A couple of tours ago, Bono, U2’s stand-up-for-a-cause frontman, got into the habit of asking his audiences: “So are we the biggest band in the world?”
Our answer, “Hell, yeah!”
When it comes to subscribing to the ‘been there, done that, bought the T-shirt’ school of thought, U2 certainly find themselves ahead of their rock peers. The Irish post-punk foursome has seen the rise and fall of several musical genres and popular movements and has survived unscathed. They have spawned a generation of Coldplay-clone acts which bear testament to their shaping influence on today’s alternative/indie scene. If that doesn’t prove that they are the biggest band on the planet today, their tally of 22 Grammys should certainly do the trick.
Back when they first jammed as a band named ‘The Hype’ in secondary school, Bono, Larry, Adam and Dave (the Edge) never ever envisioned anything even remotely close to a record deal. But it was a record deal with the mainstream label Island Records, that and a name change, that took U2 out of Ireland and onto American radio. Their first two albums, Boy and October saw the band struggle to develop a sound of their own. But the release of War and The Unforgettable Fire affirmed the strong experimental presence that fans have come to associate with U2.
And then The Joshua Tree happened. The critically acclaimed album cemented U2’s place in rock history, going down as one of the most influential albums of all-time. Singles like With or Without You and I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For find constant airtime and are radio favorites even today.
Achtung Baby was a landmark album in that it was recorded in East Berlin on the eve of the German unification in 1991. The ensuing record Zoo TV sought after a generation that was being raised on MTV. All along, the band never compromised on their stand on several issues of social and humanitarian importance, using their music as a means to spread awareness. Zooropa had their childhood hero Johnny Cash singing with Bono on one of its tracks.
After a rather forgettable 1997 release, Pop, U2 returned to make the album that had everyone singing along. All That You Can’t Leave Behind was evidence of a band rising from the ashes of a weak record to produce an absolute masterpiece. With a blend of ambient guitar riffs and well-written lyrical themes, the album fetched U2 a cartload of Grammys. The album’s popular singles, Stuck in a moment, Beautiful Day, Walk On and Elevation tore up the charts and peaked at number one in twenty two countries. The band was merely picking up where they had left off with The Joshua Tree by producing a record that achieved musical perfection.
2005’s How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb received quite a bit of airplay and was used in advertisments for the Apple Ipod. The album didn’t r
egister many hits, but the world-wide tours in its promotion were huge. At this point U2 had achieved everything a rock band could. They had a string of albums which had gone platinum and had been inducted into the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame. They’d even featured in an episode of the Simpsons!
But all this success only kept the band’s spirit yearning for more. This year, the band released their twelfth studio album after two years of work. Their guitarist, The Edge, has name-dropped some rather promising influences that helped make this album (like Jimmy Paige of Led Zeppelin and Jack White of The White Stripes). No Line on the Horizon could very well be another electrifying winner, with Bono insisting ”Let me in the sound!” several times on the record, most notably on the fast and danceable first single, Get On Your Boots.
Now, you can get all the low down on U2’s brand new album and give it a listen, only on u2.in.com! Stay tuned.
Tags: no-line-on-the-horizon, U2
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