Originally posted by Welsh_Edge:[..]
Huh.
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).
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.
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.