Classic or Dud: U2

has u2 ever had any grace or dignity? their entire career seems riddled with fashion don'ts. they were cuter in their youth, but they were still guilty of numerous crimes against decency (ok starting with war, I really don't know the first two albums well at all).

Well, i suppose it's all relative. Circa The Unforgettable Fire it certainly seemed like they were both graceful and dignified, but I'm sure it struck some that they were overreaching and pious at the time. Seems to me, though, that they stumbled after Achtung, Baby and still haven't re-found their footing.

Blasfemy!

But without them, we wouldn't have the Negativland thing.

ranking 'em, personal choices:

Zooropa
Achtung Baby
Pop
The Joshua Tree
War
ATYCLB
Boy
The Unforgettable Fire
Rattle and Hum
October

Passengers would rank up high, but that ain't all U2. Never understood the dislike of their '90s work. Bono tones it down, better musically, better lyrics. Seems to be a good formula.

I think of Bono as an Irish David Lee Roth doing a bad impersonation of Springsteen. Sure, he says something quotably dumb and ridiculous every time he's interviewed...but thats why we* like like him.
* = The "we" in question is me and my buds. "Bad Bono Quotes" is our favorite impromptu bar game.

Zooropa remains their best album, and a largely unappreciated precursor to the likes of Kid A (Wake me up when Thom Yorke writes a song as good as "Lemon"), but I quite like their last two retro-80s efforts as well.

that said, I put on "Pop" for the first time in a long, long while at work today and I have to say I really enjoyed it. I liked U2 a lot more in high school, ive kinda grown out of it, but both Auchtung Baby and Pop are classics in my mind, fuck all the haters.

and achtung is a precursor to OK Computer. hmm, come to think of it Zoo Station and Airbag are similar in a lot of ways. never thought of that till now.

not that I love u2 by any means, I just love that album. it's that "ham-fisted attempt at soul or gospel whose title ends in a preposition" that's probably what gets me more than anything. and the pompousness that goes with it.

"You can't forget or cancel something you genuinely liked at some point", I was told. But for U2, I could. DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUD

20+ years later, I'd change that to "they *could* be one of the greatest bands ever, but post-Zooropa (which is the only other U2 album I listen to all the way through) they seem to be content just doing the same thing and load up the albums with one song for the old fans, one oddball song, and another overblown ballad which is their equivalent to an Aerosmith soundtrack theme.

Anyway, both classic AND dud simultaneously.

This is probably the closest to the truth of all of the responses to this question.

I'll always love "I Will Follow."

Ah well, fuck you 15 yr old Tom, you're too skinny anyway. DUD.

I heard "Gloria" subsequently, and went off them.

As for Bono's political activism, personally I find him annoying, but I'm easily able to put that annoyance aside because his efforts certainly have helped many people around the world, and my personal opinions are pretty tiny and selfish compared to that. I can't stand Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt either, but they're still doing great things, even if it's partially to improve their image (which I'm not claiming, but is certainly possible). We do have to remember that despite the fact that these folks have lived pampered lives, they've also had the opportunity to see horrible things that most of us haven't, and that's bound to affect anyone who still has the smallest degree of humanity.

No Line On The Horizon

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/music/newsid_7832000/7832748.stm

album track titles:

The full track listing is:

1. No Line On The Horizon

2. Magnificent

3. Moment of Surrender

4. Unknown Caller

5. I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight

6. Get On Your Boots

7. Stand Up Comedy

8. Fez - Being Born

9. White As Snow

10. Breathe

11. Cedars Of Lebanon

"Cedars of Lebanon" Bono's contribution to peace in the Middle East?

I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight

^^^ Must be the Garth Brooks collab.

bono has compared the U2 sound as being influenced by trance, Led Zep and Moroccan music

back in december 2007

People will “feel the difference” when they hear the new U2 album, Bono tells The Independent. The album will find the Irish rockers taking on trance, metal and Moroccan influences. “Normally when you play a U2 tune, it clears the dance floor. And that may not be true of this. There’s some trance influences,” says Bono, forgetting his band’s own Pop album. “It’s not like anything we’ve ever done before, and we don’t think it sounds like anything anyone else has done either.” According to Bono, guitarist The Edge has “real molten metal” coming from his guitar, and that the band has recorded enough material to fit two CDs.

2009

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/a140783/u2-album-inspired-by-led-zep-jack-white.html

Speaking to Rolling Stone, the guitarist said that he is a big fan of Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and recently contributed to the documentary It Might Get Loud with the legendary musician.

"I was just fascinated with seeing how Jimmy played those riffs so simply, and with Jack as well," said The Edge.

The new album is said to include blues rock tracks, with the first single expected to be 'Get On Your Boots'.

Bono commented: "There's some very hardcore guitar coming out of The Edge. Real molten metal."

Please tell me that 'Stand Up Comedy' is a spoken word interlude.

At last Larry gets to shine!

Fez - Being Born - this must be the Moroccan track

Fez

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fes
is the fourth largest city in Morocco, after Casablanca, Rabat and Marrakech with a population of 946,815 (2004 census). It is the capital of the Fès-Boulemane Region.

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee305/azou7/TommyCooper-1.jpg

just like that

Just when I thought our cherished Martian comedy was gone for good, it's back. Incongruous painstaking revival of a U2 thread, with pasted information about North Africa? What next?

jesus this album sounds bad. trance blues....shudder.

tho haven't u2 always been influenced by trance?? or indeed influencing it? it's no coincidence that Paul Oakenfold used to play "Where The Streets Have No Name" or that that "Take Me To The Skies" above record used the bassline from "With Or Without You"

the new single gets premiered on alex zanes xfm show this monday apparently.

Once, when I was with my then girlfriend, U2 came on the radio, and I said

I loathe U2

and she said

You loathe me?

lol

There are bands I love more, but I don't think there's a band I love more that's hated more by people whose opinions I respect.

That said, it took me seeing them live after the last album (my first U2 concert) for me to become a full-on, high-school-era-level believer again.

(I.e. back when I wore a "U2 - Boy" t-shirt and my classmates would go "You, too, boy!")