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Boy by  Released20 October 1980RecordedJuly–September 1980Studio, DublinLength42:52 chronology
(1979)Boy
(1980)
(1981)North American cover from Boy ""
Released: 18 August 1980 ""
Released: 24 October 1980

Boy is the debut  by Irish  band . It was released on 20 October 1980 by  and was produced by . Boy contains many songs from the band's 40-song catalogue at the time, including two tracks that were re-recorded from their original versions on their debut release, the  .

Boy was recorded from July to September 1980 at Dublin's , which became U2's chosen recording location during the 1980s. It was also their first time working with Lillywhite, who employed unorthodox production techniques such as recording Mullen's drums in a stairwell and recording smashed bottles and forks played against a spinning bicycle wheel. The band found Lillywhite to be very encouraging and creative, and he subsequently became a frequent producer of their recorded work. Thematically, the album's lyrics reflect on adolescence, innocence, and the passage into adulthood, themes represented on its cover through the photo of a young boy's face.

Boy received generally positive reviews and included U2's first single to receive airplay on US radio, "". The album peaked at number 52 in the UK and number 63 in the US, and was followed by the band's first tour of continental Europe and the US, the . In 2003, Boy was ranked number 417 on 's list of "". In 2008, a  edition of Boy was released.

Recording and composition  produced the album, as well as the band's next two.

Originally, Boy was slated to be produced by , an in-demand producer at that time for his critically acclaimed work with . Hannett had produced U2's second single "". However, the experience of working with him had not been a happy one for U2, and the idea of him producing the album was dropped by after the band's objections. Hannett was also severely affected the May 1980 suicide of Joy Division frontman , the distress of which temporarily impaired his ability to continue work. Producer  was sent a copy of the band's first release  by Island to gauge his interest in working with the band. After seeing U2 perform live, Lillywhite agreed to produce their single "". Although the song failed to chart, the band found they could work amicably with him and agreed to have him produce their debut studio album.

Boy was recorded at  in  from July to September 1980. Lillywhite had first come to prominence for his work on the 1978's debut single of , "" which featured a peculiar hook played by a . U2, who listened to Siouxsie and the Banshees, used Lillywhite's skills to add the distinctive glockenspiel part on "". The drums were recorded in the stairwell of the studio's reception area due to Lillywhite's desire to achieve "this wonderful clattery sound". They had to wait until the receptionist went home in the evenings as the phone rang through the day and even occasionally in the evening.

Some of the songs, including "" and "", were written and recorded at the studio. Many of the songs were taken from the band's 40-song repertoire at the time, including "", "Out of Control" and "Twilight".

Guitarist  recorded all the songs using his natural stained . He drew inspiration from music he was listening to at the time, including  and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Theme

The album's theme is the psychological nature of the transition of adolescence from childhood to manhood, with lyrics and atmospheric music examining a dawn of sexuality ('An Cat Dubh'), the entry into adolescence ("Twilight"), mortality ('"Out of Control"), the exile from one's past enforced by the passage of time ("Into the Heart"), mental disturbance ("The Electric Co.") and youthful ambition ("The Ocean"). "I Will Follow" focused on the trauma of the early death of 's mother when he was a young teenager.

The album's lyrics possess several literary references, "Shadows and Tall Trees" taking its name from a chapter title in the dystopian  novel , and "The Ocean" mentioning 's novel .

Release

Boy was released on 20 October 1980 in the UK, and 3 March 1981 in the US. The model boy on the cover is Peter Rowen (the younger brother of , Bono's friend and a former member of the ). He also appeared on the covers of , , , the unreleased Even Better than the Early Stuff,  and many singles. The photographer, Hugo McGuiness, and the sleeve designer,  (a friend of bassist ), went on to work on several more U2 album covers. The image was changed to a distorted picture of the band for the American release, due to the record company's fears that the band would be accused of encouraging . Sandy Porter is credited as the photographer for the American cover. However, the photo of Rowen appeared on the inner sleeve of the album in the US and Canada. In 2008, the artwork for the remastered editions of the album was standardised worldwide to that of the 1980 UK release.

In 2008, a  of the album was released, featuring remastered tracks, along with B-sides and rarities. Three different formats of the remaster were made available.

Singles

"" and "I Will Follow" were released as  on 18 August and 24 October 1980 respectively. "I Will Follow" peaked at number 20 on the  rock chart, becoming a hit on  and established a buzz surrounding the group's debut. The album was preceded by Three, a three-song  with different recordings of "Out of Control" and "Stories for Boys", as well as a song called "Boy/Girl".

Reception Contemporary professional ratingsReview scoresSourceRating11/129/10 (Debra Rae Cohen)Rolling Stone ()C+

The original releases of Boy sold nearly 200,000 copies. The album peaked at number 63 on the , but after the success of U2's later material, it re-entered the American charts for a lengthier spell. It reached number 52 in the UK.

