Best Song Survivor v2: War era

[Axver]

Please vote for your FAVOURITE song(s).
The top FIVE songs from this era proceed to the Early 1980s Quarter Final.

Welcome to the War era round in Best Song Survivor v2! The object of this game is to find Interference's favourite U2 songs. Each album will be featured in a single round with the non-album tracks from its era. The amount of finalists from each era is based on seeding from the latest U2 Album Survivor. These rounds will last 48 hours and will be multiple choice polls where you vote for your favourite tracks (within reason). A suggestion is to vote for the amount of tracks that will proceed to the next round, although this is not a hard and fast rule. Remember that there is a tradeoff: if you vote for more songs, the power of each of your votes is dampened, but if you vote for fewer songs, you get to spread your influence less far.

Only original U2 songs with official studio releases will compete. However, you are free to vote on the basis of live versions, alternate versions, remixes, etc., as in the normal version of Survivor. Basically whatever you think best represents the song in your mind.

Like the Boy round before it, the October round had a close fight for its last qualifying spot for the finals. The top four positions, however, were determined in a pretty decisive manner. The results were:

(bold = qualified for finals)
1. Gloria - 43 votes
=2. October - 35
=2. Tomorrow - 35
4. A Celebration - 24
5. Rejoice - 17
6. Party Girl - 16
7. I Threw a Brick Through a Window - 15
=8. Fire - 14
=8. I Fall Down - 14
10. Scarlet - 11
=11. Stranger in a Strange Land - 7
=11. With a Shout - 7
13. Is That All? - 6
14. J. Swallow - 3
(Total votes: 52)

 

[Axver]

Thank fuck Rejoice made it through ahead of Party Girl. That was a close call. Party Girl's a fun bit of fluff live, but by god it's terrible in studio.

For this round, New Year's Day and Treasure are top fifteen U2 songs of mine. Fucking amazing tracks. Like a Song is right up there too.

 

[Galeongirl]

SBS
NYD
Like A Song...
Drowning Man
40
Angels Too Tied To The Ground


If only War didn't have Red Light and Surrender, it'd be one of my favourite albums.

 

[cobl04]

Fucked in the ear.

 

[intedomine]

Stoked to see Celebration go through - would have liked a couple more votes for Brick Through Window.

This round not as fun as the previous round, the songs just aren't as good.

 

[Vlaco]

Sunday Bloody Sunday, New Years Day, Like A Song, Drowning Man and Two Hearts.

 

[Axver]

Bemused that two songs as good as Seconds and Surrender don't have a vote yet but Red Light does.

Though that Red Light vote is from friggin' Cobbler, so it doesn't really count.

 

[LadySpinHead]

SBS, Seconds, NYD, Two Hearts, 40

 

[gvox]

In order not to dilute my vote too much - which is hard from an album I really like the majority of - I sacrificed Seconds for Surrender.

And Like A Song is the best song on the whole damn planet.

 

[digitize]

Just NYD and Drowning Man for me. Two masterpieces.

 

[bonocomet]

Seconds
New Year's Day
40
Treasure (Whatever Happened to Pete the Chop?)


My least favorite U2 album here. However New Years Day is stellar, and I love 40. Seconds and Treasure are great. I stopped there, but Drowning Man, 2 Hearts, and SBS are good too. Even though it's my least favorite U2 album I still like it and can appreciate every song here in some way.

 

[cleazer]

Wow, I find the shocking lack of respect for War on this board to be truly offensive. It's easily one of U2's top 5 albums, and it's the one that really made them big. You people call yourselves U2 fans?

I have no clue how I can limit myself to just voting for 5 or 6 songs here. I might have to vote for 9 or 10, but I know that would dilute my vote.

 

[An Cat Gav]

Seconds
NYD
The Refugee
Treasure
Drowning Man

 

[cleazer]

Okay, narrowed my final choices down to 7.

New Year's Day
Sunday Bloody Sunday
2 Hearts
The Refugee
Like A Song
Surrender
Treasure


Looking at the current votes, I really hope Two Hearts Beat As One makes it through.

