Wasn't the story behind October that they had taken a while to record and produce it, only to somehow lose all the recorded elements? Then they ended up re-recording what little they could recall in a very short amount of time, almost half-assing what they had already done, in order to get it out without too much delay. As a result, U2 themselves considers this album their biggest disappointment, and is the one album they're least likely to play a song from live.

It definitely has the most religious imagery of any of their albums, especially in songs like Gloria, Fire, and Rejoice. Also some of their most stripped-down, beautiful songs like Tommorrow and the title track October.

You could tell they were in a sort of transition period, and the lyrics in several songs are pretty poor, due to the briefcase full of lyrics being lost as mentioned above.

I guess I'm more of a new U2 listener...I have U218 (the singles/greatest hits). I can't say that I recognize any of the tracks on these CD's, but I do love U2.

= J

Honestly, the only track I listen to from this album is Gloria. I should go back and give it another chance, but I remember it being such a letdown from Boy. On the other hand, it makes the jump in quality from October to War seem like a quantum leap.

October is my second favorite U2 album, after Unforgettable Fire. With U2's optimistic, engergetic, righteous, noble, Christian themes, to me they occasionally got a little heavy handed and preachy (Rattle and Hum). I always thought the band was better when they were a bit more abstract and moody, as they were with October and Unforgettable Fire. U2 was my favorite band as a teenager, and I still love the U2 from Boy/October/War/Unforgettable Fire. After that, they became a ROCK BAND, for better or worse. I don't think they sold out or anything, and I like a bunch of their later songs, but they kind of got a bit contrived, and everything got too planned out after the first four albums, IMO.

And plus, the riffs for Gloria and Rejoice were two of the first things my friend taught me when I was learning guitar.

I agree with others that this was a bit of a letdown after the debut. However, I think it has aged pretty well and is better than most remember. I actually enjoy listening to this album more than some of their big hit albums that were to come.

Released: 1983

Tracklisting:

1. Sunday Bloody Sunday
2. Seconds
3. New Year's Day
4. Like A Song...
5. Drowning Man
6. The Refugee
7. Two Hearts Beat As One
8. Red Light
9. Surrender
10. '40

Credits

Bono: Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals
Adam Clayton: Bass
The Edge: Guitar, Piano, Guitar (Steel), Vocals
Jessica Felton: Vocals, Vocals (bckgr)
Kenny Fradley: Trumpet
Taryn Hagey: Vocals (bckgr)
Adriana Kaegi: Vocals (bckgr)
Steve Lillywhite: Producer
Larry Mullen, Jr.: Percussion, Drums
Cheryl Poirier: Vocals (bckgr)
Paul Thomas: Engineer
Bill Whelan: Producer
Steve Wickham: Violin, Violin (Electric)

Along with Achtung Baby, War is U2's best album and their first masterpiece. Every track on War is pretty much brilliant, and they performed with a fire not seen on their first two releases. Sunday Bloody Sunday is the perfect opener, a protest and a call to arms all at once. My personal favorite from the album is Two Hearts Beat As One, which plays like the ultimate post-punk love song. An amazing album from start to finish.

I love the extended remix of "Two Hearts", found on it's single. Also, there's an extended version of New Years Day has verses not on the album version.

This is the album/tour that got me into U2. I saw them for the first time at the US Festival, but I really didn't see them...laying out in the sun, I didn't watch much of the show (missed Bono climbing to the top of the stage) but I do remember thinking how great 40 was.

Saw them a week or so later at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, and was blown away.

Anyway, back to the album. I agree with Supr, that it is their "First Masterpiece". Every track is terrific and the remixes are well worth seeking out. Favorites are Two Hearts, Like A Song, NYD (remix) and 40. The production on this album is much more "in your face" and aggressive. The videos for this album helped as U2 became more famous and they were much better done than any of their earlier videos.

Not sure if we will be covering UABRS, since it's not a studio album, but the WAR Tour was a real defining moment for the band. Bono would routinely go out into the crowd (or climb the scaffolding on the stage) but to the worries of the rest of the band. Bono felt that he needed to do that to "connect" with their growing audiences. After the Sports Arena show where he was trapped at the balcony, and he was forced to jump about 15-20 feet to the ground to escape, the rest of the band got him to stop going out into the crowd as much...

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Here is the US Festival Footage of him climbing to the top of the stage.

As far as live recordings go, the DVD of the US Festival is great but it is a little short of a "whole concert" (same for the official release of UABRS), as far as a complete show goes, the STELLAR "The Complete Boston '83 Tapes" from May 6, 1983 is Highly Recommended!

I am in the minority as I do not consider it one of my favorite 2 or 3 U2 albums. I put it in the upper middle of the pack right after that.

Favorite tracks: New Years Day, Surrender, Refugee.

