A-Side: A Celebration
B-Side: Trash, Trampoline And The Party Girl
Record label: Island WIP 6770
Producer: Steve Lillywhite
Released: 02/04/82
Purchased: 1983
U2 | A Celebration (Island) 1982 | How come U2 always sound so irrepressibly happy? So full of sumptuous joie-de-vivre? Perhaps it’s because they know that no cheap imitation is ever likely to better the spirit of U2 in full flight, a spirit that’s bracingly illustrated by the exultant power of ‘A Celebration’.
Away from our shores since ‘October’, this serves to remind that U2’s soul music is rarely forgotten (or forgettable).
“I believe in the powers that be | But they won’t overpower me,” challenges Bono. I believe him . . . (Sounds, 27/03/82)
This sounds like an airship travelling quite near ground level, rather fast. Inside the ship are about 100 people all talking away. It’s a misty, cold afternoon. A swirling distant record that I cannot reach. (Eddie Tenpole, Melody Maker, 27/03/82)
First impressions: Christ, it’s closer to J Geils than the U2 you and I know and love and have occasional doubts about. Presently, however, their powerful delivery and Steve Lillywhite’s lively production suck you into the thing; it has all the excitement that the BEF record (for instance) twiddles away in favour of workmanship and detail.
A big, unashamed slab of rock rabble-rousing, this, though perhaps pandering to a certain obvious side of U2’s talents.
What about the unique delicacy that used to offset that stomping power, then? It may still be implicit, but I’d prefer it more to the fore. (Record Mirror, 27/03/82)
These days, what with funk, futurism, electro-pop and all, young bands playing mainstream rock music are a rarity. U2 play it, though, and play it well. Though this Dublin combo’s popularity has been increasing in leaps and bounds both here and abroad, they’ve yet to have a hit single. This may be one to do the trick. (Smash Hits)
Bono, Bono, you break my heart. I was already to rave over your record – the black heart of hard rock swelling back to glorious life! A proper celebration, a great, lusty, unencumbered joy!
The fabulous return of a living ROCK music on a triumphal charge through the Arcadian gates! – and suddenly it makes me feel tired. “I believe in the Third World War / I believe in the atomic bomb / I believe in the powers that be / But they won’t overpower me”
I know they’re only rock lyrics on a rock record but they sound very easy and deluding and unthreatening to me. A celebration of what?
From its “Shake! Shake!” intro inwards. “A Celebration” feeds on itself and ends up bloated and anchorless (Lillywhite’s ugly grey production doesn’t work so well this time). There is a kind of glory about it and the vocal strains with all your usual passion and loving. It’s just that when it’s over I don’t feel anything except, sort of, spent. A misdirected might. A message lost in music.
I like the other side, “Trash, Trampoline And The Party Girl”, it’s a bit odd and clanking and I think you should try more of these. Keep tyring. We’re still friends, aren’t we? (NME, 27/03/82)
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