “War.” It was U2’sfirst international hit and altered their career’s trajectory forever. “New Year’s Day” stormed the United Kingdom charts, hitting number 10 and was the band’s first song to be featured on the United States Billboard Hot 100. Rolling Stone magazine also featured it among their “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”
Although it is one of U2’s most well-known tunes, many fans don’t realize that the song’s lyrics are actually about the Polish Solidarity movement. And you could be forgiven, given that it is called “New Year’s Day” and it was released in January 1983.
BBC Review
You can’t knock the sure-footed power-pop of “Two Hearts Beat As One” and “New Years Day”.
In 1982, back before world leaders were being brow-beaten by Bono, U2 were teaming up once again with Steve Lillywhite (who’d produced their debut, Boy, and October) for a crack at their third album. Whilst there’s no denying the youthful energy and industrial quantities of testosterone on display, it’s something of a mixed rattlebag that highlights the pros and cons of the band. After a while all that breathless beseeching, fiery indignation and BIG guitar heroics grows a tad wearisome; a bit like being shouted at by someone who means well but doesn’t know when to turn the volume down.
The palette broadens on “Red Light” with backing vocals from Kid Creole’s Coconuts no less, and some equally superfluous trumpet – the latter making a tokenistic jazz noise atop the impervious surface of the band’s default setting, that only loosens up enough to work effectively by the time the track is fading-out.
Similarly the hurtling ardour of singer and guitarist going at it full-tilt on “Like A Song”, becomes interesting only when it threatens to spill over into the thunderous rumble of Larry Mullen’s drumming. By then though, the faders are sliding into zero. More effective contributions arise from Steve Wickham’s soaring violin as it weaves around chiming harmonics and multi-tracked acoustic guitars of “Drowning Man.” – something the Eno-produced James would emulate the following decade. His stirring violin also heats up the anthemic “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, a rough-hewn stomp that falteringly navigates its way between posture and politics.
For all the evident unevenness, you can’t knock the sure-footed pure power-pop of “Two Hearts Beat As One” and “New Years Day”. Though Adam Clayton’s bass line had an unlikely genesis (he was trying to play the Visage hit, “Fade To Grey”), it’s reverberations set off a chain reaction of exultant flag-waving around the world. Though War explores some of the glassy sonics which The Edge would later perfect, it falls short of the musical maturity they were to find with their 1984 studio follow-up, The Unforgettable Fire.
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