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On this episode, we take a look at the extremely popular album, The Unforgettable Fire, by U2. An album that was an unexpected change of artistic direction for the band, yet one that set them on course to becoming one of the biggest bands of the 1980s.

U2 had already experienced tremendous success with their third album, War, and they had made a huge splash on MTV (the music medium of the 80s) with their live concert video U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky. With each album, they expanded their sound, but no one, not even the members of U2 themselves, could expect the leap they made with The Unforgettable Fire.

Splitting from their original producer, Steve Lillywhite, the band sought the reluctant services of famed producer and self-proclaimed "non-musician", Brian Eno, who brought along his new-found protégé, Daniel Lanois, to record and mix the album. While the label was originally skeptical of this collaboration, the results speak for themselves. Atmospheric, moody, even experimental at times, the album ruminates on subjects are broad and Martin Luther King, Elvis Presley, and the sorrows of drug abuse.  The Unforgettable Fire is a remarkable collection of songs by a band with limited technical ability, but a restless desire to create music that no one else was making in popular music at this time. 

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