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After the antibest… the “best of”. If sifting through the lesser-known “gems” of the catalogue was already a somewhat more manageable task, it's obviously an impossible mission to determine the 30 best songs by a band like U2. What follows, then, is just one of countless possible selections, filtered through the taste of the writer. We have, however, tried to represent all the main phases of the Irish band's career, from their post-punk beginnings through their more classic-rock era, up to the boldest electronic experiments launched with “Achtung Baby”. In some cases we've chosen to favor the live versions from the incandescent (and unforgettable) “Under A Blood Red Sky” over the studio ones, partly to celebrate the Dublin band's unquestionable live stature, at least during their finest years. All while hoping that - as Bono puts it - the new studio sessions with Brian Eno will help U2 find “the reasons to still exist as a band”.

Below is our playlist, followed by track-by-track commentary, counting up from no. 30 to no. 1.

30. Magnificent

In the Irish band's relentless post-2000 decline, this 2009 "No Line On The Horizon" saves face – at least partially. An album that, despite lacking real thrills, gives the most die-hard fans a fine trip down memory lane with this single, in which liquid keyboards soon give way to The Edge's chiming guitar, rediscovering epic trajectories from years past over which Bono proves a refined interpreter. "I was born to sing for you/ I didn't have a choice but to lift you up," sings the frontman in an unusually lower, warmer register, above the sparks of The Edge's guitar and the metallic bed laid down by bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. Then Bono's voice soars to announce the refrain, closed simply with the word "magnificent," savoured and repeated, syllable by syllable.

29. Miracle Drug

We continue with an excerpt from U2's last (all things considered) decent record, 2004's "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb", where Bono & co. also bring back their old producer Steve Lillywhite. Alongside the single "Vertigo," this second track stands out – as Paolo Sforza writes in our review – it "will make some old fans jump out of their seats, from the very first chime of The Edge's guitar to the rhythm section's explosion 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 draws its simple yet so effective lines". As our reviewer also notes, "Bono's voice betrays the effort of trying to replicate past performances, and it exemplifies the approach of U2 as a whole, 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 melancholy, reflective mood of the music and lyrics". Let's hope U2 can now take a "Miracle Drug" capable of reawakening their lost inspiration.

28. Beautiful Day

After collecting the best of their first ten years of activity on "The Best Of 1980-1990 & The B-Sides," in 2000 U2 attempted a (partial) return to their past with "All That You Can't Leave Behind". Across its eleven tracks, the Irish band tries to recover the simplicity of their origins, scattered in recent years amid futuristic shows and forays into the dancefloor. But in truth, the fervour of their early days is a distant memory, and one gets the impression that Bono and company's pop drift has become irreversible by now. There are, however, a few happy exceptions, like this single, which tells of the sheer banality of how a man can lose everything and still be happy. With plenty of thanks owed to a-ha's "The Sun Always Shines On Tv," whose melody it cheerfully lifts.

27. Staring At The Sun

Released in 1997, at the peak of their worldwide popularity, "Pop" would disappoint many U2 fans, disowning rock in favour of a manic mix of hypnotic dance atmospheres and accelerated techno and jungle rhythms, an electro-pop that swings between Depeche Mode and Chemical Brothers. A foray into the glittering, ephemeral world of nightclubs, paired with lyrics that seem less earnest but which, in Bono and co.'s intentions, actually aim to represent "the music industry," pop as a giant supermarket that sells and burns through music at the speed of light. As partial consolation for nostalgic fans, there are the guitar solos of this aching ballad staring fixedly at the sun: "Staring At The Sun," enriched in its 7-inch format by a gem like Passengers' "Your Blue Room" on the B-side.

