Match-Cut Band Consensus - U2

[D_Davis]

The Rules of the Game:

How to post selections:

- Assign a rating to each album based on a scale of 1-10
- Half points may be used
- It is not necessary to rank the albums. Instead, please post all lists in chronological order, starting with the earliest album.

For an album to be eligible for the band's overall rating, it must have at least four (4) votes. Otherwise, there isn't a sufficient amount of votes to make the rating as objective or effective as an album that has received twenty (20) votes. If an album is mentioned only once or twice, I will still post that album's average (quite easy if only mentioned once) but I will separate it from the albums that factor into the band's overall rating.


U2 - Discography

Boy
October
War
Under a Blood Red Sky
Unforgettable Fire
Wide Awake in America
Joshua Tree
Rattle and Hum
Achtung Baby
Zooropa
Pop
All That You Can't Leave Behind
How to Dismantle and Atomic Bomb
No Line on the Horizon
Songs of Innocence

w/ Brian Eno:
Passengers: Original Soundtracks 1

[D_Davis]

Boy - 9
October - 8
War - 6
Unforgettable Fire - 10
Joshua Tree - 10
Rattle and Hum - 5
Achtung Baby - 10
Zooropa - 8
Pop - 4
All That You Can't Leave Behind - 6
How to Dismantle and Atomic Bomb - 3
No Line on the Horizon - 8
Songs of Innocence - 6

w/ Brian Eno:
Passengers: Original Soundtracks V.1 - 6

[Dead & Messed Up]

The Joshua Tree - 9
Achtung Baby - 8
All That You Can't Leave Behind- 7

[Skitch]

Dont think Ive ever listened to an entire U2 album.

[ledfloyd]

Boy - 6
October - 4
War - 8.5
Unforgettable Fire - 7
Joshua Tree - 7
Rattle and Hum - 5

[Ezee E]

Dont think Ive ever listened to an entire U2 album.

Ditto.

[Thirdmango]

I hadn't before the past two days, and now I've listened to 2. I'm gonna try and listen to a couple more this week.

[MadMan]

I haven't listened to their latest but that's ok. Also I'm just going to rate their albums and not the EPs.

Boy-9
October-9.5
War-10
Unforgettable Fire-9.5
Joshua Tree-10
Rattle and Hum-9.5
Achtung Baby-9.5
Zooropa-9
Pop-8
All That You Can't Leave Behind-5.5
How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb-9.5
No Line on the Horizon-8.5

[transmogrifier]

I've got nothing for this. I only know the songs they released as singles in the late 80s, early 90s, and nothing ever got me interested enough to ever listen to an entire album. The only songs of theirs I truly enjoy are "When Love Comes to Town" and "Numb."

[quido8_5]

:|

Boy - 8.5
October - 8.5
War - 8.0
Joshua Tree - 8.0
Achtung Baby - 7.5
Pop - 4
All That You Can't Leave Behind - 4
No Line on the Horizon - 4.5

[ledfloyd]

I'm confused by Davis's apathy towards War. I think it's easily their best album.

[MadMan]

I usually flip flop between War and The Joshua Tree when it comes to their best.

[D_Davis]

I'm confused by Davis's apathy towards War. I think it's easily their best album.

It's a transitional album between the post-punk sounds of Boy and October, and the more ambitious sounds of Unforgettable Fire; it doesn't have the energy of the previous albums, nor is it as confident as the next. It also has the dubious distinction of coming right before, and not being as good, as the best album ever recorded by any band ever. ;)

I doubt I'll ever hear an album as long as I live as good as Unforgettable Fire.

[ledfloyd]

But Sunday Bloody Sunday, and New Year's Day!

[Neclord]

Boy 7.5/10
October 5.5/10
War 9/10
Unforgettable Fire 7/10
Joshua Tree 8.5/10
Rattle and Hum 3/10
Achtung Baby 7.5/10
Zooropa 7/10
Songs of Innocence 6.5/10

[D_Davis]

But Sunday Bloody Sunday, and New Year's Day!

A 6 isn't bad! I'm not on the modern 7-10 scale. :)

[dreamdead]

I'll try to listen to more of these this week and alter ratings if any of them vary from this impression.

War - 6.5
The Unforgettable Fire - 9.5
The Joshua Tree - 9
Achtung Baby - 10
Pop - 7
All That You Can't Leave Behind - 4.5
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb - 4
No Line on the Horizon - 6
Songs of Innocence - 4.5

[ledfloyd]

I should apparently give Achtung Baby a chance at some point.

[MadMan]

No love for Surrender? That song is fantastic.

[MadMan]

I should apparently give Achtung Baby a chance at some point.
I'm going to guess that you will enjoy it a lot. It's rather different from any of their 80s works.

[Thirdmango]

Just about listened to all the albums I care to. Overall this is not a band I like. I like about 2-3 radio hits and then really like about 3 other songs.

[Thirdmango]

Boy 5
October 4
War 7
Joshua Tree 5
Achtung Baby 7
Pop 3
All That You Can't Leave Behind 6
Songs of Innocence 8

[Spinal]

I find that listening to early U2 is a good reminder why we are forced to put up with later U2. I'll have a few ratings up soon. Just trying to catch up a bit before the deadline.

