U2

GodIHateYourBand issued his manifesto on U2 the other day. U2 will always be one of my all-time favorite bands - number one, with their first 7 albums, they don't owe me anything more (and if they wanted to stop making records that's fine) and 2) they were one of the first "real bands" we were given on a shit station like Q94 back when I was a kid. So I will do my album by album slices.

BOY: The thing about BOY is that I will never give two shits about it other than I Will Follow which is definitely a top 3 or 5 U2 slice. The rest, blech.

OCTOBER: Does nothing for me; in fact, my favorite song is one they left off, A Celebration. Which fucking ROCKS and I have no idea why they left it off. Put down the Guinness, boys!

WAR: As is Born to Run with Bruce, U2's third album is the jumping-on point for me. Slices: Sunday Bloody Sunday, Like a Song (album super slice), Seconds, 40, New Year's Day, Two Hearts Beat as One. GIHYB is right that is sounds really dated, that gated snap-drum sound et al, but it's still great.

THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE: I'm listening to this right now (you're welcome, readers) and I must say some of the "album cuts" are better than I remember. Slices: Pride (hard to remember how good it is, since you've heard it a million times, but a great song), A Sort of Homecoming, Bad, Indian Summer Sky, The Unforgettable Fire (dark horse album super slice), Elvis Presley and America. A strange, restrained album. Possible emo-godfather album (ugh.)

Up to this point, one interesting thing about U2 is that a lot of their songs were overshadowed up to this point by live recordings that seem more definitive than the album versions. A la Under a Blood Red Sky and Wide Awake in America, I'd say this applies to Bad (this version was for years my #1 slice of all time, any band), A Sort of Homecoming, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Gloria, 40 (and, later, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For.) A lot of bands rock live when you're there, but it translating so well to tape is rare.

THE JOSHUA TREE: Tough to remember a bigger album of my youth; I can remember me and Brothatime! cruising round town in Butch's Chevelle cranking this when Brothatime! had his learner's permit. # of chicks picked up? 0. Thanks, you drunk fucking micks. Slices: Where the Streets Have No Name, With or Without You, Running to Stand Still (album superslice), Red Hill Mining Town, Exit, Mothers of the Disappeared. A great album everyone's prolly just sick of hearing. HATED SONG ON ALBUM: Bullet the Blue Sky.

RATTLE AND HUM: I LOVE this double album, but nobody in the world seems to agree with me. Maybe the films hurts it. Slices: Hawkmoon 269, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (makes the original obsolete), Angel of Harlem, Love Rescue Me, God Part II (album superslice), All I Want is You. A seemingly overlooked album. Some great shit on there.

ACHTUNG BABY: I kinda poo-poo'ed this at first; maybe cause The Fly was the leadoff single. And astoundingly awful. Lot better in retrospect. Slices: One, Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses, So Cruel (album super slice) Mysterious Ways...hmm. Not a lot of slices. Tho most of the rest is pretty good.

ZOOROPA: oh, god. Awful. Love Numb and The Wanderer, neither of which I believe were sung by Bono. A low point...

POP:...that was somehow surpassed by this steaming pile. Ugh. Like my plate 8 minutes after Dominos has left: no slices.

ALL THAT YOU CAN LEAVE BEHIND: I remember being thrilled with how much I loved this when it came out. Then I put it away. Haven't heard it since. Tho GIHYB's line about Beautiful Day in his post is both funny and accurate. To be honest, I don't even know that I have the title of this album right, and I ain't looking it up.

HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB: Haven't bothered listening; the only good thing that came outta that annoying fucking single that I hated was Bruce's riffing while inducting them into the R&R Hall of Fame. Now that shit was funny. BRRRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCE!!


I'll prolly give the new one a try, but as you can surmise U2 has pretty much run outta steam for me. But as I said, they don't owe me nuthin; until the last few albums they had a great run.