26. 11 O'Clock Tick Tock

In 1980, manager Paul McGuinness secured U2 a contract with Island (Bob Marley's label) for £100,000: that was enough for Bono and company to release their second single, namely "11 O'Clock Tick Tock" itself, and set off on a UK tour supporting Fashion. The producer brought in for the occasion was a distinguished one, though: Martin Hannett, already known for having been behind the desk for the legendary "Unknown Pleasures" by Joy Division. It's a track that's perhaps still naive, but already imbued with that innocent euphoria of early U2. Its title comes from a note that Gavin Friday, leader of Virgin Prunes and a friend of Bono's, had left on the frontman's front door one evening, while the lyrics were instead inspired by an experience Bono had at a Cramps concert at London's Electric Ballroom. On that occasion he was struck by the goth crowd filling the floor: "With that death-like make-up, white faces, dark eyes... it looked like the end of the world". The guitar's harmonic section in the finale incorporates the chime of the Third Quarter of the Westminster Quarters, from the clock tower of Big Ben at the Palace of Westminster in London. Here in the live version from "Under A Blood Red Sky".

25. Stay (Faraway, So Close!)

In the cybernetic babel of "Zooropa", "Stay" serves as an emotional pause, the ideal bridge between the album's first and second halves. Born during the "Achtung Baby" sessions under the working title "Sinatra," as it was directly inspired by the legendary Voice himself, the song was picked back up and completed at the request of Wim Wenders, who included it in his film "Faraway, So Close!," the spiritual sequel to "Wings of Desire". Out of this collaboration came an osmosis between cinema and music that would accompany U2 for a whole decade, with the German director acting as a guru to the band's most cinematic side. Musically, "Stay" moves in a balance between melancholy and suspension. Its subtle harmonies, broken vocal line, and the restrained tension in the guitars and minimal synths build a sense of anticipation and distance: the song lives in a dreamlike, nocturnal, almost phantasmagorical dimension. It's a ballad only traditional in appearance, one that instead digs into the emotional undercurrents of pain and disconnection. With ambiguous, poetic lyrics that seem to tell of an impossible love, perhaps from the perspective of an angel powerlessly watching the person they love trapped in a toxic relationship. Lines like "And when I touch you, you don't feel a thing" or "You say when he hits you, you don't mind" suggest a bond marked by violence, alienation and a desperate need for salvation.

24. All Fall Down

A soft piano – courtesy of The Edge – surfaces for the first time in a song by the Dublin band. But it's above all Adam Clayton's pulsing bass lines and Larry Mullen Jr.'s powerful drumming that leave their mark on almost the entire "October" album, and on this track in particular. An intimate, aching song. Bono explains: "This song is about trying, maybe even failing, but at least trying". The chorus, however, is pure adrenaline, in the vein of the Irish band's great classics. It's no coincidence that it would become one of the key moments of their early concerts, holding its place in the setlists even after the arrival of the hits from "War".

23. One

As overplayed and covered to death as it may be, in some cases – but to write ballads like this! The definitive slow-burner from "Achtung Baby", it's a track both evocative and spiritual, sung by Bono with the devotion of a prayer. "One" is the instant classic born by mistake, or rather by chance, during a rehearsal session built around the chords of "Mysterious Ways". It's an ambiguous declaration of love: it exalts uniqueness and the endurance that becomes necessary in order to rise above and, at the same time, annihilate guilt: “Have you come here for forgiveness/ Have you come to raise the dead/ Have you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head/ Did I ask too much, more than a lot/ You gave me nothing, now it’s all I got”. "The words of 'One' fell from the sky, a real gift," Bono would recall. "The Dalai Lama had asked us to take part in a festival called Oneness, but I thought the event had too much of a hippy vibe. I sent him a note that said 'united – but not the same'." And that was exactly the new spirit U2 wanted to start from: united despite their differences. "One" would end up taken far too literally, to the point of becoming a staple of wedding soundtracks. "It's a stretch of the lyric," Bono would later explain, "because the song is actually about something else entirely, and that line, 'We get to carry each other', simply reminds us that we have no choice." But rock also lives on symbols and slogans. And "One", despite its raw, jagged electric guitars dripping with pain and Bono's anguished vocal crying out "one love, one blood, one life", would soon turn into a kind of universal feel-good anthem.

