U2
War

THE REVIEW

War. The first great work of a band called U2 and the third album by the band. 

An album characterized by a dramatic power essentially given by 4 fundamental elements: Bono’s voice at truly extraordinary levels, Edge’s explosive and sharp guitar, and a bass and drums that are fundamental and in perfect sync.

Reflections, thoughts, and denunciations of all that a terrible evil like war can bring, intense feelings that don’t enter through the back door but hit like arrows straight to the heart. Starting with the beautiful and cursed cover of a child: his tense expression, his eyes fixed and afraid, and lips stained with blood.

War begins in a great way and immediately opens without any holdback with a song destined to make the band's history and to become one of the most celebrated protest anthems in rock history of all time, "Sunday Bloody Sunday". That cursed Irish Sunday (31/1/1972) where 13 demonstrators were brutally killed by the English army that was ordered to shoot into the crowd, is told in an extraordinary piece in both music and words characterized by Bono’s voice powerful and angry as ever, by that unforgettable guitar melody and by the drums that introduce the piece like a flash that explodes in the sky. "Sunday Bloody Sunday" talks of opposing factions, different camps, continuous and useless struggles, but in the end, the thesis remains just one: who won? Who lost more men in the field? None of this matters, with violence and war we all lose, inevitably. The real battle is yet to begin, and to fight it, there will come a day when we must all finally be united.

After the big start, "Seconds" follows. This time the theme is the Cold War, it talks about how in a second one can decide the lives of millions of people simply by pressing a button ("It takes a second to say goodbye"). This song is also aggressive where a fitting and determined bass riff predominates.

Not even time to have been left from Bloody Sunday when U2 place another immense masterpiece, "New Year's Day". The song talks about how nothing changes, not even on New Year’s Day, of how everything remains unchanged and covered by a blood-red sky. The piece is musically characterized by an extraordinary bass riff that repeats throughout the song, while the guitar, initially in the shadow and more occasional, explodes halfway through the song with a brilliant solo and one of the best ever played by Edge. Out-of-breath sensations for Bono, whose voice seems like a train at full speed, from which one cannot help but be overwhelmed. Immense.

The fourth track of the album, "Like a Song", is perhaps the most powerful and aggressive. Once again, U2 place a piece worth 90 that presents a very pounding drum, an exceptional and leading guitar that abandons itself to another fantastic solo, echoed by practically shouted notes and more angry than ever by a Bono possibly never in such form. Like a Song talks about this "unnamed generation" with few hopes, tells how we like to wear uniforms and badges, how we enjoy waving flags, while in reality, we continue to divide ourselves needlessly and abandon others.

At this point, the album starts to lose a bit of the character acquired with the first songs, the level is no longer on par, and respectable songs remain but unfortunately not comparable with the previous ones. There’s the calm of "Drowning Man", "Two Hearts Beat as One", "Red Light" and "Surrender" that still reveal at times a certain immaturity and at times result a bit too tiring and continuous.

No big deal, the album concludes with a pearl that condenses all anger into an atmosphere of great calm. "40" presents itself as a sort of simple prayer to God for the world’s salvation, but above all of oneself, and it is still played punctually at the end of every U2 concert. A sign of its greatness and durability after 25 years of life, just like the album on which it was recorded, perhaps not the band’s best, perhaps a bit incomplete, but let’s remember, even though it was only written at the age of 23, it is certainly a repository of songs (New Year’s Day and Sunday ) that remain among the best ever made by the band and perhaps (in my opinion) in the entire history of rock 'n roll.

 Hello everyone.