Best U2 albums lyrically

[bobsaget77]

Musical content isn't the main premise here, it's rankings based on lyrical content.

1 Zooropa
2 Joshua Tree
3 Pop
4 Achtung Baby
5 The Unforgettable Fire
6 Rattle and Hum
7 October
8 War
9 Boy
10 SOI
11 Atomic Bomb
12 OST1
13 ATYCLB
14 NLOTH

Zooropa may seem totally out of left field, but it's lyrically brilliant through and through.
Dirty Day and One Tree Hill are the two best U2 songs lyrically imo.
October is another one of left field, but I think the lyrics are actually really interesting, but I'll probably get murdered for ranking it that high.

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[LemonMelon]

Excellent:

1. The Joshua Tree (amazing)
2. Zooropa (amazing)
3. The Unforgettable Fire (beautiful stuff, could be higher, but there are too many instrumentals)
4. Achtung Baby (worth the hype, very moving, only a few lines miss the mark)
5. Pop (some missteps, but mostly honest and adventurous)

Very good:

6. Boy (hugely underrated, some great observations about youth here)
7. Rattle & Hum (aims high and mostly connects)
8. War (some tracks in the back half drag it down, mostly great)
9. Passengers (what there is of it is gorgeous)


Decent/mixed bag:

10. October (you can tell Bono had to throw these together, but still pretty solid)
11. NLOTH (some really good, some really bad)
12. SOI (all decent, nothing special)
13. ATYCLB (some real clunkers, only a handful of powerful moments)

Fucking shit:

14. Bomb (overall pretty corny, lacks focus)

 

[Axver]

I basically agree with LM from 1-10. However, for the bottom four, I'd put them all in the rubbish category:

11. SOI - best of the worst.
12. ATYCLB - corny cliche parade.
13. HTDAAB - corny cliche parade round two.
14. NLOTH - any album with Boots, Breathe, Unknown Caller, and Stand Up Comedy is immediately a contender for title of U2's worst album lyrically. Unfortunately for NLOTH, it has all four of them.

 

[cobl04]

My ranking would effectively be the same as my rankings musically. Funny that the albums with great lyricism are also my favourite musically. War is probably the only album that I would rank a big higher on lyrics.

I'd just about agree with Ax on NLOTH though. I don't think Unknown Caller cops enough crap around here. Eye-poppingly atrocious.

 

[LemonMelon]

Lyrical clunkers aside, I would still take MOS, Cedars and Fez over anything from HTDAAB, from a lyrical standpoint. One Step Closer is OK, but that's about it.

 

[Axver]

My ranking would effectively be the same as my rankings musically. Funny that the albums with great lyricism are also my favourite musically. War is probably the only album that I would rank a big higher on lyrics.

For me this isn't always true. October, for instance, really gets me musically - I love post-punk U2 - and the vocal delivery has so much passion, enthusiasm, and unbridled sincerity, even if the lyrics are rather weak in many places.

I'd just about agree with Ax on NLOTH though. I don't think Unknown Caller cops enough crap around here. Eye-poppingly atrocious.

God, that chorus. Inexcusable. To think the band thought it might make a worthwhile singalong live too. That was so awkward.

Lyrical clunkers aside, I would still take MOS, Cedars and Fez over anything from HTDAAB, from a lyrical standpoint. One Step Closer is OK, but that's about it.

I see where you're coming from, and I'd agree NLOTH has more good lines than HTDAAB. The problem is it has more shit lines too. I cringe more relistening to it than I do HTDAAB - especially when Stand Up Comedy comes on. The line about helping god across the road like a little old lady is Bono's single worst lyric.

 

[cobl04]

haha when it came out i made a post about liking that lyric. what a fucking idiot i was in 2009.

 

[Kieran McConville]

U2's trouble is they no longer have any ability to tell when they're good and when they're not. Occasionally they're great but they don't realise it, and often they're garbage but think they're hitting brilliance. That's how songs like Stand Up Comedy or whatever get on albums.

For better or worse, NLOTH is probably the end of the U2/Eno/Lanois project. Kind of a shame really.

 

[cobl04]

I hit on the same thing in a blog post I'm writing on my fav songs of the year. The Troubles stands head and shoulders above the rest of SoI, but I bet if you asked the band for the album's great stuff they would completely forget it exists.

 

[digitize]

For better or worse, NLOTH is probably the end of the U2/Eno/Lanois project. Kind of a shame really.

