Rank the Album Among Others

[powerhour24]

Zooropa surprises you? The Blue Crackers love it, rightly so.

 

[roy]

That brand new release hyperbole in full effect.

Could you be more patronising?


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[purpleoscar]

That brand new release hyperbole in full effect.

I'm sure things will shift quite a bit in the coming years and at least one more new album.

 

[powerhour24]

Yeah it's patronizing to notice a trend. If you want to believe that people will really rank this over Boy, War, etc. go back and look at how people reacted to the last two albums when they came out and how their standing around here diminished.

 

[purpleoscar]

I think it'll stay in the middle but not be at the bottom. It's not likely to be in the top 3 which isn't a big deal considering their age.

 

[roy]

Yeah it's patronizing to notice a trend. If you want to believe that people will really rank this over Boy, War, etc. go back and look at how people reacted to the last two albums when they came out and how their standing around here diminished.

I was actually talking about your patronising attitude


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[bobsaget77]

Two more October fans! Glad to see you DomCobb and SpiralStaircase. Please don't say you hate I Fall Down too though LOL.

Sent from my SPH-L720T using U2 Interference mobile app

Tomorrow is absolutely phenomenal. One of the most underrated U2 songs ever. And I Fall Down is great. October is a really good album.

 

[RobertWiscy]

Tomorrow is absolutely phenomenal. One of the most underrated U2 songs ever. And I Fall Down is great. October is a really good album.

Woo-hoo! Another one. I think Iris is a fantastic bookend to Tomorrow.

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[bobsaget77]

1. The Joshua Tree
2. Achtung Baby
3. The Unforgettable Fire
4. Boy
5. Zooropa
6. Songs Of Innocence
7. October
8. War
9. Pop
10. No Line On The Horizon
11. All That You Cant Leave Behind
12. Rattle and Hum
13. Atomic Bomb

 

[wolbersu2]

1. Achtung Baby
2. War
3. The Unforgettable fire
4. No line on the horizon
5. Songs of innocence
6. POP
7. The Joshua Tree
8. Zooropa
9. October
10. All that you can't leave behind
11.Boy
12 Rattle and hum
13.How to dismantle an atomic bomb.

I prefer the more European sounding albums.



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[DomCobb]

Two more October fans! Glad to see you DomCobb and SpiralStaircase. Please don't say you hate I Fall Down too though LOL.

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Yeah I too am glad to see others like it. I really don't get all the hate. The album's awesome. And "I Fall Down" is probably my fifth favorite track off of it.

 

[Nick66]

With 45 rankings here's the status:

Achtung Baby
The Joshua Tree
The Unforgettable Fire
Zooropa
Songs of Innocence
Pop
Boy
All That You Can't Leave Behind
War
No Line On the Horizon
Rattle and Hum
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
October

What a shock the top 3 are.

SOI at #5 after the all time classics+Interference favourite Zooropa? Um....OK.

October deserves better than this.

Thanks for doing this!

 

[hillers]

At the moment:

1) Achtung Baby
2) The Joshua Tree
3) War
4) Pop
5) The Unforgettable Fire
6) Songs of Innocence
7) Boy
8) Zooropa
9) No Line on the Horizon
10) Rattle and Hum
11) How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
12) All That You Can't Leave Behind
13) October

 

[Irvine511]

Achtung Baby
Joshua Tree
Boy
ATYCLB
SOI
Zooropa
War
NLOTH
Bomb
Pop
UF
R&H
October


The top 3 are firmly established, and so is the last one. The rest really are all almost interchangeable on any given day.


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[SpiralStaircase]

I genuinely can't understand why October is consistently rated worst U2 album. It might not have the hits War does but there are no songs I skip, unlike the album after.

 

[LemonMelon]

With 45 rankings here's the status:

Achtung Baby
The Joshua Tree
The Unforgettable Fire
Zooropa
Songs of Innocence
Pop
Boy
All That You Can't Leave Behind
War
No Line On the Horizon
Rattle and Hum
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
October

 

[Irvine511]

I genuinely can't understand why October is consistently rated worst U2 album. It might not have the hits War does but there are no songs I skip, unlike the album after.

War has it's misses but it has monumental tracks like SBS and NYD, as well as fan favorites like Drowning Man. I also love Like A Song. It's one of their albums that I grew up with and drew me in deep -- the fire and the anger were very appealing as a teenager. I think so many U2 albums are simply due to who you were when you discovered them and how they sparked your imagination. It's so subjective. And how much the presence of me great song on an album redeems the ones you don't like. For me, I find the first 7 songs on ATYCLB nearly flawless, and they improve live (a big part of my own evaluation of U2 songs) and I never listen to the back half of the album (except for WILATW). So, while I find other albums to have fewer turds, the good so far outshines the easily skippable bad that it ranks highly for me, and it was an album I needed at a particular point in my life.

I bet you anything I'll rank SOI lower in a few years, but maybe not. I'm taking a break from it this weekend to see how it sounds with refreshed ears. That said, the hooks are rattling around my head like I can't remember another album doing.


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[Nick66]

Kind of funny how high it's ranked, all things considered.

In the months and years leading up to this, mostly what you heard around here was stuff like...

I want...

...something "experimental"...
...a "low key" release, just put it out there...
...something for "the fans"...
...for U2 to stop trying to be the biggest band in the world...
...for U2 to stop trying to make radio friendly pop hits!

Now that they've ignored all that and put out a pretty safe, mainstream collection of songs (great as they are) by partnering with one of the biggest corporations in the world with the biggest record release in history, all that's forgotten. To know what U2 was going to do all we had to do was expect U2 to act like U2.

