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1 Sunday Bloody Sunday
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2 Seconds
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3 New Year's Day
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4 Like A Song...
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5 Drowning Man
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6 The Refugee
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7 Two Hearts Beat As One
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8 Red Light
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9 Surrender
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10 "40"
2008 Remastered CD with restored packaging which includes a 16-page
booklet featuring previously unseen photos, full lyrics and new liner
notes by Niall Stokes, the Hot Press music magazine editor since 1977. WAR is the third studio album by U2 released on February 28, 1983. The
album has come to be regarded as U2's first overtly political album, in
part because of songs like "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "New Year's Day", as
well as the title, which stems from the band's perception of the world
at the time; Bono stated that "war seemed to be the motif for 1982."
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Opening with the ominous, fiery protest of "Sunday Bloody Sunday," War immediately announces itself as U2's most focused and hardest-rocking album to date. Blowing away the fuzzy, sonic indulgences of October with propulsive, martial rhythms and shards of guitar, War bristles with anger, despair, and above all, passion. Previously, Bono's
attempts at messages came across as grandstanding, but his vision
becomes remarkably clear on this record, as his anthems ("New Year's
Day," "40," "Seconds") are balanced by effective, surprisingly emotional
love songs ("Two Hearts Beat as One"), which are just as desperate and
pleading as his protests. He performs the difficult task of making the
universal sound personal, and the band helps him out by bringing the
songs crashing home with muscular, forceful performances that reveal
their varied, expressive textures upon repeated listens. U2 always aimed at greatness, but War was the first time they achieved it. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine