By the time of their fifth record Listen Like Thieves INXS was ready to move into the big time internationally. They had scored hits before but the Listen Like Thieves album was presented as INXS moving out of the world of new wave and into the realm of traditional rock. This is only a half-truth as much of the album is still rooted in the band’s new wave roots (as can be heard on the album’s international lead single “This Time”), but the bulk of the better-known songs from Listen Like Thieves do have a cocky swagger to them that recalls the cocksure confidence of rock’s classic era. This confidence and presence can be heard and felt in the title track, on “Kiss The Dirt (Falling Down The Mountain)” and, most especially, on the international smash hit “What You Need”. “What You Need” combines the toughness of classic rock, with new wave and pop flourishes, and just enough funk to give the song a rhythmic flair. Add to this Michael Hutchence’s overt sexual charisma and you have a song that became one of the band’s signature songs, a huge hit, and the blueprint forward for their next album Kick. “What You Need” went to #2 in Australia, #14 in New Zealand, #21 in Canada, and perhaps most importantly #5 in the United States. With “What You Need” INXS had moved to the big leagues. Now they would have to follow it up.
By the time of INXS’s third album Shabooh Shoobah the band had become stars at home in Australia and had begun to make a name for themselves in Europe and America as well. After a show in Toronto, Canada the band was approached by producer Nile Rodgers and invited to come to New York and work with him. The band agreed and in September of 1983 INXS recorded “Original Sin” with Rodgers producing and Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates singing backing vocals. From there the band would head to the UK and record the rest of their fourth album The Swing with producer Nick Launay. “Original Sin” was released as the lead single from The Swing and became INXS’s biggest hit yet, becoming their first and only #1 hit at home in Australia and charted highly in several other countries as well. In the US “Original Sin” went to #58, a solid performance on the American pop charts for a foreign “new wave” band, but did even better on the dance charts, college radio, and MTV. Clearly, INXS was a band on the rise and aiming at more mainstream success. While still rooted in the new wave styled rock INXS had become known for, “Original Sin” had clear influences from both the classic rock and funk worlds as well (as well as a thoughtful lyric from Michael Hutchence about racial equality and a more peaceful world) and this shift in sound would prove to be a harbinger of things to come for the band. INXS followed up “Original Sin” with several more singles from The Swing but none of them had much impact outside of Australia, putting the band in the position of needing their next record to continue to build up their momentum, especially outside of Australia.
The core of INXS are the Farriss brothers: keyboardist and main songwriter Andrew Farriss, guitarist and older brother Tim Farriss, and drummer and younger brother Jon Farriss. Added to this Farriss family core was Michael Hutchence, a classmate of Andrew Farriss who would become INXS’s vocalist and frontman and bassist Garry Gary Beers, a friend from another school. INXS’s lineup would be rounded out when Kirk Pengilly, a friend and former bandmate of Tim Farris was added as a second guitarist and saxophonist. After spending the late 70’s sharpening their skills and honing their sound INXS began to gain some attention for themselves in their native Australia, in part because of a run of shows opening for Midnight Oil. In fact, it was a member of Midnight Oil’s road crew that suggested the name INXS to the band’s manager as an alternative to The Farriss Brothers, which was the name they were using. The band liked the name and adopted the new moniker in time to play a series of gigs using that name in 1979 and before long the newly christened INXS was making a local name for themselves as part of a small group of Australian bands that were part of the nascent and emerging new wave scene. INXS’s growing reputation in Australia allowed them to enter the studio to record their eponymous debut album in 1980. INXS was only a minor success but it did give the band their first Australian Top 40 hit with “Just Keep Walking”. Following INXS the band released the standalone single “The Loved One”, a cover of an older Australian hit. INXS’s version of “The Loved One”, released only in Australia, became a Top 20 Australian hit (and the band would later rerecord it in a different arrangement for their Kick album). Building on this success and their growing reputation as a good live band INXS went back into the studio to record 1980’s Underneath The Colours. The album was better than the debut and the band sounded more confident and less derivative. Underneath The Colours became a sizable Australian hit. It also did almost nothing in the rest of the world. In an attempt to find a record company that could promote them better internationally INXS self-funded the recording of a new single called “The One Thing” with producer Mark Opitz. The strategy worked and “The One Thing” earned the band an international contract. INXS and Opitz went back into the studio to record their third album (the terribly titled) Shabooh Shoobah. “The One Thing” was released as the first single and became the band’s first international success, going to #5 in Australia, #20 in Canada, and #30 in the United States. INXS followed up “The One Thing” with the sweeping and anthemic second single “Don’t Change”. While “Don’t Change did not match the commercial success of “The One Thing” it did show an international audience that INXS was not a one-hit wonder or one-trick pony and over time has become a fan favorite and one of the band’s trademark songs.
