U2-War (1983)


 

Artist: U2

Title: War

Label: Island

Format: CD

Catalog Number: 422-811 148-2

Year of Release: 1983

Country and Year of Edition: US repress UML pressing

Sell Price: $3.36

Sell Date: 10/14/26

Condition: VG+/VG+

Discogs Last Sold: 8/28/26 VG+/NM $1.80

Low: $1.50

Median: $2.00

Average: $2.85

High: $7.00

Current low price: $2.22 M/M

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 15

Have/Want: 181/132

Where Sold: Mill Valley, CA

Time It Took To Sell: 11 years

Where and When Bought:  half.com aughts 75 cents

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A-

Sad To See It Go: No

U2's breakout album War propelled the band from the alt-rock club ghetto to arenas, stadiums and CONSTANT AOR Rock radio airplay in 1983.  They became so inescapable, I couldn't even buy, let alone listen to War for at least 20 years after it came out.  Even now, the piano intro of "New Years Day" or the marching band drum kick off of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" make my eyes glazed over, irrespective of the quality of the music.

Since AOR went deep with this album, there is an instant familiarity to tracks like "Two Hearts Beat As One," "Seconds," "Surrender" and "40."  That leaves 4 tracks that I consider "deep cuts" on this ten tracks album.  My favorite on this go round of listens overall is "The Refugee."  Anthem-like, topical and nostalgic all at once.  The refugee is going to live in America!  In the eyes of Irish U2, this was viewed as the land of hopes, dreams, Joey Ramone, fresh starts and freedom from armed conflicts.  Now we have hopelessness, nightmares, Green Day, credit scores and ICE coming to call for said refugee.  This disunified mess still doesn't have internal hot war to contend with.  Bono can't get a hit here anymore, but he can make up for it at the box office.  U2's universality in 2026 is people still unable and desperately wanting  to remmove Songs of Innocence from their iPhone mp3 player.

Hope and dreams change even for the most devout.

FOR FURTHER REVIEW:

The Unforgettable Fire (1984)



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