Beautiful Day (Remastered 2024) U2

• 1Beautiful Day (Remastered 2024)04:06
• 2Summer Rain (Remastered 2024)04:06
• 3Always (Remastered 2024)03:46
• 4Discothèque (Live From Mexico City / Remastered 2024)05:07
• 5If You Wear That Velvet Dress (Live From Mexico City / Remastered 2024)02:36
• 6Last Night On Earth (Live From Mexico City / Remastered 2024)06:30
• 7Beautiful Day (Quincey & Sonance Mix / Remastered 2024)07:55
• 8Beautiful Day (The Perfecto Mix / Remastered 2024)07:50
• 9Beautiful Day (David Holmes Remix / Remastered 2024)05:34
• Total Runtime47:30

Info for Beautiful Day (Remastered 2024)

After experimenting with electronic music and writing darker and more abrasive songs throughout the 90s, U2 returned to form with the soaring ‘Beautiful Day.’

“We’re back, re-applying for the job of best band in the world,” U2 frontman Bono announced onstage at London’s Astoria Theatre on the night of February 7, 2001. When “Beautiful Day,” the lead single from the band’s tenth album, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, won three Grammy Awards just two weeks later, it must have felt like confirmation that they got their old job back.

Like Nirvana, who was also a contender for the “best band in the world” title in the 90s, U2 spent much of the decade deliberately picking their fame apart. For their 1991 masterpiece, Achtung Baby, the band jettisoned their well-worn sincerity and fascination with American roots music in favor of recording something darker and more abrasive.

U2 continued this artistic trajectory through their next two albums, 1993’s Zooropa and 1997’s Pop, experimenting with electronic music and writing more disillusioned lyrics. But after Pop’s underwhelming critical and commercial performance, the band realized that they had, in the words of guitarist the Edge, “taken the deconstruction of the rock’n’roll band format” as far as they could.

With the recording of All That You Can’t Leave Behind, U2, for the first time in their career, made a conscious effort to sound like the U2 of old. To this end, the group reunited with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, who had produced The Unforgettable Fire, The Joshua Tree, and Achtung Baby, to ensure that they were capturing that classic U2 sound.

Even so, they had reservations about drawing on their past: When the Edge wanted to play the song with a guitar tone that he had used on U2’s first three albums – jangly, with a little bit of distortion and a lot of reverb – his bandmates tried to convince him to find a new one. (The Edge ultimately kept the familiar tone.)

“Beautiful Day” grew out of “Always,” a song that U2 wrote in the earliest recording sessions for All That You Can’t Leave Behind but weren’t entirely satisfied with. Listen to “Always” and you’ll see how closely its chorus resembles that of the later hit. The band continued to tinker with “Always” until one day, while jamming in the studio, Bono spontaneously sang “It’s a beautiful day” – and just like that, they not only had a new approach to an old song, but the genesis of an entirely new one.

Bono wrote an entirely new set of lyrics that suggested loss but also optimism. “You’re out of luck and the reason that you had to care/The traffic is stuck and you’re not moving anywhere,” Bono croons at the beginning of the song, in a voice that’s closer to speaking than singing. But moments later, the chorus hits like a sunbeam breaking through rainclouds as Bono reminds you, “It’s a beautiful day / Don’t let it get away.”

There are a few embellishments that give the song a more modern sound – Eno added some synthesized strings at the beginning, as well as a drum machine that thumps and clicks throughout the track – but “Beautiful Day” derives almost all of its power from letting U2 do what they do best. After adopting a rougher and more understated vocal style on Zooropa and Pop, Bono returned to using the full range of his voice, a dazzling and inimitable instrument.

To this day he remains one of rock’s greatest singers, one who can imbue a line like “Teach me, I know I’m not a hopeless case” with the emotive force of a wrecking ball. Likewise, the Edge’s return to a familiar guitar tone – after several years of trying to not sound like himself – feels like a warm hug from an old friend, and underscores just how simply effective his playing is. And even with the drum machine, U2’s rhythm section is as airtight as ever, with bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. adding color and punch to the track.

Bono, lead vocals
The Edge, guitar, backing vocals
Adam Clayton, bass
Larry Mullen, Jr., drums
Additional musicians:
Brian Eno, synthesisers, programming
Daniel Lanois, backing vocals

Digitally remastered

U2
With its textured guitars, U2's sound was undeniably indebted to post-punk, so it's slightly ironic that the band formed in 1976, before punk had reached their hometown of Dublin, Ireland. Larry Mullen Jr. (born October 31, 1961; drums) posted a notice on a high-school bulletin board asking for fellow musicians to form a band. Bono (born Paul Hewson, May 10, 1960; vocals, guitar), the Edge (born David Evans, August 8, 1961; guitar, keyboards, vocals), Adam Clayton (born March 13, 1960; bass), and Dick Evans responded to the ad, and the group formed as a Beatles and Stones cover band called the Feedback, before changing their name to the Hype in 1977. Shortly afterward, Dick Evans left the band to form the Virgin Prunes. Following his departure, the group changed its name to U2.

U2's first big break arrived in 1978, when they won a talent contest sponsored by Guinness; the band were in their final year of high school at the time. By the end of the year, the Stranglers' manager, Paul McGuinness, saw the band play and offered to manage them. Even with a powerful manager in their corner, the band had trouble making much headway -- they failed an audition with CBS Records at the end of the year. In the fall of 1979, U2 released their debut EP, U2 Three. The EP was available only in Ireland, and it topped the national charts. Shortly afterward, they began to play in England, but they failed to gain much attention.

U2 had one other chart-topping single, "Another Day," in early 1980 before Island Records offered the group a contract. Later that year, the band's debut, Boy, was released. Produced by Steve Lillywhite, the record's sweeping, atmospheric but edgy sound was unlike most of its post-punk contemporaries, and the band earned further attention for its public embrace of Christianity; only Clayton was not a practicing Christian. Through constant touring, including opening gigs for Talking Heads and wet T-shirt contests, U2 were able to take Boy into the American Top 70 in early 1981. October, also produced by Lillywhite, followed in the fall, and it became their British breakthrough, reaching number 11 on the charts. By early 1983, Boy's "I Will Follow" and October's "Gloria" had become staples on MTV, which, along with their touring, gave the group a formidable cult following in the U.S.

This album contains no booklet.