U2 seems to struggle with what to do after they have a great idea. In the 1980’s U2 slowly developed a love for America and anthemic grandeur that culminated in the excellence of The Joshua Tree. U2 then took that idea and pushed it too far with Rattle & Hum. U2 followed a similar arc with their 90’s reinvention where they explored the sounds and themes of post-communist Europe done with irony in near-perfect fashion with the Achtung Baby/Zooropa albums before taking the idea just a little too far (and too seriously) with 1997’s Pop. In retrospect, Pop is better than it is given credit for being, but at the time it was felt U2 had once again lost the plot. This found U2 ending the 1990’s in a similar position as they had been in at the end of the 1980’s; namely, as one of the most successful bands in the world who suddenly seemed to not know what to do. Of course, as the 90’s dawned U2 had solved this enigma by largely rejecting what they had been and reinventing themselves for a new time. The question was could a band that was twenty years into a career do it again? The answer is both yes and no. U2 stepped away from the junk culture references and dance rhythms of Pop and made a hard about-face toward classicism for 2000’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind. This move reinvigorated most of the fanbase and earned back much of the critical praise the band had lost. Furthermore, All That You Can’t Leave Behind was a commercial smash and that success was built off the back of the lead single “Beautiful Day”. “Beautiful Day” was an uplifting, positive anthem for a new millennium that recalled U2’s classic 80’s sound without ever slavishly recreating it. Indeed, the sonic experimentation of their 90’s work added depth to “Beautiful Day” and the other songs on the album, helping them to feel familiar and fresh at the same time. Indeed, “Beautiful Day” was followed by a string of his singles – “Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of”, “Elevation”, “Walk On” – that continued in this vein. All That You Can’t Leave Behind was a complete success, both critically and commercially and it seemed U2 had brilliantly reinvented themselves again as cool elder statesmen that could walk the line between the past and future. Indeed, “Beautiful Day” won the Grammy for Record of the Year only to have “Walk On” win the same award a year later. Two songs from the same album winning Record of the Year a year apart was an incredible feat. Following All That You Can’t Leave Behind U2 released a series of albums that continued to work to balance their classic sound with some new flourishes. This can clearly be heard on their next two albums How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb and No Line On The Horizon, the first of which is generally liked by fans and critics while the latter less so (although my own personal opinion leans the other way). Feeling the pressure to live up to their legacy following the relatively weak reception to No Line On The Horizon U2 went to work on a less classicist soudning album that would be plagued with issues from the start and eventually scrapped without release (the debacle of the U2-connected musical Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark was around this time as well). Five years after No Line On The Horizon U2 seemed to tarnish their somewhat waning legacy further with their heart-in-the-right-place but tone deaf move to just give away their next album Songs of Innocence via free, automatic download in 2014. U2 released a companion album, Songs of Experience, three years after that in 2017. These last two albums were recieved to mixed reviews by critics and lukewarm receptions by fans but both are solid listens that have their share of good songs.
