The U2 albums The Edge called their greatest work: “The most satisfying”
Every single U2 album ever made was about some sort of forward motion for The Edge.
He didn’t want to spend time spinning his wheels every single time they made a record, and by the time that they got off tour for one of their records, he already had a new bag of tricks to work with whenever he tested out some of his equipment. He needed to keep things fresh every single time he programmed all of his effects, but he knew that some of the biggest hits of their career were there for a reason.
But when talking about U2’s career, it tends to be tough looking at what their true classic period is. Sure, they may have been superstars in the 1980s and become one of the most militant rock bands out there when they played Live Aid, but when you look at how pretentious they became, they were bound to make a few enemies every single time that Bono tried to talk about the greater problems with the world.
So, really, the 1990s make a lot more sense when talking about their classic period. They were reinventing what it meant to be one of the biggest rock and roll bands in the world, and while Zoo TV was one of the most impressive tours that they ever put on, The Edge couldn’t help but feel a little bit jaded when things started to get a bit too complicated once they reached records like Pop.
A lot of their best work had been smothered underneath a bunch of glitchy effects, and while the songs themselves were still great, the guitarist knew they needed to take a step back. So when you look at where they went on All That You Can’t Leave Behind, you can tell they were going for a soft reboot when going back to the same delayed effects that they pioneered on records like The Joshua Tree.
Their 1987 masterpiece was the moment where they became superstars, and while that did result in Rattle and Hum, The Edge wasn’t about to cringe at the songs that they made during that time. There are a thousand moments where he would rather not discuss the actual recordings, but he felt that nothing could stop the kind of songwriting that they were making during that time either.
Alongside The Unforgettable Fire, The Edge that The Joshua Tree was the greatest peak that the band ever reached, saying, “I’m very proud of the whole collection, but if I were to single out any one era, I’d have to say [that] The Unforgettable Fire through The Joshua Tree was the most creatively satisfying for us. We really had set our sights on achieving certain goals as a band, creatively in terms of songwriting, in terms of production and sonic experimentation, and took quite a few risks.”
And while a lot of the songs have been burned into people’s skulls at this rate, it’s not like they aren’t there for a good reason. The Edge really outdid himself when he was making the effects that turned up on ‘With Or Without You’, and when you listen to ‘Bullet the Blue Sky’, he practically uses his guitar to get one of the most moody sounds that the band ever created over top of Larry Mullen’s drum groove.
You can say a lot of things about where U2 have gone since their heyday, but the reason why The Edge goes back to this album has a lot to do with the sincerity behind the band around that time. They genuinely believed that music had the potential to change the world, and for a brief few years, the Irish legends made the rest of the world feel like they might be on the verge of changing rock altogether.
