October

This is where I came in. I’d heard of U2 but this was the one that I took a chance on and after one listen I was hooked. It probably helped that I was as up front and zealous about my fresh young Christian faith as they were. This was so good to hear a band being reviewed in NME and Melody Maker speaking so openly about their faith in Christ.

Without doubt this was a Christian album. Titles like Gloria, Rejoice and With A Shout (Jerusalem) said it all and the cross gets mentions in Tomorrow as well as on With A Shout. The passion is unparalleled in any other album ever and the sense of reaching out to the heavens is just completely intoxicating. Never has there been such energy in music about the Gospel. Never has it collided with rock music with such force. That is probably the only reason they survived the lyrical content.

Listening to the album in my car recently I was reminded of how good October is. I thought it would sound naïve and out dated and a little too basic in the light of the nineteen years and U2 albums that have followed but it made my heart leap with it’s energy and vitality. There are millions of pounds every year stuffed into a contemporary Christian music industry and none of it has ever reached the heights of October. Probably because these boys came out of a traditional Roman Catholic Dublin and were unaware of any evangelical scene did they achieve such uncontrived God rock.

The talk was that Bono had lost all his lyrics and just adlibbed at the microphone. He’s spoken since of speaking in tongues and having to use other languages as in Gloria to try to express God and here we have a young man so wrapped in his belief that the fervour is spontaneous(Rejoice) and honest (I Threw A Brick Through A Window) and humble (October) and brash (Gloria). The Edge does with the guitar what Bono does with lyrics and Larry and Adam maybe never were so upfront in the mix as they are right here.

Back