Boy, October, War and Blood Red Sky Remasters

Originally posted by yeah[..]

Originally posted by yeah[..]

Originally posted by RattleandHum1988It does sound interesting. Everytime they say things like that I'm afraid they're going to retire soon. I remember I saw in an interview, Edge and Bono said they think they're close to writing their best work yet. Wouldn't that mean they're going to stop soon? I hope not.

I DO love what they say about the Edge though. The whole "he owns a colour" bit. Awesome!

Originally posted by drewhiggins[..]

However..."most radical and complete" album? Sounds like a lot of pre-hype, but interesting.

Originally posted by yeah[..]

That's the typical Bono yadda yadda. Keep in mind that he announced Pop as a techno album the Bomb as heavy metal, and promised an album for 2006.

Boy

Boy was and still is up in the top three of my favorite U2 albums and for a debut album, released back in 1980, to still be playing these songs regularly on tours (Stories For Boys, The Electric Co, Out of Control, I Will Follow...) is nothing short of amazing, and having the new fans instantly hooked, even though they had no idea what these songs were. This album shows U2 at their finest, even if it is their earliest.

The sound quality I didn't notice too much of an improvement - mastering-wise, it sounds the exact same to me. Probably of all the four early albums, Boy has always sounded the best. But in this new remaster, you can pick up sounds that were never there before - ringing guitars, bass and it sounds like a whole new record, just for those added sounds alone. I only bought the single discs because I saw no point in spending $50-$60 for a few extra songs as opposed to $20 for the first disc by itself. I've got the early releases (obviously not remastered) and the live stuff, so why again? The demos weren't overly thrilling either on Imeem - maybe the reason they remained as demos.

Half the excitement of a new album or record is getting the artwork and the booklet, and it doesn't disappoint - and finally, every region in the world gets the same artwork, and not have to be replaced and changed to something odd, for fear of a select few. Finally, Universal / Island saw fit to actually label the discs themselves, and the new photos are a great addition as are the liner notes, which provided a great little read.

Sound quality: 10 / 10

Packaging quality: 10 / 10

Final rating: 10 / 10

October

Here we are at the ultimate fan favorite: October. Well, maybe not a fan favorite, but it is, with Pop and Passengers, a gem of an album. I find this album a lot harder to write about. After all, it is more of a Christian album, which has many extra themes and concepts attached to it. Again, I only bought the first disc, because I have no care for B-sides or live stuff being officially released, so this will review the core package.

Here's where I noticed a sudden and marked improvement in sound quality. Songs like October and Gloria no longer have hiss, cracking or distortion - being remastered, they've come from the original tapes and it shows. I was actually able to listen to this full album, not skipping any songs whatsoever. There are still some bits which sound not as good as they could have been, but overall the sound is a great improvement on an originally poor recording.

When Bono says "...there's a few bad smells of ours out there", I think he refers to this album of about 50% of the songs. It's certainly not a bad album by any means - another U2 album takes the cake for this. But the songs show promise for improvement. They were only maybe 19 or 20 years old at the time of recording - but by god, do they have a grip on their playing abilities. Listen to the killer riffs and perfect timing in Gloria and the guitar in Is That All.

Even the live shows of this tour showed that - Gateshead is a prime example of U2 doing what they do best (apart from the fashion) - and to think the album was recorded, according to the disc label, in less than two months.

The packaging on this one is the big news, because it's a new cover. They finally got rid of that old, boring, washed-out cover on the original October album and replaced it with a vibrant, full-colour photo, and the discs were, like the other remasters, actually labeled. The liner notes were again well worth reading.

Sound quality: 8.5 / 10

Packaging quality: 10 / 10

Final rating: 8 / 10

War

Choosing between three U2 records is a hard decision - especially when they all come at once. Three of the albums which established U2 as a force to be reckoned with. War, I haven't stopped listening to since I first got it all those years ago, and haven't stopped listening to the remastered version either.

War has consistently defined this band as one of the greatest acts in the world, and after the 42 minutes you spend listening to this sheer brilliance, you cannot help but wonder "what was driving them to write such brilliant, yet simple songs" - which rock band would write something as political as Sunday Bloody Sunday or Seconds? Can you imagine a song like ''40'' was written in under 20 minutes, right at the end of the sessions. Truly amazing. And to still be putting these songs on recent compilations and playing them live, every night!

By the time War rolled out, U2 had finally got a grip on their playing abilities. Larry is always in time with the beats, Edge's guitar rips through the studio like no-one's business, Adam's bass is perfect and never falters (listen to him on New Year's Day and Two Hearts Beat As One) and Bono has the voice of an angel, being able to reach the high notes - just before the eclipse of The Unforgettable Fire.

Sound quality has again reached its peak here. No longer during songs such as Two Hearts Beat As One, do you have that terrible background distortion or hissing - it's completely gone and sounds like a master tape. I didn't think I'd ever hear this album in great quality, but here it is.

War never contained any truly bad songs, except for one - which is Red Light - complete with the horn section and coconut opener. If they'd included something different, anything is better than that atrocity of a song, which unfortunately drags my overall rating down a notch (even though I'd love to give it top marks). Apart from that, songs like New Year's Day, Drowning Man and ''40'' are still relevant in this day and age - and the reason why they're so damn popular.

The packaging is another top mark to this re-release. The original War release was so dull in contrast on the cover but this new version is so much more vibrant - and if you look carefully, the boy on the front is actually aligned further to the left. And there is actually a disc label like the other two. Again the liner notes were quite interesting to have a read of. Just to make it obvious to me, there is a huge brown sticker on the front, screaming "RE-MASTERED AUDIO". In case I didn't already know...

Sound quality: 9.5 / 10

Packaging quality: 10 / 10

Final rating: 9.5 / 10

Originally posted by Bono[...]
about BOY having listened to it for the first time in over twenty years
[...]

Originally posted by RDB92[..]

Wow, he has really done an awesome job remembering the lyrics from The Electric Co., An Cat Dubh / Into the Heart, The Ocean, etc. for last tour