War
Reviews :
Exclusive Review from Rolling Stone
From the start, it was clear that U2 could create impressive
music. The jagged guitar riff and thundering drone that launched
"I Will Follow," and the rest of their 1981 debut
album, Boy, was eloquent and visceral. It was also musically
uncomplicated;
these four young Dubliners had an instinctive sense for making
the most out of simple shifts in dynamics and elementary
voicings, and it gave their sound a rough, exhilarating
grandiloquence. The only problem was that once U2 caught a
listener's
attention, they had little to say. Boy waxed poetic on the
mysteries of childhood without really illuminating any of them;
October, its successor, wrapped itself in romance and religion
but didn't seem to understand either. Without a veiwpoint that
could conform to the stirring rhythms and sweeping crescendos of
their music, U2 often ended up sounding dangerously glib.
With their third album. War, U2 have found just such a
perspective and with it, have generated their most fulfilling
work yet.
War makes for impressive listening, but more important, it deals
with a difficult subject in a sensible way. That subject is the
sectarian strife in Northern Ireland, or what the Irish call
"the troubles." U2 are not the first group to play
soldiers with this
topic; Belfast's Stiff Little Fingers have dealt with the problem
explicitly, the Clash somewhat more obliquely. But no one
has caught the paradox between stance and action so accurately.
"Sunday Bloody Sunday," which opens the album,
apparently addresses Bloody Sunday, a 1972 incident in which
British
paratroopers killed thirteen civilians in an illegal civil-rights
demonstration in Londonderry. As an acoustic guitar and a
sizzling
hi-hat build tension, vocalist Bono Vox sings, "I can't
believe the news today . . . . " The band slips into some
lush, sustained
chords as he wonders, "How long? How long must we sing this
song?" then jumps back into a militant, jagged dance beat.
It's great drama, and it lends a certain amount of credence to
the song's wistful chorus, "Tonight, we can be as one.
Tonight!"
But Vox tips his hand when he sings the urgent disclaimer,
"I won't heed the battle call/It puts my back up, puts my
back up
against the wall."
What Vox and the band are saying, then, is that it's pointless
to take irresponsible risks when confronting irresponsible
authority - but one must still take some sort of stance.
Unlike the Clash, who wrestle with imperialist foreign policy,
or the Gang of Four, who try to transfer a Marxist dialectic to
the dance floor, U2 don't pretend to have the answers to the
world's troubles. Instead, they devote their energies to letting
us know that they are concerned and to creating an awareness
about those problems. And not only is that refreshing, but it
makes sense, because U2 understand that it's the gesture, not the
message, that counts.
Complementing U2's lyrical growth is a newly developed dark
sense of humor, which the band uses to striking effect
throughout the album. "Seconds," for example, opens
with a sleepy funk riff driven by a cheerful toy bass drum. It's
a pleasant
juxtaposition, but as the song's subject matter becomes clear -
the insanity of nuclear blackmail, where, as Bono Vox puts it,
"the puppets pull the strings" - you realized that this
jolly noise-maker is no more an innocent plaything than is the
one in
Gunter Grass' The Tin Drum. Similarly, "New Year's Day"
includes the wisecrack, "So we are told, this is a golden
age/Gold
is the reason for the wars we wage" - a remark far wiser
than it at first seems.
Yet War isn't all jaded ideals and sour wit, for as Bono Vox
makes his pronouncements, his vocalise reveals the full flower of
U2's melodic abilities. In between the bitter humor of
"Seconds," he breaks into joyous flights of wordless
melody, his voice
soaring in multi-tracked polyphony over the song's slippery
rhythms. "Surrender" is lighter still, thanks to its
airy melody and
the Edge's coolly sustained guitar. In fact, this song is the one
instance where the music says more than lyrics ever could,
because hearing Vox's blissful tenor floating over the backing
vocals (courtesy of Kid Creole's Coconuts is a better definition
of "Surrender" than anything in Webster's.
Generally, the album's musical strengths are largely the
product of well-honed arrangements and carefully, balance
dynamics.
Even as the Edge spins increasingly sophisticated guitar lines,
he maintains the minimalist bluntness that sparked Boy. And
while bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. have
swung to more dance-oriented rhythms. their songs hurtle
along with the sort of brusque purposefulness more frequently
associated with punk.
U2 may not be great intellectuals, and War may sound more
profound than it really is. But the songs here stand up against
anything on the Clash's London Calling in terms of sheer impact,
and the fact that U2 can sweep the listener up in the same
sort of enthusiastic romanticism that fuels the band's grand
gestures is an impressive feat. For once, not having all the
answers
seems a bonus. (RS 392)
Rolling Stone Network.
Exclusive Review from CMJ New Music Report
Their third album finds U2 expanding the focus of its music to
encompass worldwide issues without losing sight of their
original focus: the individual. The new tracks depict reactions
to war and the future, and their effect on emotions and
relationships. This is U2's most developed and mature album both
lyrically and musically. The percussion has been brought
forward-it is no longer simply a backdrop for the vocals and
guitar work, but shares center stage with them, and sometimes
even takes the lead, as on "Sunday Bloody Sunday." The
single, "New Years Day" is already a hit as a 12"
and should
receive the most play. Top cuts: those mentioned above, plus
"Two Hearts Beat As One," "As Seconds Go By."
College Media, Inc.
Additional personnel: Steve Wickham (electric violin), Kenny
Fradley (trumpet), Cheryl Poirier, Adriana Kaegi,
Taryn Hagey, Jessica Felton (background vocals).
Recorded at Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin, Ireland.
All songs written by U2.
WAR, U2's first gold album, established them as one of the
great cutting edge bands in all of contemporary music. From
the insularity and ruminative splendor of their studio work, U2
blossomed into a visceral live band capable of turning
elegant webs of sound into in-your-face rock and roll. The Edge's
innovative guitar work was now augmented by his piano
playing (particularly on the hit single "New Year's
Day"), while Bono's lyrics turned explicitly to politics for
the first time
("Sunday Bloody Sunday").