I love that song as well. Bought the 12'' and played the snot out of it. This is the first U2 album that made me fall in love and then out of love a little bit. I like every song, but I went off to college after it's release and every cover band I heard every weekend played Sunday Bloody Sunday (or New Year's Day). I'm still sick of those songs. I made my wife a best of U2 compilation recently and purposefully left off anything that resembles a hit. I'm not sure I left off any War album tracks. Fantastic recording.

I like "40" and "Surrender". I'm not much of a fan of this album, or indeed, much of anything U2 has done since October (with the exception of Achtung Baby).

Yep, I was going to mention the War videos as well. Two Hearts got a decent amount of MTV airplay (and I LOVE that video) , but New Year's Day and Sunday Bloody Sunday from Red Rocks were shown constantly. This was definitely when I got into U2 as well. They were one of a few 80's bands (Duran Duran also comes to mind) that really used their videos as a means to define the whole aesthetic of the band, and not just the individual song. The images and tone from the New Years Day video were just completely in sync with the vibe and lyrics of the song, as well as the whole album, and what the band was about.

I like War a lot. There was a lot of space and atmosphere on October, and I think the band made a conscious decision to move away from that a bit and focus on tighter songwriting, which they did very well with this album, IMO. I always thought the studio version of Sunday Bloody Sunday sounded a bit weak next to the Red Rocks live version---that's the one I always play. My favorite songs would be New Year's Day, Like a Song and Seconds.

Before we leave "WAR" I wanted to post my "first" U2 concert shirts...

US Festival - May 30, 1983


Los Angeles Sports Arena - June 17, 1983

Wow. What a great bassline from Clayton in this one.

Yeah, the bassline on Two Hearts really sells it, along with Bono's impassioned performance.

I have heard this album but never owned it. After reading some of the comments here I will probably pick it up. U2 started to lose me a bit after the early phase of their career but from what I remember this album seemed pretty solid.

Released: 1984

Tracklisting

1. A Sort Of Homecoming
2. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
3. Wire
4. The Unforgettable Fire
5. Promenade
6. 4th Of July
7. Bad
8. Indian Summer Sky
9. Elvis Presley And America
10. MLK

Credits

Steve Averill: Concept, Cover Design, Sleeve Design
Paul Barrett: Keyboards, Fairlight
Bono: Vocals
Tim Buckley: Band
Adam Clayton: Bass
Anton Corbijn: Concept, Realization, Sleeve Design
The Edge: Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
Brian Eno: Keyboards, Vocals, Producer, Engineer, Treatments
Randy Ezratty: Assistant Engineer
Noel Kelehan: Arranger, String Arrangements
Kevin Killen: Engineer
Daniel Lanois: Vocals, Producer, Engineer, Treatments
Larry Mullen, Jr.: Drums
Peter Williams: Band

Bonus Discussion:

Unforgettable Fire was the first U2 studio cd that I owned. I think the second half kinda drops off, but the first side is strong. Favorite songs: Wire, Unforgettable Fire.

Under A Blood Red Sky was the first U2 release I heard/owned. Great stuff. I have a bootleg of the entire show and it is outstanding. Hopefully they release the entire show during the current re-release project they are doing.

Hey, how dare you skip "Under a Blood Red Sky"? That was my introduction to U2.

Look closer my friend.

sometimes i think the unforgettable fire is my favorite u2 album. the layers & sonics on this album always blow my mind. the first four songs on this album are right on-par with the first four of the joshua tree & war in terms of exciting.

What a change of direction producers can bring. The Eno / Lanois team brings a completely new sound to U2, after having an album (WAR) that was very different from their first two. The first sessions for this album were recorded at Slane Castle, North of Dublin (I will be there in a few weeks!) and you can tell the band was in a more experimental mode.

A Sort Of Homecoming, Wire, The Unforgettable Fire and of course Pride (In The Name Of Love), highlight this album, but I love Indian Summer Sky as well. This is one of my favorite U2 albums as it really is more "out there" than most of them in terms of the ambienence and it's atmospheric flavor.

However, this is truely the period where the band became "The Band Of The 80's" (Later the 90's and 00's) because of it's live shows. Songs like Sort of Homecoming, and of course Bad, played much better live than on the record. I think U2's performance at Live Aid, got them so much attention, that I consider that their turning point of being the complete superstarts that they became after that.

Bad at Live Aid
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Another recording to look for is the complete version of Chicago, March 21, 1985 (Four at Four)...Stellar Audience Recording...

My U2 T-Shirts from UF Tour...(Only saw them once, Dec 16, 1984 in Long Beach, CA)

I love Unforgettable Fire (though less now than when it first came out), and "Bad" is one of my favorite U2 songs (though I prefer the live version on "Wide Awake in America"). But there's two things that bug me about the album, one objectively and one subjectively. Objectively, it's extremely thin sounding - so thin in fact, that I don't think a simple re-mastering would make it much better, but we'll see. And subjectively, this was U2 at the height of their pretentiousness - at the time of this album, they truly came off like arrogant pricks, Bono especially. It continued to a lesser degree from Joshua Tree to Rattle & Hum, but thank goodness they eventually got over their bullshit superiority complex.