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Once upon a time there was U2. The real ones, distant relatives of today's bloated incarnation. The band that managed, with impressive regularity, to churn out not only worldwide hit singles but also an endless wealth of B-sides, outtakes and assorted gems, sometimes simply tucked away in the tracklists of their albums between one hit and the next, or in side releases and collateral projects. In this playlist of 20 songs, we'll try to bring them back into the light, digging through their discography and inevitably distilling this huge amount of material - material to which the Irish band has even dedicated specific releases, such as the second discs of the two double compilations "The Best Of 1980-1990 & The B-Sides" (1998) and "The Best Of 1990-2000 & The B-Sides" (2002). A selection that inevitably focuses above all on the golden age of the Irish band, from their debut through to the last great revolution of "Achtung Baby" (and "Zooropa"), which was followed by a slow (but inexorable) decline. And we hope that, by revisiting these hidden gems - often more than worthy of standing alongside their hits, and equally responsible for fuelling their legend - we can restore the proper shine to a musical experience too often overshadowed, even in the music press, by their lacklustre output of recent years.

Out Of Control

The Edge's first scratchy riffs and Bono's still-raw voice lend a sense of exuberant youthful freshness. Straight from "Boy", the debut album whose cover was graced by the innocent face of Peter Rowen (younger brother of Guggi of the Virgin Prunes), an epic anthem dug up, however, from the first, now impossible-to-find, EP "U2 Three", pressed by Cbs in just a thousand numbered copies, sold out within hours (the other two tracks were "Boy-Girl" and "Stories For Boys"). It's "Out Of Control" that truly leaves its mark on that semi-clandestine release, with its overwhelming charge of pathos and rock adrenaline. While the single "I Will Follow" carried "Boy" to success, fans count this early post-punk gem among the hidden treasures of the first U2, in a debut that may still be raw, but bursts with vitality, already showcasing the full power and tightness of the Dublin band, under the skilled direction of producer Steve Lillywhite.

October

After the euphoria of the debut comes the twilight reflection of the sophomore album. Released in 1981, "October" delves more consciously and introspectively into the themes already touched on in "Boy", from adolescence to social crisis and the political tensions in Ireland. It's the album of "Gloria", with which U2 openly declared their faith (an issue that had also shaken the band's stability, due to Bono and The Edge's involvement with the Shalom religious sect). But what lends the album an even more magical touch is the title track itself, a slow piece built around piano - played by The Edge - that exudes all the melancholy typical of autumn. Just over two minutes long, a largely instrumental piece, marked by a few sparse and unsettling lines: “October/ And the trees are stripped bare/ Of all they wear/ What do I care?/ October/ And kingdoms rise/ And kingdoms fall/ But you go on/ And on”.

Party Girl

But it's time to also discover the Irish band's "B-side". Let's start with one of their earliest B-sides, tucked away on the back of the single "A Celebration", released in 1982, between the albums "October" and "War". It was essentially a move by the record label to keep the spotlight on U2 in the absence of any singles to pull from the previous album. But while "A Celebration" would end up virtually forgotten by everyone, its B-side would become a staple of their live sets. It's called "Trash, Trampoline And The Party Girl", later shortened to "Party Girl", starting with the legendary live album "Under A Blood Red Sky", recorded at Red Rocks, as well as the film of the same name. And it's precisely in this thrilling live version that we've chosen this rock lullaby, which tells the story of a girl who needs to shake off a sad reputation. A gem from early U2, built entirely on the electro-acoustic guitar arpeggios and a steady, cadenced bass line that underpins Bono's vibrant delivery.

