U2 – October

Not a fan of this or War. Boy felt almost like Joy Division in places, then it felt to me American influences crept in. I jumped back on board briefly with The Unforgettable Fire, which imo is their best album.
This had some good bonus tracks though. - Nice to have A Celebration and Trash Trampoline.
If you’re a U2 fan you’ll probably love this. The packaging is neat. Sturdy and not cheap. I can’t really comment on the mastering as the only version I had heard before was the cassette version. But it sounds ok to me. I’m not hearing bloat or brickwalling. Then again, the songs are fairly minimal.
3/5 from me

After the successful first album Boy was U2 for the challenge that level with their second album October (1981) to overcome or at least to match. The production process with Steve Lillywhite as driving force again plentiful. Filming took place under time pressure and to make matters worse, Bono's text book was stolen (that only 22 years later came above water). Both musically and in of content is October an intensification of Boy. The instrumentation is wider (Edge next to different guitars also plays piano) and it is mainly Larry and Adam who are more profiling. Another change from Boy are explicitly Christian texts (as in Gloria and With a Shout). In 2001 the album was on the 41st place in the list of best Christian music albums ever Contemporary Christian Music Magazine. Critics are less enthusiastic about October and consider it with too much ambition and bombast as one of U2 's lesser albums