Ranking Achtung Baby Songs

[tabela]

Joshua Tree
1.Running to Stand Still
2.With or Without You
3.In God's Country
4.Where the Streets Have No Name
5.Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
6.One Tree Hill
7.Exit
8.Red Hill Mining Town
9.Mothers of the Dissapeared
10.Bullet the Blue Sky
11.Trip Through Your Wires


Achtung Baby
1.Love is Blindness
2.The Fly
3.One
4.Until the End of the World
5.Ultraviolet
6.Acrobat
7.So Cruel
8.Mysterious Ways
9.Trying to Throw Your Arms Around the World
10.Even Better Than the Real Thing
11.Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
12.Zoo Station

 

[Lancemc]

The Joshua Tree

1. Where The Streets Have No Name
2. Running To Stand Still
3. One Tree Hill
4. Bullet the Blue Sky
5. With or Without You
6. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
7. In God's Country
8. Exit
9. Red Hill Mining Town
10. Mothers of the Disappeared
11. Trip Through Your Wires

Achtung Baby

1. The Fly
2. Until The End of The World
3. Zoo Station
4. Mysterious Ways
5. Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
6. One
7. Even Better Than The Real Thing
8. Love is Blindness
9. Acrobat
10. So Cruel
11. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
12. Trying to Throw Your Arms Around The World

ATYCLB

1. Beautiful Day
2. Kite
3. Walk On
4. Stuck in A Moment
5. In a Little While
6. Wild Honey
7. Elevation
8. Grace
9. When I Look at the World
10. Peace On Earth
11. New York

 

[Nisse]

Boy

1. A Day Without Me
2. I Will Follow
3. The Electric Co
4. Out Of Control
5. Into The Heart
6. An Cat Dubh
7. The Ocean
8. Stories For Boys
9. Twilight
10. Another Time Another Place
11. Shadows And Tall Trees

 

[namkcuR]

1.Until The End Of The World
2.The Fly
3.Acrobat
4.Love Is Blindness
5.One
6.Mysterious Ways
7.Even Better Than The Real Thing
8.Ultraviolet(Light My Way)
9.So Cruel
10.Zoo Station
11.Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
12.Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World

1.With Or Without You
2.Where The Streets Have No Name
3.Bullet The Blue Sky
4.I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
5.Exit
6.Running To Stand Still
7.Mothers Of The Disappeared
8.One Tree Hill
9.In God's Country
10.Red Hill Mining Town
11.Trip Through Your Wires

Both change a lot depending on my mood.

 

[glamourgirl]

1.The fly
2.Mysterious Ways
3.Until The End Of The World
4.One
5.Even Better Than The Real Thing
6.So Cruel
7.ZOO Station
8.Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World
9.Ultraviolet(Light My Way)
10.Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
11.Acrobat
12.Love is Blindness

1.With Or Without You
2.Where The Streets Have No Name
3.Bullet The Blue Sky
4.I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
5.Exit
6.Red Hill Mining Town
7.Running To Stand Still
8.One Tree Hill
9.In God's Country
10.Trip Through Your Wires
11.Mothers Of The Disappeared

 

[OpperGoeroe]

Rankings like these changing every week with me.

Achtung Baby:
1. Love Is Blindness
2. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
3. Until The End Of The World
4. Zoo Station
5. Acrobat
6. So Cruel
7. Mysterious Ways
8. The Fly
9. Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World
10. Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
11. One

The Joshua Tree:
1. With Or Without You
2. Where The Streets Have No Name
3. Bullet The Blue Sky
4. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
5. Exit
6. Running To Stand Still
7. One Tree Hill
8. In God's Country
9. Mothers Of The Disappeared
10. Red Hill Mining Town
11. Trip Through Your Wires

 

[00Kevin]

1.The Fly
2.Until the End of the World
3.Acrobat
4.Mysterious Ways
5.Zoo Station
6.One
7.Even Better Than the Real Thing
8.UltraViolet
9.Love is Blindness
10.Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
11.So Cruel
12.Tryin' to Throw Your Arms around the World

