U2 - The Unforgettable Fire
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Free Music Notes for The Unforgettable Fire
Free Music Review: U2 arrives as an arena rock powerhouse
Hit: 5 Stars
The 1985 release of "Unforgettable Fire" vaulted U2 into heavy video rotation and arena rock. With the production team of Brian Eno/Daniel Lanois at the helm, the group's sound shaped with new keyboard textures and lots of layering of The Edge's guitars. Some might say the disk was over-produced. We also get Bono's trademark emotive breathing on several tracks.
I wavered between giving this 4 or 5 stars, so 4.5 might be the best assessment. The primary reason most people got this album was for the mega-popular anthem "Pride (In the Name of Love)" with its Christ imagery ("one man betrayed with a kiss...") and Martin Luther King, Jr. theme ("early morning, April 4, shot rings out...") and memorable guitar melody. Great vocal performance by Bono and backing by The Edge (oh-oh-oh-oh). An instant classic.
"Pride" aside, this disk has a number of excellent tracks. One of my all-time favorites is "A Sort of Homecoming" and I especially like the lyric "faces ploughed like fields that once gave no resistance." There's a strong Ireland theme here, and this is a great leadoff song. One drawback is that I think the mix is a little muddy.
"Wire" is a high energy piece with a chunky bassline, great drums, and very cool guitars.
"The Unforgettable Fire" really brings out the guitar atmospherics, along with a string section, and another powerful vocal from Bono.
"Promenade" is not a bad song, but it's really a sound-alike to many of the other songs, and not a particularly memorable memory.
"4th of July" is a sonic instrumental introduction to "Bad", which is one of the best songs on the disk. Great simple guitar melody and vocal performance with the "I'm wide awake...and I'm sleeping" rise and fall dynamics. Perhaps some of Adam Clayton's best bass work to this point. Check this song out on the "Wide Awake in America" live EP. It's a beautiful tune.
"Indian Summer Sky" is like "Promenade" in that it's not a bad song, but not as good as its sound-alike, "Wire."
"Elvis Presley and America" shows U2's growing love affair with Americana. It's a nice ballad.
"MLK" is the true Martin Luther King, Jr. tribute, a gospel-like vocal over some light keyboard textures. It's a great under-stated performance by Bono and nice closer for the disk.
The strengths by far lift up the few weaker tunes, and this disk is very listenable in its entirety.
Free Music Review: Innovative Sound, Great listening
Hit: 5 Stars
One of U2's best. Up there with the Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby. Track by track:1. A Sort of Homecoming: Great track in general. Doesn't get the recognition it deserves. Bono's voice absolutely soars at points, and the lyrics are phenomenal. When I read them in the cover-booklet and hear them sung, they conjure up powerful images...but that's just me.
2. Pride (In the Name of Love): Well, I hardly need to explain this one. One of U2's greatest, 'nuff said. Bono soars up there even more this time...
3. Wire: Great opening from The Edge, rather abstract sounding, almost a mix between techno and hard rock...hard to explain. Especially Bono on this one--he just sounds...kinda crazy at points. Hard, fast song, very good.
4. The Unforgettable Fire: Very haunting in the beginning. Again, as with #1, it conjures up lasting images. I have heard it was written about the A-bomb, Hiroshima, and such things. It sounds distant in a way, sad, except for Bono's voice, which poignantly jumps out at you. Good lyrics.
5. Promenade: It gets a lot of criticism; seems out of place, in some peoples' opinion, with the rest of the album. Sometimes called too slow and quiet. Absolute nonsense. This is a great track. I can't even describe why; it seems peaceful and sad and nostalgic and...other things at the same time. Hard to explain.
6. Bad: Wow. No wonder this was on "Best of 1980-1990". More voice-soaring from Bono.
7. Fourth of July: criticized like Promenade, but again, this is absolute nonsense!! It sounds haunting, wraithlike...entirely instrumental. I don't know how I feel when I listen to this track; it's just haunting and beautiful in its own way. Only other instumental U2 song is "Bass Trap". I can't describe this track or do it any justice at all. The strangest on the album, and one of the most underrated.
8. Indian Summer Sky: another great song. The entry is great, becoming slowly louder and louder like in "Wire." I can't say why I like this song, but it's great anyway.
9. Elvis Presley and America: Very strange song. Lyrics are hard to make out. Actually, it has grown on me, but still my least favorite. The lyrics, when you can actually read them somewhere, are great.
10. MLK: Absolutely beautiful. Bono doesn't need any instruments on this one to back him up. Wonderfully poignant, sad in a way. Only other thing besides Bono's voice is a deep bass intonation.
Free Music Review: An Album for a Lifetime
Hit: 5 Stars
When U2 released The Unforgettable Fire in 1984, they were instantly propelled to being one of my very favorite bands. I was familiar with U2's prior work and owned copies of War and October, but it was this album that truly ignited my passion for U2. I was only 14 years old at the time, and The Unforgettable Fire moved me in ways I had rarely experienced through music before. I loved The Unforgettable Fire so much that I persuaded my parents to allow me to see U2 in concert during the 1985 tour promoting the album. It was the first rock and roll concert I ever attended, and there I experienced the magic of an immensely talented band playing their music before an adoring sell-out crowd in a large arena. I remember the concert well; it will remain forever engrained in my memory.