I hope not. I've come to agree with what Nick often says on this matter: we may pine for more variety, but Eno/Lanois (or at least one of the two) is the production arrangement that consistently brings quality to U2. But this is from someone who thinks that NLOTH is the best post-Zooropa U2 album. In fact, the only non-Eno/Lanois album that I think is better than an Eno/Lanois album is Pop, which I slightly prefer to ATYCLB. And even it had Flood, another old standby for U2, at the controls.

(I'm counting Zooropa here as Eno/Lanois even though it's Eno/Flood. The important thing is that at least one of the two is present. Eno was also only barely present for ATYCLB and Achtung Baby.)

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[RaisedByWolves]

Best lyrics: Achtung Baby

Worst lyrics: NLOTH

example:

Restart and re-boot yourself
You're free to go
Oh, oh
Shout for joy if you get the chance
Password, you, enter here, right now

and of course

Stand up, this is comedy
The DNA lottery may have left you smart
But can you stand up to beauty, dictator of the heart
I can stand up for hope, faith, love
But while I'm getting over certainty
Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady

don't forget

Coming from a long line of travelling sales people on my mother's side
I wasn't gonna buy just anyone's cockatoo
So why would I invite a complete stranger into my home
Would you?

enough said

 

[LemonMelon]

With a mouth full of teeth
Ya aaatteee all your friendss
And you broke evry heart
Thinking every heart mends

 

[CosmoKramer]

With a mouth full of teeth
Ya aaatteee all your friendss
And you broke evry heart
Thinking every heart mends

Ugh....why did you remind me of this shit storm of a lyric!

What does that even mean and if someone told me, would it really make it better?


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[CosmoKramer]

Best lyrics: Achtung Baby

Worst lyrics: NLOTH

example:

Restart and re-boot yourself
You're free to go
Oh, oh
Shout for joy if you get the chance
Password, you, enter here, right now

This song is ruined by these lyrics. The premise of the song is great and the lyrics I heard in a promotional video clip were so much better(far more relatable and less cheesy).

This song had potential to be an 8 or 9 for me but ultimately is a 4/4.5 due to these lyrics....blah!!!!!


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[Kieran McConville]

I hit on the same thing in a blog post I'm writing on my fav songs of the year. The Troubles stands head and shoulders above the rest of SoI, but I bet if you asked the band for the album's great stuff they would completely forget it exists.

That quick fade-out at the end of that song is them forgetting that it exists. Actually it's just the sound of Larry turning out the lights. You know, the way a radio will dribble away over a couple of seconds if a storm knocks your electricity out.

 

[Kieran McConville]

I hope not. I've come to agree with what Nick often says on this matter: we may pine for more variety, but Eno/Lanois (or at least one of the two) is the production arrangement that consistently brings quality to U2. But this is from someone who thinks that NLOTH is the best post-Zooropa U2 album. In fact, the only non-Eno/Lanois album that I think is better than an Eno/Lanois album is Pop, which I slightly prefer to ATYCLB. And even it had Flood, another old standby for U2, at the controls.

(I'm counting Zooropa here as Eno/Lanois even though it's Eno/Flood. The important thing is that at least one of the two is present. Eno was also only barely present for ATYCLB and Achtung Baby.)

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POP is probably the only era I can think of where their absence (sure, Flood, whatever) wasn't a problem. Then again, their presence doesn't seem able to help a confused band with no real clue that much either.

 

[bobsaget77]

This song is ruined by these lyrics. The premise of the song is great and the lyrics I heard in a promotional video clip were so much better(far more relatable and less cheesy).

This song had potential to be an 8 or 9 for me but ultimately is a 4/4.5 due to these lyrics....blah!!!!!


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up:
My thoughts exactly.


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[Oregoropa]

I like the Cockatoo line strangely enough

 

[LemonMelon]

I don't have any problem with it either. Better than some faceless heart/soul/kneel shit.

 

[Axver]

It's just idiotic. It's Bono desperately and very self-consciously trying to write a "quirky" or "funny" lyric and failing completely. Most of Breathe's verses can be described this way.

 

[bono_212]

I actually really like the lyric from Crumbs that LeMel highlighted. Couldn't say why, exactly.

