Bad Exit's U2 Unreleased Albums Fantasy Collection

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Bad Exit

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Ok.

I love to include the aditional material (i.e. b-sides, stand alone singles, soundtracks, leftovers, etc...) into my playlists.

I love to create alternative tracklists for different time durations (from 20 minutes to a couple of hours).

But I wanted to do something different:

To use all that aditional material to create aditional "unreleased" albums.

Like having all (or as much as possible) U2 material in different albums, all of this, obviously, without touching the 13 real albums.
(Warning/Achtung: if you're the kind of fan that nitpicks on which songs you consider worthy of U2 and which don't, then move to the next thread, this one is not really for you, sorry).

Well, I did it.

I left out a couple of songs because I really couldn't find them a place.

Also, I left out several alternative versions because I felt that over using alternative versions was a bit like cheating (however I still used several of them, specially when I felt that they could bring something special to the table).

I left out most of the Passengers album, sorry, I'm not that into it (yet).

Finally, I guess there's more material I just don't know about or that I couldn't find it out.
In this case, if you can, please point it to me, either as a link or if it's not much trouble, at trifco@ megared.net.mx

I'm quite happy with the result (10 new albums), I think that they work really good as complete albums, but I totally understand that it's impossible to make something that everybody likes.

So, let me know what do you think about them... is there an album you really like? which is the weakest according to you? What SMALL adjustments would you make to these albums? Would you be interested in create your own albums?

Anyway, here they are, my full 23 U2 albums collection:

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(I'll be using the spoiler tags to keep the posts a bit easier to read).
 
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1.
DAWN


The first album is Dawn, includes material from the Early Demos, Boy and October eras.

Since it has a more raw sound, I'm dating it before Boy, which sounds a lot more polished.

1. Another Day
2. Street Mission
3. Touch
4. The Fool
5. Trash, Trampoline and the Party Girl
6. Boy/Girl
7. 11 O'Clock Tick Tock
8. Out of Control (Three Version)
9. Things to Make and Do
10. A Celebration
11. Saturday Night
12. Speed of Life
13. J. Swallow

Total Running Time: 45:36

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I really like the beginning of Out of Control in this version, I like it more than the one released in Boy. I tried to mix this start with the Boy version, but I couldn't make it, it sounded to me as if they're in different tone.
Anyway, that's why I included this version in here.

I think Another Day is a good opener and shows what this album is about, is not totally polished, has energy and is a bit uplifting.

The album then goes from the rawest sound of the first demos (Street Mission, Touch, The Fool) to some songs that sound a bit more completed (Party Girl, Boy/Girl, 11 O'clock and Out of Control), until the last part of the album which includes a more mature sound (at least imho), like Things To Make and Do, Celebration, Saturday Night and Speed of Life.

J. Swallow is the typical closer, slowing down the pace until it fades out. It also has a cleaner sound than the rest of the album -after all is cronologically the last one, belonging to October, which shows some sort of evolution throughout the album.

DAWN
The first three albums are one single word (Boy, October, War), so this one should match that.

I think "Dawn" fits well with an album that not only is/would be the first one, but also it's an album that starts with "Another Day", eventually goes to "11 O'clock" and at the end reaches "Saturday Night".

The cover is black over white, it sort of matches the artwork from that era.

2. BOY
3. OCTOBER
4. WAR


I loved the intro of New Year's Day USA remix, but I don't like that version too much apart from the intro.
I edited the intro into the normal version so I like that one better.
I feel like I'll be using that version from now on.
 
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5.
ANGELS


My second U2 Unreleased album contains songs from the War and Unforgettable Fire eras, so I'm placing it in between those two albums.

Despite featuring 4 acoustic tracks and some very melodic and relaxed songs, the album is far from boring. Is one of the most melodic albums and one of my favourites.

1. Three Sunrises
2. A Sort of Homecoming (Daniel Lanois Version)
3. Love Comes Tumbling
4. Bass Trap
5. Disappearing Act
6. Boomerang I
7. Boomerang II
8. Treasure (Whatever Happened to Pete the Chop)
9. Yoshino Blossom
10. Two Hearts Beat as One (USA version, edited)
11. Endless Deep
12. Angels Too Tied to the Ground

Total Running Time: 46:18

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Three Sunrises sets the tone of a very melodic album. It's accompanied in the first act by the alternative version of A Sort Of Homecoming (which actually I like better than the original, sorry for that) and with its Wide Awake in America sister, Love Comes Tumbling.
It's a very solid start for the album, three great songs to get things going, and they work fantastic as a single unit.

