I listened to both today and I still can’t decide which one I like better.
I voted for The Joshua Tree, but my all-time favourite U2 album is The Unforgettable Fire.
I’d take War over either of them.
I’ll be the first to chime in with “U2 is terrible. Terrible.”
I love War. It’d be #3 on my list behind these two.
Yeah their recent stuff I’d definitely agree. But when I was a freshman in college and The Joshua Tree was released… it was real man, you know?
Had to go with Achtung Baby - when I was in college it seemed all I listened to for the longest time was that, BloodSugarSexMagik and Ten. Man, I loved all those albums so much and now I can’t even bear to hear them.
I clicked on this thread just to write that.
Someone needs to go through the archives and dig up every band thread ever and chart how long it took for someone to swoop in and hate on said band. What’s the mean # of posts it takes? What’s the longest it’s ever taken? The shortest (obviously going to be post 1 or 2)?
The more people have heard of a band, the greater the chance there’s hate.
If I told you about this fabulous band from Austin in the early 90’s called “The Hit,” and about what a great band they were and what an awesome show they put on and all that… no one would get the joke, because nobody’s fuckin’ heard of them.
It’s like Pogue Mahone says, though–the more and longer you listen to some bands, the more burnt out you get on them. I have just about every U2 album made up until, I dunno, 2001, and every R.E.M. album made until '96 or something, and honestly, every time a song comes on from either of them on the radio now, I just about break my wrist in my haste to change the station. They really don’t have anything to say to me now, and what they said to me then has been overplayed to the point I can’t hear it.
Part of the problem with U2 is that they can (and do) crop up on a ridiculous variety of formats. Classic rock, alternative, 80s, “mix”… It can be hard to avoid them at times.
And yeah, I have to say that I hate U2 too.
I didn’t like the Joshua Tree era U2 at all while I loved the Achtung Baby era U2. I don’t really know why, but part of it may have been a reflexive reaction to the popularity of Joshua Tree. On the other hand, I don’t really like their more recent stuff but I do like their early stuff, so it may be that they are just hit or miss with me as they evolve.
fixed, to match my sentiments on the subject.
But, Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby are both great records.
My favorite:
I am apparently quite odd that way then; I do not get tired of music. With a few exceptions, if I liked them 10 or 20 years ago, I like them now.
The only thing that does change is that I tend to have certain groups and genres grow on me that I originally could not stand.
I was thinking the exact same thing, except that I can stand to listen to most of these, although “Ten” has suffered the most for me. “Evenflow” and “Black” still rock but “Jeremy” makes me want to buy tickets from Ticketmaster and stab the 90’s in the eye. I was already kind of done with PJ when the bandwagon started to pick up steam and I thankfully haven’t liked much of anything they have done since.
“Achtung Baby” by a long shot for me though. “Joshua Tree” sounds very 80’s to me now, like U2 had finished their political cycle, were huge stars, and didn’t quite know where they wanted to go yet. It’s very much a transitional record. “Achtung Baby” seemed to signal them finding another voice and a new direction for a new decade.
IIRC ‘The Fly’ was the dirtiest thing on the mainstream airwaves at the time. I give them a lot of credit for that. ANd the guitar solo in ‘Love is Blindness’ is the best thing Edge has ever played.
Haha, yeah, U2 is terrible. You guys.