on Danger Mouse's production

[AEON]

Cocteau Twins

Treasure
Victorialand
Blue Bell Knoll
Heaven or Las Vegas

All four of these are certifiable masterpieces! The Cocteau Twins are certainly one of my top 5 bands of all time. Victorialand is one of the few albums that must be played all at once.

 

[The Slow Loris]

In addtition to The Beatles, Stones, Zep, Velvets, and Floyd (though I'd drop the Wall and replace it with Meddle, their best non-Syd album) there's:

Depeche Mode

Black Celebration
Music For The Masses
Violator
Songs of Faith and Devotion

Cocteau Twins

Treasure
Victorialand
Blue Bell Knoll
Heaven or Las Vegas

Radiohead

The Bends
OK Computer
Kid A
Amnesiac

Boards of Canada

MHTRTC
Geogaddi
The Campfire Headphase
Tomorrow's Harvest

Can

Monster Movie
(Soundtracks)
Tago Mago
Ege Bamyasi
Future Days

REM

Murmur
Reckoning
Fables of the Reconstruction
Lifes Rich Pageant
Document

Sonic Youth

Bad Moon Rising
EVOL
Sister
Daydream Nation

Bob Dylan

Bringing It All Back Home
Highway 61 Revisited
Blonde on Blonde
John Welsey Harding


U2 have never had a great run of four or more. Rattle and Hum fucks it up, and it can't be ignored to make a case that they had a consistent period of greatness. It's a real U2 album.

Again, look at just the 10 studio cuts, and tell me with a straight face it isn't brilliant:

1) 'Van Diemen's Land' (amazing Edge lead vocal and very unique for U2)
2) 'Desire' (their 1st UK #1 lead single)
3) 'Hawkmoon 269' (incredible lyrics and lead vocal)
4) 'Silver and Gold' (studio version) - (Bono at his most politically charged)
5) 'Angel of Harlem' (U2's best "soul song" to date)
6) 'Love Rescue Me' (beautiful gospel...U2 at its most intimate)
7) 'When Love Comes to Town' (must have been ok to have BB King want to sing it)
8) 'Heartland' (Up there with 'Unforgettable Fire' as U2's most evocative song to date)
9) 'God Part II' (a nice pre-curser to Achtung Baby)
10) 'All I Want Is You' (one of U2's top 10 songs ever...up there with 'With or Without You', and possibly the best lyric Bono has ever penned: "...Eyes in a moon of blindness / A river in a time of dryness / A harbour in the tempest...")

 

[AEON]

Dead Can Dance

Spleen and Ideal
Within the Realm of Dying Sun
The Serpent's Egg
Aion

 

[AEON]

Again, look at just the 10 studio cuts, and tell me with a straight face it isn't brilliant:

1) 'Van Diemen's Land' (amazing Edge lead vocal and very unique for U2)
2) 'Desire' (their 1st UK #1 lead single)
3) 'Hawkmoon 269' (incredible lyrics and lead vocal)
4) 'Silver and Gold' (studio version) - (Bono at his most politically charged)
5) 'Angel of Harlem' (U2's best "soul song" to date)
6) 'Love Rescue Me' (beautiful gospel...U2 at its most intimate)
7) 'When Love Comes to Town' (must have been ok to have BB King want to sing it)
8) 'Heartland' (Up there with 'Unforgettable Fire' as U2's most evocative song to date)
9) 'God Part II' (a nice pre-curser to Achtung Baby)
10) 'All I Want Is You' (one of U2's top 10 songs ever...up there with 'With or Without You', and possibly the best lyric Bono has ever penned: "...Eyes in a moon of blindness / A river in a time of dryness / A harbour in the tempest...")

I may just have to make this a playlist and see how it comes out. You may have a point...

 

[LemonMelon]

Joni Mitchell

Blue
For The Roses
Court and Spark
The Hissing of Summer Lawns

Neil Young

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
After the Gold Rush
Harvest
On the Beach

 

[The Slow Loris]

I may just have to make this a playlist and see how it comes out. You may have a point...

I seriously believe that if U2 had released just those 10 studio tracks and thrown on 'Hallelujah, Here She Comes' after 'Love Rescue Me', we would have had an album as big as The Joshua Tree:

1) 'Van Diemen's Land'
2) 'Desire'
3) 'Hawkmoon 269'
4) 'Silver and Gold' (studio version)
5) 'Angel of Harlem'
6) 'Love Rescue Me'
7) 'Hallelujah, Here She Comes'
8) 'When Love Comes to Town'
9) 'Heartland'
10) 'God Part II'
11) 'All I Want Is You'

 

[DoctorGonzo]

I seriously believe that if U2 had released just those 10 studio tracks and thrown on 'Hallelujah, Here She Comes' after 'Love Rescue Me', we would have had an album as big as The Joshua Tree:

1) 'Van Diemen's Land'
2) 'Desire'
3) 'Hawkmoon 269'
4) 'Silver and Gold' (studio version)
5) 'Angel of Harlem'
6) 'Love Rescue Me'
7) 'Hallelujah, Here She Comes'
8) 'When Love Comes to Town'
9) 'Heartland'
10) 'God Part II'
11) 'All I Want Is You'

I want to live in that world.

