Why is everyone suddenly so quick to diss 90's U2?

[Zoocoustic]

It seems to me that since HTDAAB has been leaked, that we now read review after review that basically disses U2's 90's experimentation.

I find this completely ridiculous and hypocritical. They had 3 albums and 2 tours in the 90's. And of those, AB, ZooTV, and even Zooropa all received critical praise, across the board. Pop was received with generally favorable reviews, and Popmart...well...OK...that was received with mixed reaction. But MOST of 90's U2 was received very well by nearly all critics.

So why now do we read things like the Rolling Stone review which is so quick to basically say "thank heavens they have continued to abandon their ridiculous 90's crap where they were trying to act cool".

The 90's U2 got me into U2. I would never have been a fan if it wasn't for AB/ZooTV/Zooropa.

 

[MrBrau1]

90's was best. They went to outerspace in the 90's.

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

I hear jick coming...

I think all eras of U2 have strengths and weaknesses. And for some reason, Achtung Baby doesn't seem to get lumped in with the "experimental 90s," but with 80s stuff if you read carefully. While I do think it's the strongest album in that period, it should be considered a strength of the 90s rather than an 80s afterthought that led to stuff in the 90s someone didn't like. How's that for a run-on sentence?

 

[WinnieThePoo]

Shapes

U2 of the 90's = The Best
anything else is overrated

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

people diss the trilogy? where are these people dissing ab, because i'm going to kick their asses.

oh, rolling stone, you say? i take their reviews with a grain of salt these days.

 

[Dalton]

It is because the are old. <--- note the period at the end of the this sentence. It means case closed.

 

[caragriff]

the worst is when the band disses their 90s stuff.
i hate when they bust on pop.
they are total revisionists.
i love pop just the way it is.

 

[kennerado]

early 90's = good
late 90's = strange

 

[Flying FuManchu]

The 90s is great and its starting to get annoying that reviewers in the mainstream are bashing it.

I want to add that the 80s U2 was just as experimental as the 90s U2.

 

[rjhbonovox]

No weakness in the 90's, their best music was made in the 90's and that will always remain the case. Pissed me off, again, to hear Bono say today on Radio 1 that they didn't finish the songs on Pop. Absolute Bollox. Its a great album, the only reason U2 say it is cos it didn't sell many in the USA. But then who cares what they think, they go mad for Bon Jovi and Nickleback over there.

 

[Bono's shades]

This is nothing new. People have been dissing '90s U2 ever since ATYCLB came out. Did I also mention a lot of people are idiots?

 

[U2DMfan]

well in 20 years when kids who are 5-10 year olds right now go back and dig for music to get inspired and start bands, the 90's U2 will get it's props eventually.

Right now this whole cleaned up U2 is the critical darling.

I just hope they dont fuck up and make another movie.

 

[bonosleftone]

I love 90s U2, and POP is easily the most underrated album ever released by a major artist.

 

[rjhbonovox]

I love 90s U2, and POP is easily the most underrated album ever released by a major artist.

Jesus do I agree with this statement, you know that the only album that was better than Pop in 1997 was OK Computer and that is an all time classic. Pop was just down from that, but not by much in my opinion. ITS A FUC~ING GREAT ALBUM!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[rjhbonovox]

I just hope they dont fuck up and make another movie.

Heheh I was watching the Rattle outtakes where Bono is on stage with Bruce Springsteen, singing a really crap version of Stand By Me. Well Brucey's crap on it anyway!

 

[Sleep Over Jack]

In the interview Bono did say POP was a "special" album as well as being unfinished..

 

[caragriff]

don't worry, bono will change his mind again someday about pop. it will regain its place in his mind as a masterpiece of unfinished experimentation. by the time they put out their next album in, say 4 years or so, they'll be dissing HTDAAB for having too many hits.

 

[Dr_Macphisto]

Wouldn't Bono know better than us what the status of one of their albums (Pop) is?

 

[Zoocoustic]

I can understand those who criticize Pop because it has always been criticized. Whether that's right or wrong is a different issue.

