5. The Unforgettable Fire (1984)

“If I could, through myself, set your spirit free / I’d lead your heart away / See you break, break away.”

— “Bad”

There are precious few fully-formed songs here, but this one punches above its weight because it marked the beginning of U2’s long and frutiful partnership with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. Eno, having already made classic sequences of albums in the 70s with David Bowie and the Talking Heads, claimed to be a visual artist whose interest in making albums had passed when U2 approached him early in 1984. The combat rock of War was not at all to Eno’s eggheaded taste, and Bono speculated later he had agreed to meet U2 just to make sure his pal Danny got the gig. But U2 won him over with their willingness to scrap all that they’d done before (a trick that would save their career a few years later).

Eno’s affinity for ethereal soundscapes, and his impatience with Bono’s undisciplined writing habits, are why this has so many hazy instrumentals on it. Everyone forgave U2 those, because The Unforgettable Fire also had “Pride (In the Name of Love)” and the cinematic stream-of-consciousness “Bad,” two of their enduring warhorses. You can hear Bono shredding his vox on the choruses of “Pride,” which gives the song — about Martin Luther King, Jr. and other martyrs — an extra shot of urgency while foreshadowing the severe vocal distress he’d run into a decade or so later.

U2 are playing the title track on the current 360 Tour after a 20-year absence from the setlist. The name is cribbed from a photo exhibit Bono saw in Chicago about the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that forced the Japanese surrender in World War II. Who says these guys don’t know how to have a good time?