22. A Sort Of Homecoming

"The Unforgettable Fire", one of U2's most beloved albums, is a sequence of intense passions and blazing anthems. A record marked by a strong experimental streak, where Brian Eno's contribution — he doesn't take part in the writing process, but his input is too distinctive and forceful to be reduced to the mere label of "production" — is felt loud and clear. The result is an ethereal, hazy, intangible sound, an "impressionist" record, as it would come to be described. "A Sort Of Homecoming" is a shock in this sense. U2 were remembered for "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" and for the "macho", warlike swagger of their explosive live shows, yet the opening track has a gentle, dreamlike pulse, and is even inspired by a Jewish poet of Romanian origin, Paul Celan. "Tonight we'll build a bridge across the sea and land", sings an elegiac Bono, drawn to noble ideals of openness and togetherness. After all, both "Pride" and "MLK", the closing track (more an invocation underpinned by a drone-like soundscape than a proper song), are dedicated to the figure of Martin Luther King.

21. Christmas (Baby please come home)

Among the many worthwhile U2 songs left off official albums is also the Irish band's only Christmas song, which is actually a cover of a great classic first 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 of all time". U2 recorded their cover in 1987 during a Joshua Tree Tour soundcheck in Glasgow, Scotland. Darlene Love contributes her own vocals, and the song was included on the compilation "A Very Special Christmas". The result is spectacular: a purely timeless soul-rock number that allows Bono to deliver yet another spine-tingling vocal performance.

20. Red Hill Mining Town

U2 in America before their American turn. "The Joshua Tree" was born in one of those magical in-between lands that, throughout rock history, have often provided the fertile ground for masterpieces. On a migration toward Joshua's Promised Land, in the shadow 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 break: U2 don't reject their European sensibilities, if anything they crown a coherent path that, starting from the post-adolescent impetuousness of their early records and the live consecration under the blood-red Colorado sky (the epochal "Under A Blood Red Sky") and on the London stage of Live Aid (1985), had led them toward a more complex kind of rock, one that partly gave up the guitar frenzy of their debut in favour of more carefully calibrated, more 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, standing alongside the British miners targeted by Margaret Thatcher, set to the music 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.

19. Spanish Eyes

Inexplicably left off "The Joshua Tree", this song was released only as the B-side of the single "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" on May 25, 1987. Charged with strong erotic energy, "Spanish Eyes" anticipates certain sexually charged themes that would later be central to "Achtung Baby", pairing them with a new, vibrant rock anthem, with The Edge's sharp riffs backing up 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 would be played often during the Joshua Tree Tour, then only sporadically, especially at Spanish shows. The importance of "The Joshua Tree" is thus proven even just by all the songs that were ultimately cut from its tracklist and largely resurfaced as B-sides of the singles. It could easily have been a double album without losing an ounce of its quality.

18. Like A Song

U2's third album is the one that delivered the final knockout. "War" (1983) convinces even the most skeptical that Bono and co. are the present and future of rock. And it dethrones none other than Michael Jackson's "Thriller" from the top of the UK chart (U2's first ever UK number one). Credit goes to the two instant classics ("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 even of its less flashy tracks. Take this "Like A Song", with its fragmented drum-and-guitar drive supporting Bono's vocal, as passionate and compelling as ever, giving voice to a post-punk invective against war and the world's injustices: "And in leather, lace and chains, we stake our claim/ Revolution once again". A generational call to arms, steeped in that same sense of hope we'd find three years later in R.E.M.'s "These Days".

17. Mysterious Ways

Raising the tempo on "Achtung Baby" is the second single, "the funkiest jackhammer around", as Bono put it. Originally titled "Sick Puppy" and inspired by Oscar Wilde's play "Salomé", "Mysterious Ways" builds around The Edge's unmistakable wah-wah, propped up by Clayton's rock-solid bassline and Mullen's driving drumming, which even makes room for African-flavoured bongos. Amid Middle Eastern spices and neo-psychedelic, baggy-flavoured aromas (Stone Roses and Primal Scream chief among the influences), Bono stages a mysterious, brazen dance, spurred on by pulsing keyboards and metallic guitar clangs, for an ode to female sensuality, fittingly represented in the video by a group of belly dancers, one of whom would go on to become The Edge's second wife. "Johnny, take a walk with your sister the moon, let your step be lit up by her pale light. You're living underground, trying to escape what you don't understand" is the exhortation Bono addresses to a boy shut away at home, intimidated by the idea of facing girls. An exhortation to fully embrace life's emotions that sounds almost like a premonition of today's grim hikikomori phenomenon.

