The Unforgettable Fire is proof that the Irish band called U2 used to be cool. This album was made in 1984, 2 years before “The Joshua Tree”, which exploded U2 into the kind of international success that few bands ever experience. For those who don’t know, U2’s guitarist calls himself “The Edge”, and he’s at least 62% of the reason U2 sounds good. That holds true on this album but at a higher percentage. The other guys are all great players. Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton Jr. are one of the most solid drum/bass combos in all of rock. And Bono legitimately had some pipes to be reckoned with for most of his career. To his everlasting credit, his voice is shot nowadays mostly because of the gutsy way he sang from 1982-1992 (plus all the drinking and smoking). But it’s Edge that takes the songs to sonic heights. An early pioneer of all things echo, he plugs his guitar into so much delay and reverb on this record he sounds like 20 guitarists. And it’s not a cover, he is really a fantastic guitarist with great tone and real chops. This is also the album he started playing Vox AC-30’s on, bespeaking his excellent taste in amplifiers (I play the same amp).
This is the first of 4 U2 albums produced by Brian Eno with or without Steve Lilliwhite (this one without). And his excellent string arrangements are all over it. The record is very dynamic and honestly the first digital mastering of it robbed it of a lot of it’s magic. It was made in Dublin on the only 24-track tape machine in the country. For bigger songs like “Wire” and “Indian Summer Sky”, several downmixes of Edge’s guitars had to be made to allow room for the strings and vocals. Later collaborator Daniel Lanois called this U2’s last “rebellious record” coming after “Boy”, “October”, and “War” all steeped in lots of things to say about nuclear proliferation, the refugee situation in Africa and the South Pacific, apartheid and obviously, the Irish-British tensions at home. Bono characterized it differently, saying this is when they “stopped bitching and started preaching” and describes the songs on this record as celebrations of the few people who refuse to accept the situation. That’s not to say it lacks angst. As Bono ends “Wire” with the dismissive “Here’s the rope, here’s the rope... now swing on it”.
I like it cause it’s messy. Messier than U2 ever allowed another record to be. Edge’s guitars bleed into everything, Larry’s drums are not locked into a tempo, in fact, they’re all over the place, and the others just go with the feel, but that’s what music is supposed to be like. Bono belts himself horse and even out of tune, and he keeps belting. It’s really kind of beautiful. I think U2 got kinda sterile over time, and I generally say “Achtung Baby” was their last good record. But when they play these songs, and it’s pretty rare, except for “Pride (In the Name of Love)” and “Bad”, they’re still raw, cause they never subjected them to the critical process of everything after. That’s the U2 I love, and since I’m never gonna pay over $100 to see them again, I’m probably never gonna see them again.
