![]() It’s a more intimate affair, less about ideals and more about how they manifest in the real world, for better or for worse. The band’s previous album, War may rightfully be described as mostly screeds. Ditto the chiming, intimate tones of “Promenade” and “Bad,” as well as the foreboding instrumental “4th of July.” On The Unforgettable Fire, gorgeous sonic landscapes serve as the backdrop for the band’s impassioned lyrics and epic choruses. Here, Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois allowed the band to stretch their wings and push their boundaries, adding an extra dimension (let’s call it righteous, wounded soul) to U2’s urgent politics and previously stripped down, post-punk aesthetic. Grant-Lee Phillips once remarked that the prevailing production of this era took things “to a mystical place- to Avalon.” Here, it took them to a place that’s truly timeless. ![]() It sounds pure, naïve, passionate, confident and… different. First off, the mark of a classic album is that it shouldn’t sound dated, and for all the heavyweight production power that went into this, The Unforgettable Fire sounds remarkably outside of time. But listening to it today, it seems more like a clear-eyed assessment of all that is right and wrong in this country (and the world) and less like a personal lifeline. I couldn’t listen to the album for another 15 years, and when I finally did all the confusion and emotion of that time came flooding back. “ Sleep, sleep tonight/ And may your dreams be realized/ If the thundercloud passes rain/ So let it rain, rain down on me/ So let it be.” I would lock myself in my room and listen to it on headphones, finding salvation in the righteous exultation of “Pride (In The Name Of Love)”, the soul-stirring salve of “Bad” and the gospel-drenched prayer that is “MLK”. I felt alone and vulnerable and terrified. It was a particularly stressful time in my life- in addition to being a teenager in Fresno, I was a particularly overachieving teenager, feeling like a total outsider. U2’s The Unforgettable Fire came out my senior year of high school. They’re not so much albums as they are a best friend, a comforting presence. There are albums, and then there are those albums- the ones that become your personal soundtrack, that define a particular time in your existence. It is now like it was in 1984: bittersweet, deep, and magical.Revisit is a series of reviews highlighting past releases that now deserve a second look. Like any true classic, Unforgettable Fire stands the test of time. These 10 songs find U2 hungry for honest expression and sonic experimentation, producing/ engineering accolades going to Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. Nearly everyone knows "Pride (In the Name of Love)" and "Bad," but this milestone album also contains the mercurial "Wire" and the impressionistic "Elvis Presley and America." While the band would go on to create wonderful albums, at this point, U2 was still drawing inspiration primarily from their native Emerald Isle - before the pretensions of success clouded their judgment, before they felt a need to reinvent themselves. While the quartet's prior catalog holds memorable songs, Unforgettable Fire is U2's first real cohesive album, both sonically, as its rich hues and deep tones are painted on a warm analog tableau, and thematically, as the songs often deal with loss due to unnecessary death. In stark contrast to the mindless cock rock, New Wave synth, and big-hair metal vogue at the time, Unforgettable Fire was a breath of fresh air, dealing with such weighty issues as heroin overdoses ("Wire," "Bad") and war atrocities ("A Sort of Homecoming," "Unforgettable Fire"). U2 Unforgettable Fire (Island) Released in September 1984, U2's fourth album was named after an exhibit of artwork made by survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic holocausts.
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