U2: The Unforgettable Fire (25th Anniversary Edition)
U2: The Unforgettable Fire (25th Anniversary Edition)
Thursday, 29, Oct 2009 04:27
Island, out November 2nd.
In a nutshell....
Irish giants set anthemic rock template
What's it all about?
Super-duper special edition re-issues of classic albums have become one of the most common sights on the shelves of music stores in recent years and Island have decided to give The Unforgettable Fire the same treatment.
The album's ten songs - including the hit title track and Pride (In the Name of Love) - have been remastered by none other than the band's guitarist, The Edge.
In addition, a limited edition box set and deluxe version both come with extra treats such as a bonus CD, which features out-takes, B-sides and other rarities like previously unheard tracks Yoshino Blossom and Disappearing Act. The latter, previously known as White City, was finally completed during the band's recent 360° tour.
Who's it by
Just some small-time band from Ireland.
The Unforgettable Fire captures Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jnr at an interesting point in their then-burgeoning careers. Fresh from the success of the angry and urgent War in 1983, the band chose to turn away from making a huge rock statement by locking themselves away in Slane Castle with ambient electronica masters Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois.
The resultant record saw the group fuse their trademark guitars and anthemic sloganeering with a gentle ambient swell which gives all of the songs - most notably the title track - a more widescreen and abstract sound than any they recorded before.
Along with follow-up The Joshua Tree, this record highlights the kind of atmospherics that the likes of Coldplay have been trying to replicate for years.
As an example...
"If I could throw this lifeless lifeline to the wind/Leave this heart of clay/See you walk, walk away into the night/And through the rain" - Bad
"Ice, your only rivers run cold/These city lights, they shine as silver and gold/Dug from the night/Your eyes as black as coal" - The Unforgettable Fire
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
The album was well-received at the time but was not an award winner. That honour was left to the much-loved follow-up, 1987's The Joshua Tree, which got the band their first Grammys.
What the others say
"The Unforgettable Fire stands as a fascinating document of a band on the cusp of something, their eyes opening wide to the world; tellingly, however, there were no experimental interludes on The Joshua Tree." - Uncut
"Unfortunately, with The Unforgettable Fire, U2 flickers and nearly fades, its fire banked by a misconceived production strategy and occasional interludes of soggy, songless self-indulgence." - Rolling Stone
"U2 would never be the same again. Although often overshadowed by its successor, The Joshua Tree, The Unforgettable Fire is a record of great, moving beauty." - BBC
So is it any good?
The remastered version of The Unforgettable Fire is a well-crafted document of when the world's biggest band was on its way to the top. While the group's reinvention around the time of Achtung Baby was seen as a massive creative step, the same can be said of this period.
When many expected U2 to take their place beside other big bands with a major rock statement, they took a side-step with a more experimental edge by calling on Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. It must have taken courage, but it obviously paid off by the time they got to The Joshua Tree.
However, this album is not the perfect article. Tracks like 4th of July and Elvis Presley and America see the band take a step too far in their experiments, often choosing an interesting sound over an actual tune.
Fortunately the same cannot be said elsewhere. Opener A Sort of Homecoming and Wire see the band weld their new-found atmospherics with the urgent and exciting post-punk of their previous albums. In addition, Pride (In the Name of Love) proves itself to be a punch-the-air anthem which comfortably rivals the likes of Sunday Bloody Sunday or New Year's Day.
Indian Summer Sky and Promenade prove themselves to be lovely, shimmering songs, but the best songs here are undoubtedly Bad and the title track. The former is an epic slow-burner about heroin addiction that swells into the kind of widescreen anthem the band are now famed for, while the latter showcases a strong sense of melody alongside Eno and Lanois' sweeping studio trickery.
A special mention must also go to closer MLK, where Bono returns to the subject of Pride (In the Name of Love) - Martin Luther King Jnr - with real poignancy over a desolate ambient soundscape.
While the original album still stands up well, the bonus CD is probably only really for completists. A few B-sides, such as Three Sunrises and Love Comes Tumbling, are good, but there is a lot of filler. As for the previously unreleased tracks, Disappearing Act is nice enough, but Yoshino Blossom appears to be an instrumental retread of New Year's Day.
All in all, massive U2 fans will no doubt love the extras and the remastered, crystal-clear sound of the album. However, this re-release is also an opportunity for the uninitiated to hear a band on the edge of becoming a global phenomenon that weren't afraid to take chances.
8/10
Rob Dixon