Vulture: All 234 U2 Songs, Ranked From Worst to Best

[Hollow Island]

https://www.vulture.com/2022/10/all-218-u2-songs-ranked-from-worst-to-best.html

Bottom 10:

234 Boomerang 2
233 Boomerang 1
232 Get Out of Your Own Way
231 Always
230 Your Song Saved My Life
229 J Swallow
228 Big Girls Are Best
227 American Soul
226 Yahweh
225 The Refugee

Middle 10

121 California
120 Do You Feel Loved
119 October
118 Miracle Drug
117 Cedars of Lebanon
116 The Ocean
115 Into The Heart
114 An Cat Dubh
113 New York
112 So Cruel

Top 10

10 Pride
9 All I Want Is You
8 Even Better Than The Real Thing
7 Out of Control
6 One
5 Sunday Bloody Sunday
4 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
3 Bad
2 I Will Follow
1 Where the Streets Have No Name

Top Song of Each Album

Boy - I Will Follow (2)
October - Gloria (11)
War - Sunday Bloody Sunday (5)
The Unforgettable Fire - Bad (3)
The Joshua Tree - Streets (1)
Rattle and Hum - All I Want Is You (9)
Achtung Baby - One (6)
Zooropa - Zooropa (32)
Pop - Mofo (35)
ATYCLB - Beautiful Day (21)
HTDAAB - City of Blinding Lights (20)
NLOTH - Moment of Surrender (37)
Songs of Innocence - The Crystal Ballroom (47), Iris (65)
Songs of Experience - Lights of Home (156)

Caryn Rose has been a fan since 1980 and I enjoyed following her on twitter when I used the site.

 

[Hollow Island]

https://uproxx.com/indie/u2-best-songs-ranked/

Steve Hayden's Top 100

100 You're the Best Thing About Me
99 No Line on the Horizon
98 Song for Someone
97 Raised by Wolves
96 Walk On
95 Sweetest Thing
94 Walk to the Water
93 Love Comes Tumbling
92 Cedarwood Road
91 Breathe

55 October
54 Drowning Man
53 Mysterious Ways
52 Rejoice
51 Out of Control
50 Silver & Gold (Rattle and Hum version)
49 Like A Song
48 Gloria
47 City of Blinding Lights
46 Tomorrow

10 One Tree Hill
9 New Year's Day
8 Beautiful Day
7 Ultraviolet
6 The Fly
5 With or Without You
4 I Will Follow
3 One
2 Bad (Wide Awake in America version)
1 Streets

Highest ranked song on each album

Boy - I Will Follow (4)
October - October (55)
War - New Year's Day (9)
The Unforgettable Fire - The Unforgettable Fire (12)
The Joshua Tree - Streets (1)
Rattle and Hum - All I Want Is You (16)
Achtung Baby - One (3)
Zooropa - Stay (23)
Pop - Do You Feel Loved (37)
ATYCLB - Beautiful Day (8)
HTDAAB - City of Blinding Lights (47)
NLTOH - Unknown Caller (44)
Songs of Innocence - Every Breaking Wave (60)
Songs of Experience - You're the Best Thing (100)

" Honestly, I only put this song at No. 100 so I would have an excuse to tell this story."

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

195. “Mercy,” Wide Awake in Europe
Probably the most popular outtake among the U2 fan base. From the How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb sessions, it was played less than a dozen times on the back half of the 360° tour. It’s difficult to comprehend the rabid reaction to this particular track, except for its relative rarity. (It was leaked on the internet, probably when a CD of rough mixes was stolen from a photo shoot in France.) It is much better live, but honestly would still need a lot of work lyrically before it would be worthy of all the hype.

i swear i didn't write this

 

[DeVaul]

American Soul still too high

 

[Hewson]

The Boomerangs deserve better

 

[mikal]

I'll list my disagreements here as I read them:

Love Comes Tumbling - way too low especially compared to some of the songs that ranked higher. Should be top 50

Rejoice - How that song could immediately be ranked below Babyface is beyond me.

