War (U2 album)

War
A black and white image of a young boy with his hands behind his head staring fiercely at the viewer. On the right side in red text, the band name is horizontally arranged and underlined, with the album title vertically stacked underneath.
Studio album by
U2
Released28 February 1983 (1983-02-28)
RecordedSeptember–November 1982
StudioWindmill Lane (Dublin, Ireland)
GenrePost-punk
Length42:03
LabelIsland
ProducerSteve Lillywhite
U2 chronology
October
(1981) 		War
(1983) 		Under a Blood Red Sky
(1983)
Singles from War
  1. "New Year's Day"
    Released: 10 January 1983
  2. "Two Hearts Beat as One"
    Released: 21 March 1983[1]
  3. "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
    Released: 21 March 1983[2]
  4. "40"
    Released: August 1983
    (Germany only)

War is the third studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was produced by Steve Lillywhite, and was released on 28 February 1983 on Island Records. The album is regarded as U2's first overtly political album, in part because of songs like "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "New Year's Day", as well as the title, which stems from the band's perception of the world at the time; lead vocalist Bono stated that "war seemed to be the motif for 1982."[3]

U2 recorded the album from September to November 1982 at Windmill Lane Studios with Lillywhite producing, the group's third consecutive album made at the studio with the producer. While the central themes of U2's previous albums Boy and October were adolescence and spirituality, respectively,[4] War focused on both the physical aspects of warfare, and the emotional after-effects.[3] Musically, it is also harsher than the band's previous releases.

War was a commercial success, knocking Michael Jackson's Thriller from the top of the UK charts to become U2's first number-one album there. In the United States, it reached number 12 and became the band's first album certified gold. War received generally favourable reviews, although some British journalists criticised it. The band supported the album with the War Tour through the end of 1983. In 2008, a remastered edition of War was released. In 2012, the album was ranked 223rd on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".[5]

  1. ^ Sams, Aaron; Kantas, Harry. "U2 – "Two Hearts Beat as One" Single". U2songs.com. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
  2. ^ Sams, Aaron; Kantas, Harry. "U2 – "Sunday Bloody Sunday" Single". U2songs.com. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
  3. ^ a b Thrills, Adrian (26 February 1983). "War & Peace". NME. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 7 November 2007.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference rsreview was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference RS 500 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).