What is U2's strongest album Lyrically?

[Axver]

Rejoice, SISL, and Is that all,
Are great lyrically! Actually fantastic

Is That All? is a real lyrical nothing. You can tell they were creating that one on the spot, stealing The Cry's guitar while Bono improvised lyrics expressing how he felt. I think they should have ended the album with Scarlet and used Is That All? as Gloria's b-side rather than a live I Will Follow.

 

[Zoots]

???

I said that because along with atyclb, Axver mentioned October as one of the worst, which is your fav.

 

[-macphisto-]

Is That All? is a real lyrical nothing. You can tell they were creating that one on the spot, stealing The Cry's guitar while Bono improvised lyrics expressing how he felt. I think they should have ended the album with Scarlet and used Is That All? as Gloria's b-side rather than a live I Will Follow.

I agree with you on ending the album with Scarlet, but Is That All the reason I like it is for that reason, its a straight from the heart song, take it or leave it, and those are lyrics I find most gratifying, that you really know are sincere.

 

[madonna's child]

Pop

 

[-macphisto-]

I said that because along with atyclb, Axver mentioned October as one of the worst, which is your fav.

oh, no comprendi

 

[namkcuR]

Alright, I'm re-reading one of the lyrics I put in my post about ATYCLB a few posts back...

"I'm in the waiting room/I can't see for the smoke/I think of you and your holy book/while the rest of us choke/tell me, tell me/what do you see/tell me, tell me/what's wrong with me"

That might be the best lyric on ATYCLB. I love how Bono can believe in his religion but also at the same time verbalize so well the way a lot of people who don't believe in it feel.

 

[Axver]

I agree with you on ending the album with Scarlet, but Is That All the reason I like it is for that reason, its a straight from the heart song, take it or leave it, and those are lyrics I find most gratifying, that you really know are sincere.

On an emotional level, the lyrics are great for their powerful honesty. On an actual lyrical level, they don't have much merit. A song like One Tree Hill or Until The End Of The World makes Is That All? look so inferior.

 

[Axver]

I was gonna go with ATYCLB, but I can't. Admitedly Elevation is no lyrical achievement, but

[examples removed for the sake of brevity]

While I agree there are plenty of good lyrics on ATYCLB, I think it is brought crashing down by Elevation, In A Little While (besides the "a man takes a rocketship" verse), Wild Honey, some of Peace On Earth, and New York.

It's hard to rank the albums as a whole because each has its lyrical high and low points. Achtung has some spectacular lyrics but the "baby, baby, baby light my way" of Ultra Violet makes me cringe.

 

[namkcuR]

While I agree there are plenty of good lyrics on ATYCLB, I think it is brought crashing down by Elevation, In A Little While (besides the "a man takes a rocketship" verse), Wild Honey, some of Peace On Earth, and New York.

It's hard to rank the albums as a whole because each has its lyrical high and low points. Achtung has some spectacular lyrics but the "baby, baby, baby light my way" of Ultra Violet makes me cringe.

Oh you did NOT just say that! Ultraviolet is an INCREDIBLE song and the baby baby baby light my way lines send shivers up and down my spine. That's just a plea, a pure verbalization of one's absolute need for a certain person's love...baby, baby, baby, light my way

 

[-macphisto-]

Alright, I'm re-reading one of the lyrics I put in my post about ATYCLB a few posts back...

"I'm in the waiting room/I can't see for the smoke/I think of you and your holy book/while the rest of us choke/tell me, tell me/what do you see/tell me, tell me/what's wrong with me"

That might be the best lyric on ATYCLB. I love how Bono can believe in his religion but also at the same time verbalize so well the way a lot of people who don't believe in it feel.

I thought it was, "I cant see through the smoke"? but yes great!

Great lyrics also, "When your thoughts are too expensive
To ever wanna keep" "When there's all kinds of chaos
And everyone is walking lame
You don't even blink there do you
Don't even look away"

And "In New York I lost it all to you and your vices
Still I'm staying on to figure out my mid life crisis
I hit an iceberg in my life
But you know I'm still afloat
You lose your balance, lose your wife
In the queue for the lifeboat

You got to put the women and children first"

 

[-macphisto-]

Oh you did NOT just say that! Ultraviolet is an INCREDIBLE song and the baby baby baby light my way lines send shivers up and down my spine. That's just a plea, a pure verbalization of one's absolute need for a certain person's love...baby, baby, baby, light my way

I agree I like the "baby's baby's"
and the Edge adds the finishing touch with some wierd guitar sound at the end

 

[Zoots]

How about...

Voices on a cell phone
Voices from home
Voices of the hard sell
Voices down a stairwell
In New York

and this was pre 9/11

 

[LyricalDrug]

Achtung Baby is up there (think One, Tryin' to Throw, The Fly, Until the End of the World), as is Zooropa (the Wanderer, Dirty Day, the First Time), and Rattle and Hum (Hawkmoon 269, Angel of Harlem, All I Want is You).

For me, weaker albums lyrically would be ATYCLB ("a mole! living in a hole!" and "In New York summers get hot / well into the hundreds") and HTDAAB ("freedom has a scent like the top of a newborn baby's head" and "there is no failure here sweetheart / just when you quit").

Still, Bono at his best can rival any band's lyrics, any time, any place.