After a solid start, we move into a more relaxed act.

Bass Trap, Disappearing Act and both Boomerangs, that's two instrumental pieces plus two very easy listening tracks.
The four tracks in this act work very well together, in an atmospheric and enjoyable way.

Now we enter the heavier part of the album, a powerful contrast with the previous 4 tracks, yet they work well in the album.

Despite being an acoustic track, Yoshino Blossom works almost as a full song, and it's not out of place between Treasure and an alternative version of Two Hearts.

The Two Hearts version I'm using is an edit from the USA mix, which sounds a lot more produced than the War version and that I also like more than the original, but I removed a section I didn't liked near the end of the track.

The final act of the album, features -of course- another instrumental track, this time is Endless Deep, and it closes with Angels Too Tied To The Ground.
Connected by a similar style and sound to the second act, these couple of atmospheric and relaxed tracks work perfectly as the closers for the album.

ANGELS
All these melodic and instrumental tracks seem to be what I would expect from an album named "Angels", and the last track of the album gives me an excuse to name it like that.

I'm still using the naming style of the first albums, but the cover I'm using is a bit of both "eras", which is a face of an angel contrasting with the face of Peter Rowen, both faces seem a bit wounded, but the angels cover has a color matching more the TUF album.

6. THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE

I love the Kevorkian version of Wire. I've always liked Wire but I feel like it's out of place in this album. Well, I think the Kevorkian version fits better in here.
Imho, that should be the "album" version and the real one should've been the alternative one.
Originally I had included the New Year's Day (usa mix edited) version and the Kevorkian Wire into the Angels album, but it dragged it too much, so I took them out.

This album contains 3 of my top 5 songs of U2 ever (TUF, Bad and EPAA), but I don't really "love" this album. I'm blaming the track listing. I have to come with something better than the default version.
 
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7.
THE WASHING RAIN


The Washing Rain is the third U2 unreleased album and the 7th in my whole collection. It's basically material from The Joshua Tree sessions, although it dabs a bit into Rattle And Hum territory and it also contains a cameo from Unforgettable Fire.
I placed it before The Joshua Tree, since despite containing a couple of tracks from some years ahead, the songs in here actually sound closer to TUF than to R&H.

This is imho one of the top three albums in this collection, probably the one I enjoy the most.

1. Beautiful Ghost / Introduction to Songs of Experience
2. Rise Up
3. Drunk Chicken / America
4. Hallelujah (Here She Comes)
5. Wave of Sorrow (Birdland)
6. Luminous Times (Hold on to Love)
7. The Sweetest Thing
8. Sixty Seconds in Kingdom Come
9. In a Lifetime
10. Dancing Barefoot
11. Night and Day (Red Hot and Blue)

Total Running Time: 41:59

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For the appetizers we have a couple of poems and a couple of uplifting songs.

The first act (and the album) starts with Beautiful Ghost leading into Rise Up, to connect later with Brian Eno and Allen Ginsberg in Drunk Chicken and closing it with Hallelujah (here she comes).

That's a beautiful combination, the four tracks flow perfectly between them, and set a very good and uplifted mood for the album.

Then we get to the meat and potatos of this album.

I'm in love with Wave of Sorrow. Seriously.

Not only I find Wave of Sorrow a brilliant song, but it also leads orgasmically into Luminous Times (seriously, just try it, it's amazing how they flow between each other).

After a couple of awesome, but rather dark songs, listening to the first chords of The Sweetest Thing is wonderful (btw, make sure to use the Joshua Tree version). It feels fresh and uplifting, along with the instrumental 60 Seconds in Kingdom Come.

To close this amazing second act, we have Clannad featuring Bono with the beautiful In A Lifetime.

And so, we've made it to the dessert.

Contrasting with the hymnic In a Lifetime, we go to a more basic sound with Dancing Barefoot, uplifting enough to face the closer of the album, the much darker Night and Day (the Red Hot and Blue version) which fits great with Dancing Barefoot and as a closer for The Washing Rain.

I love this album.

