On this day in history (February 28, 1983), U2 released their 3rd studio album War featuring the singles New Year’s Day, Two Hearts Beat As One and Sunday Bloody Sunday. This is the album that U2 began it streak of politically motivated songs. War is the album that knocked Michael Jackson’s Thriller off the #1 spot in the UK. Rolling stone called the June 1983 concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre one of the “50 moments that changed the history of rock and roll”. That show eventually was used as the basis for Under A Blood Red Sky. The tour also started a tradition of 40 being an epic closing song for years to come.

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In 1983, Bono said the following about the album

A lot of the songs on our last album were quite abstract, but War is intentionally more direct, more specific. But you can still take the title on a lot of different levels. We’re not only interested in the physical aspects of war. The emotional effects are just as important, ‘the trenches dug within our hearts’. People have become numb to violence. Watching the television, it’s hard to tell the difference between fact and fiction. One minute you see something being shot on The Professionals, and the next you see someone falling through a window after being shot on the news. One is fiction and one is real life, but we’re becoming so used to the fiction that we become numb to the real thing. War could be the story of a broken home, a family at war – Bono

Videos

Two Hearts Beat As One (live at Red Rocks)

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Charts and Accolades

Peaked at #1 on the UK Albums chart

Peaked at #12 on the US Billboard 200 chart



Generally, the album’s musical strengths are largely the product of well-honed arrangements and carefully balanced dynamics. Even as the Edge spins increasingly sophisticated guitar lines, he maintains the minimalist bluntness that sparked Boy. And while bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. have swung to more dance-oriented rhythms, their songs hurtle along with the sort of brusque purposefulness more frequently associated with punk. – Rolling Stone

New Years Day

Track Listing