 

[Axver]

Oh you did NOT just say that! Ultraviolet is an INCREDIBLE song and the baby baby baby light my way lines send shivers up and down my spine. That's just a plea, a pure verbalization of one's absolute need for a certain person's love...baby, baby, baby, light my way

If you will remember, up until recently, I was Ultra Violet's biggest critic on the fora and its lyrics were my main target. I regularly called them boy band lyrics. And I just cannot get over how absolutely bad, uncreative, and cliché "baby, baby, baby, light my way" is.

Some of the other lines are really quite good, though!

 

[namkcuR]

If you will remember, up until recently, I was Ultra Violet's biggest critic on the fora and its lyrics were my main target. I regularly called them boy band lyrics. And I just cannot get over how absolutely bad, uncreative, and cliché "baby, baby, baby, light my way" is.

Some of the other lines are really quite good, though!

No, no, no.

Boyband lyrics are the following:

"tell me why I never wanna hear you say I want it that way"




I stand by what I said; Baby baby baby light my way is spine-tingling, the way Bono sings it. Ultraviolet is an incredible song.

 

[Axver]

I have to be honest ... I really don't think Bono is a great lyricist all too often. It's the emotion that he brings to the songs that make his lyrics suddenly feel so intensely brilliant.

 

[Zoots]

No, Bono is definitely not the greatest lyricist. He is a great performer.

 

[namkcuR]

I have to be honest ... I really don't think Bono is a great lyricist all too often. It's the emotion that he brings to the songs that make his lyrics suddenly feel so intensely brilliant.

Again, I completely disagree. Like I said earlier, Bono is to this generation what Dylan was to that generation.

He is brilliant.

 

[Zoots]

Again, I completely disagree. Like I said earlier, Bono is to this generation what Dylan was to that generation.

He is brilliant.

Well, you've said it yourself that you don't like certain lyrics from ATYCLB.

 

[Axver]

Again, I completely disagree. Like I said earlier, Bono is to this generation what Dylan was to that generation.

He is brilliant.

He's brilliant sometimes (One Tree Hill, UTEOTW, Wake Up Dead Man), and when he isn't, what he loses in lyrical ability, he makes up for in the fact that what he sings and the way he sings it means a whole lot more than fancy wording.

 

[-macphisto-]

I think Bono is a great lyricist, but hes a diffrent type, hes not the Thome Yorke type(deep depressing) but a type that brings out the best in us all, and also makes you think about his lyrics, and hes brilliant because he has lyrics that fit every single mood!

 

[namkcuR]

Well, you've said it yourself that you don't like certain lyrics from ATYCLB.

Brilliant does not mean perfect.

 

[namkcuR]

He's brilliant sometimes (One Tree Hill, UTEOTW, Wake Up Dead Man), and when he isn't, what he loses in lyrical ability, he makes up for in the fact that what he sings and the way he sings it means a whole lot more than fancy wording.

Except I think more often that not the lyrics are great regardless of the way he sings it(which is more often than not, as you say, very emotional and really great).

 

[namkcuR]

I think Bono is a great lyricist, but hes a diffrent type, hes not the Thome Yorke type(deep depressing) but a type that brings out the best in us all, and also makes you think about his lyrics, and hes brilliant because he has lyrics that fit every single mood!

I love RH but I am of the opinion that you need to have experienced the kind of depression that makes you suicidal to really 'get' Yorke's lyrics(and I have not)

 

[-macphisto-]

I love RH but I am of the opinion that you need to have experienced the kind of depression that makes you suicidal to really 'get' Yorke's lyrics(and I have not)

Yea, Im in the same boat you are, I love radiohead, but I do not understand where he comes up with these lyrics, or understand most of them

 

[Axver]

Except I think more often that not the lyrics are great regardless of the way he sings it(which is more often than not, as you say, very emotional and really great).

Some of what he comes up with isn't brilliant in the slightest. On Achtung Baby, which has the incredible UTEOTW, The Fly, Acrobat, and Love Is Blindness, there are the exceptionally lyrically weak EBTTRT and TTTYAATW.

You know, I was going to be an arrogant prick and compare my songwriting to Bono ... but I can't find any of my songs, just my poetry. So all of you lose.

 

[Zoots]

Achtung Baby also has the amazing So Cruel and Acrobat, probably the best ones.

 

[namkcuR]

Some of what he comes up with isn't brilliant in the slightest. On Achtung Baby, which has the incredible UTEOTW, The Fly, Acrobat, and Love Is Blindness, there are the exceptionally lyrically weak EBTTRT and TTTYAATW.

You know, I was going to be an arrogant prick and compare my songwriting to Bono ... but I can't find any of my songs, just my poetry. So all of you lose.

Now you're calling TTTYAATW 'exceptionally weak'?!?!?!?!??!?!?!

Your credibility is plummiting!

"and a woman needs a man/like a fish needs a bicycle"

I can't remember any other lines from that song off the top of my head but the song has a great meaning, about trying to understand why shit happens the way it does and not being able to. Those lyrics are lyrics that never meant much to me until recently, but now mean a lot more.

 

[Zoots]

how far you gonna go before you lose your way back home? I agree with namkcuR here.

 

[Axver]

Achtung Baby also has the amazing So Cruel and Acrobat, probably the best ones.

Sometimes, I have a hard time really enjoying So Cruel as I find it to be a 'distant' song that's hard to connect with, but I totally agree that it is lyrically amazing. Sensational song.

(Also, this forum is surprisingly active for this time of day - nearly 6:30pm here in Queensland. I approve! Otherwise, I'd be really, REALLY bored right now.)