late period u2 are they good or? my instinct is that they are some grad A bs but they have some good songs

Agree that "Beautiful Day" is really the last essential tune, and even that isn't very good IMO; in many ways it's the mission statement for the second half of their career.

'Zooropa' and the Passengers album were really the last releases with really interesting tunes on them. "Lemon" is one of the most beautiful things ever recorded.

otm

Well except for that last sentence. Let’s not get carried away

'Lemon' is excellent, and I think many were secretly hoping Pop would continue building on what U2 were doing with 'Lemon' and 'Numb' but with more of an emphasis on delivering big hits - kinda like Achtung Baby but an even bigger sonic leap forward. As we all know, it didn't pan out that way and Pop ended up a bit of a mess, but I still think there's some great material on there.

"Beautiful Day" is one of those weird songs that is so affecting the first few times you hear it then slithers away into annoyance.

music aside Pop is probably the last album where the lyrics are at least 90% outstanding imo.

Since then most of their lyrics have been merely serviceable (though some of them rise above, like the best bits of NLOTH) but their clunkers are a bit more pronounced. I'm just going to pretend I don't hear "ref-u-jesus" on the new one.

It reminds me a lot of 'The Sun Always Shines On TV', but it's not the only "inspiration" I detected on that album ... there's another song which reminds me of 'Here Comes Your Man' ...

(xpost)

And surely it's impossible to hear Get out of your own way without secretly singing Go your own way in your head?