After the sonic shock of “The Fly” introduced the new direction of U2 to the world the band followed it up with the warped guitar rock of “Mysterious Ways”, a song that merged a beat borrowed from the clubs with The Edge’s massively fat and distorted guitar riff and Bono’s new desire to explore the personal on an epic scale (whereas he previously seemed to explore the epic on a personal scale). While a little more recognizably U2 than “The Fly”, “Mysterious Ways” proved to everyone that “The Fly” was not a quick detour or weird feint. U2 were serious about their new sound and raison d’ȇtre. However, for the third single from Achtung Baby U2 released “One”. “One” was written while the band was recording the early sessions for Achtung Baby in Berlin, Germany. 1991 was a tumultuous time to be in Germany, and especially in Berlin, as the Berlin Wall had recently come down, communism in the east had ended and Germany had been reunited into one country just months before. These chaotic, yet hopeful times had brought the U2 to Hansa Studios in Berlin, where the band hoped to be inspired by the change in the air and the ghosts of many of their own musical heroes – David Bowie, Brian Eno, and Iggy Pop, as well as some of the best work of their contemporaries like Depeche Mode – who had recorded at Hansa. U2 however found themselves at odds with one another and unable to move forward on their new music due to disagreements over their new musical direction and other intraband tensions. Things had in fact become so bad that the band nearly broke up. However, just as things seemed hopeless The Edge began to play a guitar riff that would become the basis for “One”. This riff led to a musical improvisation that ultimately resulted in the song “One” being written and the band found themselves able to get out of their rut and move forward. Bono then wrote an appropriate lyric about overcoming disunity that was equally inspired by the events taking place in Germany and within the band and “One” became the cornerstone of Achtung Baby. Released as a benefit single to raise money for AIDS research “One” became a massive critical and commercial hit. “One” also played a key role on the Achtung Baby album by providing a needed emotional counterpoint to the disposable, Eurotrash feel of much of the record. “One” proved the band could integrate their old sincerity and cinematic scale into the personal as well as the political and spiritual and still be just as effective. “One” was classic U2 filtered through their new sonic lens and stands beside the band’s classic moments like “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, “Bad”, “With Or Without You” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” as one of their best. U2 would release several more successful singles from Achtung Baby before heading back to the studio to record a few new songs for the European leg of the Zoo TV Tour. However, U2 were hit with a creative burst while writing and recording these new songs and the band doubled down on the direction of Achtung Baby and recorded a whole new album, Zooropa, instead. Zooropa took their weirder, wilder, and more trashy moments of Achtung Baby and pushed them to their extremes, allowing the band to play around even further with dance culture, junk culture, and the dawning of the internet and Information Age. Zooropa is an underrated and very interesting album. U2 then continued their decade of sonic experimentation and radical reinvention by writing and recording an album with Brian Eno as an equal partner rather than just a noted producer. These songs the band chose to quietly release as Original Soundtracks 1 under the name Passengers rather than under the U2 moniker to reflect that it was a side project of sorts with Eno rather than a “proper” U2 record. Original Soundtracks 1 is an uneven affair but its high moments such as the atmospheric and sexy “Your Blue Room” and the thought-provoking “Miss Sarajevo”, which features world-famous opera singer Luciano Pavarotti, equal U2’s best and most interesting work.
