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Genere: Rock

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Trama: "I'm ready / Ready for what's next," Bono announces at the outset of <I>Achtung Baby</I>, the album that proved the so-called "band of the '80s" was capable of blazing into the '90s by replacing its flag-waving arena-rock stance with screaming synths, clubby rhythms, and industrial skronk. The group advances its sound without losing accessibility on "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses," "Even Better Than the Real Thing," and "Mysterious Ways," while pushing the envelope a bit more on "The Fly," "Zoo Station," and "Acrobat." The moody ballad "One" is arguably the finest song the band has produced, full of sorrow, compassion, and hope all at the same time. <I>--Daniel Durchholz</I>

Genere: Rock

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Trama: The foursome come roaring out of the blocks with their latest collection. The album's first single, "Beautiful Day," raced to the No. 1 slot on the U.K. singles charts and received a similar rapturous reception stateside. From its shimmering preamble to its sweeping, infectious chorus, it perfectly stakes out the middle ground between the anthemic U2 of the '80s and the more grounded group of the '90s. With Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno sharing production chores again after having taken a break with <i>Pop</i>, the U2 team enters the new millennium with their lineup--and mission--intact. <i>--Steven Stolder</i>

Genere: Rock

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Genere: Rock

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Genere: Rock

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Trama: Having nearly exhausted their capacity for pop-song politics on <i>War</i> and <i>The Unforgettable Fire</i>, U2 turned toward themes of personal identity and complex relationships on <I>The Joshua Tree</I>. Not that the group was willing to come down off the barricades entirely: "Mothers of the Disappeared" and "Bullet the Blue Sky" turned a jaundiced eye toward Central America and the United States' role there. But the predominant mood here is one of self-discovery and the hunger for something more on tracks like the pulsating "Where the Streets Have No Name" and the gospel-ish "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." The album's masterstroke, however, is "With or Without You," a nasty love song dressed up as an ode of devotion and care. It ranks with the Police's "Every Breath You Take" as the most misread smash hit of the '80s. <I>--Daniel Durchholz</I>

Genere: Rock

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Trama: The ill will that initially greeted <I>Rattle and Hum</I>--the follow-up to the band's massively successful <i>Joshua Tree</i> album--was due in large part to the bloated and self-important feature film that accompanied it, which showed the band as being simultaneously naive and pretentious as it "discovered" America. But as the film mercifully slips from memory, the music has remained, from the furious swirl of "Desire" and a clutch of live hits to insightful musical nods to heroes such as Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and Billie Holiday. Songs like "When Love Comes to Town," a supercharged blues duet with B.B. King, suggests the quartet knew more about America from listening to its music than Phil Joanou's unintentional mockumentary suggested. <I>--Daniel Durchholz</I>

Genere: Rock

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Trama: An appreciable leap forward in almost every fashion from the group's first trio of albums, <I>The Unforgettable Fire</I> is its first with the production team of Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. And while they take a strong hand in wrestling U2's music out of the mainstream and into a more individualistic area, it's the songs themselves that demand a more subtle approach. Moody gems such as "A Sort of Homecoming" and the entrancing "Bad" set the table for more explosive fare such as "Pride," "Wire," and the title track. This is the album that made U2 a career act, showing that their music could grow by leaps and bounds, even at the hand of another, without sacrificing its soul. <I>--Daniel Durchholz</I>

Genere: Rock

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Trama: The album that named a movement (and a magazine), <I>No Depression</I> rocks and twangs in just about equal measure, though the rock side wins out most of the time. Even when a song downshifts from full-on punk to banjo- and mandolin-graced interludes, it usually shifts back again, seemingly louder and angrier than before. Beyond the influential sound, though, are some great songs, whether they're raging originals like "Graveyard Shift," an earnest, acoustic cover of the Carter Family's title track, or a decidedly desperate portrait of Leadbelly's "John Hardy." Six bonus cuts flesh out the 2003 expanded and remastered edition, including a cover of Gram Parsons's "Sin City." <I>--David Cantwell</I>

Genere: Folk

Durata: 55:39

Dischi: 1

Produttore: Adrian McNally

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