Like A Song…

The third blow is the knockout punch. The album "War" (1983) convinces even the most skeptical that Bono and co. are the present and future of rock. It even dethrones "Thriller" by Michael Jackson from the top of the UK chart (U2's first ever number one in the UK). Credit goes to the two killer singles ("New Year's Day" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday"), but also to an unprecedented tightness and consistency that the Irish band brings to the table, revealing the full beauty of even its less flashy tracks. Take "Like A Song", with its choppy interplay of drums and guitar underpinning Bono's vocals, as passionate and engaging as ever, delivering a post-punk broadside against war and the world's injustices: "And in leather, lace and chains, we stake our claim/ Revolution once again". A generational anthem to mobilization, imbued with that same sense of hope we'll find three years later in R.E.M.'s "These Days".

Endless Deep

Yes, believe it or not, instrumental U2 songs do exist. Few examples survive, and this is probably the best of them. Released as the B-side of "Two Hearts Beat As One" (the second single from "War"), "Endless Deep" unfolds in an evocative, mesmerizing way, driven by Adam Clayton's bass, which also handles the sparse vocal parts. It unwittingly edges close to the rarefied sounds of "non-musician" Brian Eno, who would soon take the helm for the Dublin band's next work, "The Unforgettable Fire". Never performed live, it remains one of the most intriguing hidden gems in their catalogue.

A Sort Of Homecoming

Fourth chapter, new triumph: "The Unforgettable Fire" (1984). The unforgettable fire is that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, a symbol of the barbarity of war. It's also the first album born from the partnership with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, the Canadian sound engineer and protege of the ambient-music master. The strong, intense rock of their early days takes on a magical sheen, coloured with increasingly solemn, epic tones. If the definitive anthem is "Pride (In The Name Of Love)", the album also thrives on lesser-known yet equally precious and moving moments, like the melancholy elegy of homecoming found in this overture, which would go on to become one of the Irish band's most classic ballads. Inspired in its title - and not only there - by a line from the poet Paul Celan ("poetry is a sort of homecoming"), it plants a few doubts about the band's early religious certainties, with lines like "on borderlands we run... and don't look back". Written in the key of D, "A Sort Of Homecoming" would be included in a new live version on the 1985 EP "Wide Awake in America". Among the song's best-known fans are Chris Martin of Coldplay and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, who has reinterpreted it on several occasions.

Love Comes Tumbling

Besides “Pride”, though, there’s another 45 that carries the 1984 LP, and it’s none other than the title track, “The Unforgettable Fire”. Released as the second single, it hides another gem on the B-side. Namely, this pained, intimate and aching song, once again centered on a love story. A gorgeous track streaked with disillusion but also romanticism, with lines like “L’amore non ha bisogno di trovare una via/ Tu troverai la tua via/ Io dimentico di non poter restare/ E così dico che/ Tutte le strade portano dove sei tu”. Words that nonetheless wound deeply, concealing all the bitterness hovering between the two protagonists. And the song seems to depict a forbidden love affair, drawing us into an atmosphere made of silences and murmured reflections: “Il seme è versato, il letto profanato/ Per te, una sposa vergine/ Io sono te in qualcun’altro/ Non cercare te stessa in me/Io non posso risollevarti ancora/L’amore crolla giù ancora”. It all plays on the sound of the words, on the harmony of their pronunciation, on the warm vocals of a Bono afflicted with melancholy, constantly wrestling with the delivery, throwing himself entirely into the anguish of love. Backing him up are refined arrangements in which keyboards and a pulsing bass intertwine with Edge’s guitar phrasing. Also released on the “Wide Awake In America” EP, it remains one of U2’s hidden masterpieces. Even in their concerts, where sadly it has never found a place.

