Votes: 45
Highest Rank: 4th (1)
Lowest Rank: 10th (1)
Goodbye War. Hello Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. While I disagree that this is a transformational album in terms of how the band was perceived, it certainly is a HUGE transformation in the type of music U2 played. While War was much more rock driven and hard hitting, UF arrived on shelves featuring U2 at their most ambient thanks to the new collaboration with Eno and Lanois. UF also marks the first of the 3 "U2 goes American" albums in which U2 embraced our country both musically (incorporating the blues, gospel, etc.) and lyrically/spiritually ("MLK", "Pride", "Elvis Presley"). Europe took center stage musically and thematically with Achtung Baby, but for 3 albums, U2 took in America as only an outsider could - wholeheartedly.
The heights of this album are as high as any other U2 has ever done - "Bad" and "Pride" are still moving experiences when done live. (I would be willing to put "Bad" up against anything the band ever did - before or since) "A Sort of Homecoming" finds the band in pre-Joshua tree territory - huge sweeping visual expanses through the atmospheric sound layered over ambiguous lyrics that open up the track even more ("fields of morning, lights in the distance"). A scream against heroin addiction, "Bad" explodes emotionally as Bono screams "I'm wide awake, and I'm not sleeping..oh no." "Bad" is also one of the first far reaching emotional songs that, while specific in the feeling it causes in the listener, it's generic enough that the listener can import nearly any similar feeling of heartbreak and loss and find comfort in it.
However, the absolutely ridiculous stream of consciousness that became "Elvis Presley in America" is simply idea over execution. The idea that feeling is more important than structure (prevalent through the whole album) overreaches here, and results in a muddling mess. I find that I tend to listen to 3-4 songs and forward through the others, but UF' importance is not just in its handful of brilliant tracks, but also in the foundation it laid for the Joshua Tree. I can't imagine U2 having made the jump from War to Joshua Tree without meandering a bit here on UF.
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