This album (and its spin-off tour) arguably defined the sound of U2, even though they spent the albums Achtung Baby and Zooropa trying to shake it off. It’s the big soaring ballads and anthems of With Or Wthout You and I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, or the delay-looped guitars of Where The Streets Have No Name.
And I have to confess, there’s something about Where The Streets Have No Name that really irritates me. I think because it always feels like it’s building towards something, but never gets there. The concept is a sound one – it’s specifically inspired by Belfast where secular divisions were based on the street where you lived, but also carries with it a non-specific meaning of a place where differences don’t matter, some kind of utopia or afterlife.
And that sentiment continues throughout a lot of the other songs, which tread the same kind of ground that Springsteen has walked on. Red Hill Mining Town, for instance, was inspired by the Miners’ Strike and the widespread destruction of mining communities by the Thatcher government. One Tree Hill is about indigenous rights, inspired by a location of the same name in New Zealand, sacred to Maoris. And, I have to say once you step away from the famous tunes (which are front-loaded on the album), there’s some pretty good music on here. Even if it is the start of the upward arc of Bono’s pretentiousness.
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