Wow, how in the world is it possible to have a rock forum without a U2 thread! Are there no U2 fans here? Please, come out, come out wherever you are!

Without a doubt, they are my absolute favorite band in the world--past and present.

My top 5 favorite U2 albums, ranked in order of preference:

1. The Joshua Tree
2. All That You Can't Leave Behind
3. How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
4. Achtung Baby
5. Rattle and Hum (a very underrated album)

(War is a very close contender for the fifth spot.)



My top-25 U2 songs, also ranked in order of preference:

1. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (my theme song)
2. Where the Streets Have No Name
3. When I Look At the World
4. Kite
5. Running to Stand Still
6. Until the End of the World
7. Angel of Harlem
8. Grace
9. Walk On
10. All I Want Is You
11. One
12. Mysterious Ways
13. Gone
14. Miracle Drug
15. In God's Country
16. A Man and a Woman
17. Bullet the Blue Sky
18. The Sweetest Thing
19. Beautiful Day
20. Window in the Skies
21. New York
22. Original of the Species
23. With or without You
24. Yahweh
25. Summer Rain



Alright, so where are the U2 fans?


David

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Prometheus,

I really like Achtung Baby and Joshua Tree. Boy has its moments, too.

quote:

Alright, so where are the U2 fans?


David

In my experience, people here on these boards are too young to truly appreciate U2. I was in high school when The Joshua Tree came out and college when Achtung Baby came out. So, I was listening to U2 when their sound was completely revolutionary.

But, many people who post on these boards believe that U2 is highly overrated, mostly because U2's sound has been copied by many other bands. That, and their last two albums have been uneven (I love both All that You Can't Leave Behind and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, but those albums have highs and lows, unlike The Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby).

My top 7 U2 albums:

1. The Joshua Tree
2. Achtung Baby
3. War
4. All that You Can't Leave Behind
5. The Unforgetable Fire
6. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
7. Rattle and Hum

I'll do a song list later.

I still stand by everything through The Joshua Tree. After that, it's definitely a crap shoot.

I prefer Achtung Baby to The Joshua Tree because it definitely covers more ground musically. Even before I got burnt out on The Joshua Tree, too many songs sounded similar.

Agree with Mark. Achtung Baby is the better album, although I do enjoy The Joshua Tree. I think they were a solid band through Zooropa. You can find some gems on Pop, ATYCLB and HTDANB, but as a whole they're not great.

I am also going to go with Achtung Baby on this one. Although The Joshua Tree has some of the best stuff that U2 has ever done, I feel like Achtung Baby has a better collection of songs and a more diverse sound. It is easily one of the top albums of the 90s and has influenced a lot of great artists/bands and their corresponding albums.

Stop ganging up on me

Actually, I sort of forgot how much I liked AB when it first came out. I think it suffers in my recollection from being overplayed (by me, the radio and MTV). The same sort of thing happened right around the same time with REM's Automatic for the People. I might try to listen to both those records today and see how I feel about them, I probably haven't listened to either one in 15 years.

quote:

Originally posted by Maximum Jack:
Actually, I sort of forgot how much I liked AB when it first came out. I think it suffers in my recollection from being overplayed (by me, the radio and MTV).

It did get a lot of play. If I never heard "Mysterious Ways" again, that would probably be fine with me. However, I still think it has some of U2's best songs. Highlights for me are "The Fly", "Acrobat", and "Until The End of the World".

I'm a couple of songs in on AB, and I must say it has not aged too well.

quote:

Originally posted by ericg75:
However, I still think it has some of U2's best songs. Highlights for me are "The Fly", "Acrobat",

I remember liking "The Fly" back in the day, but "Acrobat" never hit my radar. Listening to it right now, it is by far the best song on the record. I was just sort of lulled by the rest of the album and that song came on and my ears perked-- I clicked over here and sure enough it was one of the songs you mentioned. I wonder if it didn't get as much attention because it is the second to last song on an hour long CD? Oh gawd, the last song ("Love is Blindness") just came on and Daniel Lamewad is all over it-- yuck.

I'm not sure how you could say that the album hasn't aged well. Maybe it hasn't aged well--to your ears--because so many artists/bands have attempted to re-create the sound that U2 captured on that album. I liked it enough when it came out--even though it was largely overplayed. But now that you think of it, a lot of albums are overplayed but that shouldn't decrease the value of the overall work. Everyone loves "One," but that doesn't mean that it isn't one of the best songs of the 90s.

I still really like Achtung Baby and am glad that they were able to create that masterpiece.

Just finished listening to Automatic and it has held up a little better (of course this is my opinion). There's a few songs on both albums that I cannot listen to without cringing a little bit, but both also had a nice surprise. I've already mentioned the U2 song I missed, but I've also rediscovered "Monty Got a Raw Deal," which is a lovely song.

Please tell me that you love "Man on the Moon," "Nightswimming," and of course, "Everybody Hurts." Though some of them were overplayed and one of them is a pretty corny pick, I love all three songs quite a bit. Don't let me down Jack!

Automatic for the People is one of those albums that I can't understand why it's so highly regarded as a classic. I think it's okay, but there are plenty of better R.E.M. albums one could listen to (for instance, any of the ones from their IRS years). I was in high school when it came out and I thought it was pretty "meh" compared to the stuff they'd released up that point.

I think there is one possible reason for this. I also really like all of their albums from the IRS years, they are great and a few are classics. I think that Automatic for the People is highly regarded not just because it is so good but because they had had two duds after Document and before Automatic... And I also think that maybe Out of Time might be their worst album.

Either way, I like it mostly because I do find it to be a great album.

quote:

Originally posted by FragileKidA:
....because they had had two duds since after Document and before Automatic... And I also think that maybe Out of Time might be their worst album.

I disagree with this. Green is an excellent album, and probably my favorite of their Warner Bros. years. There are a couple major missteps on Out of Time -- "Radio Song" and anything featuring Kate Pierson -- but after that, it's pretty good. I think "Losing My Religion", "Texarkana", and "Country Feedback" are among the best songs they ever recorded, and stronger than anything on Automatic.

Well, I guess that pretty much shows why you don't like Automatic for the People and why I do.

You really think Green is a dud? I mean come on, "Pop Song 89" is one of the coolest guitar riffs Peter Buck ever wrote.

First of all apologies for hijacking the U2 thread.

quote:

Originally posted by FragileKidA:
Please tell me that you love "Man on the Moon," "Nightswimming," and of course, "Everybody Hurts." Though some of them were overplayed and one of them is a pretty corny pick, I love all three songs quite a bit. Don't let me down Jack!

I think MotM and NS are still great, even though I've heard them a few hundred times. EH was always a song I skipped, it's Michael at his sappiest.

I don't think those were two duds leading up to AftP either. OoT was (and I think still is?) the biggest selling REM album, and while there are a few missteps on there ("Radiosong" in particular) it has the best second side of any REM album before or since. Like Ericg, Green is probably my favorite album from the post-IRS years. The only real dud in their whole discography (IMO) is Around the Sun, which has very little to recommend it.