Unpopular U2 opinions

Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:This is something I've said before, but it's somewhat of a split opinion:

U2 should've retired with the release of U218, U2byU2 - in 2006

The reason I say it's split is because I never would've got to see them live had they done the above, and we never would have gotten 360 and the other good things that have come since. This being said, I think they've only been detracting from their legacy, or at the very least not adding anything to it, since then. U2 in 2004-2006 were on top of the world. Rock was still pretty mainstream (there was even a sort of resurgence of it on the radio at the time), Bomb was a crazy-selling album that received many accolades etc., Bono's voice was still in really good shape (listen to the Saitama show from towards the end of that tour) and it would've been a great place to stop. Couple that with U218 and U2byU2, which are basically both memoires for the band, and the single, Window in the Skies which to me is very much a "perfect U2 anthem" - not their best by any stretch, but it gives you that feeling that all great U2 anthems do, IMO.

It's one of those things where I think it would've been best for them, worst for me - but I think when it comes to their legacy, their output, the perspective people have on them - it would've been a great place to say "that's where we'll end it".

Originally posted by unknowncaller98:[..]

Dare I say it- but in any band I'd say the drummer is the most likely to not add anything to the band (there are obvious exceptions to this of course.)

Originally posted by bpt3:[..]
I actually really like this. Of course I'm glad they kept making music and are still around, but this makes a lot of sense. They were thinking about calling HTDAAB "Man", anyway, right? The band seems to want to forget NLOTH (unfortunately). And I feel like both SOI and SOE were actually attempts to flesh out more at length what they had originally wanted to convey on Bomb ten years earlier, anyway. Bono described HTDAAB as "songs of innocence, songs of experience" in U2 by U2, right?

And that last part of COBL, "the more you know the less you feel, some pray for, others steal...blessings not just for the ones who kneel, luckily." All of the sudden that to me feels like it could sum up U2's entire career trajectory.

Originally posted by bpt3:[..]
I actually really like this. Of course I'm glad they kept making music and are still around, but this makes a lot of sense. They were thinking about calling HTDAAB "Man", anyway, right? The band seems to want to forget NLOTH (unfortunately). And I feel like both SOI and SOE were actually attempts to flesh out more at length what they had originally wanted to convey on Bomb ten years earlier, anyway. Bono described HTDAAB as "songs of innocence, songs of experience" in U2 by U2, right?

And that last part of COBL, "the more you know the less you feel, some pray for, others steal...blessings not just for the ones who kneel, luckily." All of the sudden that to me feels like it could sum up U2's entire career trajectory.

Originally posted by Reach1985:[..]


Also, it must be remembered that they were going back to the early days of the band on the Vertigo tour - at least initially before it all got a bit Live 8 in the middle. They were playing a lot of Boy and making the connection between Vertigo and Stories For Boys sharing a similar lyric. They also started playing Vertigo at the beginning and the end of the sets a la the early days and I Will Follow. This sort of told the story of the band a bit better than the more hack/obvious/literal storytelling (all a bit Broadway in parts) that we saw on SOI and both the i&e and e&i tours.

Originally posted by popmarter:[YouTube Video]
Glastonbury is better than Volcano and American Soul the two songs it morphed into. :T

Originally posted by polarbearu2:Here’s mine. U2 albums from the last 20 years get a lot better if you cut them down to 9 songs each.