 

[MacPhistoPT]

THE JOSHUA TREE

1. Where the streets have no name
2. One Tree Hill
3. Running to stand still
4. In God's Country
5. I still haven't found what I'm looking for
6. Bullet the blue sky
7. With or without you
8. Red Hill Mining Town
9. Exit
10. Trip through your wires
11. Mothers of the disappeared

ACHTUNG BABY
1. The Fly
2. Until the end of the world
3. Acrobat
4. Ultraviolet
5. Even Better Than The Real Thing
6. Mysterious ways
7. Tryin to throw your arms around the world
8. Who's gonna ride your wild horses
9. Zoo Station
10. One
11. Love is blindness
12. So Cruel

 

[cobl04]

Under a Blood Red Sky
1. 11 O'Clock Tick Tock
2. The Electric Company
3. Sunday Bloody Sunday
4. New Year's Day
5. (Trash, Trampoline and the) Party Girl
6. Gloria
7. '40'
8. I Will Follow

 

[jonnytakeawalk]

And because I want my post to have two masterpieces, not one masterpiece and one sack of crap, here's U2's OTHER masterpiece:

Sheesh! Fair enough if you think it's overrated but 'a sack of crap'?!!!!! and you say October slays it?!!!!

Singing this song makes me angry
I'm not angry with you
Is that all
Is that all
Is that all...

Singing song that makes me happy
I'm not happy with you
Singing this song makes me pale
Is that all
Is that all...

Is that all you want from me

Is that all...


Just one of Octobers lyrically brilliant songs that you think rivals everything on Achtung baby

 

[phillyfan26]

Based on studio...

Joshua Tree

1. Where the Streets Have No Name
2. One Tree Hill
3. Red Hill Mining Town
4. With or Without You
5. Running to Stand Still
6. Exit
7. Mothers of the Disappeared
8. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
9. Bullet the Blue Sky
10. In God's Country
11. Trip Through Your Wires

Achtung Baby

1. Until the End of the World
2. The Fly
3. Acrobat
4. Mysterious Ways
5. Love is Blindness
6. Ultra Violet
7. Even Better Than the Real Thing
8. One
9. Zoo Station
10. WGRYWH
11. TTTYAATW
12. So Cruel

But Zoo Station, WGRYWH, The Fly, and RTSS all move up with live versions, and that's just off the top of my head.

 

[cobl04]

Sheesh! Fair enough if you think it's overrated but 'a sack of crap'?!!!!! and you say October slays it?!!!!

Singing this song makes me angry
I'm not angry with you
Is that all
Is that all
Is that all...

Singing song that makes me happy
I'm not happy with you
Singing this song makes me pale
Is that all
Is that all...

Is that all you want from me

Is that all...


Just one of Octobers lyrically brilliant songs that you think rivals everything on Achtung baby

Well...
That should be to sing not singing
And I don't where you pulled pale from...
There's also the words dance and mad in there...

But yes, I do see your point.

 

[ozeeko]

Come on, man. That's a low blow. "Is That All" never fails to raise the roof.

 

[Zoots]

AB
1. One/Until The End/The Fly/Love Is Blindness/Acrobat/Ultraviolet/Mysterious Ways
2. Even Better/Who's Gonna Ride/Zoo Station
3. So Cruel/Tryin To Throw
4 - 12. N/A

JT
1. In God's Country/One Tree Hill/RTSS
2. Streets/I Still Haven't Found/WOWY
3. Bullet/Exit
4. RHMT/MOTD
5. TTYW
6 - 11. N/A

 

[Axver]

Sheesh! Fair enough if you think it's overrated but 'a sack of crap'?!!!!! and you say October slays it?!!!!

