The Unforgettable Fire (Remastered)

As a young band with the burning desire to become an epic and legendary one, U2 placed an even greater emphasis on their overall sound and impact than on their individual songs. Sure, they had their anthems – “New Year’s Day,” “Sunday Bloody Sunday” – but the band was always more interested in finding ways to expand their sonic palette and fill the arena with grandeur. For their fourth album, they enlisted the help of producer Brian Eno and his protégé Daniel Lanois, an engineering team noted for their experimental and ambient processes. The results came in as expected. The mood was thicker with atmosphere than riffs (“A Sort of Homecoming,” “MLK”) and when the band did embark with ambitious anthems — “Pride (in the Name of Love),” “Bad” — it was with layers of shimmering guitars and dynamics that went from whispers to screams. Their self-mythologizing “Elvis Presley and America” pushes them to the edge of their pretensions. But the overall moodiness here makes for an entrancing listen of a group about to be catapulted into the stratosphere of superstardom.