Born right after the iconoclastic explosion of punk, which swept away the sacred monsters of progressive rock—by then reduced to a parody of itself—they deserve credit for keeping alive the faint flame of the bastard child of blues and folk with the trilogy War, Boy and October. Their protest songs, with new wave influences and hints of soul and gospel, carried rock toward new shores, saving it from the synth-pop and New Romantic wave. However, their peak was reached with maturity: records like THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE (their masterpiece), THE JOSHUA TREE, and RATTLE AND HUM cannot be missing from any respectable discography. This is thanks to Bono’s versatile, prophetic voice and The Edge’s existential arpeggios. Then came their swan song with Achtung Baby, an LP barely saved by their generational anthem, that ONE which, in M. J. Blidge’s soulful version, is rightly considered one of the most beautiful rock ballads ever. After that, there were futile techno experiments, useless flirtations with electronics, and embarrassing albums like HTDAAB. Finally, the rebirth with the LP No Line on The Horizon, an album clearly indebted to the magical touch of Brian Eno, their true mentor. A great live band, at their best on stage in the 80s and early 90s, though they too often crossed over into arena rock with Dublin pub-style singalongs. Overall, an epoch-making band, though they have not been able to reinvent themselves as time has passed.
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