U2 followed up The Joshua Tree with their overblown and overboard ode to America Rattle & Hum. Some of Rattle & Hum is quite good. It is hard to argue with the Bo Diddley-beat shuffle of “Desire” or the Stax-inspired “Angel of Harlem”, and “All I Want Is You” is both a sweeping, cinematic ballad and a fitting closer for the Rattle & Hum film. However, the Rattle & Hum film is also the problem here. First, the film, which was meant to show U2 connecting back to the roots of American rock and roll, instead kind of makes them seem like Irish carpetbaggers who are trying to borrow the legacy of American rock to further elevate themselves into the rock pantheon. I believe U2’s intentions were good but the film never quite works the way I believe the band intended it to. Second, the weird blended studio/live format of the Rattle & Hum album gives the record a feeling of being neither fish nor fowl; there is a decent album in there but it is buried under the live performances, alternate versions, snippets from other artists, and U2 songs that are glorified genre exercises. In the end Rattle & Hum left fans confused, critics cold, and the band itself unsure what to do next. So they retreated and took time to reimagine what U2 should be going forward. When U2 did re-emerge in 1991 it was a new song that was the antithesis of the sound of The Joshua Tree and the love of America found on Rattle & Hum. That song was “The Fly” and with it U2 introduced the world to U2 version 2.0. From the opening notes it becomes clear that this is a different U2 as “The Fly” is drenched in feedback, its vocals shift from distorted whisper to falsetto wail, the beats are dance-oriented, and the whole song feels trashy, ironic, and futuristic. U2 has said that Achtung Baby was the sound of the band chopping down The Joshua Tree. If that is true then “The Fly” was that first hard swing. And while “The Fly” is not usually remembered as one of U2’s classic songs it is so, so good. “The Fly”, released one month after Nirvana’s Nevermind, perfectly captures the zeitgeist of the dawning 1990’s and finds U2 abandoning their sincerity, cinematic sweep, and love of America in favor of irony, disposable pop culture, and a Eurocentric view at exactly the right moment. Few bands have radically transformed themselves so fully all at once and been able to continue at the same level of success. U2 did it as one of the biggest bands on the planet, maintained their status, and won over a whole new generation of fans in the process. With “The Fly” U2 proved they would not become icons of the 80’s but instead one of the greatest rock bands of all time.
4. “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” – U2
(From the album The Joshua Tree)
1987
For U2’s fifth album The Joshua Tree U2 wanted to build on the atmospheric textures of The Unforgettable Fire but use that template in more fully formed songs. The writing and recording of The Joshua Tree also coincided with two events that would help shape the themes and sound of the album. First, U2 toured as the headliners on the Conspiracy of Hope tour and this experience brought the politics and realities of the third world into stark reality for the band. Second, U2 began to seriously study the history of rock and roll music and other older American musical genres. These two inspirations helped shape The Joshua Tree into an atmospheric, but grounded album that dealt with the idea and ideals of America. U2 honor America’s freedoms, ideals, music, and open spaces; even while they reject its foreign policy, imperialism, and loss of meaningful spirituality. These musical and thematic factors combine together in a complex tapestry that is in turns searching and spiritual, angry and awestruck. The Joshua Tree is anthemic in scope, opening with the cinematic sweep of “Where The Streets Have No Name” and running through what almost feels like both a high art concept record and a greatest hits package all at once. The Joshua Tree became an international bestseller and vaulted U2 from stars to rock legends almost overnight. The Joshua Tree is great from start to finish but its first three tracks (also the first three singles) is a near-perfect run of songs. Following the sweeping “Where The Streets Have No Name” is the searching and questioning “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and then the conflicted ballad “With Or Without You”. All three were huge hits with the first two being #1 singles in the US. I could pick any of the three (or almost anything else on the album) as being a great representation of this album and era of U2 but I think the best of them is “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”. Built up from a simple, pulsing bass groove provided by Adam Clayton that carries the song forward with an almost trancelike groove, it allows The Edge to play a set of gorgeous, ringing arpeggios that lend the song an almost mystical quality. Add to this Bono’s spiritually searching lyrics that reference gospel, the blues, folk, rock and other traditions, but never sound like anything other than U2, and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” is one of the classic songs of the 1980’s.
