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  1. Vertigo isn’t a classic. Beautiful Day is perhaps their last, if not, you’ve got to go all the way back to One.

    Describing Vertigo as “a quality tune”. Brilliant.
  2. Vertigo. No way I’d rate it above Beautiful Day but it is one of those ubiquitous songs that just feels like it has been around forever. I think it qualifies.

  3. In the 2000s they made more great music than what people might usually think, but I guess that only this one will last in 10, 20, 50 years.
  4. Window In The Skies is what I would move towards but SYCMIOYO is another contender. It won a Grammy for Song Of The Year in 2006.
  5. It all comes down to what you mean by a "classic" and, to me, it sounds like you're talking about a radio hit and, on that point, I agree. I don't listen to a lot of FM radio but the only songs from the 21st century that get played seem to be Beautiful Day and Vertigo. But I don't think a song needs to be a radio hit to be a classic, some of the most potent songs in their set list were never singles or didn't chart well.

    My perspective on the more recent releases is opposite to yours. Personally, I really enjoy the Songs as complementary bookends with a theme and I love the bridges created between the two albums by repeating lyrics and sounds. In time, I expect tracks like EBW, LIBTAIIW, Blackout and GOOYOW to become classics. They're all good songs, but not what radio wants to play these days.
  6. Hey it's good to see so many replies as you guys know I'm just a wind-up merchant who likes to take the p*ss out of the fanatics to the right of the band he he

    But I'm making a serious point and I don't think it's always down to radio-playing genres.

    You guys do mention some top tunes but they just fall short of being a classic.

    Elbow, Snow Patrol and Coldplay (yes, I did say Coldplay on a U2 forum) have all had big classics since Vertigo so why not our band.

    I think a classic is a classic and it can be a stand-alone tune that generates wide-spread interest and likeability even to other genre-orientated fans.

    It's like when people/morons say 'I love With Or Without You but hate Bono' - that is a classic that transcends well, moronity (yep, a made-up word but you get my point).

    I'm not a big Ed Sheeran fan but feck me if Castle On The Hill ain't a stomping tune - and a modern day classic.

    So there still are opportunities for the right (or wrong) band regardless of genre to write a classic (and not necessarily in an attic).
  7. Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:"this is a discussion for the big boys"

    "wrote I Will Follow when Bono was 14"

    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).


    Glad you spotted that at least someone was paying attention.

    But you could say that the genesis of the song did begin with the death of his mother when he was 14 and those feelings he had evolved into the final lyrics.

    So I guess I was right all along

    thanks
  8. Originally posted by Sydney_MIke:It all comes down to what you mean by a "classic" and, to me, it sounds like you're talking about a radio hit and, on that point, I agree. I don't listen to a lot of FM radio but the only songs from the 21st century that get played seem to be Beautiful Day and Vertigo. But I don't think a song needs to be a radio hit to be a classic, some of the most potent songs in their set list were never singles or didn't chart well.

    My perspective on the more recent releases is opposite to yours. Personally, I really enjoy the Songs as complementary bookends with a theme and I love the bridges created between the two albums by repeating lyrics and sounds. In time, I expect tracks like EBW, LIBTAIIW, Blackout and GOOYOW to become classics. They're all good songs, but not what radio wants to play these days.
    in my country, on FM radio I always listen to Even Better Than The Real Thing, Vertigo or Beautiful Day lol
  9. Originally posted by Welsh_Edge:Window In The Skies is what I would move towards but SYCMIOYO is another contender. It won a Grammy for Song Of The Year in 2006.
    And was the first time U2 had a consecutive No1 in the UK.......and last No1 come to think of it.
  10. Blackout for sure would've been a number 1 in the UK had it been around 10-15 years ago probably also YTBTAM up there too,like many have said times have changed regarding general public going out and buying cd singles etc.
    I dont think it helps now they are so old nowadays,they have in essence become like the rolling stones selling out concerts and great album sales but less relevant to modern day music.Hey i'm cool with that,keep on rocking!
  11. A car has to be 25+ years old to be considered a classic; by that criterion, the most recent classic is certainly One. And if they are not considered classics now, then some time in the future we will look upon Beautiful Day and Vertigo as such.

    U2 haven't put out anything as ubiquitous as BD or Vertigo since 1991 that might be considered classic.
  12. I don’t think rock is dying. It’s just not the main dominate genre like it was in the 80s and early 90s. I’d say it’s even with hip hop.

    I just honestly think nobody cares about U2 anymore. They’re releasing great music but it’s “just another U2 album. They had an opportunity to blow people away with a new direction in No Line, but then they release Get On Your Boots instead of literally anything else. Sure, it had a big tour, but ended up turning into an Achtung celebration. Then the whole SOI on the phone fiasco, just another reason for people to be annoyed with U2.

    Anyway, U2 were already groundbreaking and new. They’re at the end of their career and still putting out great music, but haven’t done anything daring in 10 years. I don’t think anything they do, no matter how good, will make much of a difference in peoples opinion of them. Hoping they accept that and go into their next record with nothing other than wanting to make music for themselves and not try to make music for anyone else.