16. Sunday Bloody Sunday

Social and political themes dominate the third album, "War" (1983), replacing the adolescent concerns of the early records. On the cover, the shocked, unsettling face of Peter Rowen, the boy from "Boy". But now his gaze is stern and his lips are bleeding: it's childhood's indictment of war. The knockout hit is this martial retelling of one of the tragedies of Ulster: the killing in Derry, in 1972, of thirteen civilians by British paratroopers. Opened by a rolling drum pattern over which The Edge's immortal riff and Bono's vocalizing enter, with a folky electric violin thread glimmering in the background, "Sunday Bloody Sunday", as Bono himself points out when introducing it live, "is not a rebel song, it's a song of peace". And it's precisely the splendid live version from "Under A Blood Red Sky" that we've chosen here. Adrenaline and raw emotion for one of the most famous soundtracks to the Irish tragedy of the Troubles.

15. October

After the euphoria of the debut, the twilight reflection of the second album. Released in 1981, "October" explores more consciously and introspectively the themes already tackled on "Boy", from adolescence to social crisis and the political tensions in Ireland. It's the album of "Gloria", with which U2 openly declare their faith (an issue that had also strained the band's harmony, due to Bono and The Edge's involvement with the Shalom religious group). But what gives the album an even more magical touch is the title track itself, a slow piece built around piano - played by The Edge - that releases all the melancholy typical of autumn. Just over two minutes, a largely instrumental piece, marked by sparse, disarming 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”.

14. Party Girl

The "B-side" has always been an integral part - and often just as significant - of the Irish band's repertoire. One of their earliest B-sides appeared 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 singles to pull from the previous album. But while "A Celebration" would end up practically forgotten by everyone, its flip side would become a classic 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 was 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 electro-acoustic guitar arpeggios and a steady bass line backing Bono's vibrant delivery.

13. Where The Streets Have No Name

According to Brian Eno, half of the recording sessions for the entire album were dedicated to perfecting the masterful opening of "The Joshua Tree". An intro for the rock anthology - the fading organ, The Edge's delayed six-note arpeggio, Larry Mullen's martial drumming - sets the stage for one of Bono's most memorable vocal performances, who is also responsible for the lyrical inspiration (a trip to Ethiopia with his wife after Live Aid). The frontman himself, however, revealed another meaning: "In Belfast, depending on the street where someone lives you can determine not only their religion, but also how much money they earn - even depending on which side of the street they live on. So I started writing about a place where the streets have no name". The fortunes of "Where The Streets Have No Name" were also helped by a documentary-style video showing the band's surprise performance on a rooftop in Los Angeles, with traffic thrown into chaos and the police at a loss.

12. Love Comes Tumbling

The title track of "The Unforgettable Fire", released as the second single, hid another gem on its B-side. Namely, this pained, intimate and poignant song, once again centered on a love story. A splendid song tinged with disillusionment but also romance, 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 lingering between the two protagonists. And the song seems to describe a forbidden romantic encounter, drawing us into an atmosphere made of silences and whispered 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's all built on the sound of the words, on the harmony of their pronunciation, on the warm voice of a Bono afflicted with melancholy, constantly wrestling with the delivery, fully immersing himself in the suffering of love. Backing him are refined arrangements in which keyboards and a pulsing bass intertwine with the guitar phrasing. Also released on the EP "Wide Awake In America", it remains one of U2's hidden masterpieces. Even in their concerts, where unfortunately it has never found a place.