With the success of their third album War U2 had become true stars in most of the world and were at least approaching that status in the United States, where bands with any kind of alternative music pedigree faced a much steeper uphill climb to commercial success and mainstream acceptance. However, with War U2 had found a way to meld the experimentation, punk, and post-punk influences in their music with the more traditional sounds and tropes of classic rock and it had helped them break through to widespread success. That is why U2’s decision to step back and take another, more difficult and experimental approach for their fourth album The Unforgettable Fire has to be seen as a brave move and an act of faith in their own abilities. Whereas War had mostly dealt in big themes, bold strokes, and had a sense of martial strength running through it, for The Unforgettable Fire U2 created an almost hazy and surreal set of songs and soundscapes dominated by artistic flourishes and the sonic experimentation of The Edge’s swirling, chiming, processed guitars. From the start it was apparent that the band wanted to shake things up and change their process as they chose to work with noted producer and avant garde musician Brian Eno instead of Steve Lillywhite who had produced the first three records. Then Eno and his engineer Daniel Lanois decamped with the band to Slane Castle rather than a traditional recording studio to record the atmospheric and artistic The Unforgettable Fire (although parts of the album were later recorded in more traditional recording studios). U2’s desire to experiment more, combined with Eno’s own avant garde leanings, and a short time schedule meant that some of the band’s ideas remained more underdeveloped and looser than on previous albums. Indeed, while The Unforgettable Fire is anchored by classic songs like the table setting opener “A Sort of Homecoming”, the anthemic homage to Martin Luther King “Pride (In The Name of Love)”, and the pulsing, haunting title track, much of the rest of the album is filled with atmospheric soundscapes, artistic experiments, and dreamy detours. Some of these moments may not fully work on their own as individual songs but they wash The Unforgettable Fire in a dreamlike haze that ties it all together and makes the album rise above the sum of its individual parts. Their is a shimmering, unfocused beauty to The Unforgettable Fire that is present from the start but that really settles in over the second half of the record with songs like “Promenade”, “4th of July”, “Indian Summer Sky” and “MLK”. This willingness to drift rather than fight threatens to turn The Unforgettable Fire into pretty but purposeless ambiance but that is never allowed to happen. At the heart of The Unforgettable Fire’s sonic drift lies what is arguably U2’s masterpiece, “Bad”. “Bad” itself begins as little more than the sonic experimentation that fills much of the second half of The Unforgettable Fire but quickly gathers shape and form and begins its slow, pulsing build from meditative reflection to triumphant anthem. A great song on its own merits, “Bad” seems to rise out of the semi-formed music around it, coalesce into something powerful, and then fade back into the ether of the album. Its passion and emotion and strength stand in stark contrast to what has come immediately before and after it on the record, making “Bad” feel all the more powerful and central to the record. Although “Bad” was never released as a single U2’s drawn-out performance of the song was one of the highlights of the Live Aid concerts and thrust U2 from rock band on the rise to international superstars representing a new generation of bands. This role was sealed when the live version of “Bad” from U2’s EP Wide Awake In America received regular airplay on both college rock stations and more traditional rock radio in America, firmly establishing U2 as one of the first alternative rock bands to be embraced fully by mainstream America.