Well, it is a sack of crap. And October DOES slay it. Half of Achtung can't even think of touching Gloria, I Threw A Brick, Rejoice, Fire, Tomorrow, October, or Scarlet. Larry's drumming on October is certainly far more interesting than his bland work on Achtung. I can't think of any outstanding drumming moments on Achtung (though Ultra Violet does have Larry dropping his stick at 2:12-15!), whereas October is full of them. Rejoice and I Threw A Brick may be the two best songs Larry has ever recorded.

Singing this song makes me angry
I'm not angry with you
Is that all
Is that all
Is that all...

Singing song that makes me happy
I'm not happy with you
Singing this song makes me pale
Is that all
Is that all...

Is that all you want from me

Is that all...


Just one of Octobers lyrically brilliant songs that you think rivals everything on Achtung baby

Funny that you quote the lyrics of the one song I have always said should NOT have been on October, as Scarlet would have made for a beautiful outro and Is That All? feels more like a b-side.

And let's be honest, Ultra Violet's chorus is 10x worse than any lyrics on October. TTTYAATW, Zoo Station, EBTTRT, and One aren't exactly outstanding lyrically either.

 

[phillyfan26]

Ultra Violet is still a good song, despite it's chorus. The guitar riff is solid (even if not original), and it's very good live (I love the part with Edge singing "Ultra Violet Light").

Achtung Baby always seemed like an album with lobsided lyrics, four great songs, and then a significant drop off lyrically (the 4 great lyrics: The Fly, UTEOTW, Acrobat, Mysterious Ways).

 

[ozeeko]

And let's be honest, Ultra Violet's chorus is 10x worse than any lyrics on October. TTTYAATW, Zoo Station, EBTTRT, and One aren't exactly outstanding lyrically either.

At least Ultra Violet succeeds in using the word "opera" in a good creative way:

"When I was so messed up and I had opera in my head"

And Bono has said the chorus to Ultra Violet was meant to be throwaway while the verses were lyrically fleshed out.

TO EVERYONE: STOP PICKING ON "IS THAT ALL" - IT'S PROBABLY THE MOST HONEST MOMENT OF U2'S CAREER. THEY HAD WRITERS BLOCK AND THIS SONG WAS A TRIBUTE TO THEIR OWN FEELINGS OF CREATIVE FAILURE!

 

[Axver]

Ultra Violet is still a good song, despite it's chorus. The guitar riff is solid (even if not original), and it's very good live (I love the part with Edge singing "Ultra Violet Light").

I disagree. I find Ultra Violet to be pretty boring really. And whatever good qualities it may have are totally ruined for me by that dreadful chorus.

Achtung Baby always seemed like an album with lobsided lyrics, four great songs, and then a significant drop off lyrically (the 4 great lyrics: The Fly, UTEOTW, Acrobat, Mysterious Ways).

It might be surprising that I agree with almost all of that. But the fourth great song in my books is Love Is Blindness, not Mysterious Ways.

Also, regarding lyrics, it's a shame So Cruel stinks so much musically, because it's lyrically fantastic and deserved to be so much better.

At least Ultra Violet succeeds in using the word "opera" in a good creative way:

"When I was so messed up and I had opera in my head"

And Bono has said the chorus to Ultra Violet was meant to be throwaway while the verses were lyrically fleshed out.

True about the 'opera' use!

And yeah, I've heard that quote about Ultra Violet and something about how Bono wanted to use the word 'baby' because he'd never used it in a U2 song (which is wrong, he used it in Spanish Eyes), but that doesn't make its suckiness excusable.

TO EVERYONE: STOP PICKING ON "IS THAT ALL" - IT'S PROBABLY THE MOST HONEST MOMENT OF U2'S CAREER. THEY HAD WRITERS BLOCK AND THIS SONG WAS A TRIBUTE TO THEIR OWN FEELINGS OF CREATIVE FAILURE!

I actually agree with this sentiment; I just think that Scarlet would have been a better closer, and Is That All? probably best used as Gloria's b-side.

