U2’s ‘Boy’ Turns 40
October 20, 1980. U2 releases their debut studio album into the world. 40 years later, it still stands up as one of their best.
I’m not going to waste this space or your time by trying to argue that Boy is U2’s greatest album. The band has simply accomplished too many feats in the four decades since its release for that argument to hold water. I will say this, though: it’s my favorite album of theirs and I truly believe that it’s a top-tier U2 album, residing in the same rarefied air as agreed-upon greats like The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby.
Boy‘s title is fitting: it’s U2 in adolescence. Hell, that theme of youth-in-transition is woven throughout the album, popping up in songs like “Twilight” and “The Ocean.” I was a late-comer to U2, falling into the band in the early ’90s, working my way backward through their catalogue. Once I did, I was hooked into the idea of the band in its infancy: their very young, very raw, very Irish energy shining through on “I Will Follow” and “Out Of Control.”
As I sit and think about it, the albums that followed were the albums that made me appreciate U2, but it’s Boy that made me fall in love with U2. And that energy is still there, 40 years on. Tap back into it if you haven’t in awhile.