Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
The Austin Chronicle
The A.V. Club	B+
Chicago Tribune
Christgau's Record Guide	B−
Entertainment Weekly	B
Pitchfork Media	7.1/10
Rolling Stone
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Sounds

October is the second studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was produced by Steve Lillywhite, and released on 12 October 1981 on Island Records. Inspired by Bono's, the Edge's, and Larry Mullen Jr.'s memberships in a Christian group called the "Shalom Fellowship", the record features spiritual and religious themes. Their involvement with Shalom Fellowship led them to question the relationship between the Christian faith and the "rock and roll" lifestyle, and threatened to break up the group.

After completing the Boy Tour in February 1981, U2 began to write new material for October, eventually entering the studio in July 1981. Just as they did for their debut album, Boy, from the previous year, the group recorded at Windmill Lane Studios with Lillywhite producing. The sessions were complicated by Bono's loss of a briefcase containing in-progress lyrics for the new songs, forcing a hurried, improvisational approach to completing the album on time.

October was preceded by the release of lead single "Fire" in July 1981, while a second single, "Gloria", coincided with the album release. The record received mixed reviews and limited radio play. In 2008, a remastered edition of October was released.

After completing their Boy Tour in February 1981, U2 began to write new material. ("Fire" had already been recorded at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas while U2 took a break from the Boy Tour.) They wrote part of October during an extended sound check at First Avenue in Minneapolis. The band entered the studio in July 1981 to record October, but the album's recording sessions were complicated when the briefcase containing Bono's lyrics was lost after a show in Portland, Oregon. The band already booked studio time through the end of August and thus had to continue recording in spite of this, even improvising lyrics on some songs. Bono said of the recording process of October, "I remember the pressure it was made under, I remember writing lyrics on the microphone, and at £50 an hour, that's quite a pressure. Lillywhite was pacing up and down the studio... he coped really well. And the ironic thing about October is that there's a sort of peace about the album, even though it was recorded under that pressure. A lot of people found October hard to accept at first, I mean, I used the word 'rejoice' precisely because I knew people have a mental block against it. It's a powerful word, it's lovely to say. It's implying more than 'get up and dance, baby.' I think October goes into areas that most rock 'n' roll bands ignore. When I listen to the album, something like 'Tomorrow,' it actually moves me." The briefcase was eventually recovered in October 2004, and Bono greeted its return as "an act of grace".

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