Walk To The Water

Another hidden masterpiece, made during what is probably the Irish band’s most inspired and prolific period. It remains a mystery why it was left off the final tracklist of “The Joshua Tree”. Perhaps even to U2 themselves. It’s no coincidence that The Edge would later say: “I thought it came out really well, but we just ran out of time to get it ready before the album was finished”; while shortly before the record’s release, Bono had confided to Hot Press: “The album is almost incomplete. ‘With Or Without You’ doesn’t make much sense without ‘Walk To The Water’. And ‘Trip Through Your Wires’ doesn’t make much sense without ‘Sweetest Thing’”. So this is probably one chapter of a single story told across the record. The fact remains that this divine Bono’s walk on water would be relegated to the B-side of the “With Or Without You” single, even though the singer himself would go on to call it – rightly so – “his best vocal performance ever” (just listen to the climax that explodes on the line “Let me love you” to be convinced). Originally titled “Present Tense”, “Walk To The Water” largely draws on a spoken-word narrative style in the vein of Patti Smith, with Bono poetically recounting his parents’ meeting over a psychedelic sonic backdrop, where off-kilter piano chimes pair with Edge’s aching guitar arpeggios, while Clayton’s bass holds the whole thing together and Mullen accompanies it all with apparent calm.

For this writer, one of U2’s absolute peaks.

Red Hill Mining Town

U2 in America before the American turn. “The Joshua Tree” was born in one of those magical in-between lands that, throughout rock history, have often served as the fertile ground for masterpieces. Migrating toward Joshua’s Promised Land, in the shade of that giant cactus growing in Death Valley, named Joshua by the first Mormons who arrived in America. “The Joshua Tree” is U2’s pilgrimage toward rock’s eldorado: “Outside it’s America”, Bono announces in “Bullet The Blue Sky”. But it would be wrong to call it a rupture: U2 don’t disown their European moods, if anything they crown a coherent path that, from the post-adolescent impetuousness of their early records and the live consecration under Colorado’s blood-red sky (the epic “Under A Blood Red Sky”) and in the London arena of Live Aid (1985), had led them toward a more complex rock, partly giving up the guitar frenzy of their debut in favor of more measured, experimental songs, with lyrics increasingly steeped in social and political commitment. That’s the case with this splendid “Red Hill Mining Town”, a hidden gem among the album’s many hits, which stands alongside the British miners under attack from Margaret Thatcher, set to the notes of a heartfelt electro-rock ode (“Le file sono lunghe/ E non c’è ritorno/ Attraverso mani d’acciaio/ E cuori di pietra/ La nostra giornata di lavoro è giunta ed è andata/ E ci lasci ad aspettare/ A Red Hill Town”). Another spine-tingling vocal performance from Bono.

One Tree Hill

From the hill of British miners to the New Zealand one that was the birthplace of Greg Carroll, the band’s roadie who died in a motorcycle accident in Dublin, to whom this song and the whole record are dedicated. Emotion with the barest of trappings: One Tree Hill, near Auckland, native land of the young Māori man, provides the backdrop for a moving tribute to the departed friend, with Bono’s aching vocalizing enriching a deeply personal lyric, brimming with emotion and lyricism. The greatness of “The Joshua Tree” also lies in its seemingly minor tracks, which shine with a special light, sparked by The Edge’s rhythmic guitar phrasing, with its trademark reverbs, power chords and delay, with ever-incisive arrangements and a melodic power that heightens the Irish band’s epic charge, while still keeping a safe distance from the rhetorical excesses of the years to come.

Spanish Eyes

Another inexplicable omission from the grooves of “The Joshua Tree” concerns this song, released only as the B-side of the “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” single on May 25, 1987. Charged with a strong erotic energy, “Spanish Eyes” anticipates certain sexually-tinged themes that would later be central to “Achtung Baby”, pairing them with a new, vibrant rock anthem, with The Edge’s cutting riffs backing up yet another excellent vocal performance from Bono. The guitarist himself has speculated on who the song’s subject might be: “I think those ‘Spanish eyes’ refer to Ali (Bono’s wife, ed.). I think that’s exactly what Bono had in mind”. The track was played often during the Joshua Tree Tour, then only sporadically afterward, mostly at Spanish shows. The importance of “The Joshua Tree” is thus also proven simply by all the songs that ended up cut from its tracklist and largely repurposed as B-sides of the singles. It could easily have been a double album without losing an ounce of its quality.

