Now first of all U2 are my favourite band full stop - so any of TheRealEdge haters out there just go and post in another thread, y'know one about how great Bono's nostril hair is, as this is a discussion for the big boys.
I was just thinking about what was the last classic tune written by the band and when was it?
A 'classic' has to be instantly likeable by the majority - not just U2 fans - and a quality tune that has longevity and not just some dumb ass pop hit to please the masses and the bank manager (Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran please take note).
I think their last classic tune was Vertigo.
So that's quite shocking for a band that has sooooooo much talent that they have been in the wilderness for so long.
The albums post Vertigo have been of poor quality. Not of poor musicianship nor poor song-writing but they are poorer for the lack of 'classic' tunes.
And please don't mention Boots or Magnificent because you'll just be helping me make my point ya ding dong
Again - 14 years since they last wrote a stomping classic.
U2 the teenage years - wanting to change the world (which they haven't: Trump in the Whitehouse, the rise of the far right, terrorism and we all know what a piece of shit the Chinese government is and the state of my own country the UK haw haw haw) and to get in touch with the fans (which they did hence their millionaires mansions) wrote I Will Follow for example (interestingly when Bono was 14) - an instant 'classic' that they still play and people love to hear to this day.
U2 the millionaire years - not one classic tune in 14 years!
If any of you can see through my playfulness then you will realise that I am making an interesting observation here but I do understand that it will go over the majority of the fanatics heads.
I’d make a case for COBL, it’s certainly well known enough and well liked enough to be considered a classic. I would say songs like Every Breaking Wave, song For Someone and love is bigger would have been much more popular singles if they’d been released in the early 00’s but mainstream music seems to have changed somewhat in the last decade and a half or so and not for the better imo. I’m very happy with what u2 have been releasing lately though. I’d rank all of SOI above vertigo and most of SOE above it as well.
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh Bono didn't write I Will Follow when he was 14, in fact it wasn't even close to one of the first songs the band wrote - they didn't even have it under their belts for the National Stadium 1979 show when they were offered their record deal, bruh (when Bono would've been 19). Just gotta flex that trivia when I can lmao.
As for the discussion at hand - I agree with you, TheRealEdge - I don't think the band have written a "classic" since Bomb - but I'd side with Dean and say City of Blinding Lights was more of a classic than Vertigo. Vertigo is a big hit at U2 shows, but the masses got so sick of it at the time because it was so overplayed on the radio and on the iPod commercial. That South Park episode didn't help, either. I just think history has been kinder to COBL - and I also think it's a way better song.
To side with Dean again, yeah - I think it's hard to determine what songs since then may have been "classics" in terms of popularity because let's face it, the genre that U2 write music in is not what's popular anymore. Rock was alive and well through the 90s, and I would say there was a renaissance for it in the mainstream in the mid-2000s, but since then it's pretty much gone nowhere but downhill.
That being said though - I really don't think they've put out a "U2 anthem" as good as City of Blinding Lights since then. That's not to say I haven't enjoyed many of their songs in that time - but I don't think they've been able to capture lightning in a bottle again in terms of a song that's catchy, captures that "U2 sound" in a such a definite way, has universal but simple lyrics, etc. It's a love song, a song about aging, a song about innocence, and it has a killer hook to boot.
Window in the Skies might be a contender, but it didn't get that mainstream reach like City of Blinding Lights did - and it's a little derivative IMO (though I do love it).
Based off recent songs I’ve heard on the radio (not counting 93.1 XRT here in chicago because they play their entire catalogue, B-Sides included) I would say Every Breaking Wave and Best Thing.
People are lazy listeners. With Apple Music/Spotify where playlists dominate, it’s a lot easier to choose songs here and there at random rather than be “forced” to listen to an album all the way through. Songs like Little Things (what I consider a classic myself) tend to get missed because of it.
It’s Vertigo. No question. Vertigo is one of them singes hat just sounds like it has always existed. Just like Beautiful Day before it. They’ll not have another like it.
Little things is the best song they've done since Achtung baby IMO ,"Song for someone" is their most popular song on streaming sites since "Vertigo " for an 80s band they've done pretty well in getting their new stuff heard I can't think of any 80s bands that have had a string of hits post 2000 .If Queen, Pink Floyd ,Led Zeppelin or even The Beatles were still together and making new music they would struggle to get it heard among all the manufactured Karaoke pop stars who pay these Social media and YouTube influencers to hype up their music
I’ve got to agree with Alex by saying it’s just not feasible for U2 to have another classic, because nobody really cares about rock anymore. I don’t think that means it’s over, or will stop existing, or anything- or even that people don’t like it anymore! Just that it’s not what popular music is now. The classics aren’t coming from rock bands. Bomb was released when rock was big (in large part I’d say due to U2 and the turn of the new century alt rock bands that owe so much of their sound to U2, like Coldplay and The Killers) and I’d argue No Line caught the very end of rock’s major popularity, but by the 2010s the music scene just isn’t the same.
U2 have had several songs since Vertigo and COBL that OUGHT to be U2 classics - not just because they’re songs I like a lot, I’m not so naive or self-centered as to suppose my U2 opinions ought to be everyone’s, but because they very much fall into the same vein as U2 songs that are considered classics. Every Breaking Wave, The Little Things, and Love Is Bigger certainly occupy the same sonic and thematic landscapes that WOWY, Beautiful Day, One, COBL, Streets, and ISHFILF do. I’d say that Get Out of Your Own Way, Song For Someone, and The Miracle - as well as a good few non-singles - aren’t too far off from U2’s other enduring classics either. This isn’t to say that they are - or aren’t - of the same quality as the big hits, as that’s a nearly pointlessly subjective line to draw. It’s just that there’s no way they’ll get there, because people aren’t invested in rock music like they were 20 or even just 10 years ago.
If U2 released the JT or AB today they would not make half the impact they did at the time they first came out, the climate has changed dramatically Rock music while still massive has been pushed to the background in favour of disposable one hit wonders and it's one of the main reasons that a lot of other 80s bands don't release new music anymore and just trade off past glories because it just ain't worth the hassle they will get very little or no airplay the albums disappear out of the charts very quickly if at all they even make the top 100 and when they play live shows most won't have heard the new stuff and just wanna hear the classics.
Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:they didn't even have it under their belts for the National Stadium 1979 show when they were offered their record deal, bruh (when Bono would've been 19). Just gotta flex that trivia when I can lmao.
You mean 1980 right? Gotta flex that trivia when I can
