ARTIST

U2

Armed with juvenile delinquent attitude, hyper-child energy, and the distinct inability to play their instruments, U2 became Ireland's most important export since St. Patrick's snakes, charismatic visionaries who believed the human spirit could transcend the boundaries of rock.

As high school friends in 1970s Dublin, singer Bono, guitarist the Edge, drummer Larry Mullen, Jr., and bassist Adam Clayton won a battle of the bands and won over Island Records head Chris Blackwell. Landing in the U.S. with soaring melodic anthems including "I Will Follow," U2 quickly became a post-punk phenomenon, the UK's equivalent to R.E.M. Steve Lillywhite's echoing, bell-spiked production made Boy (1980) a hit, while October (1981) exhibited growing pains, a reflection of the group's struggles with Christianity, a divided Ireland, and their impending stardom.

These concerns came to a head on War (1983), for which the group literally jumped over their recording engineers to enforce the raw, distorted crackle and pointed textures of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "New Years Day." War was business as usual next to the broadened scope of The Unforgettable Fire (1984) and The Joshua Tree (1987), albums with huge ambient soundscapes encouraged by producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois.

After the bluesy experiments of the studio half of (1988), U2 stopped stressing out and instead flaunted their spiritual/showbiz contradictions with the buzzing sonic adventures of Achtung, Baby (1991), the subsequent multimedia flash of the Zoo TV tour, and chaotic energy overflow of Zooropa (1993). The sadly overlooked Original Soundtracks 1 (1995), recorded with Eno as The Passengers, is a compelling diversion of dark faux soundtracks. Amidst some Vegas-style self-mockery, Pop (1997) delivers a few great leaps ("Discotheque," "Miami") into matching pop-tune sensibilities with dense techno textures but then backs off to more traditional rock songstering. Their most recent studio album, 2000's Grammy-winning All That You Can't Leave Behind, combines elements from all of U2's periods, which explains why it appeals to such a wide fanbase and became a huge comeback record for U2, thus solidifying their status as the biggest band in the world more than 20 years into their career.

Written by Tristram Lozaw