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Active topics
  1. Love is Bigger Than Anything in It's Way
  2. NOT City of Blinding Lights.
  3. I'd also add Magnificent and Moment of Surrender.
  4. I think Ordinary Love is a ''classic''.
  6. Although nothing has blossomed into the public consciousness since Vertigo and City of Blinding Lights, I would say Love is Bigger has the most potential to do so. One person I know who is in high school surprisingly has this in one of their Spotify playlists. Of course, it only came out in 2017, so give that song a few years… or a feature in a movie. Or a campaign.
    To that end, I’d say whatever U2 song people use in a movie, TV show, or campaign will get a second life. Though Love is Bigger has the best shot. Great sound, simple message.

    EDIT: Also… I love the thread name. Very clever.
  7. If we agree that a classic is something the majority of non U2 fans know, then I'd say Ordinary Love is somewhat a classic. All my friends know Ordinary Love just like they know WOWY, Beautiful Day, Vertigo and I still hear it on the radio a lot. But it's weird when you think about it, as many of you already pointed out, rock music just isn't popular nowadays, but this doesn't mean U2 haven't had classic-ish songs. Songs like Magnificent, Song for someone, Love is bigger and the proper rocknroll Blackout version would be more massive a few years before. These songs, along with many other recent U2 songs, are a mixture of anthemic U2 with bits of their signature sound formed throughout the years. So, in today's world I think it's hard to have a rock 'classic'. However, in our U2 world and the greater rock world, there's no doubt that SOI and SOE combined has got a lot of quality and we can surely pick tunes that would be way more popular if they were released a few years back.
  8. The last true classic was One.

    Beautiful Day and Vertigo kinda come close in so far as they have universal awareness or appeal, though in truth both probably annoy the shit out of a lot of people too.

    City of Blinding Lights and Love Is Bigger are actually shite. They may have some perceived ‘classic’ U2 motifs or signifiers, but really they are just Big and bloated, reminding listeners of certain past glories with their universal lyrical platitudes and unimaginative music.

    But ‘classics’ shouldn’t necessarily be the barometer by which a band’s greatness is measured. American Pie, Stairway to Heaven, Imagine, Bohemian Fucking Rhapsody or whatever are undeniable ‘classics’ according to perceived wisdom, but I sure as hell don’t want to listen to them anymore. Take Creep by Radiohead, an accepted classic, but is it their best song or an example of their art at its best? Fuck the classics! Worrying about adhering to a classic sound or producing hits is debilitating for an artist and results in crap like COBL or Love is Bigger.
  9. Originally posted by TheRefugee:The last true classic was One.

    Beautiful Day and Vertigo kinda come close in so far as they have universal awareness or appeal, though in truth both probably annoy the shit out of a lot of people too.

    City of Blinding Lights and Love Is Bigger are actually shite. They may have some perceived ‘classic’ U2 motifs or signifiers, but really they are just Big and bloated, reminding listeners of certain past glories with their universal lyrical platitudes and unimaginative music.

    But ‘classics’ shouldn’t necessarily be the barometer by which a band’s greatness is measured. American Pie, Stairway to Heaven, Imagine, Bohemian Fucking Rhapsody or whatever are undeniable ‘classics’ according to perceived wisdom, but I sure as hell don’t want to listen to them anymore. Take Creep by Radiohead, an accepted classic, but is it their best song or an example of their art at its best? Fuck the classics! Worrying about adhering to a classic sound or producing hits is debilitating for an artist and results in crap like COBL or Love is Bigger.
    One person's classic is another's annoying POS.

    I think there are post Atomic Bomb songs that are rank among the band's best work. For me anyway.
  10. Invisible is another one.
  11. Beautiful Day