U2

U2 came out of Dublin with faith, echoing guitars and an arena hunger that felt like guilt and mission at once. From Boy to War, it made post-punk a pulpit; on The Joshua Tree, it discovered America as myth and wound; in the 1990s, it sabotaged its own sainthood with irony, noise and neon.

Later it alternated between a return to the anthem, useful megalomania and late intimacy, always chasing communion on an impossible scale.

Why listen to U2?

Few bands have turned doubt, vanity and hope into such public sonic architecture.