Few rock bands have been as successful over the last 50 years asU2. They’ve earned it, forming as teenagers in the late ’70s and creating challenging rock that mixed the personal, political, and religious. Their early albums revealed a unique voice, and the quartet became global superstars who reinvented themselves in order to chase their experimental muse. U2 used its platform forpolitical causes, changed the sound of rock music, and took on the mantle of icons.
With15 studio albums under U2’s beltand over 80 singles of varied styles and approaches,U2’s catalog can be a difficult one to jump into. It’s possible to see their career pushing through three main eras so far: an early post-punk period, a middle run of contemporary experimentation, and a later classic rock-based phase. Ten of their best tracks help define this career, making sense of a complex but powerful band’s decades of art.
10I Will Follow
Boy (1980)
U2’s commanding sound was apparent from the first notes of the first song on their first album. “I Will Follow” kicked offBoywith that anxious, urgent guitar approach that quickly became a quintessential element of their sound. A punk intensity lies below the surface, reframed in an atmosphere that suited the post-punk of the time. The Edge’s style became instantly identifiable,distinguishing U2 from their peers during the first era of their career.
It became a concert favorite and laid the foundation for everything that came after.
Bono’s lyrics tell of a mother’s love for her child. The song shifts as we learn that the mother has died, and her adolescent son comes to tears as he thinks about growing up without her. The track also contains the spiritual undercurrent (“I was lost, I am found”) that runs through much of U2’s writing, even in ostensibly non-religious songs. “I Will Follow” wasn’t a big chart success, but it became a concert favorite and laid the foundation for everything that came after.
9Sunday Bloody Sunday
War (1983)
U2 has always had a knack for album-openers. After “I Will Follow” came “Gloria” onOctober, and 1983 broughtWarand “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” This song wouldn’t climb the charts like some of their later numbers, but it established the band as a force, getting it more airplay in the United States. It would becomeone of the group’s most acclaimed tracks.
The song begins with drumming that’s almost military in style,creating the tension and potential for violence while maintaining a post-punk rigidity. The lyrics reference several massacres in Irish history, but the repeated “How long must we sing this song?” moves it away from partisanship, letting it be a more general lament against violence. That plea gives the song its timelessness (a challenge for political music), and the potent music makes sure the message hits home year after year.
8Pride (In The Name Of Love)
The Unforgettable Fire (1984)
“Pride (In The Name Of Love)” would continue pushing U2 toward bigger fame and higher chart positioning by melding so many of their core elements. The guitar comes from a continuing refinement of The Edge’s early approach. Larry Mullen Jr’s drumming maintains that tight steadiness. Bono sang of Martin Luther King, Jr., and of Jesus.
The track can provoke mixed reactions. Some listeners hear in it Bono’s tendency toward overdone statements. Others hear honest praise for nonviolence mixed with frustration at the intrusion of aggression into nonviolence.Either way,it’s a big, anthemic moment in the band’s career, putting politics, faith, and epic rock ‘n’ roll into a few unforgettable minutes.
7"I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For"
The Joshua Tree (1987)
U2 continued their trajectory over the next few years and in 1987, they released their masterpiece,The Joshua Tree. The album was as much a commercial success as an artistic one, selling over 25 million copies while becoming one of the most influential releases of the decade (and beyond). Three of the album’s singles became massive hits, all part of the defining moment of the group’s career.
The most representative of these hits, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” brings all of U2’s strengths to the fore.The drumming remains an underappreciated element of the track, as does the atmosphere-building bass work by Adam Clayton. The Edge’s playing remains relatively straightforward, allowing Bono’s vocals to stand out. His lyrics of spiritual yearning and restless searching sound deeply personal and universally applicable. Nearly 40 years later, this cut remains one of U2’s true peaks.
6One
Achtung Baby (1992)
Having fulfilled the promise of their early sound, U2 began the ’90s by looking more toward experimentation, andAchtung Babybrought more variety to their work, particularly by adding electronic elements. Singles like “The Fly” and “Mysterious Ways” highlighted the idea that U2 had entered a new creative period, but it was another song that became definitive.
It becomes a privilege to “carry each other,” an expected moment of liberation in an otherwise confining experience.