 

[phillyfan26]

And yeah, I've heard that quote about Ultra Violet and something about how Bono wanted to use the word 'baby' because he'd never used it in a U2 song (which is wrong, he used it in Spanish Eyes)

I remember the quote being he never used 'baby' in that way before, and I think The Edge said it sounded weird because of that.

 

[tpsglick2424]

 

[GibsonGirl]

Larry's drumming on October is certainly far more interesting than his bland work on Achtung. I can't think of any outstanding drumming moments on Achtung (though Ultra Violet does have Larry dropping his stick at 2:12-15!), whereas October is full of them. Rejoice and I Threw A Brick may be the two best songs Larry has ever recorded.

I sort of want to quote this a hundred times in a row, but I'm afraid I might get into trouble. Larry's drumming in October is his best, by far. He wasn't playing any of the standard 4/4 beats he has been reduced to in the past fifteen or so years. He was actually doing something inventive that complimented the music. Not just time keeping. Rejoice is simply amazing (for Larry, at least.)

 

[jonnytakeawalk]

TTTYAATW, Zoo Station, EBTTRT, and One aren't exactly outstanding lyrically either.

Oh yeah Zoo Stations lyrics are rubbish I mean,

'Time is a train
Makes the future the past
Leaves you standing in the station
Your face pressed up against the glass.'

What was Bono thinking?!!! Not to mention Even better than the real thing

'You're honey child to a swarm of bees
Gonna blow right through you like a breeze
Give me one last dance
We'll slide down the surface of things'

I mean neither of these compare to anything off October say, I threw a brick through a window

'I was talking
I was talking to myself
Somebody else
Talk talk talking
I couldn't hear a word
A word you said.'

Brilliant!




Now that's sarcasm!

 

[Screwtape2]

I would agree with Axver and GibsonGirl about Larry's drumming being better on October than on AB. Just listen to ITABTAW and With A Shout.

I love the live feel of October compared to AB. Most of the songs played off AB where better live by miles. Ultraviolet, UTEOTW and Love Is Blindness come alive and sound so different live. October however feels like a live album. It sounds like Bono is going to burst out of your stereo. I also like the cover. Nothing beats an Adam Clayton afro.
But AB is the better album and will always be. The lyrics are better, the mood is more distinct and the album's sound is so good.

 

[jacobus]

01 Acrobat
02 The Fly
03 Until The End Of The World
04 Ultraviolet
05 Love is Blindness
06 Mysterious Ways
07 So Cruel
08 One
09 Even Better Than The Real Thing
10 Trying To Throw Your Arms Around The World
11 Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
12 Zoo Station

its really hard ranking AB but all i know is that U2s best 3 songs ever are AB songs. all i can say is that AB has no weak track. all the songs are very good to outstanding. the tracklist(=running order) is excellent.

 

[Axver]

jonnytakeawalk, way to be selective with things and not be honest with the songs. I certainly don't hear any Latin on Achtung.

'Time is a train
Makes the future the past
Leaves you standing in the station
Your face pressed up against the glass.'

I actually quite like THAT verse. But how many times does Bono have to say that he's ready? B-man, we get the point, you're ready. Now get on on with things.

'You're honey child to a swarm of bees
Gonna blow right through you like a breeze
Give me one last dance
We'll slide down the surface of things'

Meh, not that special really. Though I was more thinking of the clunker first verse. The only lyrics I really like from EBTTRT is the "we're free to fly" bit.

And I wasn't trying to say October's lyrics are outstanding. I was responding to a post about poor October lyrics, responding that some on Achtung really stink too. I mean, geez, the following all suck:

"I'm ready" ad infinitum
"One blood, one life, one more cliche"
About half of WGRYWH
All of TTTYAATW
"Baby, baby, baby, U2's a boy band"

 

[An Cat Gav]

Here's my raning of the U2 masterpieces. Its hard to rank them as i honestly worship every song listed and just because i rated a song in last place doesnt mean i dont love it.
With regard to TUF album, i dont understand why Pride isn't getting much love...

