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  1. Originally posted by ViniedgeU2:I don't get why most people rate R&H so low. It has Angel Of Harlem, Desire, All I Want Is You, WLCTT, Hawkmoon, Silver and Gold, God Pt. II, Love rescue me, HeartLand, a song sang by Edge and amazing live performaces of songs every fan loves. For me, is a master piece, just below Joshua Tree and Baby.
    I think most of the album is made up of 6/7 out of 10 songs which isn’t really good enough for u2. Heartland, all I want is you and Angel of Harlem stand out as strong songs, WLCTT is one of the bands weaker songs imo, desire is very average and the rest are just good, nothing special. Always been one of my least favourite of the bands.
  2. Originally posted by deanallison:[..]
    I think most of the album is made up of 6/7 out of 10 songs which isn’t really good enough for u2. Heartland, all I want is you and Angel of Harlem stand out as strong songs, WLCTT is one of the bands weaker songs imo, desire is very average and the rest are just good, nothing special. Always been one of my least favourite of the bands.
    Always had love for RAH played it over and over,I agree there are too many fillers,they should've included more live songs instead,was SBS pulled because of Bono's revolution rant?
  3. 1. Achtung Baby
    2. The Joshua Tree
    3. Pop
    4. Zooropa
    5. The Unforgettable Fire
    6. Songs Of Innocence
    7. No Line On The Horizon
    8. Boy
    9. Rattle & Hum
    10. War
    11. How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
    12. All That You Can't Leave Behind
    13. October
    14. Songs Of Experience
  4. Originally posted by ViniedgeU2:I don't get why most people rate R&H so low. It has Angel Of Harlem, Desire, All I Want Is You, WLCTT, Hawkmoon, Silver and Gold, God Pt. II, Love rescue me, HeartLand, a song sang by Edge and amazing live performaces of songs every fan loves. For me, is a master piece, just below Joshua Tree and Baby.


    agreed. i can say that was the album that made me be a fan.
  5. Originally posted by ViniedgeU2:I don't get why most people rate R&H so low. It has Angel Of Harlem, Desire, All I Want Is You, WLCTT, Hawkmoon, Silver and Gold, God Pt. II, Love rescue me, HeartLand, a song sang by Edge and amazing live performaces of songs every fan loves. For me, is a master piece, just below Joshua Tree and Baby.

    Some critics mauled it because they didn't like the band claiming all of a sudden they were influenced by the blues and getting BB king, Bob Dylan ,Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards in to make it sound more realistic ,up to that point they had been carving out their own sound with the help of Eno/Lanois but some saw this as the band jumping on a bandwagon rather than been the innovators they had been with the previous albums.
  6. Having embarked on a "pandemic boredom" project of going through the band's albums/singles/notable show bootlegs/interviews in chronological order, it's now become even clearer to me that the essence of the negative reaction to R&H and Pop 10 years later (and the subsequent partial disowning of these projects by the band) is about the perception of U2 (and Bono especially) buying a little bit too much into their bullshit. And being embarrassed by it in hindsight years later. In the case of TJT/R&H it actually starts with The Joshua Tree Tour itself, which has its fair share of embarrassing moments (such as the SF/Sinn Fein incident, or the graffiti incident from the same show and Bono's reaction to it for that matter).

    The movie itself has some genuine Spinal Tap moments, although the concert footage (Tempe stuff especially) is great. And then the album is just a bit of a mess, the way it mixes new material with live covers and original songs. Would have been much better if they split it into two discs, one live and one with the new stuff. Or split it into two projects really.
  7. Originally posted by GayThePrayAway:1. Achtung Baby
    2. The Joshua Tree
    3. Pop
    4. Zooropa
    5. The Unforgettable Fire
    6. Songs Of Innocence
    7. No Line On The Horizon
    8. Boy
    9. Rattle & Hum
    10. War
    11. How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
    12. All That You Can't Leave Behind
    13. October
    14. Songs Of Experience
    The more time that passes, the more I agree about SOE being dead last.
  8. 1. Achtung Baby
    2. The Unforgettable Fire
    3. The Joshua Tree
    4. War
    5. Zooropa
    6. Boy
    7. All That You Can't Leave Behind
    8. Rattle & Hum
    9. Pop
    10. How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
    11. October
    12. Songs of Experience
    13. No Line On The Horizon
    14. Songs of Innocence
  9. Originally posted by germcevoy:[..]
    Well if I claimed round here that Zooropa was better than the Joshua Tree then I’d have a hard time dealing with the responses.