THE WASHING RAIN
I would've named the album Wave of Sorrow if it wasn't such a dark name, but I went anyway for a line in this song to name it. Besides, between The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree I thought I needed a "The Something Something" name, so The Washing Rain was decided.
(I considered something like "The Stupid Dreams" or "The Blessed __something__", but it sounded either too idiotic or too pretentious)

The cover fits with the Unforgettable Fire and the Joshua Tree covers.
The album is called "The Washing Rain", but it features a picture of the band in a desert... well, the name of the album is based on the line: "And if the rain came now would it wash us all away...", keyword being "IF"... "IF" the rain came, which obviously hasn't. So, instead of looking for a rainy cover, I went with a desertic one. Which also fits better with the later Joshua Tree artwork.

8. THE JOSHUA TREE
9. RATTLE AND HUM


The only album that I've really modified for this collection is Rattle and Hum.

a) I've removed the live versions.
b) I've edited Van Diemen's Land. There's a long version of it somewhere in the webs, merging the movie with the album versions. I'm using that one except that I edited out the crowd noise at the beginning.
c) I've included Silver And Gold (the Streets b-side). This song is actually included in the album, and this is the first and only album where it appears, so imho it belongs more in here than in The Joshua Tree.
d) I would've loved to include a SHFWILF gospel studio version if there was one, but there isn't, so I didn't.
e) I've modified the track listing as follows:

1. Hawkmoon 269
2. Desire
3. Van Diemen's Land
4. Silver And Gold
5. Angel of Harlem
6. Love Rescue Me
7. When Love Comes to Town
8. Heartland
9. God (part II)
10. All I Want is You
 
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10.
RACE AGAINST TIME


Race Against Time is the 4th U2 Unreleased Album in my collection, and I have it placed right after the R&H album.
It contains tracks from both Joshua Tree sessions and from the period after releasing R&H.

At first glance is an album that I'm not excited to listen, but once you hit play, it actually works pretty good together.


1. A Room at the Heartbreak Hotel
2. Spanish Eyes
3. Walk to the Water
4. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
5. Everlasting Love
6. Jesus Christ
7. Race Against Time
8. Unchained Melody
9. Deep in the Heart (edited)
10. Fortunate Son
11. Silver and Gold (Sun City - edited)
12. Desert of Our Love

Total Running Time: 45:46

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A Room at the Heartbreak Hotel makes a really good opener, and it's U2 Rattle and Hum at their best.

It's the track that starts the album and the one that leads a very solid first act, accompanied by Spanish Eyes (arguably the best leftover from the Joshua Tree sessions) and the slow but deep Walk to the Water.

Following the Room at the Heartbreak Hotel sound -and the R&H sound for that matter- the second act packs 3 really uplifting and happy songs that flow effortlessly between them: Christmas, Everlasting Love and Jesus Christ. It's a guitar fest.

They may not be the best songs in their catalog, but they're catchy as hell (ha!) and when it's over you'll still want more of that sound.

After that happy second act, we slow it down and bring the mood down a bit with Race Against Time and Deep in the Heart sandwitching an epic Unchained Melody.

A couple of notes: when I first heard U2 playing Unchained Melody I disliked the song, because it seemed like they were just jumping into the Ghost bandwaggon. But after so many years… it's a great cover, a great song, and it works great in the mood and sound of this album.

And about Deep in the Heart, I edited the track to remove some 30 seconds of "demo sound" in the middle of the song and a few seconds in the intro that I felt dragged down the 3rd act too much.

The fourth and final act starts with Fortunate Son. Yeah, this one was released in the Achtung Baby era, but the sound of the song clearly belongs to R&H.

Fortunate Son wakes you up and connects you back with the first half of the album, after a slower and deeper 3rd act. The first notes are a wake up call after Deep in the Heart, and the sound and rythm of the song reminds us that we're still listen to the Race Against Time album, giving it a lot more consistence.

This fast paced song also sets the stage for the final two tracks of the album: the bluesy Silver and Gold (Sun City) -I also removed it something like 40 seconds at the end of the track- and the closer Desert of Our Love, which ends the album on a more uplifting yet slower sound.

RACE AGAINST TIME
It's a rather traditional album, and naming it after a song of the album sounds traditional enough to me.

I wanted to name this album "Heartbreak Hotel", but apparently someone already had the rights for that name, so I went with Race Against Time, in a time when U2 were questioning themselves if it was worthy to keep it on.