Where I'm going with this post is that now suddenly these reviewers are saying that the ENTIRE 90's was a mistake. I hadn't heard anyone bash the entire decade before but Rolling Stone and at least a couple of other reviews I've read have said that.

I don't know how they can even suggest that about the AB/ZooTV era.

 

[Flying FuManchu]

I agree with Zoocoustic. POP was somewhat fashionable to bash but now the entire 90s? BULLSHIT. Thats why the media sucks.

 

[If you shout...]

Those days just sort of ran away like horses over the hills...but they were still the greatest period of output by any band in the history of recorded music. I would have killed for this band...I would have bled for this band...I lived only to know what they would do next. I spent every penny to my name just to see this band once. It looks as though the sun may have set on it all, but I'm glad that we all got to go along on the ride--it is something I'll never, ever forget and something which I'll never be able to thank the band enough for.

It really kills me that the band is so actively trying to distance themselves from (especially) Pop, but I'll live. The problem is really that U2 has forsaken Europe--and I don't mean sales-wise. They have CREATIVELY forsaken Europe, and Europe always produced for them greater and more coherent inspiration than did anything in America. The Joshua Tree is indeed a masterpiece and will never be anything else...but Achtung Baby is the sound not of four men making music--it is the sound of four Gods singing with the trumpets of angels. They are European and they suffer in trying to forget this (musically, at least). I know that Miami had a HUGE influence on Pop--I can't deny it--but that album sounds, looks, feels, and bleeds European.

Yeah...my two cents. Take it or leave it, I suppose, but know this much: it's true.

 

[U2girl]

the worst is when the band disses their 90s stuff.
i hate when they bust on pop.
they are total revisionists.
i love pop just the way it is.

But everything is fine when ATYCLB is dissed?

There's nothing wrong with being critical of your own work, and U2 is no exception. There is also nothing wrong with remixing or making new versions of songs if they can be better than the original.

The fact is they had different single versions of Please and Last night on earth (as far as I know most fans like them both) and If god will send his angels, and that they remixed Gone (great, got the live energy), Discotheque (finally it sounds like a band playing) and Staring at the sun (probably the least succesful, still I like Edge's voice and additional drums in the "intransigence" bit) and Numb (made it listenable, too - love the added guitar in the second hafl choruses) for the Best of.

Also, we know that it is true they were still working on the album when they should have been rehearsing for the tour. (which led to the Vegas debacle of opening night)

To me, POP is a 50-50 album. That said (and not having heard Dismantle yet), none of the albums after AB were really great.

 

[Aardvark747]

1990-2000 was the experimental decade for U2. And, speaking just for myself of course, I loved it!
Tracks like, Lemon, Zooropa, Zoo Station, MOFO, Miss Sarajevo, HMTMKMKM - all diverse, all totally different to their previous decades work, and all (imo) better than anything else that was out at the same time.

 

[U2_Guy]

Ab, Zooropa, Passengers and Pop were the best records ever.

90's U2 is the best U2 by far.

 

[Axver]

Just as long as eighties U2 is being praised, I'm happy.

 

[God Part III]

90's U2 > all artists and any album anybody ever did.

My opinion though.

 

[beau2ifulday]

But everything is fine when ATYCLB is dissed?

it's true

Pop isn't perfect, ATYCLB isn't perfect, Zooropa isn't perfect (Achtung Baby is ), but I think the faults in them are what highlights the strengths that lay in other aspects of the albums, be it in a particular song or a guitar riff in a few tracks.

 

[Lo-Fi]

90's u2 were without a doubt u2 at their artistic best. I've read these little snipits in reviews having a dig at '90's u2 which is bullshit as those same magazines were all over the u2 of the 90's and sayin' how great they were.

The '90's u2 will always have special place for me, a time when they weren't scared to take a chance with their music.

 

[luvvinu2]

I knew and liked u2 in the 80's I fell in love with u2 in the 90's and I absolutely adore them in the 21st century

 

[Ellay]

If it wasn't for U2 in the 90's, then U2 wouldn't be around in 04 today.

(certainly not as we know them)