Where The Streets Have No Name / The U2 Thread

[Kevin Davis]

Do U2 fans care about this?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -documents

I care more about those hideous Lennon glasses he's sporting these days...

Also, sidenote: I took a random spin through ATYCLB the other day. What a frustrating album. Starts off so promising, but it slowly and steadily falls apart.

Maybe I'm just being sentimental, but ATYCLB is a beautiful album front to back... I revisited it a few weeks back, and it still holds up rather nicely imo.

Sell me on some of the later tracks? I've only heard the back half of the record a few times. Overall, I adore the production. Surprisingly simple and undramatic, all things considered.

That simplicity was a breath of fresh air for me at the time...

Obviously Grace sticks out for me as a nice, soft ender with pretty metaphors and double meaning. Love everything about it. Actually, looking at the tracklist, all of the last four songs (and a few others) resonate with stages of grief I associate with 9/11. Then there's the whimsical Wild Honey which is like nothing they've ever done before imo. In a Little While reminds me of the passing of Johnny Ramone (or was it Joey) and asking for it to be played while on his deathbed. Like I said before... It's a very heartfelt, almost a snapshot of the times ... the turn of the century... a turning point for the band, too.

"ATYCLB" plays nicely up through and including "Wild Honey" then takes a nosedive before rebounding with the lovely "Grace." But overall it represents a shift away from the era of U2's career I like best -- the darker, more textured sonics, and snarkier lyrics from Bono -- and I've always kind of resented it for that. Incidentally my most significant memories of this album also come from right after 9/11 -- the best songs push optimism and hope to the absolute threshold of tolerability without crossing it, and in the months following the attacks those sentiments were a powerful antidote to the news. It was a good record for the world to have access to at that time.

[VinylGuy]

I agree with Kevin Davis here...i hated ATYCLB because it was a shift from what i love about the band, the experimental sonic, dark and funny to the pretty bland textures and rock and roll...and for me it was pretty unbearable to hear them talking about 9-11 too. I will always love Atchung, Zooropa and Pop. Thats the great u2 i adore.
Still, i feel the band did great with How To Dismantle and No Line. I love those two.

[PHATJ]

New song.

The Blackout

[tragabigzanda]

Top 10 maybe?
Hello Morning
Close Captioned
The Kill
Place/Position
Do You Like Me?
Latest Disgrace
Recap Modotti
Nightshop
Break
Life & Limb

I'd maybe bump Life & Limb for Epic Problem

[Rangi Guy]

Honestly - I thought it wasn't too bad. Better than I'd expected at this point

[tragabigzanda]

[PHATJ]

I didn’t think it was bad either. Which is a thousand times better than that horse shit song they released a while back.

[evenslow]

Yeah that's way better than the first pile of dogshit they released. But it's still middling.

[VinylGuy]

Actually The Blackout is the first song they released for the new album...and that bland tune that come afterwards is the first single. The second single is out there too, and yes, its fucking bland.

I like The Blackout by the way.

[McParadigm]

Pretty dull attempt at recapturing something that used to be easy for them. I especially don't like the part where he says "get this off of my plate."

[VinylGuy]

The new one American Soul is good. Is the best of the whole bunch.

[guestT]

Songs of Experience has a really nice flow to it. Front to back I think I like it more than anything since Pop. Why are they so bad at choosing singles?

[PHATJ]

I haven’t listened to Experience yet. Maybe I’ll give it a go tonight.

[PHATJ]

I agree with Kevin Davis here...i hated ATYCLB because it was a shift from what i love about the band, the experimental sonic, dark and funny to the pretty bland textures and rock and roll...and for me it was pretty unbearable to hear them talking about 9-11 too. I will always love Atchung, Zooropa and Pop. Thats the great u2 i adore.
Still, i feel the band did great with How To Dismantle and No Line. I love those two.

Achtung Baby, Zooropa, and POP are wonderful in every way. I also loved ATYCLB, but I agree that it was a step away from the very best music U2 ever made. I really enjoy Atomic Bomb and Joshua Tree. No Line is decent.

[lowlight79]

Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Bore Me

Wait a second, is this an episode of Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss me, Bore Me?

* Starts theme music.

[LoathedVermin72]

I'm making a best-of compilation for my own listening purposes. Are there any really big, recognizable U2 songs besides the following?

Beautiful Day
Bullet the Blue Sky
Desire
Elevation
Mysterious Ways
New Year's Day
One
Pride (In the Name of Love)
Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get out Of
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Sweetest Thing
Vertigo
Walk On
Where the Streets Have No Name
With or without You

[VinylGuy]

Lots, but i urge you to include Stay (Faraway, so close) in that list.

[Rangi Guy]

I'm making a best-of compilation for my own listening purposes. Are there any really big, recognizable U2 songs besides the following?

Beautiful Day
Bullet the Blue Sky
Desire
Elevation
Mysterious Ways
New Year's Day
One
Pride (In the Name of Love)
Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get out Of
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Sweetest Thing
Vertigo
Walk On
Where the Streets Have No Name
With or without You

One Tree Hill (Or maybe just in NZ)
The Fly
Zooropa
Lemon

[LoathedVermin72]

Lots, but i urge you to include Stay (Faraway, so close) in that list.

Are there really lots? I'm not talking about songs that might be good, just big hits that I will instantly recognize.

[Jorge]

Those are the biggest ones. They have some singles that are better than those but not as big