11. Zooropa

The peak of U2's experimental streak in the '90s is the disorienting "Zooropa", released in 1993, co-produced by The Edge, Brian Eno and Flood. Bono would call the experiment "a surreal pop album". Giving the record its title is this formidable track, which after a long atmospheric intro marked by piano with an almost ambient tone amid humming voices, explodes at the two-minute mark with The Edge's cybernetic wah-wah acting as counterpoint to Bono's voice, which by now seems to be the only human element amid Clayton's bass and Mullen's drums, electronically charged by Eno. U2 pick up the multimedia remote control once again, and on their planetary TV a new futuristic channel called Zooropa appears.

10. Love Is Blindness

"Achtung Baby" nonetheless remains the quintessential experimental turning point in the Irish band's career. Bono and co. usher in the technological shift of the '90s by choosing Berlin as their new mecca and confirming the Eno-Lanois duo behind the desk. Ultrasonic confusion rises up in place of the Wall that had fallen two years earlier. And Berlin becomes the center of the world with its rock temple, Hansa Studios By The Wall, the famous studios where David Bowie recorded, also with Eno, 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 album's seemingly calm closing farewell 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 notes and Mullen's subtle beats. The irony and clamor of modernity step aside to make room for a bitter - and splendid - reflection on disillusionment.

9. One Tree Hill

Often (perhaps too often) celebrated for the songs of its first half, "The Joshua Tree" reveals an even more surprising second half, with less famous tracks that are nonetheless often more evocative. Songs in which the emotion emerges with the barest of ornamentation, as in this wonderful, slowly-building ballad titled "One Tree Hill", dedicated - along with the whole album - to Greg Carroll, the band's roadie, who died in a motorcycle accident in Dublin. The hill of One Tree Hill near Auckland (New Zealand), the young Maori's homeland, forms the backdrop to a moving tribute to the departed friend, with Bono's aching vocalizations enriching a deeply personal lyric, full of emotion and lyricism: “The moon is up/ And over One Tree Hill/ We see the sun/ Go down in your eyes/ You run like a river/ On like a sea…”.

8. The Unforgettable Fire

The track that gives its title to one of U2's most beloved albums was inspired by an exhibition of paintings made by survivors of the Hiroshima atomic bomb (August 6, 1945), although the lyrics go on to blend in other situations: snapshots from a love story, and more, in a collage of impressions that only seem disconnected from one another. "And if the mountain should crumble - sings Bono - or disappear into the sea. Not a tear, no not I. Stay in this time. Stay tonight". The fear of nuclear holocaust was a widely debated theme in the 1980s, especially within new wave circles, and it's no coincidence that it's also at the heart of another major album from 1984, "Lament" by Ultravox.

After the intro, carried by guitar arpeggios steeped in reverb and delay that set a mood of dreamlike suspension, while the keyboards creep in with ethereal, almost ambient tones, the track builds a gradual, measured crescendo that never quite explodes but slowly solidifies, accumulating emotional tension, with the rhythm section gaining momentum but never overwhelming the arrangement's impalpable delicacy. Bono leads this ascent with a superb vocal performance, evolving from subdued, meditative tones into more impassioned phrases, sustaining a lyrical and spiritual tension that never resolves into a true outburst. Unforgettable.

7. In God's Country

For this writer, the emotional peak of "The Joshua Tree". The epic of boundless spaces and the American desert returns in all its evocative power amid the white-hot riffs of this splendid ode to the dark side of the American dream, with a rock'n'roll swagger and an intro that closely echoes that of "Where The Streets Have No Name" – and perhaps that's no coincidence: the original demo for the opening track, which The Edge discusses in the documentary "It Might Get Loud" (2009), apparently sounded roughly like that. Here too the Irish band resorts to its classic trick of a softer start – here with arpeggiated acoustic guitars – before The Edge's electric lashes and the rhythm section's eruption take over. The band's noble rock streak resurfaces, filtered though it is through the sonic maturity gained during the collaboration with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. The Edge is the absolute protagonist, with his web of circular, glinting riffs, underpinned by a masterful use of delay that amplifies the sense of a desert expanse; Clayton and Mullen Jr. provide a constant propulsive drive, while Bono shapes his passionate voice into anthemic melodic lines that heighten the song's protest edge. "God's Country" is a land of broken promises, where the beauty of boundless landscapes collides with spiritual poverty and social contradictions.

