The first words that come to mind when first hearing \u201cI Will Follow,\u201d the leadoff track on U2\u2019s debut album are: \u201cThe sounds of martial music!\u201d And follow in droves we all did, right up to the present day. It\u2019s hard to imagine a world without U2, actually. All 12 albums have brought something new and electrically charged to the table. Their live performances are now the stuff of legend. Frontman Bono has literally become the man of the hour, leading by example in championing any number of humanitarian causes. Even the rhythm section of Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. have released a hit single, a revved up version of the theme to the film, Mission: Impossible<\/i>. As for the man known as The Edge, let\u2019s just say he\u2019s one of the best guitarists in the biz.<\/p>\n
Even when you point to this first effort, Boy<\/i>, humble beginnings isn\u2019t exactly a proper way to describe this arena-ready sound unleased onto the masses back in 1980. It\u2019s bold, it\u2019s new, it\u2019s a monster. From Bono\u2019s echoing yelps on \u201cTwilight\u201d to the dark and brooding \u201cAn Cat Dubh\/Into The Heart,\u201d it\u2019s only pointing to one glaringly obvious statement: This is how a debut album is supposed<\/i> to sound. So, fledgling musicians, take note. Producer Steve Lillywhite is still helping the band craft and create their albums today, and clearly it takes a LOT of work to keep the U2 sound fresh each time up at bat. It\u2019s now an event whenever a U2 album is released, merely because the wait in between them only seems to get longer and longer. The incredible thing is that 2009\u2019s No Line On The Horizon<\/i> is every bit as good as Boy<\/i>. There is indeed something to be said for U2\u2019s staying power. Their Irish nose-to-the-grindstone work ethic keeps everything in perspective. They may be on top and have been seemingly forever, but you won\u2019t catch these cats taking a bit of it for granted.<\/p>\n
While other bands disband or go through any number of personnel changes, the four members of U2 have stayed joined together like brothers in arms. Again, if it ain\u2019t broke, why fix it? The electronic mayhem of their \u201890s output is nowhere to be found on Boy<\/i>. Smart move, considering every other band at the time was going New Wave. That\u2019s what made U2 stand out from the pack: the lyrics, the musicianship, the less flashy cover art all seemed to work in their favor at the time. Even the more upbeat tracks like \u201cOut Of Control\u201d and \u201cStories For Boys\u201d had plenty of edge and appealed to anyone from your classic rock purist to your average teenager heading off to college. They were critics\u2019 darlings from day one, too, which never hurts. If you have that Rolling Stone<\/i> seal of approval, nothing can or will ever stand in your way.<\/p>\n
U2 has always had a penchant for instrumental soundscapes (like \u201cThe Ocean\u201d), so even the detour of The Passengers: Original Soundtracks 1<\/i> in 1995 was forgiven by their ardent fan base.<\/p>\n
They do keep such eccentricities on Boy<\/i> to a minimum, though the album may take repeated listens for the uninitiated listener to absorb it all. The material on this and the follow-up October<\/i> is quite dense and not as immediate as their later work, but that\u2019s what makes it so strikingly timeless. As the song title suggests, you will be transported to \u201cAnother Time, Another Place,\u201d so why would you want to pass up the opportunity hear what all the fuss has been about?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":24380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5708],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-43765","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-u2","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43765"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}