The cover is a traditional and stoical black and white cover, a close up of Bono holding a guitar (maybe even playing it?) along with BB King. I think it really shows what kind of music we're expected to listen in this album.
The picture is a bit blured, showing some of the motions of being running against time.

11. ACHTUNG BABY
12. ZOOROPA
 
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13.
OLTRE I CONFINI


Oltre i Confini is the 5th U2 Unreleased Album, featuring tracks from all over the 90's era.

I would've wanted to place it before Achtung Baby, since it has some songs of the early Achtung Baby era, which still sound a bit like Rattle and Hum, but on the other hand it also contains a selection of the Passengers album, which is after Zooropa.
In the end, I decided that Achtung must be the first album of this era and I didn't wanted to break the Achtung-Zooropa combo, so I moved Oltre i Confini after them.

It's a weird combination of songs, but I think in the end they make a good album.

1. Alex Descends Into Hell For a Bottle of Milk / Korova 1
2. Miss Sarajevo
3. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses (Temple Bar)
4. The Sweetest Thing (Single version)
5. Your Blue Room
6. Where Did it All Go Wrong?
7. Everybody Loves a Winner
8. Blow Your House Down
9. Elvis Ate America
10. I've Got You Under My Skin

Total Running Time: 40:46

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Oltre i Confini starts with Alex descending into hell which is a great track to start an album and it flows nicely into Miss Sarajevo (I'm using the single shorter version of the song).

Two Passengers tracks, Miss Sarajevo and Your Blue Room, are sandwiching the Temple Bar mix of Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses and the 90's version of The Sweetest Thing.

Btw, I renamed it as "The Zweetest Thing" ("The Zooitest Thing"?) because it fits well into the whole Zoo era.
Seriously, this song amazes me: both versions are practically identical, yet those tiny differences make one song fit perfectly in the Joshua Tree and the other fitting in a whole different era among Babyface or Lemon in Zooropa.

Anyway, that's the first act.

The second act sounds a lot like the Race Against Time album, featuring a more traditional and uplifting sound. It also matches the sound of the Temple Bar version of Wild Horses, giving it a bit of consistency with the first half of the album.

It's a 3 song act, starting with the fast paced Where Did It All Go Wrong right after the slow Blue Room, creating a nice contrast and working as a second start for the album.

It slows down a bit with Everybody Loves a Winner but then moves to Blow Your House Down, another fast paced track of the same family.

Contrasting with Blow Your House Down, but reminding us that we're in the weird era of U2, we arrive to the third and final act of the album with the weird Elvis Ate America.

The closer of the album is I've Got You Under My Skin, a song so traditional and unlike U2 that somehow works fantastic when placed back to back with Elvis Ate America.

This unexpected combo is one of my favourite closers in all U2 discography.

OLTRE I CONFINI

If when you looked at the name of the album you thought "WTF?!", then good... that sounds like something U2 would do back then.

Meaning something like "Over The Limit", "Oltre I Confini" is a line in Miss Sarajevo, so it's not like just some random phrase like "Achtung Baby" or something like that.

Now that I mentioned Achtung Baby, keep in mind that this wouldn't be the first time they named an album with a non-english name.

The cover features Mr. MacPhisto, which I believe better symbolises this era. Also, I wanted to highlight Mr. MacPhisto without making it look like a "Bono Album", so I went with his suit instead of his face.

Sorry if you wanted more from the Passengers album, but this is all I took from it.
I would've wanted at least another couple of songs from there, but I didn't thought it was worthy trying to make them fit when there were already enough songs available that were not in any other album.
 
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14.
BERLIN DUBLIN


Berlin Dublin is the 6th U2 Unreleased album, 14th overall in this collection. It contains tracks from Achtung Baby to Pop eras. Is the longest album of this collection, clocking at 57:28.
I'm dating it right before Pop.

Another of my favourite albums, it contains some of my favourite U2 tracks of all time, regardless of being in an album or not. I think this is one of the "darkest" albums and I like albums like that.

1. In the Name of the Father
2. Satellite of Love
3. Oh Berlin
4. I'm Not Your Baby
5. Happiness is a Warm Gun (The Gun Mix)
6. Heaven and Hell
7. Paint it Black
8. Goldeneye
9. Please (Single version)
10. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
11. Down all the Days
12. North and South of the River

Total Running Time: 57:28

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In the Name of the Father is a natural opener, despite being a dark track. After all, this is a rather dark album, so it sets the tone for it, and then it lightens up a bit with Satellite of Love, the "happiest" song of the album, changing the pace and improving the mood before entering into the core of Berlin Dublin.

