U2 - Rattle and Hum - Studio (1988)

This post needs some explanation for sure. In 1988, U2 released the album "Rattle and Hum." It was a double album that mixed live and studio tracks. It only got a moderate reception, in comparison to the rapturous reception of "The Joshua Tree" from the year before.

I think a large part of that is due to the mix of live and studio tracks. I guess U2 felt that needed to do that due to the album supporting the "Rattle and Hum" movie, which mostly consisted of live performances. But I think it works much better to put the studio songs together on one album and the live ones on another. So that's what I'm doing here.

This studio album is pretty straightforward. There are only a couple of minor issues. One, there was some crossfading from live to studio tracks, or vice versa, in a couple of instances. I edited those few seconds out. More importantly, I went with an edited version of the last song, "All I Want Is You." This is the officially done edit for the single. It cuts two instrumental minutes from the start of the song, and I feel the song is much stronger for it. I also chose to include "Freedom for My People," even though I'm puzzled why it's on the album at all. It's actually just a snippet of a song by a different group, Satan and Adam, that U2 liked enough to include on their album. Strange.

The album is a bit short for the era, at 39 and a half minutes. But in this case, I feel that less is more.

01 Van Diemen's Land (U2)
02 Desire (U2)
03 Hawkmoon 269 (U2)
04 Freedom for My People (Satan and Adam)
05 Angel of Harlem (U2)
06 Love Rescue Me (U2 with Bob Dylan)
07 When Love Comes to Town (U2 & B. B. King)
08 Heartland (U2)
09 God Part II (U2)
10 All I Want Is You [Edited Version] (U2)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16701180/UTWO1988a_RttlHumStdio_atse.zip.html

Since the official cover for "Rattle and Hum" uses a concert photo, I decided to go in a different direction. I found this photo as part of U2's promotional material for the "Rattle and Hum" movie.