U2’s debut album Boy had been a success but the period leading up to their second album October was a difficult one filled with challenges and soul searching. Near the end of the American leg of the Boy tour Bono lost a briefcase that contained most of his in-progress lyrics and other musical ideas for their next album, so the band had to write and record quickly and Bono was forced to quickly improvise lyrics for many of the new songs. This period also saw the band struggle with the conflict between their strong Christian convictions and the lifestyle of a rock band. Bono and The Edge, both of whom had joined a Christian group called Shalom Fellowship, struggled with this tension and strongly considered quitting the band. However, in the end, both men chose to quit the Shalom Fellowship and continue on with U2, although overtly Christian lyrics and themes are used liberally on U2’s second album October which was released in October of 1981. The album’s first single “Fire” became their first entry in the UK Top 40 when it went to #35 but the song quickly fell down the charts, even after an appearance by U2 on Top of the Pops. The album debuted at #11 in the UK but fell down the charts quickly and did relatively poorly in the rest of the world, losing much of the momentum U2 had built up with Boy (although the fledgling MTV network did give “Gloria” some airplay in the USA). Following the tour to support October U2 took some time to regroup, write new songs, and prepare to record their third album; an album whose success or failure would likely determine the future of the band. That album would be War and it would become U2’s real international breakthrough, especially in the American market. Boasting a strong batch of songs that delved into both the political and the personal, while still retaining U2’s sense of spirituality, War a strong, at times almost martial feel, from the Mullen/Clayton rhythm section that grounds the album and allows The Edge to really experiment with his guitar-style. Lead single “New Year’s Day” was released on January 1, 1983 and became a Top 10 hit in the UK while also earning generous airplay on American college radio. Ultimately though it would be the third single from War, a protest against the horrors of The Troubles in Ireland known as “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, that would be the standout track from War and become one of U2’s signature songs. The success of War,combined with U2’s growing reputation as a ferocious live act, saw the band playing larger and larger venues over the course of the supporting tour. This culminated at a show at the famous Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado where the band recorded a fiery and theatrical performance of “Sunday Bloody Sunday” that captured the iconic image of Bono waving a white flag and calling for an end to religious violence. The footage of this performance was released as a video for “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and earned heavy airplay on MTV, while the show itself was released as the live album Under A Blood Red Sky. With War and Under A Blood Red Sky U2 had established themselves as a force to be reckoned with and one of the leaders of a new generation of bands that came from the alternative rock side of the ledger that were increasingly edging into the mainstream.
The story of U2 is the stuff of legend. Drummer Larry Mullen Jr. hung a sign on his school’s notice board looking for people who wanted to start a new band and the other three future members of U2 – singer Paul Hewson (soon known as Bono), guitarist Dave Evans (soon The Edge), and bassist Adam Clayton – showed up. The initial meeting had a few other attendees as well but soon the band was reduced to a four-piece line-up that would never change as U2 went on to become one of the most popular and commercially successful groups to ever emerge from the alternative music scene. Their early inspirations were mostly the emerging punk bands of the late 1970’s and the band themselves would borrow from both punk and post-punk as they forged their own unique sound and style. By 1978 they had settled on the name U2 and had begun to earn some notice in their native Ireland, releasing the Ireland-only EP Three in 1979 to local success. Two of the songs from Three, “Out Of Control” and “Stories For Boys”, would eventually be on their debut album Boy as well. In early 1980 a second Ireland-only single was released called “Another Day” and the band soon signed a record deal with Island Records. Island would release their first international single, the Martin Hannett produced “11 O’Clock Tick Tock” in May of 1980 and while the single did not chart U2 soon entered the studio to record their debut album Boy. The original plan was for Boy to also be produced by Martin Hannett but at the last moment the plan was changed and a young producer named Steve Lillywhite took over the sessions. This proved to be a good change for all involved as U2 had not enjoyed working with Hannett on the single for “11 O’Clock Tick Tock” and soon forged a long lasting relationship with Steve Lillywhite; Hannett was also relieved to not do the sessions as Joy Division singer Ian Curtis (who Hannett had recently worked with) had just committed suicide and this had left Hannett depressed and in a poor mental state. U2 were still very young, inexperienced, and relatively poor musicians (not uncommon for bands coming from the punk rock aesthetic) and Lillywhite patiently tutored them through the recording process, recognizing the talent and energy the young U2 had. Released in October of 1980 Boy found moderate success, much of it built on the back of the energetic single “I Will Follow”. “I Will Follow” captures an almost archetypal version of U2’s classic sound right from the start as it features The Edge’s chiming and surging, effects-laden, processed guitar over the firm and driving rhythm section of Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr., while Bono’s powerful and beautiful voice soars over the top like a rallying cry. “I Will Follow” earned airplay in both the UK and the USA and helped to carry Boy to #52 in the UK and #63 in the USA.
Alternative Reality: An Alternative Music Blog 