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  1. I generally disagree with those who think ATYCLB and HTDAAB were a step back musically for U2? From what? Pop? Zooropa? The Passengers album? Please. ATYCLB is arguably, as the original Rolling Stone review it, their "third masterpiece" after Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby. I would add War to the list and put it among their top four albums. When you start ripping on ATYCLB, you need to have other albums to compare it to in terms of lyrical content, musicianship, number of great U2 songs that stand the test of time, and so on. U2 put 4 songs from ATYCLB on 18 Singles, more than from any of their other albums. It's a great album. HTDAAB is very good as well, with a bunch of classic songs that will continue to be standards, such as Vertigo, Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, City of Blinding Lights, and Original of the Species. The songs from HTDAAB really come alive when you hear them in concert. Have any of you listened to the Vertigo 2005 concert in Chicago? That's one of their best concerts ever. I think HTDAAB lacks something in comparison with ATYCLB, particularly because of a few songs that have lackluster lyrics and the lack of a common theme. But it's not a bad album, especially if you are actually a U2 fan.

    Still, I think U2 made a bad decision when it comes to the order of ATYCLB. It is too frontloaded. And they left off several songs that would have made HTDAAB more of a guitar rock-driven album. I think they should re-release both albums, in the U.S. adding The Ground Beneath Her Free to ATYCLB and Fast Cars, Are You Gonna Wait Forever, and Mercy to HTDAAB. Now that they no longer have to have the "11 song maximum" to sell millions of copies, I think adding those songs would strengthen both albums.

    Fast Cars, after all, mentions the title of HTDAAB in the lyrics. How can that be left off if the album is to have a cohesive theme? Are You Gonna Wait Forever is another guitar-driven song like Vertigo, Crumbs, and All Becase of You. And Mercy is a better closer than Yahweh. And thematically, mercy is how you dismantle an atomic bomb.

    Please forward to Bono and the Edge. Thanks.
  2. If you say that U2 included 4 songs from ATYCLB on their 18 Singles Collection, it just adds to the idea that it's more of a song collection than a cohesive album.

    I don't think that the overall feel of ATYCLB and HTDAAB would change a lot if you just included a few other songs and changed their sequence.

    I consider neither War nor ATYCLB masterpieces. U2 have IMHO released two masterpieces so far, these being JT and AB.

    Alex
  3. This is how a re-release (say a 10 year anniversary issue in 2010) of ATYCLB should look:

    Beautiful Day
    Stuck In A Moment
    Elevation
    Walk On
    Peace on Earth
    The Ground Beneath Her Feet
    Kite
    Wild Honey
    In A Little While
    When I Look At The World
    New York
    Grace

    And HTDAAB re-mastered and re-issued in 2014:

    Vertigo
    Miracle Drug
    Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
    Love and Peace or Else
    City of Blinding Lights
    Are You Gonna Wait Forever
    A Man and a Woman
    All Because of You
    Crumbs From Your Table
    One Step Closer
    Original of the Species
    Yahweh
    Fast Cars
    Mercy


    These albums are less commercial in their length and order, but have more artistic merit. For the sake of their place in U2's canon, the changes should be made. I have already made them on my U2 I-Pod.

    I am I buggin' you, Bono? Didn't mean to bug ya.
  4. That JT and AB are their two masterpieces is reasonable. But what are their best albums after that? War, ATYCLB and HTDAAB in my opinion.
  6. Originally posted by Alex:If you say that U2 included 4 songs from ATYCLB on their 18 Singles Collection, it just adds to the idea that it's more of a song collection than a cohesive album.

    Alex



    The fact that you think ATYCLB is a collection of songs and not the most cohesive album U2 have ever made (besides maybe AB) just totally amazes me. No wonder you don't like the album that much. You obviously don't get it the way I do. Sorry, your loss bro


  7. Damn Yeah you are a professional smart ass. I like it. Took some time to get used to, but I like it.


  8. 1: The Joshua Tree / Achtung Baby (Tie: Classics to most fans of U2 and amongst music fans in general)

    In no particlar order (for places 2-4)
    - Boy
    - War
    - Under A Blood Red Sky

    Why? Great early U2 two albums that got many of the older fans into U2 to begin with.

    In no particlar order (for places 5-6) (Although, I'd place these in 2-3 for me, and the list above as 4-6):
    - The Unforgettable Fire
    - Pop

    Why? Innovation and artistic leaps in style.

    As for the remaining albums... I do love them and listen to them quite often. But they are not 'classics'. They are not U2's best.

    They are very good albums. They have a lot of good ideas. Many of those ideas are very good songs. But they are not 100% 'there'. (In my view)

    - October
    - Rattle And Hum
    - HTDAAB
    - ATYCLB

    They are very good albums. They have a lot of good ideas. Many of those ideas are very good songs. But they are not 100% 'there'. (In my view)
  9. Pop is better than All That You Can't Leave Behind???????? You don't seem to understand that the problems with Pop -- its bombast, its failure to produce any classic U2 songs -- is precisley why U2 made All That You Can't Leave Behind. Compare "Beatiful Day" and "Discotheque" -- the first sounds like U2, the second like INXS.

    I think you could argue that Boy and War are the next best after JT and AB. That's a fair judgment, but putting ATYCLB at the bottom of the list is just odd.


  10. You don't seem to understand that this is about personal taste and opinion.

    (And Pop IS better than All That You Can't Leave Behind)
  11. No, its not about personal taste and opinion. The correct ranking order of U2 albums, from best to worst, has been pre-determined by God, I mean Bono, from before the world was made.
  12. True. And this is what Bono brought back from Sinai:

    Achtung Baby
    Pop
    Zooropa
    War
    The Joshua Tree
    Boy
    Rattle & Hum
    (Original Soundtracks 1)
    How to dismantle an atomic bomb
    All that you can't leave behind
    October
    The unforgettable fire
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