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

Among the many worthwhile U2 tracks that never made it onto an official album is also the Irish band's only Christmas song, which is actually a cover of a great classic performed by Darlene Love in 1963 and written by Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry with Phil Spector. "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" was even named by Rolling Stone "the greatest rock Christmas song ever." U2 recorded a cover of it in 1987 during a Joshua Tree Tour soundcheck in Glasgow, Scotland. Darlene Love herself contributed vocals, and the track was included on the compilation "A Very Special Christmas." The result is spectacular: a piece of timeless, purest soul-rock that lets Bono deliver another spine-tingling vocal performance.

Van Diemen's Land

After the massive success of "The Joshua Tree," U2 completed their journey toward America with the live album "Rattle & Hum," which features new live versions of their classics, covers, and a handful of unreleased tracks. Among the latter, we're happy to revisit this touching pacifist ode, written and performed entirely - vocals included - by The Edge. The guitarist wrote it inspired by the story of Irish "Fenian" poet John Boyle O'Reilly (1844-1890), who was deported to Australia because of his poems. The "Van Diemen's Land" mentioned in the song is present-day Tasmania (although O'Reilly was actually deported to Western Australia), but the title also nods to the traditional Irish folk ballad of the same name. Having later escaped to the United States, O'Reilly became a champion of the Irish cause, as well as President John Fitzgerald Kennedy's favorite poet.

Love Is Blindness

It was their next studio album, however, that would mark a new, radical turning point in U2's music. With "Achtung Baby," Bono and co. ushered in the band's Nineties technological shift, choosing Berlin as their new mecca and once again enlisting the Eno-Lanois production duo. Ultrasonic confusion rises in place of the Wall that had come down two years earlier. And Berlin becomes the center of the world with its rock temple, the famous Hansa Studios By The Wall, where David Bowie, also working with Eno, recorded his "Berlin Trilogy." The sounds turn futuristic, electronic and dark, even on the hits (with the exception of the melancholy ballad "One"). And even the seemingly calm closing track is actually laden with fear and anguish, with Bono singing "Love Is Blindness," suggesting a parallel between love and a looming sense of death, while The Edge focuses on organ and keyboards, resting on Clayton's faint bass notes and Mullen's understated drumming. The irony and din of modernity step aside to make room for a bitter - and gorgeous - meditation on disenchantment.

Lady With The Spinning Head (UVI)

Speaking of the famous single "One," we couldn't leave out of this playlist its curious B-side. This is the source track from which no fewer than three "Achtung Baby" songs were drawn - "The Fly," "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" and "Zoo Station." A genuine collective matrix, brimming with experimentation and sonic suggestions, titled "Lady With The Spinning Head," with the closing initials UVI standing for "UltraViolet I," denoting the first version of the piece, while "the lady with the spinning head" is a tribute to the film "The Exorcist" by William Friedkin and its lead character, Regan, the possessed girl played by Linda Blair. A remix titled "Lady With The Spinning Head (Extended Dance Remix)" was released on the "Even Better Than The Real Thing" single.

Zooropa

U2's experimental streak was further fueled by their next album, "Zooropa," released in 1993 and co-produced by The Edge, Brian Eno and Flood. Bono would later describe the experiment as "a surreal pop album." The title track is this formidable song, which, after a long, atmospheric piano-driven intro with an almost ambient tone amid humming voices, explodes at the two-minute mark with The Edge's cybernetic wah-wah playing counterpoint to Bono's voice - by now seemingly the only human element amid Clayton's bass and Mullen's drums, both electronically charged by Eno. U2 pick up the multimedia remote control once more, and on their planetary TV a new futuristic channel appears, called Zooropa.

