28 years on, there's such an exuberance to U2's debut album Boy that one could forgive the fact that The Edge was still developing his style and that Bono couldn't really sing (listen to extra track 'Touch' if there are any disagreements there).

In the wake of punk music, they were carving their own niche, and on singles like 'I Will Follow" there was enough of a transcendent energy to realize they were a brave new act on the scene.

The three albums are part of the group's ambitious remasters campaign, which will see their live album Under a Blood Red Sky (check out the Deluxe Edition CD/DVD) released in its entirety on CD and DVD, with the rest of their rich catalog sandwiched in after their new studio album is out later this year.

Yet these reissues are for more than just completists (October's extra disc captures the group's best energy via their BBC sessions).

The extra discs showcase a band who are getting naked before their public and possibly keeping one step ahead of down loaders as well (though one could probably do without so many 'New Years Day" remixes).

1983's War was the money shot, a fierce third album that had the group militantly speaking out against war in Ireland ("Sunday Bloody Sunday"), proving that they could make definitive epic tunes to match anybody ("New Year's Day") and showing that the band was much more than the sum of its parts (listen to how Larry Mullen Jr.'s drums propel The Edge to new heights on "Like A Song").

They would go on to much greater heights, but with War they showed they were ready to take on rock history's greats.