Volume 96, Issue 40
Friday November 8, 2002
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Outside the Box: Oh Boy, U2!
By Mark Polishuk
Gazette Staff
U2
Boy (1980)
Island Records
"We're one, but we're not the same."
Bono's classic lyric might well be used to compare the U2 of 2002 with
the U2 of 1980. Their debut album Boy is a raw piece of music
which owes more to punk influences than it does to the pop/rock sound
that we associate with U2 today.
Yet, despite all of the sonic differences, it's still the same band. Everything is there, just a little less polished: The Edge's trademark ringing guitar, Larry Mullen's tight drumming, Adam Clayton's thudding bass and Bono's emotional voice. The most important similarity is that this is still a terrific album which holds up against anything U2 has done over the past two decades.
The overriding theme of Boy is maturity and wanting to expand
one's horizons. Many of the lyrics deal with isolation, partially inspired
by the death of Bono's mother when he was a teenager.
"I Will Follow," U2's first hit, is really a song about abandonment behind its catchy riffs and fast beat. Two other guitar-heavy tracks, "The Electric Co." and "Out of Control" (a tune U2 brought back for their most recent tour), explore the confusion and fear of adolescence.
This kind of subject matter is much more mature than you would expect from a band of four kids, all only 19 or 20. Bono drives the messages home with a sense of youthful urgency, matching the passion of his current vocals.
Besides the rocking songs, Edge's vaguely Arabic-sounding guitar in "An Cat Dubh" and the partially Gaelic lyrics of "Another Time Another Place" are early signs of U2's interest in creating new sounds.
Producer Steve Lillywhite, who himself went on to future success with David Byrne and the Dave Matthews Band, inserts a short fade near the end of "Electric Co." that makes you think the song is over before it comes back for an energetic finale.
Music history is littered with bands whose first album represented a burst of creative energy, never again matched. The truly great bands are those who let their music evolve over time, with the early recordings becoming a sort of manifesto that shows hints of the greatness to come.
Even the title of Boy indicates that U2's journey was just beginning,
and the album has an energy that makes it not just a time capsule, but
a record that would still be worth listening to even if U2 hadn't achieved
worldwide acclaim.
When you pick up the new U2 greatest hits album this week, spend a few
extra bucks on Boy to see how it all began.