Whenever I think about U2's albums, I think of them in trilogies. Boy, Ocotber, and War are one, The Unforgettable Fire, The Joshua Tree, and Rattle and Hum the second, and Achtung Baby, Zooropa, and POP the third (ATYCLB doesn't figure in yet, that would blow my whole theroy
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Anyway, I was thinking about how I would rate them, and how the band progressed in those periods. This is how I see it.
Boy, October, War: The weakest trilogy. Boy I love, October and War I can barely stand to listen to. I think of this era, Boy, Gloria, SBS, and New Year's Day is pretty much the bulk of everything that's worth anything in the long run (those non-Boy songs mainly because of how they've evolved over time in live shows and in meaning). I would chock it up to youth, but I think Boy sounds just as good as any of their albums, so I just think October and War are slight bumps in the road.
Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree, Rattle and Hum: The middle of the pack, in ever sense. UF is where the band really started to hone their own sound in my opinion, and stood out of the crowd a bit. Joshua Tree is pure rock and roll at its finest, and obviously put U2 on the map. Rattle and Hum was a "glorious failure" as Bono put it, a growing pain that had to happen for the future brilliance to happen.
Achtung Baby, Zooropa, POP: Hands down the best to me. Achtung Baby is my favorite album by any humans in the of the world, so enough said there. Zooropa takes the idea of Zoo TV and puts it to a tune, and is a weird, trippy masterpiece. Though not extremely commercial success, it looked like a Star Wars movie in sales next to POP (at least that's how the media spun it). POP, the red-headed stepchild of U2 albums, is the darkest, pessimistic, intelligient album U2 ever made, which is one of the reasons it gets wasted by so many people I think.
And with ATYCLB we apparently have the beginning of a new trilogy. Will it top the first three? We'll have to wait and see.
So does anyone else think this way, and if so, how do you rate them?
Anyway, I was thinking about how I would rate them, and how the band progressed in those periods. This is how I see it.
Boy, October, War: The weakest trilogy. Boy I love, October and War I can barely stand to listen to. I think of this era, Boy, Gloria, SBS, and New Year's Day is pretty much the bulk of everything that's worth anything in the long run (those non-Boy songs mainly because of how they've evolved over time in live shows and in meaning). I would chock it up to youth, but I think Boy sounds just as good as any of their albums, so I just think October and War are slight bumps in the road.
Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree, Rattle and Hum: The middle of the pack, in ever sense. UF is where the band really started to hone their own sound in my opinion, and stood out of the crowd a bit. Joshua Tree is pure rock and roll at its finest, and obviously put U2 on the map. Rattle and Hum was a "glorious failure" as Bono put it, a growing pain that had to happen for the future brilliance to happen.
Achtung Baby, Zooropa, POP: Hands down the best to me. Achtung Baby is my favorite album by any humans in the of the world, so enough said there. Zooropa takes the idea of Zoo TV and puts it to a tune, and is a weird, trippy masterpiece. Though not extremely commercial success, it looked like a Star Wars movie in sales next to POP (at least that's how the media spun it). POP, the red-headed stepchild of U2 albums, is the darkest, pessimistic, intelligient album U2 ever made, which is one of the reasons it gets wasted by so many people I think.
And with ATYCLB we apparently have the beginning of a new trilogy. Will it top the first three? We'll have to wait and see.
So does anyone else think this way, and if so, how do you rate them?
