Yeah, I know. Picking U2’s “New Year’s Day” as my Friday-Night Rock-Out three days before New Year’s Day is a very, very obvious choice. But the truth is that I still listen to this song all the time. It came out when I in high school, and it marked the first time I really became aware of U2 as a band. The song sounded completely different from anything else on the radio or MTV at the time, with Bono’s soaring, heroic lyrics and The Edge’s dirge-like guitar work. But unlike any other U2 song that I know of, this one is driven primarily by the use of a piano, also played by The Edge. It’s the propulsive piano melody (really more like a drum beat) that makes the song feel otherworldly. Sublime. Classic.
Suffice to say that it still works for me, lo these many years later.
Ash Clifton, Writer 