Reviewing the album in 1980,  of  called it "honest, direct and distinctive", while Betty Page of  dubbed U2 the "young poets of the year". Lyndyn Barber from  hailed it as a "rich" record, writing that "Boy is more than just a collection of good tracks assembled in an arbitrary order", and that it had "youthful innocence and confusion". Robin Denselow of  wrote that it was a "strong debut album", praising Lillywhite for helping U2 improve since a live show that the reviewer attended. Denselow said the group succeeded at their goal of achieving a balance of "power and sensitivity" and said the record "only needs slightly stronger melodies to be very impressive indeed". 's critic Ian Birch hailed Boy as a "timely" album and said, "Firing off a tradition laid down by the likes of , [Siouxsie and] the Banshees and , U2 have injected their own brand of grace and sinewy spaciousness to create a romanticism exactly right for those who sport chunky riffs and ". Declan Lynch of Irish magazine  remarked that he found Boy "almost impossible to react negatively to". K.R. Walston of the  said that U2 "knows how to nurse a listener along, toying with tempo and chord structures just enough to sound original but not overly avant garde". The review concluded, "the future shines brightly for bands like this".

Terry Atkinson of the  called Boy a "subtly ravishing first album, by turns pretty, propulsive, playful and irresistably catchy", while further describing it as "supple and melodic, but tough and vital as well". Atkinson believed that the lyrics had "occasionally trite or vague passages" but were transcended by Bono's "heartfelt, soaring vocals". Sean McAdam of  described it as "a hypnotic album with nuance" that he "recommended without a bit of reservation". He praised Lillywhite's production for creating an "eerie ambience" and said of the band, "U2 have the musical chops, a compelling vocalist... and most importantly 4-minute pop songs that sound at once concise and infectious". Scot Anderson of the  called Boy "an album that, while flawed, shows the potential of the band". Anderson thought certain songs were too long or too short, but believed U2 distinguished themselves from their peers with their spirit and humanity, making "a most refreshing splash in the ".  of  said the record's music was "unpretentious and riveting" and called U2 "easily the best Irish rock band since 's original  troupe". He also lauded Lillywhite for his "always spearheaded production". In a separate review for Rolling Stone, Debra Rae Cohen found the band skilled and likeable while crediting Lilly white for helping them "blend echoes of several of Britain's more adventurous bands into a sound that's rich, lively and comparatively commercial." Overall, she believed the album did not live up to the high standard set by the opening track "I Will Follow", finding most of it "diffuse and uneven". More critical was , who dismissed the album in his "Consumer Guide" column for : "Their youth, their serious air, and their guitar sound are setting a small world on fire, and I fear the worst." The album finished in 18th place on the "Best Albums" list from The Village Voice's 1981  critics' poll.

The album's sexual overtones led to its enthusiastic acceptance in American gay clubs shortly after its release. Bono commented on this phenomenon, saying, "import copies got in and, as you know, in America a lot of music is broken in gay clubs and so we had a gay audience, a lot of people who were convinced the music was specifically for them. So there was a misconception if you like."

Legacy Retrospective professional ratingsReview scoresSourceRatingAB4/58.3/106/10

In 2003, Boy was included at number 417 on 's list of "". The magazine wrote, "Too ingenuous for punk, too unironic for new wave, U2 arrived on Boy as big-time dreamers with the ambition to back it up." In 2006,  ranked the album at number 59 on its list of the "100 Greatest Debut Albums". It was ranked as the seventh best U2 album in a 2017 list by 's Zach Schonfeld, who also called it "a U2 album without the ego" and the "preaching or presumptions of saving the world" that plagued them in the future. In ,  recalled the popularity of Boy in Austin amidst the closures and decline of local music clubs: "The newer, hipper  was a beacon, and we danced away the summer on its cement floor to U2. Boy was a glimmer of hope in the approaching darkness of the  years". In her opinion, the record was "a shout disguised as a whisper, the calm before a storm", its musical formula foreshadowing the band's subsequent megasuccess. According to  of , "Boy showed U2 had a strong enough musical identity to command the world's attention from the very beginning".

Some critics have been less impressed by the album in retrospect. Writing for ,  found it "heady" but "erratic", while  critic  described the album as "callow post-punk that owes a lot to Joy Division and early " According to the  (1995), the album "established what might be called [U2's] revelationary reputation, hints at the impulse toward faith (after all, its hit was 'I Will Follow'), but mostly communicates confusion of the adolescent variety."  was more critical in his reappraisal for Uncut. He had enjoyed the album in 1980 as a rockier contemporary of Joy Division and , in spite of Bono's preening vocal performance, but later expressed his shock "at how bad it is". In his opinion, "Lilywhite's production is stunningly thin, Bono's voice is awful, the lyrics are dismal, and only the singles – the Ian Curtis-obsessed 'I Will Follow' and the great 'Out Of Control' – stand up. The rest is awful prog noodling".

Boy is one of only two U2 albums from which every song has been performed live at least once. Boy held this distinction individually until 2017 when all songs from  were performed live on .

Track listing

All tracks written by U2.

Side oneNo.TitleLength1.""3:402."Twilight"4:223.""4:464.""3:275."Out of Control"4:12Side twoNo.TitleLength1."Stories for Boys"3:042.""1:343.""3:124."Another Time, Another Place"4:315.""4:476."Shadows and Tall Trees" (contains brief instrumental, "Saturday Matinee", on some copies)5:13Total length:42:52