Achtung Baby

The Fly
Even Better Than The Real Thing
Until The End of The World
So Cruel
One
Love is Blindness
Mysterious Ways
Zoo STation
Ultra violet
Acrobat
Who's gonna Ride...
Tryin to throw .....

The Joshua Tree

Where the streets Have no name
One Tree Hill
Red Hill Mining Town
Running To stand Still
With or without you
I still havent found
Bullet
Mothers of the disapperaed
In Gods Country
Trip through your wires
Exit

The Unforgettable Fire

The Unforgettable Fire
Promenade
Pride
Bad
A sort of homecoming
Mlk
Wire
Indian Summer Sky
Elvis presley and america
4th of july

 

[U2girl]

Achtung Baby always seemed like an album with lobsided lyrics, four great songs, and then a significant drop off lyrically (the 4 great lyrics: The Fly, UTEOTW, Acrobat, Mysterious Ways).

I find that AB is probably the last U2 album where the band wasn't determined to have one "goofy" song lyric-wise.
(not that I mind fun U2 songs, just saying.)
With the first two albums, I have to keep in mind they were only starting out and Bono had yet to become the writer.



I wonder how long till Larry is supposed to turn into Lars from Metallica on us. Probably around the time The Edge will start outshining Hendrix on guitar and starting soloing like there's no tomorrow.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

I'll follow only the thread's creator and post rankings for those two albums.....

Joshua Tree:

1. Where The Streets Have No Name
2. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
3. With Or Without You
4. One Tree Hill
5. Running To Stand Still
6. Red Hill Mining Town
7. Bullet The Blue Sky
8. In God's Country
9. Trip Through Your Wires
10. Mothers Of The Disappeared
11. Exit

Achtung Baby:

1. The Fly
2. Until The End Of The World
3. Mysterious Ways
4. One
5. Even Better Than The Real Thing
6. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
7. Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
8. Zoo Station
9. Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World
10. Love Is Blindness
11. Acrobat
12. So Cruel

 

[cobl04]

My two cents on all the October/Achtung Baby arguing. October definitely does not slay Achtung Baby, but that said, Achtung Baby isn't as flawless as I always thought. I will agree with the chorus bit on Ultra Violet, that always sounded a little cheesy to me (but was well help up by the band).

Larry's drumming on October kicks the absolute crap out of any other album's drumming. And I would throw in a Sunday Bloody Sunday and Like a Song... as well (love that outro ).

Remember as well, that the lyrics for October were stolen by groupies, so that left little time for relyricing every single song. Imagine what might have been.

Now as for Is That All?, yes it isn't a very good song but the comment that ozeeko made is very true. Is That All? was the result of musical and lyrical frustration and even though Scarlet should have been the closer, the inclusion of Is That All? is critical to the album in my opinion for the simple fact that it was a way of venting frustrations which were occuring at the time.

 

[An Cat Gav]

01 Acrobat
02 The Fly
03 Until The End Of The World
04 Ultraviolet
05 Love is Blindness
06 Mysterious Ways
07 So Cruel
08 One
09 Even Better Than The Real Thing
10 Trying To Throw Your Arms Around The World
11 Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
12 Zoo Station

its really hard ranking AB but all i know is that U2s best 3 songs ever are AB songs. all i can say is that AB has no weak track. all the songs are very good to outstanding. the tracklist(=running order) is excellent.

Damn right Jacobus!
Achtung Baby is my favourite album ever and I think is as good if not better than any other album out there by anybody!!
But I do share Axver's love of October too. Larry puts in a stellar performance and the whole album has a beautifully, mysterious, spiritual, celtic innocence to it that that U2 havent captured again since TUF. I think October is superior to War and is a great companion to Boy.