Passion and politics : the early years, remastered, with extras

'Like all great rock, you feel you must have heard these songs somewhere else...' Original reviews: Boy, October and War.

U2's contribution to the progress of rock is that they've divorced guitar heroics from the idea of a dazzling guitar hero.

October is a musical and spiritual growth for U-2, a passionate and moving LP for me.

U2 will endure. October hits that home magnificently. It's just how they will endure that'll trouble us come U2 '3' or '4'.

U2, I guess, will continue to "move" in live performance, just like James Brown. But they will only move on the lightest surface.

'Needs time to work its way into your heart...'

'It's not a fashionable record either, because it needs time to work ...

The sheer exuberance that redeems these 11 songs is admirably fresh...
Boo Browning in The Washington Post

With a deep, rich production U2 makes music which is hypnotic in its swirling images and textures...