Although this album is not recognized by critics as U2's best, for me personally, it is the album that crowned this band with greatness. Bono, The Edge, Adam, and Larry went up on poster display in my bedroom. I listened to The Unforgettable Fire over and over and over again. I simply could not get enough of this album. The poetic, meaningful lyrics, the variable musical ambiance, and the intricacies of sound all contributed to my teenage fixation on this album.
Eighteen years later, The Unforgettable Fire still occupies a spot in my CD collection. I continue to cherish the album. It represents many aspects of my youth, but it's also magnificent music. Some of U2's very best work is found here. From the opening march, "A Sort of Homecoming", through the closing anthem, a powerful tribute to the late Martin Luther King Jr., the music on this album resonates closely with me. The band's first major hit single, "Pride (In the Name of Love)" is found here, as is the subtle, impeccably crafted "Bad", and the energetically charged "Wire". Amid all these wonderful tunes, the title track is the epicenter of this album: "The Unforgettable Fire" is a poetic, imaginative, beautifully layered song that serves as a wellspring of musical enjoyment. Rarely can I listen to that song only once; after hearing it, I simply have to play it again. It's that good.
For me, The Unforgettable Fire is an unforgettable album. In fact, for reasons described above, U2's 1984 release could arguably rank #1 on my list of all-time favorite albums.
Free Music Review: Their best by a whisker!
Hit: 5 Stars
This one comes in slightly ahead of WAR for me (I'd rate ACHTUNG BABY 3rd, if pressed). Although I believe WAR to be a more coherent offering, the aura of experiment surrounding this cut is key to its strengths and weaknesses.
"A Sort of Homecoming" is a brilliant opener, with remarkable imagery in the lyrics, viz.
-The wind will crack
in winter time
this bomb blast lightning waltz
No spoken words, just a scream
or,
-See faces plowed like fields
that once gave no resistance
Wow - Bono certainly has his banal moments, but this is most definitely not one of them. The music is a summery haze of guitars (Eno is clearly evident here) and the vocal delivery passionate and sincere.
The next track "Pride (In the Name of Love)" is actually my least favourite on the album - although I think it rather good anyway, and, as it is very well-known, I'll move on. "Wire" the next track is simply the nastiest and most vicious piece U2 have ever done. It is, I understand, about addiction, and, with its dark imagery, odd, disconnected vocal lines and very chthonic rhythm, it is the best - in aesthetic terms - the best song they've done.
"The Unforgettable Fire" is a great song too, with Bono reaching new heights as a vocalist on the bridge (although check out his collaboration with Clannad, "In A Lifetime", recorded around this time). "Promenade" is nice, cathartic and light after the violence and power of what has come before, and the summer ennui of that piece carries over into "4th July" and the beginning of "Bad" - a song that is the precursor to U2's stadium/epic identity, but for all that, not too shabby.
"Indian Summer Sky" is OK, like "Wire" but without the malevolence and self-loathing that drive that song. "Elvis Presley & America" I really love - its a sloppy, meandering piece with incomprehensible vocals, but its half-finished feel is what gives it its charm.
"MLK" is a piece of beauty: a lullaby atop Eno's lush keyboards, a truly gentle way to end an album dedicated to the spirit of exploration and growth...this CD is a piece of flawed magic.
Free Music Review: Unforgettable in every way
Hit: 5 Stars
Haunting, brooding, explosive, healing...THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE is all of that and more. U2's first collaboration with Brian Eno (chilly, cerebral, eccentric art-rocker) and Daniel Lanois (warm, earthy, melodic, organic) produced an absolute masterpiece.
Larry Mullen, Jr., in particular, shows tremendous growth as a musician here, with whole new colors and structures rhythmically that add tremendous life and freshness to the U2 sound. This is immediately apparent on the opening track, the superb "A Sort of Homecoming," which is bracing musically, vocally, and lyrically. The anthemic "Pride (In the Name of Love)" is justifiably considered one of the most essential and powerful rock songs ever recorded...the Edge's chiming, riffing, searing guitar work here is iconic. U2 ups the intensity with the wild and unruly "Wire," a complex and trippy track...just listen to Adam Clayton's dextrous bass playing. Eno's dramatic synth aspirations reach their zenith on the heart-rending, heart-stopping "The Unforgettable Fire," a track that not only provides the album's title but its heart and inspiration. "Promenade" cools things down a bit before the epic "Bad" begins its long, deliberate climb to a dizzying sonic summit filled with desperation, anguish, blood, sweat, and tears. Again, the band cools the listener down with the meditative "Fourth of July," as they perfectly pace the mood and timing. "Indian Summer Sky" is one of those big, bracing, galloping U2 songs that sticks to your ribs like a big pot of beef stew. The band ventures into the surreal for "Elvis Presley and America" which, if not exactly coherent, is certainly arresting. Finally, the band offers a lovely benediction with "MLK," a gorgeous, heartfelt tribute to Dr. King that is highlighted by Bono's unvarnished, unadorned vocal.
This album created a template that U2 utilized to even better effect on their next recording, THE JOSHUA TREE, but it should by no means be overlooked...on its own, it is a classic, indespensible recording that sits proudly next to the very best of 20th Century rock albums.