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  1. I do like TUF, the title track makes me a U2 fan for the rest of my live. But the record has also some tracks like, 4th July, Promenade and Elvis Presley and America, which I usually skip.

    Also regret that only Pride and Bad are regulars live.
  2. And then there's the atmospheric sweep of "A Sort of Homecoming." That songs just seems to lift off after the opening drum intro. That has to be one of the best U2 songs of the 80's, and that's saying a lot!
  3. Originally posted by ferrari:I do like TUF, the title track makes me a U2 fan for the rest of my live. But the record has also some tracks like, 4th July, Promenade and Elvis Presley and America, which I usually skip.

    Also regret that only Pride and Bad are regulars live.
    Oh no
  5. This album = bass. Not to mention like The Joshua Tree, it had some incredible B-sides also (Three Sunrises, Love Comes Tumbling, Bass Trap)...wow. This is one of the first U2 albums I ever got and still play it regularly. A total sidestep for U2 and one of their finest moments.

    I find myself, even though they're not strictly UF-era tracks anymore with the additions to them - listening to Yoshino Blossom and Disappearing Act. My favourite song here....hard to say. Between Bad, A Sort Of Homecoming, Wire, Elvis And America, The Unforgettable Fire, Promenade....you get the picture.
  6. Originally posted by drewhiggins:This album = bass. Not to mention like The Joshua Tree, it had some incredible B-sides also (Three Sunrises, Love Comes Tumbling, Bass Trap)...wow. This is one of the first U2 albums I ever got and still play it regularly. A total sidestep for U2 and one of their finest moments.

    I find myself, even though they're not strictly UF-era tracks anymore with the additions to them - listening to Yoshino Blossom and Disappearing Act. My favourite song here....hard to say. Between Bad, A Sort Of Homecoming, Wire, Elvis And America, The Unforgettable Fire, Promenade....you get the picture.
    The B-sides from this era (TUF and JT) are some of their finest work.

    Indian Summer Sky never seems to get it's due...

    Two rivers run too deep, the seasons change and so do I.
    The light that strikes the tallest trees the light away for I.
    The light away, up towards the sky.
    It's a blue sky.

    To lose along the way the spark that set the flame
    To flicker and to fade on this the longest day.
  7. Indian Summer Sky is BY FAR my favourite track on The Unforgettable Fire. It really could've been a single, I think. It's a shame they played it so rarely.

    I really like The Unforgettable Fire, but overall it's never been one of my top favourite albums. I'm not entirely sure why this is, as I don't dislike any of the tracks - maybe it just doesn't quite do it for me unless I'm in a special mood. That said, I agree that it has some of the very best b-sides and bonus tracks of all. Love Comes Tumbling is one of my favourite U2 songs ever, and Three Sunrises, Boomerang II, Disappearing Act, and Yoshino Blossom are all amazing as well.

    My top five on the album:
    5. Wire
    4. A Sort of Homecoming
    3. The Unforgettable Fire
    2. Promenade
    1. Indian Summer Sky
  8. For me this is their best album, plain and simple.
    Better than Joshua, Achtung, Zooropa or whatever you throw at it.

    3 or 4 songs in this album are in my top 10 of all time, including the #1 Bad.
    The others are The Unforgettable Fire, Elvis Presley and America and Promenade.

    And I'm not just talking lightly, it's not like "I love this songs, so they most be in my top 10", no, I'm talking about every time that I make "top" lists, those songs ALWAYS end up in my top 10-15 (In my Top 5, actually, for the first 3 of them). No other album comes close to even get close to that.

    Bad, EPAA, Promenade and TUF are songs that seem to be just flowing without an usual structure, they're just emotions made into music, not necessarily making sense lyrically or logically, they just go up and down, fast and slow, whispering and screaming. That's the best U2.

    (One song that IMHO fits perfectly in that description, and which obviously is also in my top 10 of all the time is Mercy. Sadly, that lack of "structure" was probably the reason why it didn't make the album and instead was modified later in order to make it more "normal". But for me, Mercy is basically a TUF song.)

    In complaining mode:
    I think 4th of July is sort of pointless, and I don't like MLK's studio version (Bono's voice is a bit cringe worthy), and finally, I think that the track order is really underwhelming, which for a long time made me feel like -despite loving the songs individually- that the album as a whole was sort of boring.

    I solved that for myself, changing a little bit the track order, basically pushing Pride and 4th of July to the back of the album (I think Pride works better at the end and 4th is a nice pause at the end, not in the middle):

    1 - A Sort of Homecoming
    2 - Wire
    3 - The Unforgettable Fire
    4 - Promenade
    5 - Indian Summer Sky
    6 - Bad
    7 - Elvis Presley and America
    8 - 4th of July
    9 - Pride
    10 - MLK
  9. Originally posted by Bloodraven:For me this is their best album, plain and simple.
    Better than Joshua, Achtung, Zooropa or whatever you throw at it.

    3 or 4 songs in this album are in my top 10 of all time, including the #1 Bad.
    The others are The Unforgettable Fire, Elvis Presley and America and Promenade.

    And I'm not just talking lightly, it's not like "I love this songs, so they most be in my top 10", no, I'm talking about every time that I make "top" lists, those songs ALWAYS end up in my top 10-15 (In my Top 5, actually, for the first 3 of them). No other album comes close to even get close to that.

    Bad, EPAA, Promenade and TUF are songs that seem to be just flowing without an usual structure, they're just emotions made into music, not necessarily making sense lyrically or logically, they just go up and down, fast and slow, whispering and screaming. That's the best U2.

