U2 Band

You poppin' my stones?

For real though, love Achtung Baby.

 

I am now on my 5th time through UTU2TM and I am gonna take a deep dive into each album.

I always liked a few songs but now I really am amazed by their entire career.

 

Is this an episode of Great Bits?

War is probably my favorite. I'll also add that their most recent album was actually pretty darn good. "Every Breaking Wave" is a great, great pop song.

 

Been listening to these a little bit the last week or so after years of not. They really have some great songs.

 

Honestly don't think they've ever made a bad album. One of the best discographies ever, IMO. Still love Songs of Innocence too, even if almost no one else seemed to.

 

I am definitely not super into the 90s resurgence stuff but I still enjoy it. They can make just a really great rock and roll, uh... song.

 

Joshua Tree has the best beginning of any album

 

Songs of Innocence is VERY good.

 

Such a strong back catalogue. Grew up listening to All That You Can't Leave Behind courtesy of parents so I've got a soft spot for that one. Didn't enjoy the last couple of records before Songs of Innocence though.

 

I feel so alone in that I actually really like Pop. At least most of it anyway.

 

I enjoy every album for the most part. Obviously, Joshua Tree and Achtung are flawless, but each album has at least a couple of amazing songs.

 

Yep, not sure there's a better stretch of three songs to open any album. I'd be open to hearing arguments, haha

Finally, someone else who thinks this!

All That You Can't Leave Behind has a very close place to my heart as well. There are some incredibly underrated songs on that record. I'd but the one-two punch of "Walk On" and "Kite" up there with their best material.

I loved How to Dismantle, personally. "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" is my second favorite U2 song. No Line on the Horizon is a much harder album to love. I think it has some pretty great moments but is a huge mess overall. Still a pretty good record, IMO.

I love Pop aside from like three tracks. There's some very striking, lyrically challenging music on that record. It's not my favorite record of theirs, but I find their 90s era so fascinating. They could have just made The Joshua Tree again and again and instead they completely shifted course on Achtung Baby and got weirder from there.

 

Good to see that that this thread has the required U Talkin' references. The podcast got me to listen to their discography and I enjoyed a shocking amount of it.

 

The Miracle and Sleep Like a Baby Tonight are the only songs I'm not into on Songs of Innocence. The rest is so good.

Every Breaking Wave, Song for Someone, and Cedarwood Road are probably all top 15 U2 songs for me.

 

I'm always surprised at how they haven't managed to have a hit since HTDAAB. Magnificent, Moment of Surrender, and Every Breaking Wave are all amazing songs that should have been huge.

 

I really love "Sleep Like a Baby Tonight." It's got the same vaguely creepy feel of a lot of the Zooropa and Pop material. But I agree that those three you listed are the big ones. Bono's vocal performance near the end of "Cedarwood Road" is some next-level stuff.

I feel like there was so much backlash against Songs of Innocence that radio just wasn't going to go near it. Shame. I think people are definitely starting to realize that "Every Breaking Wave" is a classic U2 song and could probably have been a hit.

 

Song for Someone was randomly getting radio play here a few months ago, but I don't know if that was the case nationwide.

But yeah, they had every intention of pushing Every Breaking Wave as a hit. Had it been the first single on a traditionally released album, it may have even gotten there.

 

I mean, it should have just been the first single anyway. I feel like people might have been more inclined to give the album a shot then. I like "Miracle" okay, but a more classic sounding U2 track would have been a better way to market that album. People probably still would have flipped a shit over it, but who knows.

 

I just remember the adverts with Miracle were obnoxious to me, and fresh off of "Get On Your Boots" it really wasn't what I wanted to hear at all.

The release didn't bother me at all, I never even had it pop up in my iTunes... I was just turned off by the single. So for me it DEFINITELY would have changed things if Every Breaking Wave led the way.

 

Miracle is a fine album track, but it had no business being a single, let alone the lead single after a 5 year gap in between albums. The same could be said for Boots too. Magnificent should have been the lead single from No Line. I don't know who's choosing their lead singles, but they need to get a second opinion before they release Songs of Experience.

 

Boots is a travesty and we shall discuss it no further.

 

Do singles even matter for U2 anymore? They're U2. lol. It would be fun to have another song of theirs do really well on the radio, though. What ever happened to that dance album they claimed they were working on years ago, back when they were working on like 3 or 4 followups to No Line at once?

Joshua Tree and Unforgettable Fire are both among my favorite albums ever released. Love this band.

 

Singles wouldn't matter if they themselves weren't concerned with having a hit single. They certainly don't NEED a hit song, they do seem to want one though.

If you're U2, you don't hire Ryan Tedder and Danger Mouse to produce your songs unless you're trying to reach a modern audience. And you don't release your album that way unless you're trying to reach a broad audience.

 

They just need to make a song with Kanye West already.

 

I think I liked "Boots" better than "I Know I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" or whatever that song was called. The live version of that track was particularly bad. But yeah, I remember watching the Apple event and seeing them do "Miracle" and not really being impressed at all. And then you put on the album and you get "Every Breaking Wave" and "Song for Someone" in the first four tracks. It's like, "Guys, you had better options here."

I think they've just been chasing another "Vertigo." Which, I like "Vertigo" fine, but I don't think you're getting that moment back.