U2: War [ISLAND]

Why you'll love it

This 2008 Island reissue is remastered by Arnie Acosta and cut at Bernie Grundman Mastering on 180g vinyl, in a gatefold with a 16-page booklet. War knocked Thriller off the top of the UK chart to become U2's first No. 1 album there, and it was their first gold record in the US.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Remastered
• Gatefold jacket
• 16-page booklet
• Stereo mix

About the album

Bono spent his 1982 honeymoon in Jamaica working on lyrics, which tells you how focused the band were. U2 went back to Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin with Steve Lillywhite for a third straight album and came out with something tougher and more urgent than Boy or October, built around the feeling, as Bono put it, that war seemed to be the motif for 1982.

"Sunday Bloody Sunday" grew from a riff and lyric the Edge wrote that year, with its opening drum pattern becoming the hook and local violinist Steve Wickham adding colour. "New Year's Day" began as a love song for Bono's wife Alison and took on the spirit of Poland's Solidarity movement, while "Seconds," "Two Hearts Beat As One" and the closing "40" show a band growing up fast.

Rolling Stone placed it at No. 223 on its 2012 list of the 500 greatest albums, and the War Tour carried it through the end of 1983. "40" went on to close U2 shows for years, which is a very polite way of telling an arena it's time to go home.

Also at Kops: more U2 on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Island (cat# B0010832-01), a reissue of the 1983 album.