Red Mosquito

I didn’t appreciate songs of innocence being forced into my phone without my consent. Ironic title in that album.

I’ve never experienced songs on experience audibly or otherwise.

Deliciously ironic.

The SoI tour was amazing though. Best/ cleverest spectacle / set up since Zoo tv.

My rankings of the post-Pop albums:

No Line on the Horizon (A)
Songs of Innocence (A-)
All That You Can't Leave Behind (B)
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (B-)
Songs of Experience (C-)

I think "No Line" is one of their best albums bar none, not as sonically bold as the "Achtung"-"Zooropa"-"Pop" run (their clear creative peak, in my opinion), but structurally and compositionally more inventive than anything else in this standard U2 template, certainly moreso than anything else this century.

"Songs of Innocence" is a very strong album that suffers for leading with its weakest track. With a little replacing and resequencing it's a fantastic listen.

"All That You Can't Leave Behind" and "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" are average albums with some great highlights. "Songs of Experience" is a weak album with fewer highlights.

Overall if you like U2 it's worth listening to these albums. Perhaps only "Experience" fails to justify its existence; everything else adds at least a few essential tracks to the canon.

LetMeSleep wrote:Check out Side Two of Songs of Innocence. Start with Volcano or Raised By Wolves

Side 2 of SoI is fantastic. Such well written stuff all around. Very ethereal in a way U2 doesn't write much anymore. Same goes for side 2 of No Line. Cedars of Lebanon and all that...

Downloaded the Achtung Baby, Zooropa, and Pop run last night, and my early impressions are that this is the era of U2 I will respond to the most.

Its by a wide margin my favorite era.
Bono's voice, the production, The Edge riffs, electronica, the darkness, the sexiness of all...amazing era of this band.
Their clearly peaked here.

Even songs like "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" are among their best work.

It has my favorite U2 songs from all time " Stay". Their masterpiece.

LoathedVermin72 wrote:Downloaded the Achtung Baby, Zooropa, and Pop run last night, and my early impressions are that this is the era of U2 I will respond to the most.

You should look up the making of Achtung baby doco, From the sky down.

It’s fantastic.

tragabigzanda wrote:

VinylGuy wrote:It has my favorite U2 songs from all time " Stay". Their masterpiece.

Yeah it’s a top-5 U2 song for me

Stay is easily top 5. It has no right being that good and it’s an outlier and almost contradicts their style at all points up to that. They tried to redo it several times afterwards and failed.

Stay is a simple beautiful masterpiece

Very true guys. It's 2 or 3 for me.

Exit
Stay
UltraViolet

dimejinky99 wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:

VinylGuy wrote:It has my favorite U2 songs from all time " Stay". Their masterpiece.

Yeah it’s a top-5 U2 song for me

Stay is easily top 5. It has no right being that good and it’s an outlier and almost contradicts their style at all points up to that. They tried to redo it several times afterwards and failed.

Stay is a simple beautiful masterpiece

I hate the fact that they dont play it live.

VinylGuy wrote:

dimejinky99 wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:

VinylGuy wrote:It has my favorite U2 songs from all time " Stay". Their masterpiece.

Yeah it’s a top-5 U2 song for me

Stay is easily top 5. It has no right being that good and it’s an outlier and almost contradicts their style at all points up to that. They tried to redo it several times afterwards and failed.

Stay is a simple beautiful masterpiece

I hate the fact that they dont play it live.

It wouldn't translate to the back row.

Saw them play it acoustic at Slane but it was just edge and bono not the full band

dimejinky99 wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:

VinylGuy wrote:It has my favorite U2 songs from all time " Stay". Their masterpiece.

Yeah it’s a top-5 U2 song for me

Stay is easily top 5. It has no right being that good and it’s an outlier and almost contradicts their style at all points up to that. They tried to redo it several times afterwards and failed.

Stay is a simple beautiful masterpiece

I like Stay but I have never loved it to that length or put it on such a high pedestal. It might be in my U2 top 40, but I digress. The Achtung-Zooropa-Pop run of albums and shows is about as good as it gets. That era of U2 is the reason I haves loved the band for so long and have spent outrageous amounts of money to see them in concert several times. U2 is an experience unique to itself. An experience with significant substance thanks to those middle albums.

I will definitely be attending the inevitable Achtung/Zoo tv 30th anniversary tour

"Stay" is a good song but the lyrics are real silly