It's amazing how good music just takes care of everything else.

 

[Irvine511]

It's very vibrant, and strangely bombastic and subtle at the same time. I think I agree that this is the album they wanted Bomb to be.

We'll have to see how the songs wear. While I find half of ATYCLB timeless, I now feel that Bomb comes too close to parody-U2/Bon Jovi and NLOTH is a total slog in some places. But at the time? It's been so long I can't even remember specifics.


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[jphelmet]

1a The Joshua Tree
1b Achtung Baby
3 The Unforgettable Fire
4 Pop
5 Songs of Innocence
6 Boy
7 Zooropa
8 How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
9 War
10 All The You Can't Leave Behind
11 Rattle and Hum
12 No Line on the Horizon
13 October

 

[Airseven]

Achtung Baby
The Joshua Tree
War
The Unforgettable Fire
Zooropa
Rattle & Hum
Pop
Boy
Songs Of Innocence
All That You Can't Leave Behind
October
No Line On The Horizon
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb

 

[lazarus]

Yeah it's patronizing to notice a trend. If you want to believe that people will really rank this over Boy, War, etc. go back and look at how people reacted to the last two albums when they came out and how their standing around here diminished.

This.

But considering the mental capacity of most of the people on this part of the forum, they can't comprehend ideas like "patterns", "hyperbole", etc. much less acknowledge that they may be participating in them.

 

[LemonMelon]

This board after an album release

It'll be bottom 5 in a few years, more quickly if Songs of Experience is rush released (which will also be top 5 before falling precipitously). NLOTH was top 5 too at one point, with its tracks completely dominating the song survivors, but now it's all the way in the bottom 4. That's just how it is.

 

[prbiker15]

With 45 rankings here's the status:

Achtung Baby
The Joshua Tree
The Unforgettable Fire
Zooropa
Songs of Innocence
Pop
Boy
All That You Can't Leave Behind
War
No Line On the Horizon
Rattle and Hum
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
October

I find this surprising, but it's been 5 days since the album was released, so it shouldn't be.

 

[the tourist]

I'll go something like this:

1. The Joshua Tree
2. The Unforgettable Fire
3. Boy
4. Achtung Baby!
5. War
6. Songs of Innocence
7. October
8. Zooropa
9. Pop
10. No Line on the Horizon
11. Rattle & Hum
12. All That You Can't Leave Behind
13. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

 

[purpleoscar]

After 52 votes:

Achtung Baby
The Joshua Tree
The Unforgettable Fire
Zooropa
Songs of Innocence
Pop
Boy
War
All That You Can't Leave Behind
No Line On the Horizon
Rattle and Hum
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
October

War moved decisively past ATYCLB but Boy is still ahead. Songs of Innocence gets closer to Zooropa but not quite there. The top 3 are unassailable and the bottom 2 are close together. Rattle and Hum will not fall further without a ton of last places showing up. I guess it helps when you have All I want is you, Desire, Angel of Harlem, When love comes to town, and Hawkmoon 269. Pop is way ahead of Boy and very close to Songs of Innocence.

 

[Lila64]

War has it's misses but it has monumental tracks like SBS and NYD, as well as fan favorites like Drowning Man. I also love Like A Song. It's one of their albums that I grew up with and drew me in deep -- the fire and the anger were very appealing as a teenager. I think so many U2 albums are simply due to who you were when you discovered them and how they sparked your imagination. It's so subjective. And how much the presence of me great song on an album redeems the ones you don't like. For me, I find the first 7 songs on ATYCLB nearly flawless, and they improve live (a big part of my own evaluation of U2 songs) and I never listen to the back half of the album (except for WILATW). So, while I find other albums to have fewer turds, the good so far outshines the easily skippable bad that it ranks highly for me, and it was an album I needed at a particular point in my life.

I bet you anything I'll rank SOI lower in a few years, but maybe not. I'm taking a break from it this weekend to see how it sounds with refreshed ears. That said, the hooks are rattling around my head like I can't remember another album doing.


Sent from

^THIS

I grew up with War, so it holds a special place for me, too.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

To be honest album ranking threads should be avoided until several weeks after the release of the album have lapsed.

With that said, I don't agree with slamming other posters for having SOI so high, even less so crawling out of B&C to slam most of the posters here as having a low mental capacity.

 

[Axver]

This board after an album release

It'll be bottom 5 in a few years, more quickly if Songs of Experience is rush released (which will also be top 5 before falling precipitously). NLOTH was top 5 too at one point, with its tracks completely dominating the song survivors, but now it's all the way in the bottom 4. That's just how it is.

Yep. It's amazing to think back to how highly HTDAAB and NLOTH were ranked immediately after release. If I could be bothered I'd dig up the old Album Survivor results; both did very well at their release, but in later editions fell sharply. To be honest I'm actually surprised that Songs of Innocence is "only" fifth; it has received an all-round more positive reception than the last two albums from Interference (certainly less vitriolic hate and bickering), so I wouldn't have been surprised if this forum's over-enthusiasm had placed it fourth, even third.

Will be interesting to see how it falls - whether it follows the pattern of NLOTH and especially HTDAAB in plummeting to the cellar, or if it bucks that trend to settle somewhere around the middle.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

Pop
Achtung Baby

The Joshua Tree
Zooropa
Unforgettable Fire

Songs of Innocence

No Line On The Horizon
All that You Can't Leave Behind

War
Boy

Bomb

Rattle And Hum
October

Ranking is fun