The Troubles and Little Things ranked way too low. Grace and Stand Up Comedy ranked higher than both.

Don't really have a huge problem with the top 50 otherwise. I wouldn't have ranked I Will Follow at #2 but ok.

 

[lazarus]

lol @ people who like the turd that is Get Out. Ya been served.

 

[Hewson]

Rejoice - How that song could immediately be ranked below Babyface is beyond me.
.

This is one that jumped out at me as well. Should be a lot higher.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

my issue with Get Out Of Your Own Way is not that it's some sort of affront to society. it's fine and sounds pleasant enough.

it's more that it's a lazy attempt at a Beautiful Day re-write, and that they chose it as a single when there are FAR superior songs on the album. it's an uninspired ode to mediocrity.

Get On Your Boots, however, is a steaming pile of dogshit.

 

[mikal]

Not an easy task of course, but having Stand Up Comedy, probably the worst album track of their career, ranked above a lot of good songs, should have been caught before releasing the article.

 

[DaveC]

99 No Line on the Horizon
97 Raised by Wolves
96 Walk On
95 Sweetest Thing
94 Walk to the Water
93 Love Comes Tumbling
92 Cedarwood Road

LMAO i have a very hard time believing this guy is actually a fan of U2.

 

[lightmyway91]

These type of rankings just make you realise how differently we all look at U2’s material. I’d probably raise a few eyebrows at my rankings with how high I’d put a lot of the post 2000 stuff and maybe how low I’d have a lot of the 80’s stuff.

 

[Hollow Island]

LMAO i have a very hard time believing this guy is actually a fan of U2.

Why?

Fwiw, he's a big fan.

 

[DaveC]

Why?

Fwiw, he's a big fan.

well, you confusingly posted some dude's top-100 list in a thread whose subject is "all U2 songs ranked", so i was under the impression that he was doing the same all-songs ranking and saying those songs were bottom-10 of all U2 songs.

 

[DeVaul]

The author is a woman. C’mon folks.

 

[phanan]

i swear i didn't write this

The Wide Awake In Europe version does suck, so…

 

[mikal]

The author is a woman. C’mon folks.

Dave was referring to the 2nd list written by a Steve.

 

[MattD]

Love Comes Tumbling being so far low is unbelievable. It's a fantastic track.

Too many poppy and 'big chorus' tunes there at high places, the praise for The Blackout chorus being one of then despite it is the very thing that torpedoes the song dead (thanks to uber cheese Tedder getting his filthy teeny bop hands all over it).

But the top ten I can't argue with. Not my top ten but they are all justifiable songs for sure.

 

[womanfish]

https://www.vulture.com/2022/10/all-218-u2-songs-ranked-from-worst-to-best.html

Bottom 10:

234 Boomerang 2
233 Boomerang 1
232 Get Out of Your Own Way
231 Always
230 Your Song Saved My Life
229 J Swallow
228 Big Girls Are Best
227 American Soul
226 Yahweh
225 The Refugee

Middle 10

121 California
120 Do You Feel Loved
119 October
118 Miracle Drug
117 Cedars of Lebanon
116 The Ocean
115 Into The Heart
114 An Cat Dubh
113 New York
112 So Cruel

Top 10

10 Pride
9 All I Want Is You
8 Even Better Than The Real Thing
7 Out of Control
6 One
5 Sunday Bloody Sunday
4 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
3 Bad
2 I Will Follow
1 Where the Streets Have No Name

Top Song of Each Album

Boy - I Will Follow (2)
October - Gloria (11)
War - Sunday Bloody Sunday (5)
The Unforgettable Fire - Bad (3)
The Joshua Tree - Streets (1)
Rattle and Hum - All I Want Is You (9)
Achtung Baby - One (6)
Zooropa - Zooropa (32)
Pop - Mofo (35)
ATYCLB - Beautiful Day (21)
HTDAAB - City of Blinding Lights (20)
NLOTH - Moment of Surrender (37)
Songs of Innocence - The Crystal Ballroom (47), Iris (65)
Songs of Experience - Lights of Home (156)

Caryn Rose has been a fan since 1980 and I enjoyed following her on twitter when I used the site.

sorry, but this list is so very bad. Yes, there are some songs in the correct general area, but most of it is pure madness. And seems as though someone beat her mother to death in front of her with a copy of SOE.

