Bono names the two albums that inspired U2 (2024)

Although U2 seemed to compete with their Scottish counterparts, Simple Minds, in the early 1980s, their vision was generally more rock-centric. At a time when synth-pop was all the rage, Bono and his Irish cohort endeavoured to push recent developments in the post-punk wave into new territory, drawing on unexplored lyrical themes and trialling new approaches to composition.

Undoubtedly, as the primary songwriting duo, Bono and Edge had a vast amount of talent and an eye for current trends. These attributes helped U2 to gain a market share, but a diverse pool of sonic influences ran the last leg, allowing the band to channel popular icons in nuanced, cross-bred material that was fresh, alluring and proven accessible.

It is easy to understand why fans of U2’s early music might describe the band as “punk”. Songs like ‘I Will Follow’ and ‘Twilight’, certainly ran with qualities attributed to punk, but U2 were punk in the same way The Police were punk: they had the energy and the riffs but brought far too much accuracy and complexity to their music and lacked the anarchistic attitude. Instead, U2 are best described as a new wave band and among the first to define the post-punk era.

While punk had been limited to just a few simple chords, rules and styles, the trail for post-punk was bln wide open by artists spanning from the colourful rhythms of Talking Heads to Joy Division’s melancholic rumination. U2 lay somewhere in the centre of this imagined spectrum as a rock band with pop and punk affiliations but who also relied on affecting tangible lyricism.

As a huge Bob Dylan fan and a sucker for a charitable cause, Bono prides himself on penning catchy protest and socio-politically oriented songs. Long before his involvement in Band Aid, he received praise for his reflection on The Troubles in ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ among some other poignant and pertinent creations.

If Bono sought to channel Dylan in his thematic vision, U2 generally separated themselves from the troubadour’s folk rock style. Musically, they pandered to electronic anthems with a foot-tapping and sometimes even danceable beat. This outlook can even be traced as far back as the 1980 debut album, Boy.

Boy struck a chord and immediately gained U2 an enthusiastic following across Ireland and the UK. When writing and recording the album, the band was incidentally inspired by Joy Division. U2 began recording Boy in July 1980, around the time Joy Division’s final album, Closer, arrived and two months after frontman Ian Curtis’ tragic suicide.

In May, U2 worked with Joy Division’s producer Martin Hannett on their debut single, ’11 O’Clock Tick Tock’. They were slated to work with the legendary producer again for the album but dropped him after taking issue with his uncompromising and bullish attitude in the studio. Despite this seperation, the band wanted to create a sound similar to that achieved by Hannett in Closer.

In the book Race of Angels, Bono recalled recording ‘Another Day’ as an abstract number akin to Joy Division’s later work and David Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy. “I remember getting Edge an echo unit and saying, ‘Use this because this will get us to another place. This will get us outside of the concrete – into the abstract,'” he said. “I just knew that the echo unit would do that. Atmospheres – we were very interested in atmospheric music.”

In Joy Division’s Closer and the aptly titled single ‘Atmosphere’, U2 could hear something worth pursuing: the way out of punk uniformity. “Punk started to look incredibly limited. It seemed so rigid, not just musically, but it started to have a rulebook and codes,” Bono continued. “And then I remember Joy Division came along, and I really related to that because of the moods and atmosphere. And David Bowie’s Low – that was very interesting. That’s where we were. So we started with that thing.”

‘Another Day’ is a bright and propulsive song that bears few similarities to Joy Division’s comparatively dour material. However, one can hear the echo effect in the production that Bono and Edge referred to. Additionally, Larry Mullen Jr’s percussion is reminiscent of a style and sound Stephen Morris might have used.

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