 

[AEON]

I seriously believe that if U2 had released just those 10 studio tracks and thrown on 'Hallelujah, Here She Comes' after 'Love Rescue Me', we would have had an album as big as The Joshua Tree:

1) 'Van Diemen's Land'
2) 'Desire'
3) 'Hawkmoon 269'
4) 'Silver and Gold' (studio version)
5) 'Angel of Harlem'
6) 'Love Rescue Me'
7) 'Hallelujah, Here She Comes'
8) 'When Love Comes to Town'
9) 'Heartland'
10) 'God Part II'
11) 'All I Want Is You'

Ok - I created a playlist just as you have it here. It's been a few years since I've listened to some of these - so it will be worth it no matter what.

 

[LemonMelon]

I can't help but think that there's a smoother transition into All I Want Is You than God Part II.

 

[dan_smee]

I want to die right now

 

[LemonMelon]

The National is pretty depressing, yeah

 

[AEON]

The National is pretty depressing, yeah

Most of the best music is - life is strange that way, eh?

 

[Hollow Island]

Again, look at just the 10 studio cuts, and tell me with a straight face it isn't brilliant:

1) 'Van Diemen's Land' (amazing Edge lead vocal and very unique for U2)
2) 'Desire' (their 1st UK #1 lead single)
3) 'Hawkmoon 269' (incredible lyrics and lead vocal)
4) 'Silver and Gold' (studio version) - (Bono at his most politically charged)
5) 'Angel of Harlem' (U2's best "soul song" to date)
6) 'Love Rescue Me' (beautiful gospel...U2 at its most intimate)
7) 'When Love Comes to Town' (must have been ok to have BB King want to sing it)
8) 'Heartland' (Up there with 'Unforgettable Fire' as U2's most evocative song to date)
9) 'God Part II' (a nice pre-curser to Achtung Baby)
10) 'All I Want Is You' (one of U2's top 10 songs ever...up there with 'With or Without You', and possibly the best lyric Bono has ever penned: "...Eyes in a moon of blindness / A river in a time of dryness / A harbour in the tempest...")

It's not brilliant.

Van Deiman's Land is a dreadful pastiche.
The studio version of Silver and Gold sounds half-done compared to the live version and is flat. It's as good as their average b-side from that time. When Loves Come To Town is straight-up garbage. The lyrics are absurd, and U2 are arguable the worst blues band in history. It's wooden, and poorly written. The vocal is good, but that's it.
Love Rescue Me...good God, what the fuck is that monstrosity, and why is it so fucking long??? Like WLCTT and VDL, it's a pastiche. They're trying to do something that doesn't come naturally, which is laudable, but the result is laughable.
God Part 2...well, there's the title, first of all. Lennon's God would disown that wastrel. The words are a rant that seem to say more than they do, and the chorus, or breakdown (the uh-uh, phased everything part) makes me think of someone vomitting after drinking a few gallons of single malt, which is probably what they all did before recording that song.

Desire, Angel of Harlem, Heartland, and All I Want Is You are all among their best work. Hawkmoon works despite the awful lyrics. The sound is amazing.

The album overall is part great, part OK, and part shite. At least the bad songs have really good singing.

I respect them for trying something so foreign to them. It's probably their most experimental record in terms of stretching the boundaries of what they do. Their 91-97 work is clearly more original, but it also taps into their roots because they mainly come from 70s art rock and post punk.

The National are so boring it's depressing.

 

[iron yuppie]

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
After the Gold Rush
Harvest
On the Beach

Wow. That is one hell of a stretch.

Zeppelin has to take the cake, though. III - IV - Houses of the Holy - Physical Graffiti. Sweet Jesus.

 

[AEON]

You know what's funny Slow Loris, I'm clicking through the playlist just to get a quick sense of the "sound" of these songs together - and it's very, very tight and consistent. I can't believe in all these years I didn't make a compilation like this.

Perhaps God Part II is not an exact fit...but close enough thematically. You always need a song or two that hints to the future of the band.

It almost breaks me heart they DIDN'T do this. Your Rattle and Hum edit is certainly better than the last 2 or 3 albums.

 

[The Slow Loris]

Ok - I created a playlist just as you have it here. It's been a few years since I've listened to some of these - so it will be worth it no matter what.

You won't be disapponted. Just imagine that, instead of calling it Rattle & Hum, they took some lyrics from 'Heartland' and called it something poetic like U2: The Sunrise Over Her Skin. Without the big, over the top Hollywood production of Rattle & Hum (the movie) -- and after the huge success of The Joshua Tree -- the public would have eaten it up.....

