Best and worst album flows

[Caleb8844]

So today I was thinking about albums that have such a great flow that the sum is greater than the parts, and albums that tracklisting actually takes away from the songs, even if they're great on their own. So that got me wondering: What are U2's best and worst flowing albums?

I'd probably say: Best= Achtung Baby/ Unfortgettable Fire. Worst= Htdaab

 

[AnCatKatie]

I'd go with Achtung Baby for best, too, and I think Boy flowed pretty well, actually...

Worst for me would probably be NLOTH...it did not flow. At all.

 

[An Cat Gav]

Not quite on the subject of flow I guess but has there ever been a more musically diverse, fascinating or creative sequence of songs than Zooropa, Babyface, Numb, Lemon and Stay? Each one a musical departure for U2.

Other than that Boy, TUF and AB work well for me.

 

[lemonfly]

For me, the very worst in terms of flow has to be Rattle & Hum. With the live stuff and interview snippets and whatnot, it's just so jarring. Get rid of all that stuff, just leave the studio tracks and it flows pretty well.
Bomb is all over the place. MD as the no.2 song is where it goes wrong, and it never really recovers.
The top tier are AB, JT, Zooropa and UF for me. And POP. It starts with a party (Discotheque) and ends with a funeral (WUDM) and goes to incredible places in-between. Definitely much, much greater than the sum of it's parts.

 

[Earnie Shavers]

No Line is annoyingly disjointed, in a few ways, and could have been done better, perhaps with a substitute or two. Bomb has practically no flow to it, but there's also nothing you could do about it. I don't think they were in the 'album' album mindset, naturally or deliberately (Bono at the time was talking a lot about the iTunes/iPod age, album being dead, every song should be a stand alone/single kind of thing) and that compilation feel just is what it is.

UF, JT, AB, Zooropa and Pop are all great.

 

[BVS]

Speaking of flow the only thing that's always bugged me about JT is the transition from WOWY to BTBS it's just so jarring.

 

[AnCatKatie]

^ Agreed.

And totally forgot about Rattle & Hum. That would probably replace NLOTH for me.

 

[gareth brown]

not when you have The Joshua Tree on remastered double vinyl
but seriously, I never really had a problem with the flow from WOWY to BTBS, i think there's enough silence between the two for you to 'take in' WOWY when it's faded out and for the album to go 'right, that's the U2-at-its-most-U2 radio friendly out the way, HOW ABOUT THIS?!" when those drums kick in.

 

[ozeeko]

I always dug the way WOWY lulls you into a false sense of security before Bullet slaps you across the face.

 

[Cactus Annie]

I like to skip, repeat and play songs in the order I would like to play them in. That's why I like CD's. You can also press the shuffle button. This is a fun way to listen to music because a 12 track CD has an endless list of different order combinations and the CD player never repeats the same order twice.

 

[nielsgov]

Unforgettable Fire is definitely number one. Zooropa is probably second. The obvious worst ones are Bomb and R&H. NLOTH would flow well but there are three songs in the middle that mess it up.

 

[Hollow Island]

Zooropa and Achtung are the best. October also flows really well, aside from the fart of "Is That All?"

Pop has terrible flow. It would be better on vinyl, but not by much.

No Line isn't too good, but if 'd kept the Linear version it would be their best flowing record.

Rattle and Hum doesn't flow too well, but that's the point. it's supposed to be a mess.

 

[theedgeu2]

NLOTH really has a terrible flow to it, imo. Those three in the middle just jack it all up. Actually I do like Crazy Tonight and think that it fits well, so that fits well after Unknown Caller but GOYB really screws the pooch. R&H doesn't really fair much better either. Everyone here seems to hate HTDAAB anyway so I'm not surprised that people give it the ranks of worst flowing. I also know that's why many of you hate it, is that it doesn't work as an "album". I've always thought the songs transitioned well and I've always enjoyed the flow of the tracks but I'm right smack in the minority there. I love HTDAAB btw, in case you don't know.

Zooropa has to be my favorite flowing album of U2's. I love how Zooropa ends and then you get that twinkling that is Babyface! Then Numb's heavy kick drum and really sort of laid back feel come in. Lemon really goes great after Numb and Stay, my favorite track by anyone ever, comes in really beautiful with the guitar. I have no words really for how awesome Zooropa's flow is. I'm constantly putting that album on as it just works as ONE. I really like the adventure I go on every time I listen to Zooropa as a whole. Achtung Baby flows quite nicely as well. My next pick after Zooropa, then JT. What's funny about that is my top 3 U2 albums are:

1. Achtung Baby
2. Joshua Tree
3. Zooropa

 

[Outsider]

The albums that flow well for me are Pop and Zooropa. I may hit skip once or twice. The worst IMO - HTDAAB and NLOTH. Does U218 count?

 

[U2girl]

The best: JT, AB, UF.

The worst: Rattle and Hum and Pop.

 

[Salome]

I love the flow of No Line
I thinnk going from Unknown Caller to Crazy is just about brilliant
and Crazy is the perfect start of the middle 3 piece of the album

best is probably Zooropa though
followed by Unforgettable Fire

worst are How to Dismantle ... and POP
neither really have any flow