I think a thread here ruined Nine Inch Nail’s Pretty Hate Machine for me. Or else I just grew out of it myself. I’m hit or miss for music I used to like 10 years ago.
I have to confess that, for all of the indie rock I listen to these days, my favorite band is still U2. Not only do I love every album they’ve ever made (including their last album, which was kind of an odd duck), there aren’t really any individual songs by U2 that get on my nerves. Spoon is probably my second favorite band and there are certain Spoon songs that I have to skip over when listening to a given album because they annoy me.
Which is not to say that I don’t get the hate. I can’t stand Bono’s egotistic, self-agrandizing personality. I tend to divorce music from the people who make it and with U2, for me, it’s all about the music. But there are also plenty of insanely popular and objectively great bands that I can’t stand. Shocking revelation: I fucking detest the Grateful Dead. And Led Zepplin is so over played that Physical Graffiti (disc 1) and Houses of The Holy are really the only two abums I can still listen to.
Anyway, back to the question at hand, it’s rediculously hard choice for me but I’d have to say Joshua Tree by a nose, and probably for sentimental reasons more than anything else. I just have so many good memories associated with the songs on that album, I can’t listen to it without getting nostalgic.
My vote is JT, but I find The Unforgettable Fire to be my favorite. JT was much more of a milestone, however.
They are both great albums but I would probably go with Joshua Tree. Tough call though, as Mysterious Ways is maybe my favorite U2 song and One is great too…
I tend to divorce music from the people who make it and with U2, for me, it’s all about the music.
Agreed. Wagner was apparently a pretty obnoxious individual & an anti-semite to boot, but that doesn’t stop his music from blowing me away.
Some music I never get tired of. Beatles seem to be in that category, but I have only been listening to them heavily for 7-8 years so it may be early days yet.
Mysteriously, my tolerance for Pink Floyd is going away, even though they used to be my favorite band. You couldn’t pay me to listen to “Money” anymore. I still think it’s objectively a remarkable song; I just hit the saturation point with it.
As far as bands growing on me, I think I am about 60% of the way to becoming a full fledged Rolling Stones devotee. In another 30 years I expect to be a hardcore fan.
It took me decades to properly appreciate The Rolling Stones, and even now I’m only at the Exile On Main Street >>> everything other Stones record except “Sympathy For The Devil” stage.
I voted The Joshua Tree, though War is really freaking good too. My favorite U2 song is “Please” which I think was off Pop, the album everyone hates. There’s a really good Elvis Costello cover of it out there.
U2’s best album is Rattle and Hum. After that Zooropa. Then War and Joshua Tree.
Achtung Baby doesn’t even rate (largely because One is incredibly horribly overrated and I heard it about 300 times more than I ever wanted to when it was first becoming a big hit)
Is it getting better?
You stop that!
U2 is one of those “1-2 great songs per album” bands. What was amazing was their consistency over a long period of time.
I picked Achtung only because it has “One”, which is a favorite of mine.
I think he feels the same.
You wouldn’t even know a diamond if you held it in your hand.
Yeah, I know I’m not a real U2 fan because Zooropa is the only U2 album I actually love start to finish.
Go go Brian Eno!
The title track and Numb are great. I don’t know much of the rest of it.
I think One is pretty much a perfect song, the way it builds in emotion and intensity from a modest beginning. It also has some good lyrics: “You say love is the temple/love the higher law/love is the temple/love the higher law/you ask me to enter/but then you make me crawl/i can’t keep holding on to what you got/when all you got is hurt”… always loved that bit.
I’m a little late to this thread, and I never post in this subforum, but my enjoyment of Achtung Baby so intense that it overcomes these things. Deserving of special mention is “Ultraviolet (Light My Way),” which is the best pop song about love that I know of. And that’s a broad fucking field.
U2 is going to going to do a summer tour this year and play all of Joshua Tree to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the album.
It’s a good excuse for me to listen to the album again. I haven’t done so in years (except for the hits from it).
Amazing. The first concert I ever went to was the Joshua Tree tour, in 1987. I might turn out again if they swing my Montreal.
[EDIT] Gah. A quick Google shows they’re only coming to Vancouver and Toronto in Canada. Which is mind boggling, considering how much Montreal loves them.
Yeah, the locations seem very limited this time:
U2 2017 Tour Dates:
05/12 – Vancouver, BC @ BC Place *
05/14 – Seattle, WA @ CenturyLink Field *
05/17 – Santa Clara, CA @ Levi’s Stadium *
05/20 – Los Angeles, CA @ Rose Bowl #
05/24 – Houston, TX @ NRG Stadium #
05/26 – Dallas, TX @ AT&T Stadium #
06/03 – Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field #
06/07 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Heinz Field #
06/09 – Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo Music Festival
06/11 – Miami, Fl @ Hard Rock Stadium ^
06/14 – Tampa, FL @ Raymond James Stadium ^
06/18 – Philadelphia, PA @ Lincoln Financial Field #
06/20 – Washington, DC @ FedExField #
06/23 – Toronto, ONT @ Rogers Centre #
06/25 – Boston, MA @ Gillette Stadium #
06/28 – East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium #
07/01 – Cleveland, OH @ FirstEnergy Stadium ^
07/08 – London, UK @ Twickenham Stadium %
07/12 – Berlin, DE @ Olympic Stadium %
07/15 – Rome, IT @ Olympic Stadium %
07/18 – Barcelona, ES @ Olympic Stadium %
07/22 – Dublin, IE @ Croke Park %
07/25 – Paris, FR @ Stade De France %
07/29 – Amsterdam, NL @ Amsterdam Arena %
08/01 – Brussels, BE @ Stade Roi-Baudoin %
'* = w/ Mumford & Sons
'# = w/ The Lumineers
^ = w/ OneRepublic
% = w/ Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
I guess the closest they’re coming to Kansas City is either Manchester, Tennessee or Dallas, TX, or maybe Chicago, IL. All of them quite the drive. (all 3 approx 8-9 hours drive).