 

[Rhiannon64]

War was the first U2 album I bought I'm thinking in late '83 or 84. It was a very different album for my record collection because I was really into classic rock at the time. This record got me into other groups such as The Alarm and Simple Minds.

My fave songs:
SBS
Seconds
NYD
Two Hearts
Surrender--I love the line "If I wanna live I've got to die to myself someday."

Love this record!

 

[BlueSilkenSky]

Seconds, New Year's Day, Drowning Man, Sunday Bloody Sunday

 

[PhilsFan]

Like a Song should be a minute shorter. The ending really takes away from everything that had built up to that point. Still, it's probably one of the five best here so it'll get my vote, along with Sunday Bloody Sunday, New Year's Day, Drowning Man and Treasure.

"40" is a nice closer, but it's overrated. It's a nice bassline from Edge and Bono singing religion stuff and all. Whatever.

 

[the tourist]

Wow, you don't like that primal outro? I think it only adds to the fierceness of the song. Then again, Like a Song is a top 10 overall for me.

 

[PhilsFan]

Not at all. It's meandering and goes nowhere. It's nice in the middle as a brief breakup, but when they bring it back at the end? It feels like the momentum of those vocals and guitar parts from earlier in the song are completely washed away. It has never worked for me. It'd probably be my second favorite song on the album behind New Year's Day without that stuff.

 

[PennyLanePHINS]

SBS, NYD, Surrender (underrated!), Like a Song..., Two Hearts Beat as One

 

[Globo14]

I don't like much from this era, to be honest. It's not bad music, it's just never connected with me. So I was super boring and voted for New Year's Day and Sunday Bloody Sunday.

 

[Axver]

I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I think that War is definitely the weakest of the first three albums. It has some massive high points, but it has low points lower than Boy or October.

 

[Globo14]

I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I think that War is definitely the weakest of the first three albums. It has some massive high points, but it has low points lower than Boy or October.

I would probably share that opinion. Boy is a great debut, and October is consistent, albeit consistently mediocre. War has a couple great ones, a few decent ones, and a lot of really low stuff.

 

[Axver]

I find October a bit patchy, but when it's good, it's really good - especially the run from Brick to With a Shout. It stumbles with I Fall Down, but that's not exactly on the level of Red Light.

War, on the other hand, may have an all time classic in the form of NYD, but good god it becomes a forgettable album the moment Drowning Man finishes. The only song I rate much in studio form after Drowning Man is Surrender. Definitely one of U2's most front-loaded albums.

 

[LemonMelon]

War is ludicrously underrated on this forum. I never see it shit on anywhere else, including sites that are pretty anti-U2 like rateyourmusic.

 

[BlueSilkenSky]

I thought I was the only one who found War to be the weakest of the first three albums... The first side has some strong songs, but the second side is mostly forgettable (even 40... I think it's very overrated; it doesn't go anywhere). I think Boy is the strongest of their first three albums.

 

[LemonMelon]

I do agree, however, that Boy is the best of three.

 

[Nick66]

War is an interesting case. When I first heard it, I thought unquestionably it was better than October or Boy. It was certainly more successful, and I believe at the time it was almost universally regarded as U2's best record to date, and I still believe most casual fans would regard it as such. Certainly the presence of songs like NYD (still one of U2's best) and SBS contribute to that. And War is when a lot of people discovered U2, and people tend to always have affection for their first love.

Having said that, I don't believe it's aged as well as Boy and October, and outside of a few of the songs most of the recording sounds dated to me in a way the others don't. Conversely, I think just how powerful and brilliant a debut record Boy was has become more and more apparent over the years.

 

[Mauwer]

New Year`s Day
Drowning Man
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Seconds
Surrender

 

[iron yuppie]

War is easily the best of the first three albums for me. The intensity is palpable throughout the entire thing. There is nothing contrived or over-wrought about it; in short, it feels raw and honest, which is a combination that no other U2 album achieves save perhaps Boy.