The second act starts with a slow paced track in Oh Berlin and then increases it and gets darker with the duo of I'm Not Your Baby and Happiness is a Warm Gun (I'm using the Gun Mix over the Danny Saber one because I thought Gun Mix was "less" weird than Saber's... the Danny Saber one is in the next album anyway). It ends slower again with the ballad Heaven and Hell (I miss the "demo" version, including the "organ!", but the released version is good and probably better overall.

And right when Heaven and Hell ends, the third act starts with the powerful Paint it Black (I enjoyed that transition a lot) and continues in a dark tone with Goldeneye (Bono and Edge's demo) and the single version of Please (which I like more than the Pop version).
It ends with the wonderful Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me, contrasting a bit with the darker tone but bringing more energy into the mix.

Finally, to close the album, we have two tracks. First, Down All The Days (I really find it amazing how they can make two totally different songs using the exact same music... this one and Numb have absolutely nothing in common... except for the whole musical track, incredible).
And the closer of the album is North and South of the River. It works great as a closer and it's even better considering that we started with the troubles in In The Name of the Father, so closing it with a peacemaker like North and South is more than fitting.

BERLIN DUBLIN
This album was supposed to be named Berlin since day 1, because of Oh Berlin and for all the mythos surrounding Hansa and Achtung and this whole era.
But once I started messing with the track list, and I decided to open the album with In the Name of the Father and close it with North and South of the River, it became obvious that "Berlin" was not the name of this album.
So I settled with Berlin Dublin.

In that same line, the idea for the cover was a graffiti from the Berlin wall, but once the name was changed, I tried to use graffiti from both the Berlin wall and from the Windmill Lane wall and combine them somehow.

In the end, I used a Windmill Lane graffiti from around this era which includes "U2" in the wall. Not totally convinced on this one, though. Maybe I'll revisit it later.

15. POP
 
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16.
NOISE


Noise is the 7th U2 Unreleased album. It has tracks starting back from the Achtung Baby Sessions and dabs into All That You Can't Leave Behind material. Because of this, I think it fits better after Pop.

This is probably the least consistent album, or that's how I feel about it, but still I think it can work regardless of that.

1. Pop Muzik
2. Elevation (Tomb Rider)
3. Happiness is a Warm Gun (Danny Saber Mix)
4. Electrical Storm
5. Holy Joe
6. The Hands That Build America
7. New Day
8. Lady With the Spinning Head (UV1)
9. Salome
10. Night and Day (Twilight)
11. Slow Dancing (Stay b-side)
12. I Can't Help Falling in Love With You

Total Running Time: 52:54

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Noise starts with 3 solid and energetic tracks in Pop Muzik, Elevation (the Tomb Rider mix) and the Danny Saber mix of Happiness.
Despite being from different eras, the Tomb Rider track fits well between the other two.

The second act has 3 more songs, but this time a bit more conventional, showing a sound closer to Leave Behind than to Pop. It's also the slower part of the album, since although the highlight of this act is Holy Joe (I'm using the Garage Mix), it's in the middle of Electrical Storm and The Hands That Build America.

Now, for the third act... I'm still not sure of doing the right thing, but I included New Day with Wyclef Jean. It features Bono, but it sounds odd in a U2 album. Not really my cup of tea.
But after giving it a lot of thought, I decided to keep it. The album is called Noise, this is U2 at a very strange time in their lives, and after the first couple of minutes, the song doesn't sound that bad at all.

Also, it sounds even weirder since it's right after Hands, and that creates a huge contrast. Is that good? maybe; I think so.
But the worst case scenario is: "If I really can't take it, then I can skip it".
And in that case, Lady With the Spinning Head is right there waiting to work perfectly against Hands.

After Lady With the Spinning Head, closing this third act is Salome.

To close the album, there's 3 more songs in the 4th and final act.
Night and Day (Twilight remix) starts the closing, Slow Dancing (the Stay b-side almost a capella version, not the Willie Nelson one) ends the album for practical purposes and then I Can't Help Falling in Love With You works as an encore to close the album.