I mean, can we agree that Boots is better than Wire, Tomorrow, LIttle Things, Sleep LIke Baby, The Troubles, etc...?? God Pt. II is at 180!!??

That SUC is better than EBW, Promenade and Seconds?
I'll Go Crazy is better than Cedars, An Cat Dubh, So Cruel, and Please?
All Because of You is better than Heartland, Gone, The Fly, Drowning Man and way better than Kite????

Oh, and Holy Joe is better than Exit, and all the songs listed above.

Rubish

 

[womanfish]

Love Comes Tumbling being so far low is unbelievable. It's a fantastic track.

Too many poppy and 'big chorus' tunes there at high places, the praise for The Blackout chorus being one of then despite it is the very thing that torpedoes the song dead (thanks to uber cheese Tedder getting his filthy teeny bop hands all over it).

But the top ten I can't argue with. Not my top ten but they are all justifiable songs for sure.

Love Comes Tumbling was the first one to send my blood pressure rising. In my top 35ish U2 songs.

 

[lazarus]

Not an easy task of course, but having Stand Up Comedy, probably the worst album track of their career, ranked above a lot of good songs, should have been caught before releasing the article.

Ranking almost the entirety of SOE below it was quite the choice.

 

[lightmyway91]

With these sort of things it takes being able to accept an opposing view. Ultimately it doesn’t matter what we agree or disagree with because there is no right of wrong. Even if every single person in the world ranked song last and one person ranked the same song 1st then that single opinion holds as much weight as all the people who think differently because quality of music can’t be proven.

 

[mikal]

With these sort of things it takes being able to accept an opposing view. Ultimately it doesn’t matter what we agree or disagree with because there is no right of wrong. Even if every single person in the world ranked song last and one person ranked the same song 1st then that single opinion holds as much weight as all the people who think differently because quality of music can’t be proven.

With the exception being Stand Up Comedy.

 

[DeVaul]

Dave was referring to the 2nd list written by a Steve.

My bad!

 

[Hollow Island]

well, you confusingly posted some dude's top-100 list in a thread whose subject is "all U2 songs ranked", so i was under the impression that he was doing the same all-songs ranking and saying those songs were bottom-10 of all U2 songs.

Yeah, the first post was obviously that list and the second post was obviously not that list. Don't pin yr confusion on me, bub.

 

[Hollow Island]

Ranking almost the entirety of SOE below it was quite the choice.

As bad as some SOE songs are, they have nothing on SUC. Lanois said it was originally 6 songs - I believe it

 

[DeVaul]

As bad as some SOE songs are, they have nothing on SUC. Lanois said it was originally 6 songs - I believe it

Incredible waste of a riff.

 

[DaveC]

Dave was referring to the 2nd list written by a Steve.

 

[womanfish]

I'll give the person doing the 234 ranking some credit in that it is very difficult, and that she didn't trash any of the songs in her comments which is a refreshing change when reading about U2 songs on the internet most of the time. And that she placed Crystal Ballroom high on the list.

I'd say the Steve list of 100 is a bit closer to what mine would be. Some odd choices there too, but overall more in line with what I was expecting.

 

[The Panther]

'I Know I Won't Go Crazy Tonight' or whatever the hell it's called clearly should be very last on the list (with 'Stand Up Comedy' not far behind).

I mean, I love 'I Will Follow' but would anyone else have it at #2? A little excessive.