Your Blue Room (Passengers)

The first half of the Nineties was a period of wide-ranging experimentation for U2, who even agreed to join a supergroup with Brian Eno called Passengers. Together they released the album "Original Soundtracks 1," a sort of collection of themes for imaginary films meant to serve as an ideal second chapter to the "Music For Films" conceived by the Woodbridge genius back in 1978. The song that achieved success was the poignant "Miss Sarajevo" (featuring Luciano Pavarotti), which we're leaving out of this selection only because of how famous it already is. Less well-known - and fully deserving of reappraisal - is this track instead, which was actually used in a film ("Beyond the Clouds" by Michelangelo Antonioni) and later released as the B-side of the "Staring At The Sun" single in 1997. Driven by the magnetic sound of the organ, played by The Edge, and by Bono's deep, sensuous tones, the song floats over atmospheres that are enchanted, tense and melancholy all at once. The lyrics liken sex to "a different kind of conversation," while "the blue room" becomes the physical setting for the act of love. It features their fellow Irish artist Sinéad O'Connor on the chorus and a vocal contribution from Clayton in the final verse (only the second in U2's entire history, after the aforementioned case of "Endless Deep").

Do You Feel Loved

With the experimental phase behind them, U2 gave themselves over to "Pop". The 1997 album disappointed many fans with its decision to essentially renounce rock sonics in favour of catchier, more disposable hooks, less engaged lyrics and hammering rhythms in a techno, jungle and electropop vein reminiscent of Depeche Mode, all of which, in Bono and co.'s intentions, was meant to represent "the music industry" - pop as one giant supermarket selling and burning through music at the speed of light. The result, however, is only partly convincing, even if the Irish band's crystalline class still shines through here and there, as on the single "Staring At The Sun" and on the lesser-known but equally well-crafted track 2, a reflection on the end of a love story that leans towards the britpop sounds of the era (Suede, Blur). "Do you feel loved?", Bono asks. And perhaps at the heart of that question lies the band itself, by then the target of repeated criticism over its supposed "commercial turn".

The Ground Beneath Her Feet

In 2000 U2 attempted a (partial) return to the past with "All That You Can't Leave Behind". The aim was to recapture the simplicity of their origins, which had been scattered in recent years amid futuristic stage shows and disco excursions. In reality, though, the fire of their early days was by then a distant memory, and one gets the impression that Bono & co.'s decline had become irreversible. What's inexplicable, however, is the exclusion from the tracklist of this ballad, which Bono presented to his bandmates only to have it rejected and dismissed as a "kitchen-sink song" - the term the group used for tracks that felt aimless and shapeless. So the frontman got his revenge by releasing "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" on the soundtrack to Wim Wenders's film "The Million Dollar Hotel", released that same year. And it proved to be a minor success, since the song went on to become one of the fans' favourites (as well as Wenders's own, who also directed its video). Credit goes to its hushed, enveloping sound, in which Daniel Lanois himself makes room for his pedal steel guitar. The credits also list writer Salman Rushdie, author of the lyrics drawn from his novel of the same name, which reworks the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in metaphorical terms. Later released as a bonus track on the UK, Japanese and Australian editions of "All That You Can't Leave Behind", the song was performed by Bono and The Edge at Sanremo during their appearance on 26 February 2000.

Miracle Drug

The last song on our list, taken from U2's most recent - and, all things considered, respectable - album, "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" from 2004, for which they also brought back longtime producer Steve Lillywhite. Alongside the single "Vertigo", this second track stands out - as Paolo Sforza writes in our review - "enough to make some old fans jump out of their seats, from the very first jangle of The Edge's guitar to the explosion of the rhythm section in the epic chorus, where Bono's voice recovers the passionate timbre that rightly made him one of the most beloved frontmen of all time, and Clayton's bass traces its simple yet so effective lines". As our reviewer goes on to write, "Bono's voice betrays the effort of trying to match his past performances, and it's emblematic of U2's overall approach - from the rhythm section to The Edge's guitar - striving to recapture the pathos of their early career; a nostalgic effect that also comes through in the often melancholic, reflective mood of the music and lyrics". And it's on this wave of nostalgia that we take our leave, inviting you, of course, to listen to the playlist, and hoping that U2 themselves might take a "Miracle Drug" capable of reawakening their lost inspiration.

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06/01/2026