Poll

what is U2's best album?

Boy
0 (0%)
October
1 (4%)
War
4 (16%)
Under a Blood Red Sky
0 (0%)
The Unforgettable Fire
2 (8%)
The Joshua Tree
8 (32%)
Rattle and Hum
0 (0%)
Achtung Baby
8 (32%)
Zooropa
0 (0%)
Pop
0 (0%)
All That You Can't Leave Behind
2 (8%)
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
0 (0%)
No Line On The Horizon
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 25

Author Topic: Best Album: U2  (Read 12441 times)

sdb_1970

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Re: Best Album: U2
« Reply #30 on: July 18, 2014, 10:25:23 AM »
U2 has never really been a band who's music I actively seek out on my iPod - however - I will drop everything to see them live. They are showmen. Period.

Yeah, I saw U2 in 1987, 1992, 1992, 1997, 2001, and 2005, but I just couldn't bring myself to see them on the last tour - I had viewed snippets on YouTube, and the combination of Bono's voice and the slower tempos on some of my favorite songs just made me feel like they hit their expiration date.
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oldkid

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Re: Best Album: U2
« Reply #31 on: July 18, 2014, 11:58:35 PM »
Today my friend was playing with my iPod and he cranked the live version of "Bad" from Wide Awake in America.  It immediately made me think of this list and I was considering others... we stepped out of the car because we had arrived at Carl's Jr./Hardee's and in the outside speakers they were playing the exact same song, same version.  I've never heard a U2 song ever played at a CJ's before.  Crazy.
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sdb_1970

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Re: Best Album: U2
« Reply #32 on: July 19, 2014, 12:28:57 AM »
Today my friend was playing with my iPod and he cranked the live version of "Bad" from Wide Awake in America.  It immediately made me think of this list and I was considering others... we stepped out of the car because we had arrived at Carl's Jr./Hardee's and in the outside speakers they were playing the exact same song, same version.  I've never heard a U2 song ever played at a CJ's before.  Crazy.

That story reminds me of the first time I heard Metallica ("Nothing Else Matters") in a grocery store.
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St. Martin the Bald

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Re: Best Album: U2
« Reply #33 on: July 19, 2014, 07:59:24 AM »
Another band that I absolutely adore live but never listen to otherwise.
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don s.

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Re: Best Album: U2
« Reply #34 on: July 20, 2014, 05:34:16 PM »
Unforgettable Fire really knocked me out when it first came out (I had it on vinyl! 'Cause I'm old!). I was also pretty impressed by Achtung Baby, but by that time, I had lost interest generally.
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Monty

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Re: Best Album: U2
« Reply #35 on: July 23, 2014, 05:35:26 PM »
The live version of "Bad" from Wide Awake in America. 

Listening to it now, it's a CINECASTING awesome version of the song from The Unforgettable Fire. Bono sings so different these days, just an observation?

Album wise I voted Achtung Baby, though I have been listening to Pop quite a bit on my runs.


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oldkid

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Re: Best Album: U2
« Reply #36 on: July 23, 2014, 07:33:15 PM »
The live version of "Bad" from Wide Awake in America. 

Listening to it now, it's a CINECASTING awesome version of the song from The Unforgettable Fire. Bono sings so different these days, just an observation?

The live version takes a good song and makes it masterful.
 
I haven't heard Bono's version lately, and I don't think he could possibly top this version, so I don't want to hear any more, thanks. :)
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Antares

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Re: Best Album: U2
« Reply #37 on: July 23, 2014, 08:29:20 PM »
A band I find it impossible to care about. If they had a good single that was fine at the time but generally I think "so what" about them. Manufactured overwroughtness generally.

That line is true.

I was deejaying in college back when Boy came out and we got a demo a few weeks before its release. 80% of the station was creaming in their jeans over it, but to me, it was repetitive chord drivel. I probably dislike them more because of Bono's Messiah complex. But I will admit that on most of their albums was at least one really ass kicking song, unfortunately the rest was what I highlighted in VerbALs statement.
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sdb_1970

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Re: Best Album: U2
« Reply #38 on: July 23, 2014, 09:27:09 PM »
Well, "overwrought" is one thing, but when it's manufactured! ... Whatever criticisms you could lay at the feet of U2 (e.g., too anthemic, earnest, political, self-righteous, Christian, etc.), sounding "mass-produced" or "formulaic" (to draw upon the more derogatory dictionary definitions of "manufactured") is not one of them.  I don't know what 1980s you were living through, but nothing in 1980 sounded like the opening riff of I Will Follow, and nothing on AOR radio sounded like New Years Day or Sunday Bloody Sunday in 1983.  By the time they did War, they were on the last legs with their little record label, Island.  This was before Bob Geldolf decided to create be socially aware pop artist bandwagon.  But you're saying U2 was the essentially equivalent of some generic boy band dreamed up by suits in a board room?  Sorry, but no.
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maņana

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Re: Best Album: U2
« Reply #39 on: July 23, 2014, 09:42:34 PM »
Quote from: Robert Christgau
I've never seen the point of hating U2. Their sound was their own from the git, and for a very famous person, Bono has always seemed thoughtful and good-hearted.
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