 

[Hollow Island]

All four of these are certifiable masterpieces! The Cocteau Twins are certainly one of my top 5 bands of all time. Victorialand is one of the few albums that must be played all at once.

Absolutely!

And then there are the EPs from the same period, which I think contain a lot of their best work.

The Spangle Maker (what the fuck is going on when the title track breaks open! my favourite part of any song ever)
Aikea-Guinea
Tiny Dynamite
Echoes In A Shallow Bay
Love's Easy Tears

 

[AEON]

Wow. That is one hell of a stretch.

Zeppelin has to take the cake, though. III - IV - Houses of the Holy - Physical Graffiti. Sweet Jesus.

You know - you might be right. Looking at these lists it seems all of these great bands had that incredible 5 year window where they really hit their stride.

 

[AEON]

Absolutely!

And then there are the EPs from the same period, which I think contain a lot of their best work.

The Spangle Maker (what the fuck is going on when the title track breaks open! my favourite part of any song ever)
Aikea-Guinea
Tiny Dynamite
Echoes In A Shallow Bay
Love's Easy Tears

All great songs - of these Love's Easy Tears may be my favorite.

Judging by your lists - I'm surprised you don't like the The National (another 4AD band).

 

[The Slow Loris]

It's not brilliant.

Van Deiman's Land is a dreadful pastiche.
The studio version of Silver and Gold sounds half-done compared to the live version and is flat. It's as good as their average b-side from that time. When Loves Come To Town is straight-up garbage. The lyrics are absurd, and U2 are arguable the worst blues band in history. It's wooden, and poorly written. The vocal is good, but that's it.
Love Rescue Me...good God, what the fuck is that monstrosity, and why is it so fucking long??? Like WLCTT and VDL, it's a pastiche. They're trying to do something that doesn't come naturally, which is laudable, but the result is laughable.
God Part 2...well, there's the title, first of all. Lennon's God would disown that wastrel. The words are a rant that seem to say more than they do, and the chorus, or breakdown (the uh-uh, phased everything part) makes me think of someone vomitting after drinking a few gallons of single malt, which is probably what they all did before recording that song.

Desire, Angel of Harlem, Heartland, and All I Want Is You are all among their best work. Hawkmoon works despite the awful lyrics. The sound is amazing.

The album overall is part great, part OK, and part shite. At least the bad songs have really good singing.

I respect them for trying something so foreign to them. It's probably their most experimental record in terms of stretching the boundaries of what they do. Their 91-97 work is clearly more original, but it also taps into their roots because they mainly come from 70s art rock and post punk.

The National are so boring it's depressing.

We're all entitled to our opinion, but I obviously have to disagree with pretty much everything you said except for the four songs you praise. I have to say I don't really understand how you can suggest 'When Love Comes to Town' has "absurd" lyrics. This stanza is particularly brilliant:

I was there when they crucified my Lord
I held the scabbard when the soldier drew his sword
I threw the dice when they pierced his side
But I've seen love conquer the great divide

 

[The Slow Loris]

All great songs - of these Love's Easy Tears may be my favorite.

Judging by your lists - I'm surprised you don't like the The National (another 4AD band).

You probably think I'm crazy, but I get a 'Room at the Heartbreak Hotel' vibe from 'Love's Easy Tears'....

 

[cobl04]

Outkast
Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
ATLiens
Aquemini
Stankonia

*drops mic*

 

[nbelcik]

Metallica
Kill 'Em All
Ride the Lightning
Master of Puppets
...And Justice for All
The Black Album

And boom goes the dynamite

 

[lazarus]

FAIL goes The Black Album. That sellout shit doesn't belong on a list with the others.

 

[lazarus]

The studio version of Silver And Gold is from 1985.

So it doesn't belong on an album of post-JT "new" material.

 

[subnet]

Kasabian

Kasabian
Empire
West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
Velociraptor

 

[cobl04]

Pink Floyd:

Dark Side of the Moon
Wish You Were Here
Animals
The Wall

That's exceptional. All of those albums are pretty much considered masterpieces.

 

[The Slow Loris]

The studio version of Silver And Gold is from 1985.

So it doesn't belong on an album of post-JT "new" material.

Well, technically, the version without Keith Richards & Ron Wood was a B-side from the 'Where the Streets Have No Name' single. That is the studio version most people know anyways. I never cared for the Sun City version which you are referring to. In either case, they were both done prior to Rattle & Hum, but I don't think that should really matter since neither version was released on a U2 album. To solve the issue, we could replace it with 'A Room at the Heartbreak Hotel', and it would probably be an even better album for it anyway.

 

[lazarus]

I have Heartbreak Hotel and Hallelujah Here She Comes on my own personal R&H playlist.

 

[The Slow Loris]

I have Heartbreak Hotel and Hallelujah Here She Comes on my own personal R&H playlist.

Wish U2 had released them on R&H, and released all the live stuff on a separate live (only) album....maybe made a double album -- maybe they could have called the live album "Rattle" and the studio album "Hum"....or vice versa.