    I prefer a fish supper to a fancy meal at a three time Michelin star restaurant. Is a fish supper ‘better’ than what a three star Michelin star chef cooks? Not likely. I’d still pick the fish supper though.


    Never understood how people who make tires rate restaurants. It would be like a shoe store telling me what concerts I should go to. I've probably got 5 replies in this thread, and my ratings hardly ever change, so it's kind of a time waster, but I love U2, and despite the slow period both for U2, and for the geniuses that control Prince's music, I still think new music will be something to make me happy. Now on to my list...
  10. Originally posted by ChurchBay:1: Achtung Baby
    2: The Joshua Tree
    3: Zooropa
    4: The Unforgettable Fire
    6: War
    7: Pop
    : Songs of Experience

    8: All That You Can't Leave Behind
    9: Boy
    10: How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
    11: October
    12: Songs of Innocence
    13: No Line On The Horizon

    I just don't count Rattle and Hum as an album. For me Passengers is more eligible to be included on the list. If it includes live tracks, some of which are live tracks from their previous album then it disqualifies it for me.

    Don't have any qualms about placing SOE relatively high. A year on from the release of SOE I'd happily put it as joint 7th favourite along with Pop an excellent achievement. It is for me, from the moment I listened to it, a dramatic upsurge in form from their previous two. There are moments on it that genuinely recapture the spirit of U2, something that was largely missing in their previous two albums. Little Things, Lights of Home, Love Is All We Have Left and 13 are genuinely heartfelt messages that hit the mark of 'experience' in a way they failed with 'Innocence'. To balance out the weight of experience we get the brighter and breezier tunes like Red Flag Day and Summer of Love which allude to distressing themes but the tightness and slickness of them pack a different kind of punch. The only misfires I can really say that feature on that album are Best Thing and American Soul. GOOYOW is unremarkable but I can see why people may like it. Little question in my mind that SOE is their best effort of the 21st century.


    Rattle And Hum not an album? When I rank it, I just note that I'm ranking the studio tracks only. It's that simple. With your logic, you are ignoring an album with 9 new studio songs, which was considered a full album back in those days. In fact, there are only 5 full length live tracks on it. If you include the ridiculous decision to include Hendrix, and Jim Bob and Satan(can't remember what they were really called), those two tracks total 81 seconds!
  11. 1. Achtung Baby
    2. The Joshua Tree
    3. Pop
    4. Rattle And Hum
    5. War
    6. Zooropa
    7. All That You Can't Leave Behind
    8. The Unforgettable Fire
    9. How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
    10. No Line on the Horizon
    11. Boy
    12. October
    13. Songs of Experience
    14. Songs of Ignorance

    Hasn't changed much over the years. The thing that distinguishes the top albums from the bottom ones is that by the time you get to TUF(Elvis), and Bomb(Love And Peace, One Step Closer), you start to get songs that are either filler or B-Side Quality. I am in the rare rare rare minority here to think that SOE is MILES MILES MILES beyond Songs Of Ignorance. Yes, I refuse to use the William Blake Title. I'm also afraid every single U2 album to the bitter end will be Songs Of....Please, just end it already. I like a lot about SOE, but lots of filler, and to me, the failed attempt at a great song: Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way, and the failure to embrace Book Of Your Heart, or The Little Things.
  12. Happy 36th birthday to The Joshua Tree