Album dossier / 1984

The Unforgettable Fire

U2 · Art Rock/Post-Punk

Fearing they were becoming a 'shrill, sloganeering arena-rock band' after the harder rock of War, U2 hired Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois to push them toward a more ambient, atmospheric sound. Recording began in May 1984 at Slane Castle in County Meath, where the band lived and wrote on-site before finishing at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin that August. The album takes its title from an art exhibit about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and its lead single 'Pride (In the Name of Love)' -- a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. -- became the band's biggest hit to that point.