“One” offers relatively quiet reflection amid the chaos ofAchtung Baby, butit is itself deeply concerned with emotional turmoil. The song begins in a dark place, seemingly after a string of bitter arguments and full of frustration and recrimination. As it progresses, it builds into a challenge, asking us how we can find a way to be together - a necessity in a functioning community - when we’re continually drawn to this combativeness. In the end, it becomes a privilege to “carry each other,” an expected moment of liberation in an otherwise confining experience.
5Discotheque
Pop (1997)
AfterAchtung Baby, U2 continued further down the same path for 1993’sZooropaand 1997’sPop, incorporating more contemporary elements into their sound, especially those related to techno and electronica. The Edge trades in the classic reverb for a sharper guitar tone to go with the new style. The lead single fromPop, “Discotheque,“epitomized the band’s new sound, one which had more to do with dancing in the club than pumping fists in arenas.
Fans split over “Discotheque,” which has the feel of a simple party track and suggests a desirous hedonism. Others find deeper meaning in the lyrics, as Bono seems to suggest that partiers know they’re chasing something as empty as “bubblegum,” but still continue their meaningless pursuit. Much like the albumPopturned out to be less accessible than its name suggested, “Discotheque” contains hidden depths.
4Beautiful Day
All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000)
If the ’90s were a decade of increasing experimentation for U2, the ’00s were heavily about returning to their music’s essential qualities.All That You Can’t Leave Behindsaw the band in simpler rock territory, back to writing for stadiums, drawing on classic rock while dropping the more cutting elements of their early albums and focusing on emotional resonance.
Lead single “Beautiful Day” shows thatbeing less adventurous doesn’t mean being less artistic. The song features careful harmonic construction and a smart use of dynamics. The song builds until it completely soars, fitting for a track about learning to appreciate what’s around you in any setting. The “you” of the song is utterly stuck, but Bono urges him not to fall into despair, but to instead recognize the beauty around him. Supported by direct and well-crafted music, the message rings through powerfully.
3Vertigo
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (2004)
For their next album, U2 continued their return to arena accessibility, adding a little bit of rock ‘n’ roll to the more pop they’d been doing.How To Dismantle An Atomic Bombeffectively implemented the classic U2 elements while updating them with subtle touches, like a synthesizer here or there. The quartet were writing and performing for the stadium and, after all this time, they knew exactly how to do it.
The song might be romantic, or it might be religious (as is often the case with U2), but whatever it is, it simply rocks.
“Vertigo” starts with one of the band’s odder moments, Bono counting off the song with, “Uno! Dos! Tres! Catorce!” -a possibly silly approach that ended up introducing the song’s concern with confusion quite well. The singer feels disoriented, struggling to focus amid the surrounding chaos. In that place, though, he finds someone who can center him. The song might be romantic, or it might be religious (as is often the case with U2), but whatever it is, it simply rocks.
2Ordinary Love
Non-Album Single (2013)
In 2013, U2 took a bit of a detour. They were asked to write a song for the biopicMandela: Long Walk to Freedom. The suggestion made sense; Bono had become an outspoken celebrity activist, and the band had become personally acquainted with Mandela. The resulting track, “Ordinary Love,” is a beautiful number, deserving of both its Academy Award nomination and its Golden Globes win.
The song breaks up U2’s musical arc at that point. Rather than their usual anthemic rock, the band pulled back a little and got some help from Danger Mouse on keys and production. In considering the life of Nelson Mandela,Bono faces the idea that the struggles of life will deaden our love - in all its forms - and nothing can be worse than that. The musical lift offers the possibility of reclaiming not only our emotions, but the work it leads, too, offering optimism in a world sorely in need of it.
1Every Breaking Wave
Songs Of Innocence (2014)
The band’s next album,Songs Of Innocence, provided a new source of controversy: it was released free to all iTunes users, whether they wanted it or not. The commotion around the release initially obscured consideration of the music itself, which turned out to be… fine. U2 continued their more direct approach to rock and while they do so quite successfully, it does little to move the band forward. U2 may have moved into their “elder statesemen” phase, for better or worse.
Yet much of this album does work, especially its best track, “Every Breaking Wave.” Bono sings of a potential couple afraid to commit, allowing a “fear to win” to prevent themselves from truly connecting.The band’s use of dynamics gives the track an effective tension and release, even while Bono maintains the questioning throughout.U2may have settled into a comfort zone (as in the backward-lookingSongs Of Surrender), but “Every Breaking Wave” suggests that there should be plenty of great artistry yet to come. If only they weren’t afraid of taking a new risk.
