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By Jed Gottlieb
Monday, October 26, 2009 -
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U2 “The Unforgettable Fire: Deluxe Edition” (Mercury) : A-

“The Unforgettable Fire” was U2’s weird album, the one where producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois first pushed U2 to make sonic landscapes instead of straight rock. You can hear it with crystal clarity in this reissue remastered by The Edge. But it’s the extras that fanatics will need to get their hands on. The bonus disc of live cuts, B-sides and unreleased material reveals a band pushing the boundaries of pop. The previously unreleased “Disappearing Act” foreshadows “Where the Streets Have No Name” and the spacey stuff on “No Line on the Horizon.” B-side “Boomerang I” hints the guys were aware of electro-dance grooves long before “Achtung Baby.” And skeletal, funky B-side vamp “Sixty Seconds in Kingdom Come” shows how cool the band is when Bono shuts up. There’s a DVD, too. It’s got all of the album’s videos, but it’s the making-of doc that’s worth watching, even if 90 percent of it covers the writing and recording of “Pride.” The 30-minute film shows U2 not as gods but as music dorks struggling hard to make great art. Less pompous icons, more skinny, pale Irish kids acting like rock stars, it’s hilarious, cool and revealing. Take away Bono’s sunglasses and bring back Edge’s receding hairline and these guys are more than human.

Download: “Disappearing Act.”

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U2 ‘The Unforgettable Fire: Deluxe Edition’ (Mercury)

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