 

[thavidesco]

Achtung Baby

 

[YBORCITY]

I basically agree with LM from 1-10. However, for the bottom four, I'd put them all in the rubbish category:

11. SOI - best of the worst.
12. ATYCLB - corny cliche parade.
13. HTDAAB - corny cliche parade round two.
14. NLOTH - any album with Boots, Breathe, Unknown Caller, and Stand Up Comedy is immediately a contender for title of U2's worst album lyrically. Unfortunately for NLOTH, it has all four of them.[/QUOTE

I usually agree with everything you post but because of the dialogue on here about the best and worst of these guys I really learned something. I give to much crap to October, listening to it again brought me back to early U2 fanhood, there's some very good material there. But today I listened to NLOTH then Bomb... As much shit I give about Boots, SUC, Unkown Caller, I found Bomb to be almost unlistenable. Maybe MOS kinda saves NLOTH for me but man Bomb was awful
Whether you like SOI or not you gotta admit lyrically it is stronger than last two at least.

 

[Axver]

I usually agree with everything you post but because of the dialogue on here about the best and worst of these guys I really learned something. I give to much crap to October, listening to it again brought me back to early U2 fanhood, there's some very good material there. But today I listened to NLOTH then Bomb... As much shit I give about Boots, SUC, Unkown Caller, I found Bomb to be almost unlistenable. Maybe MOS kinda saves NLOTH for me but man Bomb was awful
Whether you like SOI or not you gotta admit lyrically it is stronger than last two at least.

When SOI came out I decided to revisit NLOTH for the first time in ages - I hadn't heard anything from it since 2012 and I hadn't played the album in full since late 2009. I was genuinely stunned by how much I disliked it. Songs I thought I remembered positively just did not hold up; essentially, what I remembered failed to gel with the reality of what I was hearing. The best example is Unknown Caller, which I remembered as "decent song with a somewhat weak chorus". I couldn't get through it without wincing.

SOI is definitely an improvement in the lyrics department, though I'd say the outright clunkers of HTDAAB and NLOTH have just been replaced by really awkward phrasings where Bono tries to say too much or be too clever. I woke up, became awake and alert, at the moment, the precise second, when the miracle or miracles occurred, happened, and transpired. Or whatever the fuck he sings.

He definitely hasn't written a lyric as good as Cedarwood Road for a while, and I suppose he eventually had to write a good song with "soul" in the lyrics - you can't fail every single time if you use a word that often!

 

[YBORCITY]

See, that's how I felt about when listening to Bomb, songs that I thought I liked sounded just blah.

Great descriptive on Bono's writing, I couldn't agree more

 

[Musikwala]

SOI is miles ahead of the clunkers on NLOTH, the entirety of Atomic Bomb or several songs on ATYCLB. Bono has finally redeemed himself in the lyrics dept. Off the top of my head I cannot think of a single line on SOI that I have a problem with.

 

[Axver]

Off the top of my head I cannot think of a single line on SOI that I have a problem with.

"Tomorrow dawns like a suicide"? "Something in your mouth to blow" (I won't hear any other interpretation of that line)? Trying to fit as many syllables as possible into The Miracle? All of Song for Someone?

 

[BVS]

"Tomorrow dawns like a suicide"? "Something in your mouth to blow" (I won't hear any other interpretation of that line)?

One you have wrong...

And how could you find "tomorrow dawns like a suicide" as a problem, given the other dark subjects Bono has tackled? Do you not get it?




And the whole fitting as many syllables doesn't fly with me, I have never understood anyone who follows music to use that as something bitch about...

Do you hate on Bruce, REM, and the Smiths as well?

 

[bobsaget77]

And the whole fitting as many syllables doesn't fly with me, I have never understood anyone who follows music to use that as something bitch about...



Do you hate on Bruce, REM, and the Smiths as well?

I agree with part of this....
I don't really think he's getting too many syllables on the Miracle and it fits with the vibe of the song for the most part. However, he totally destroys a possibly great song in Breathe with his old white guy, dad rock rapping. It's awful.
And to your 2nd statement, Stipe is way more smooth with fitting a lot of syllables into the songs and it just works with there music. It doesn't work with U2 music for the most part. This is kind of a recent gimmick for Bono because I think his lyrics aren't as powerful as they used to and their music is now less atmospheric.

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[BVS]

I syllables into the songs and it just works with there music. It doesn't work with U2 music for the most part. This is kind of a recent gimmick for Bono because I think his lyrics aren't as powerful as they used to and their music is now less atmospheric.

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I'm asking you an honest question, so I want you to answer me honestly...

Stipe's lyrics weren't always that "powerful" at the beginning, or honestly throughout. Why not give Bono the same give? Is it because it's later in his career?