[Pop Trash]

Boy - 9
October - 6 ("Gloria" is one of their best songs tho)
War - 6
Under a Blood Red Sky - 7
Unforgettable Fire - 9
Joshua Tree - 9
Rattle and Hum - 7
Achtung Baby - 10
Zooropa - 9
Pop - 6
All That You Can't Leave Behind - 6
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb - 5 ("City of Blinding Lights" is one their best songs tho)

w/ Brian Eno:
Passengers: Original Soundtracks 1 - 7

[Pop Trash]

I'm with Davis re: War is a bit overrated and Unforgettable Fire is massively underrated. I also have a huge love for 90s era u2 esp. the slept on Zooropa. Plus I don't think Pop is half-bad.

edit: Pop hasn't aged well and I apparently have more nostalgia for Rattle and Hum than I remembered. Ratings updated above.

[Spinal]

Anyone going to brave Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark?

[ledfloyd]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QWYfZLdkAE

[Spinal]

Boy - 7.5
October - 5.5
War - 7
Unforgettable Fire - 7.5
Joshua Tree - 6
Zooropa - 5
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb - 4

I gotta take a break. They're starting to blend together. I want to try to get to Achtung Baby before the deadline though.

[Winston*]

10 Voters

Achtung Baby (9 votes) - 8.6
Unforgettable Fire (7 votes) - 8.5
Joshua Tree (10 votes) - 8.2
Boy (8 votes) - 7.7
Zooropa (5 votes) - 7.6
War (9 votes) - 7.6
Passengers: Original Soundtracks 1 (2 votes) - 7.0
Under a Blood Red Sky (1 vote) - 7.0
No Line on the Horizon (4 votes) - 6.8
October(8 votes) - 6.4
Songs of Innocence (4 votes) - 6.3
Rattle and Hum (5 votes) - 5.9
All That You Can't Leave Behind (7 votes) - 5.6
Pop (6 votes) - 5.3
How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (5 votes) - 5.1

U2's Overall Score - 7.1

[Spinal]

Oops, thought I had more time.

Anyway ...

Achtung Baby - 8

[D_Davis]

I'm with Davis re: War is a bit overrated and Unforgettable Fire is massively underrated. I also have a huge love for 90s era u2 esp. the slept on Zooropa. Plus I don't think Pop is half-bad.

edit: Pop hasn't aged well and I apparently have more nostalgia for Rattle and Hum than I remembered. Ratings updated above.


Zooropa is their most underrated album, for sure. Such a neat, weird, and interesting record.

Unforgettable Fire is the thing that is probably the most responsible for me becoming the person I am today. Introduced me to Eno and Lanois, and because of it I am a musician who specialized in atmosphere.

[Winston*]

Oops, thought I had more time.

Anyway ...

Achtung Baby - 8
Updated.

[D_Davis]

I really like this top 5. I'd only switch 1 and 2.

Achtung Baby (9 votes) - 8.6
Unforgettable Fire (7 votes) - 8.5
Joshua Tree (10 votes) - 8.2
Boy (8 votes) - 7.7
Zooropa (5 votes) - 7.6

[Sycophant]

I've only started listening to these guys in the past few months (thanks to U Talkin' U2 To Me), and wasn't ready to participate, since I've heard less than half and that's all still fresh.

Glad to see so many of us haven't completely written of U2, TBH.

[D_Davis]

I thought they'd fair a lot worse around here.

I'm always shocked by how strong the U2 hate is on the Internet. It's like people have completely written them off without listening to anything they did up through Zooropa, or worse dismissing it because they don't like the new stuff, not realizing that they're actually one of the best and most influential rock bands of all time. It's really weird. They took rock music to whole new levels of sound experimentation while still having hooks and catchy melodies, with strong lyrical content and expertly crafted, cohesive albums.

[Winston*]

People hate Bono. The quality of their music is incidental. It's like Kanye.

Tried Unforgettable Fire earlier this week and just not in the mood for Edge's guitar sound, but willing to give it another go.

[Sycophant]

I thought they'd fair a lot worse around here.

I'm always shocked by how strong the U2 hate is on the Internet. It's like people have completely written them off without listening to anything they did up through Zooropa, or worse dismissing it because they don't like the new stuff, not realizing that they're actually one of the best and most influential rock bands of all time. It's really weird. They took rock music to whole new levels of sound experimentation while still having hooks and catchy melodies, with strong lyrical content and expertly crafted, cohesive albums.

After this showing, I wonder if anyone can accuse us of being a hipster collective agian.

[D_Davis]

After this showing, I wonder if anyone can accuse us of being a hipster collective agian.

U2 - the ultimate shield against accusations of hipster status.

Or, maybe, it's really hip to like U2 again, because we're going against the modern trend.

[Spinal]

I'm still not sure that I'm ready to work U2 into my regular rotation. Like Winston, I get kind of weary of The Edge's guitar style.

But every once in a while, they can really knock a song out of the park.

[MadMan]

I'm not sure why I love U2 so much. Maybe its the guitars. They have pretty awesome lyrics too. I am covering all of their albums (save for their latest) on another site at the moment.

[Thirdmango]

After listening for a week to a lot of U2s albums they're pretty much where they were for me before I listened to them. Just a very generic rock band that I doubt will ever share a regular rotation. I don't hate them, but don't love them either.