    (One song that IMHO fits perfectly in that description, and which obviously is also in my top 10 of all the time is Mercy. Sadly, that lack of "structure" was probably the reason why it didn't make the album and instead was modified later in order to make it more "normal". But for me, Mercy is basically a TUF song.)

    In complaining mode:
    I think 4th of July is sort of pointless, and I don't like MLK's studio version (Bono's voice is a bit cringe worthy), and finally, I think that the track order is really underwhelming, which for a long time made me feel like -despite loving the songs individually- that the album as a whole was sort of boring.

    I solved that for myself, changing a little bit the track order, basically pushing Pride and 4th of July to the back of the album (I think Pride works better at the end and 4th is a nice pause at the end, not in the middle):

    1 - A Sort of Homecoming
    2 - Wire
    3 - The Unforgettable Fire
    4 - Promenade
    5 - Indian Summer Sky
    6 - Bad
    7 - Elvis Presley and America
    8 - 4th of July
    9 - Pride
    10 - MLK
    Have you thought of adding Love Comes Tumbling and/or The Three Sunrises to that modified track list? I think they are as part of TUF as the other songs.
  10. Originally posted by Bloodraven:For me this is their best album, plain and simple.
    Better than Joshua, Achtung, Zooropa or whatever you throw at it.

    3 or 4 songs in this album are in my top 10 of all time, including the #1 Bad.
    The others are The Unforgettable Fire, Elvis Presley and America and Promenade.

    And I'm not just talking lightly, it's not like "I love this songs, so they most be in my top 10", no, I'm talking about every time that I make "top" lists, those songs ALWAYS end up in my top 10-15 (In my Top 5, actually, for the first 3 of them). No other album comes close to even get close to that.

    Bad, EPAA, Promenade and TUF are songs that seem to be just flowing without an usual structure, they're just emotions made into music, not necessarily making sense lyrically or logically, they just go up and down, fast and slow, whispering and screaming. That's the best U2.

    (One song that IMHO fits perfectly in that description, and which obviously is also in my top 10 of all the time is Mercy. Sadly, that lack of "structure" was probably the reason why it didn't make the album and instead was modified later in order to make it more "normal". But for me, Mercy is basically a TUF song.)

    In complaining mode:
    I think 4th of July is sort of pointless, and I don't like MLK's studio version (Bono's voice is a bit cringe worthy), and finally, I think that the track order is really underwhelming, which for a long time made me feel like -despite loving the songs individually- that the album as a whole was sort of boring.

    I solved that for myself, changing a little bit the track order, basically pushing Pride and 4th of July to the back of the album (I think Pride works better at the end and 4th is a nice pause at the end, not in the middle):

    1 - A Sort of Homecoming
    2 - Wire
    3 - The Unforgettable Fire
    4 - Promenade
    5 - Indian Summer Sky
    6 - Bad
    7 - Elvis Presley and America
    8 - 4th of July
    9 - Pride
    10 - MLK
    Pride would actually make a sweet album closer, too. So like switching MLK and Pride.
  11. Originally posted by blueeyedboy:[..]
    The B-sides from this era (TUF and JT) are some of their finest work.

    Indian Summer Sky never seems to get it's due...

    Two rivers run too deep, the seasons change and so do I.
    The light that strikes the tallest trees the light away for I.
    The light away, up towards the sky.
    It's a blue sky.

    To lose along the way the spark that set the flame
    To flicker and to fade on this the longest day.
    I think I read somewhere that they couldn't play "Indian Summer Sky" to their satisfaction live, so they only played it a few times. U2 has a history of doing that. They can be perfectionists.
  12. Originally posted by Bloodraven:For me this is their best album, plain and simple.
    Better than Joshua, Achtung, Zooropa or whatever you throw at it.

    3 or 4 songs in this album are in my top 10 of all time, including the #1 Bad.
    The others are The Unforgettable Fire, Elvis Presley and America and Promenade.

    And I'm not just talking lightly, it's not like "I love this songs, so they most be in my top 10", no, I'm talking about every time that I make "top" lists, those songs ALWAYS end up in my top 10-15 (In my Top 5, actually, for the first 3 of them). No other album comes close to even get close to that.

    Bad, EPAA, Promenade and TUF are songs that seem to be just flowing without an usual structure, they're just emotions made into music, not necessarily making sense lyrically or logically, they just go up and down, fast and slow, whispering and screaming. That's the best U2.

    (One song that IMHO fits perfectly in that description, and which obviously is also in my top 10 of all the time is Mercy. Sadly, that lack of "structure" was probably the reason why it didn't make the album and instead was modified later in order to make it more "normal". But for me, Mercy is basically a TUF song.)

    In complaining mode:
    I think 4th of July is sort of pointless, and I don't like MLK's studio version (Bono's voice is a bit cringe worthy), and finally, I think that the track order is really underwhelming, which for a long time made me feel like -despite loving the songs individually- that the album as a whole was sort of boring.

    I solved that for myself, changing a little bit the track order, basically pushing Pride and 4th of July to the back of the album (I think Pride works better at the end and 4th is a nice pause at the end, not in the middle):

    1 - A Sort of Homecoming
    2 - Wire
    3 - The Unforgettable Fire
    4 - Promenade
    5 - Indian Summer Sky
    6 - Bad
    7 - Elvis Presley and America
    8 - 4th of July
    9 - Pride
    10 - MLK
    I like your phrase "emotions made into music." That sums up how I've always felt about U2, and I agree that traditionally structured songs are not always necessary. "Bad" is an all-time U2 classic that just flows without much structure, and the results are spectacular as we all know!