U2

"Under A Blood Red Sky", recorded live at three shows during the "War Tour" — Denver (Colorado), Boston (Massachusetts) and Sankt Goarshausen (Germany) — and released as a mini-LP, is one of the discographic high points of U2, one of the very few bands active from the 1980s onward capable of rising to "legendary" rock status on a par with the "classic" acts formed and raised in the preceding decades.

For one of the most beloved and famous rock bands of all time, focusing an analysis on this very live album from 20 years ago might seem like a risky move, but a recent statement from Adam Clayton is illuminating on the matter. Looking back with hindsight, the bassist says, all early records tend to sound like little more than demo tapes; a view shared by plenty of other rock musicians who, starting out with an instinctive vocation for playing live, tend in their early studio work to transfer the warm, sweaty sound of the rehearsal room straight onto tape, neglecting — whether by choice, inexperience or budget constraints — the painstaking work of production and creative sound-building across multiple tracks. This live album can therefore be considered the band's best work up to that point, superior to their first three studio records, and the ideal opportunity for the group to document all their explosive live energy in concert.

The Irish quartet appears live in the most classic of line-ups. The band's leader and guide is Bono, whose powerful vocal qualities and innate charisma make him arguably the most representative frontman of the 1980s. The harmonic section rests entirely on The Edge, a solid guitarist and a grandmaster of rhythmic effects, invaluable here too in his role as backing vocalist. The rhythm section features the driving, precise and never predictable Larry Mullen Jr. on drums and Adam Clayton on bass. Clayton is living proof of how a musician with limited technical ability can blend perfectly into a rock band's sound and extract maximum value from bass lines that are as simple as they are incisive.

"Under A Blood Red Sky" collects the best songs from the first three albums ("Boy", "October" and "War") and from the early singles, and from them the band's post-punk roots emerge clearly: direct, no-frills songs, cutting riffs, an incisive and vibrant rhythm section and, above all, Bono's warm, evocative delivery. With eight tracks for a total running time of 35 minutes, U2 prove here that they possess that rare, mysterious energy capable of turning a rock concert into a unique, memorable event. After this live album, the band's global fame would grow immeasurably thanks to the wonderful "The Unforgettable Fire", perhaps the creative zenith of U2's entire output and the last work that can in some way be counted within the new wave fold. Afterwards, in a career that continues steadily to this day, the band would alternate records of undoubted worth ("The Joshua Tree" and "Achtung Baby" above all) with questionable lapses in taste, drifting ever more toward lightweight pop.

The album opens with the imperious drumming that introduces the first gorgeous track, "Gloria", an astonishing burst of energy and rock melody that underlines the band's religious calling, always committed to the pacifist cause and close to a kind of radical Christianity. The driving verse, carried by The Edge's riff, leads us into the epic chorus where Bono is free to roam with his voice over the guitar's effect-laden embroidery, while Clayton's inspired bass twists and turns over Mullen's four-on-the-floor beat. "11 O'Clock Tick Tock", one of U2's early singles, offers a brief respite with Bono's dreamy falsetto before momentum picks back up with the tight, urgent "I Will Follow", where the guitar riffs take centre stage. On the dreamy "Party Girl", the great The Edge's occasional solo missteps are easily forgiven for the sake of such a delicate, moving song.

The immortal "Sunday Bloody Sunday" that follows is introduced by a rolling drum pattern over which The Edge's timeless riff and Bono's vocal line enter. The song, taken from the album "War" and built on a simple, immediate structure, ranks among rock's greatest anthems and, 20 years on, still sounds fresh and relevant. It's a calling card that, together with "Pride", the single lifted from the subsequent "The Unforgettable Fire", would help propel U2 into rock's pantheon. The song, which draws on the tragic, bloody events in Derry in 1972, is not, as Bono points out during the concert, a song of rebellion, but a hymn of peace.

The torrential "The Electric Co." further raises the listener's adrenaline. The song is above all a remarkable showcase for The Edge's mastery in building tight, effects-laden rhythmic textures, a technique that would make him famous and stand out as particularly original within English new wave's guitar landscape. Perhaps only Robert Smith of The Cure would prove just as recognisable and original in those years.

The gorgeous "New Year's Day", built around The Edge's dreamy piano figure, offers another display of Bono's vocal power and the band's compositional quality, managing to balance energy and clarity, force and melody, into a single whole with explosive impact.

The closing of "40" is memorable, a sweet and poignant gallop toward infinity — that is, the endless, indelible moment of bidding farewell to the concert and returning to reality. The hypnotic, seductive bass riff moves sinuously over the syncopated drums, while Bono invites the crowd to join in the ritual farewell singalong. The song fades out slowly, but not the emotions we've carried with us for twenty years now. Thank you, U2.

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13/11/2006