6. I Will Follow

U2's first real hit. But above all, the first riffs from The Edge to truly leave a mark. Two simple chords make the song explode, amid a pulsing beat, metallic percussion and a love-struck refrain repeated like a mantra ("If you walkaway, walkaway/I walkaway, walkaway/ I will follow"). Bono's still-raw voice lends the track a sense of exuberant youthful freshness, even though it was actually inspired by a sad event, the death of the frontman's mother. Thanks also to the finely tuned production of trusty Steve Lillywhite, the U2 sound immediately stands out for its energy and emotional charge, blending in the post-punk lesson of Joy Division. It's the lead single from "Boy", the band's debut LP, its cover branded with the innocent face of Peter Rowen, younger brother of Guggi of the Virgin Prunes, another great band of the era who would go on to follow more experimental, underground paths. The song is carried by Edge's solid guitar work, weaving a razor-sharp riff that's already an instant classic: "When 'I Will Follow' came along," the guitarist recalls, "I knew we'd broken through with something special." And yet that historic riff was born on the spot, created by Bono in a moment of anger: "I remember, trying to reproduce a sound I had in my head, I ripped the guitar out of Edge's hands and went at it." Talk about expressive urgency…

5. Gloria

Managing to break through in the rock world with a religious hymn featuring a Latin refrain: only U2 could pull that off! Credit goes to this fantastic track from "October", in which Bono and co. openly declare their faith. "Gloria… in te domine, Gloria…exultàte", sings Bono. A secular prayer, certainly, but also a testament to their unease over the band's growing success and how hard it was to reconcile it with a Christian outlook on life. "Gloria" is an astonishing distillation of rock energy and melody: the driving verse, propelled by The Edge's riff, leads into the epic chorus where Bono is free to roam with his voice over the guitar's shimmering effects. A perfect blend of fury and grandeur, of anxiety and spirituality, packed into a traditionally structured song that still manages to renew old-school rock'n'roll with the suggestions and fascinations typical of post-punk and new wave.

4. Walk To The Water

Another hidden gem, 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 it was a mystery even to U2 themselves. Indeed, The Edge would later recall: "I thought it was coming out so well, but we ran out of time to get it ready before the album was finished"; while shortly before the record's release, Bono 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 it's probably one chapter of a single story contained in the album. Either way, this divine Bono's walk on water would be relegated to the B-side of the single "With Or Without You", even though the singer himself would rightly go on to call it "his best vocal performance ever" (just listen to the climax that explodes on the line "Let me love you" and you'll believe it). Initially titled "Present Tense", "Walk To The Water" largely adopts a spoken word narrative style reminiscent of Patti Smith, with Bono poetically recounting his parents' first meeting over a psychedelic sonic backdrop, where the off-kilter piano chimes pair with Edge's aching guitar arpeggios, while Clayton's bass holds it all together and Mullen accompanies with apparent calm.

One of the absolute high points of U2's career.

3. Pride (In The Name Of Love)

Overplayed? Maybe so, but never mind. "Pride (In The Name Of Love)" is U2 at their most powerful: epic, lyrical, vocal. The lead single from "The Unforgettable Fire" remains one of the most vibrant anthems of the entire 1980s, with Bono's full-throated cry ("In the name of love") sealing the moving tribute to Martin Luther King, the reverend leader of the Black civil rights movement and prophet of peace, whom Bono & co. would also honor with a track on the album bearing just his initials: MLK. Here Bono flaunts his most epic and anguished register, but "Pride" is also carried by The Edge's memorable guitar phrasing, which perfectly distills his style, rich in power chords and delay. The strong, intense rock of their debut takes on a magical sheen, taking on ever more solemn, epic tones. But everything is still perfectly calibrated and genuine.

