Boy (Deluxe Edition)

Performer: U2
Producer: Steve Lillywhite
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: U2: Paul "Bono Vox" Hewson (vocals); Dave "The Edge" Evans (guitar, background vocals); Adam Clayton (bass); Larry Mullen, Jr. (drums). Recorded at Windmill Lane, Dublin, Ireland. "An Cat Dubh" and "Into The Heart" are listed as one song. In 2008, the Dublin quartet reissued their debut as a two-disc set with extensive bonus tracks. While many of these tracks have been surfacing in collectors vinyl markets for years, most of them are included here on disc for the first time. The extras are informative more than truly satifying listening. Who knew, but at one point U2 were not a global corporation, but an actual, very much of their time post-punk band. On "Touch," "Boy/Girl," and the previously unreleased "Saturday Night," Bono toys with Patti Smith-inspired new wave-y vocal affectations that he would soon eschew entirely. Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr. while possessing a bracing punk pulse have yet to really lock in with their signature propulsive feel. The real revelation here though is the Edge--whose guitar-playing has been long mocked by purists for its minimalism--who evokes Nile Rodgers and Johnny Thunders dueling over a slew of guitar effects. Some live tracks are also included and foreshadow the band's stadium-sized appetites. With the Edge's production hand, the old tracks have a new impact and will delight longtime fans and collectors alike. U2: Bono (vocals); The Edge (guitar, background vocals); Adam Clayton (bass guitar); Larry Mullen, Jr. (drums). Audio Remasterer: The Edge. BOY announced the arrival of four young men from Dublin who would conquer the world in short order. Bono and company were barely out of their teens when they recorded their first album, and their youthful vigor lights up every track here. Full of ambition, driven by a politicized (though not yet explicitly so) sense of purpose, the songs give listeners an idea of what it's like to come of age in a strife-torn country and count on rock and roll as your means of transcendence. Bono's clear, strong voice rings out over the already-anthemic arrangements. Though none of the band members had yet developed much instrumental facility, their commitment and emotion are palpable in the simple-but-perfect parts they play. "I Will Follow" was BOY's calling card, unfolding with brashness and a sense of wonder as it chronicles the journey from boyhood to manhood, a trip the band had only just taken recently. BOY stands as an auspicious beginning to a long, successful career.

Rolling Stone (3/1/01, p.54) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...In a way that hadn't been done in popular music since the Who...BOY explored male adolescence...as a state of desperate searching....fashioning dense, dusky atmospheres in which unabashed yearning and insistent conviction collide and intertwine..." Q (7/95, p.148) - 3 Stars - Good - "...a culmination of modern ideas amid a sea of confused contemporary directions..." CMJ (1/5/04, p.8) - Ranked #10 in CMJ's "Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1981" Melody Maker (6/3/95, p.36) - "...they've made three great albums, of which BOY, their eulogy to the twilight of innocence is one. It's dated badly, but that doesn't matter...I hear gobstoppers and ghost stories, magic and mischief, the sunnier moments of my childhood..." Q (Magazine) (p.151) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "BOY impresses with its adolescent energy, its gauche charm, and sounds like a band already too big for the record they've just made." Mojo (Publisher) (p.121) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Heard today, there' still a palpable ardency to U2's debut, an unselfconscious clawing for excellence..."

U2's Bono was one of the few real rock heroes of the 1980s, leading the Irish band to international recognition with a charged, political approach to music. The band's early efforts brought a stadium-size presence to post-punk, with Bono's expressive vocals and the Edge's distinct guitar lines interacting seamlessly with the rhythm section of bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. In 1987, U2 broke through to superstardom with THE JOSHUA TREE, a grand culmination of their '80s sound. In the 1990s, however, the band very purposefully deflated that epic image, simultaneously adding ambient, dance, and electronica touches on 1991's ACHTUNG BABY. Mining that vein for much of the decade, U2 kicked off the 21st century with a triumphant return to form that was embraced by new and longtime fans alike.

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