U2 - The Unforgettable Fire
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Free Music Notes for The Unforgettable Fire
Free Music Review: A magical little album.
Hit: 4 Stars
This is the first U2 album I purchased. To be fair, this album may have been a bad choice for first album, but I believe it's a fair representation of some of the great music the band is capable of!
This is an arty, experimental piece of music that I believe anyone can enjoy... if they have the patience. The album mainly focuses on the late Martin Luther King, and the Hiroshima Bombings. Bono's voice truely is magnificant, and it's accompanied by an always excellent guitar from The Edge, and competent backing instrumentals.
From the ten tracks available, there is a healthy fantastic to not so great ratio. A Sort Of Homecoming is a gorgeous song that successfully draws listeners into the compelling world this album creates. Following that, Pride (In The Name Of Love) has to be one of the greatest protest songs ever created, focusing on Martin Luther King and his bid for freedom. Powerful guitar and a defiant chorus makes this song a true U2 classic.
More great songs include Bad, which is a song about a friend of Bono's who died of a heroin overdose. The song starts out slow, and slowly gains momentum, bringing with it a tidal wave of emotion that you're not likely to find in any other song. Indian Summer Sky is a fast paced, enchanting song backed up by some great supporting vocals, and MLK is a touching closer to the album, once again paying tribute to Martin Luther King.
The best song on the album, however, is the title track. The Hiroshima bombings caused destruction that was hardly forgettable, and this beautiful song refreshes our memories. This amazing song can also be interpreted as a love piece... it's ambiguous, mysterious, and extremely pleasing to the ears.
As great as this album sounds, there are still a few hiccups. The two songs in the middle, Promenade and 4th Of July, seem a bit shapeless and unnecessary. Elvis Presley And America, while displaying powerful emotions, is an odd piece that more often than not confuses the listener, and is hard to interpret. And Wire, while a fast paced, catchy song, feels out of place between Pride and Unforgettable Fire.
I would just like to say that his album is not an easy one. Like I said, everyone can enjoy it, but this is NOT an album you will like first time around. Repeated listens will allow the albums beauty to unfold before your eyes (ears?), and evidently each of the songs, even the weaker ones, have an important place in this piece of art.
A very nice album that is far from forgettable.
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: One of the best
Hit: 5 Stars
The Unforgettable Fire is (currently) my favorite U2 album, the one I like most to listen to --- I think because I find it the most musical of their albums. More than any other album, I'm aware of how the band is working together, especially on "Bad." The live version of "Bad" on "Wide Awake in America" is even better, but that album doesn't have much on it. Bono's voice becomes like one of the musical instruments, and The Edge's guitar is, for me, his best. Free Music Review: The only true essential U2 album
Hit: 5 Stars
I`ll be sincere.I don't like a single thing concerning U2 since Achtung Baby.They simply ran out of complete creativity.But this recording is another story.It sounds atmosferic and original although being released in 1984.The Edge`s guitarwork is beginning to astonish everybody and this is the only album where we can guess that this is an Irish band with Irish roots wanting to make it big,and not a stadium filling monster.All the tracks impress with their honest intensity and emotion,something missing in later U2 releases except Achtung Baby.Yes,most of the good job is done by Brian Eno`s exquisite production but good songs are just good songs live,studio or unplugged,and this is the case.You won`t go wrong with this one.Free Music Review: An unforgettable album!
Hit: 5 Stars
Around 1980,when U2 landed a contract with Island Records,they put out BOY that same year,OCTOBER the following year,WAR in 1983 and UNDER A BLOODY RED SKY in early 1984. This album,their fifth,spawned the Top 10 hit PRIDE(IN THE NAME OF LOVE) which is an ode to the late Dr. Martin Luther King,the civil rights leader that was shot to death in Memphis on April 4,1968. Frontman Paul "Bono Vox" Hewson,mentions the date minus the year in the song("Early morning,April 4,a shot rings out in the Memphis sky."). The song was later recorded live in 1987 for 1988's RATTLE AND HUM. Another track on this album is entitled MLK. The title track,4TH OF JULY and A SORT OF HOMECOMING are also memorable tracks. U2's 1987 follow-up,THE JOSHUA TREE would become a megahit inspiring the live tracks recorded for RAH and the documentary film of the same title. One other Irish artist that I know of gained notoriety in the USA and that's the folk band The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. Hewson and his three fellow bandmates David "The Edge" Evans,Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. are still going strong today. Hewson,commonly known as Bono,even makes appearances by himself. I have to admit that this is an unforgettable album.