2. Until The End Of The World

On "Achtung Baby" U2 wanted to shake off their image as saviors of the world. So, after slipping into the devil's shoes, Bono could also return to his beloved biblical parables, albeit far removed from the fervent psalms of the "Gloria" era. In "Until The End Of The World", in fact, the imagined dialogue between Judas and Jesus, in which the former tries to apologize for his betrayal, is set within a murky, blasphemous atmosphere. An idea inspired in Bono by the powerful film "The Last Temptation of Christ" by Martin Scorsese (with extraordinary music by Peter Gabriel), but also by reading Brendan Kennelly's "The Book Of Judas", a collection of poems about the betrayal of Jesus, containing a line – "The best way to serve your age is to betray it" – that reads like a kind of manifesto for the whole "Achtung Baby" project. Sparked by a guitar riff Bono had written for a 1990 demo ("Fat Boy"), "Until The End Of The World" rekindles the old fury of early U2, riding the momentum of that hammering intro marked out by drums in the style of a Maori dance: the eruption of The Edge's riff is like an electric lash, Bono's calm, almost spoken vocal doesn't soothe but rather deepens the sense of unease, as he recalls the apostles' last supper: “Last time we met was a low-lit room/ We were as close together as a bride and groom/ We ate the food, we drank the wine/ Everybody having a good time/ Except you/ You were talking about the end of the world”. Then, amid The Edge's biting picking, comes the revelation of the betrayal in the garden of Gethsemane: "I kissed your lips and broke your heart." With Clayton and The Edge's white-hot coda unleashing chaos around Bono's vocalizing. A tour de force alone almost worth the price of the whole album. It won't escape Wim Wenders, who would include it in the rich soundtrack of his 1991 film of the same name.

1. New Year's Day (live)

One of U2's undisputed masterpieces, which happens also to be this writer's favorite. "New Year's Day" grew out of a curious spark: Clayton was trying to play "Fade To Gray" by Visage (the new romantic band featuring Billy Currie and Midge Ure of Ultravox, as well as the duo Steve Strange-Rusty Egan and three-quarters of Magazine), when he came up with the incredible bassline that would go on to form the song's backbone, alongside The Edge's dreamy piano figure and the driving drumming. Over this sonic bed stretches Bono's voice, in yet another showcase of his extraordinary range as a would-be soulman. The single would go straight into the UK Chart, helped along by an effective video, shot on the ice fields of Sweden. The lyrics, meanwhile, originally began as a "simple" love song written by Bono for his wife Ali, but soon took on a broader meaning, ending up as a commentary on the Polish popular uprising led by the independent trade union movement Solidarność, founded in Poland in the wake of the Gdańsk shipyard strikes and led by Lech Wałęsa, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983.

It's one of the cornerstones of "War", though once again we've chosen the live version from "Under A Blood Red Sky", in which the song gains greater dynamism and intensity, starting with that opening cry, cracked with emotion ("Yeaaah"), from a Bono fully aware of his status as a rockstar and yet still incredibly "pure" and almost naive in his irrepressible exuberance. It's impossible for anyone who has truly loved U2 to remain unmoved by the emotional charge of this performance.

The complete playlist

1. New Year's Day (live)
2. Until The End Of The World
3. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
4. Walk To The Water
5. Gloria
6. I Will Follow
7. In God's Country
8. The Unforgettable Fire
9. One Tree Hill
10. Love Is Blindness
11. Zooropa
12. Love Comes Tumbling
13. Where The Streets Have No Name
14. Party Girl
15. Like A Song
16. October
17. Mysterious Ways
18. Sunday Bloody Sunday
19. Spanish Eyes
20. Red Hill Mining Town
21. Christmas (Baby please come home)
22. A Sort Of Homecoming
23. One
24. I Fall Down
25. Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
26. 11 O’Clock Tick Tock
27. Staring At The Sun
28. Beautiful Day
29. Miracle Drug
30. Magnificent

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18/02/2026