NOISE
After Pop, I wanted an odd one single word album name.

Originally I was going to name this one "Spoon", because of Lady with the Spinning Head --> Spin --> Spun --> Spoon... and because fuckit, this is a weird era and they had lemons and shopping carts and weird things and a spoon seemed to be the kind of stuff they would do.

But in the end, I went with Noise to contrast/combine it with Pop. Seemed to me like an evolution from Pop, taking it further to Noise.
Not sure if it's justifiable, but I don't think it's out of U2 realm of possibilities to name an album like that.

The cover mirrors Peter Rowen again (although this one is not him), a child in a similar pose to that in Boy and War, but this time covering his(her) ears while screaming.
The style of the picture and colors resemble those used in the Pop Mart era.
 
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17.
ELECTRONIC SEAS


Electronic Seas is the 8th U2 Unreleased album. It has tracks from around the time of the Million Dollar Hotel Soundtrack, and from the All That You Can't Leave Behind sessions.
I think it clearly belongs before the Leave Behind album.

Some disclosure here: I love the MDH soundtrack. Falling asleep while listening Fallin' at Your Feet just to be awakened in the middle of the night by Milla Jovovich's terrifying screams is an overwhelming yet oddly satisfying experience that I'll never forget. Since then I've loved this soundtrack, including Milla's songs.

1. Summer Rain
2. Big Girls Are Best
3. The Ground Beneath Her Feet
4. Falling at Your Feet
5. Always
6. Levitate
7. Flower Child
8. Never Let Me Go
9. Dancin' Shoes
10. Love You Like Mad
11. Stateless
12. Slide Away

Total Running Time: 50:52

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The album starts uplifting with a couple of happy and light songs: Summer Rain and Big Girls.

Is good to have a easy start, because the second act is more dense.
It starts with The Ground Beneath Her Feet and then it continues with Falling at Your Feet (this sounds like Tarantino -or Rex Ryan- was involved). They're a couple of great but slow songs, so we can match that with another great and not-so-slow song, Always.
From Always to Levitate to Flower Child, the second act features 5 wonderful songs that work perfectly together, making it one of the best packs of these albums.

The third act is clearly slower, with the MDH trio of Never Let Me Go, Dancin' Shoes and Stateless, with Love You Like Mad before Stateless just in order to keep me from falling asleep.

The album ends with Michael Hutchence and Bono singing Slide Away as the closer.

ELECTRONIC SEAS
The album name comes from a line in Falling at Your Feet.
The highlight of this album for me is Always, and although I love those lyrics, I didn't liked any line from there to be used as album name.
So I went with Falling at Your Feet.

The line is "All the radio waves, electronic seas", so I'm using some "radio waves".
Actually, they're not any random "radio waves", this is a screenshot of the Falling at Your Feet track, with the left and right channels overimposed in blue and white.
In the background, there's a picture of the fab4 in a "sea".
Not my favourite, though.

18. ALL THAT YOU CAN'T LEAVE BEHIND
19. HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB


I've modified the track listing, it works better for me this way:

1. City of Blinding Lights
2. Vertigo
3. Sometimes You Can't Make it On Your Own
4. Love And Peace or Else
5. Original of the Species
6. A Man And a Woman
7. All Because of You
8. Miracle Drug
9. Crumbs From Your Table
10. One Step Closer
11. Yahweh

For me, City is a better opener than Vertigo, which works better as the second song.
I like better OOTS in the first half of the album and Miracle Drug in the second half.
I wanted to use One Step Closer as the closer, but I can't hear Yahweh in any other place than that, so in the end I left it in there.

I like the alternative versions a lot, specially Yahweh, but I still like the album ones, so I'm not sure about using them instead of the real ones.
 
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20.
ALIVE IN A CORNER OF THE WORLD


Alive in a Corner of the World is the 9th U2 Unreleased album, with mostly songs from the Bomb sessions, but it includes tracks from All That You Can't Leave Behind era to No Line on the Horizon.
I've placed it between Bomb and No Line.

1. Are You Gonna Wait Forever?
2. Xanax And Wine
3. Winter (Brothers)
4. Native Son
5. Children of the Revolution
6. The Ballad of Ronnie Drew
7. Don't Take Your Guns to Town
8. No Line on the Horizon 2
9. Breathe (Mandela)
10. Fast Cars
11. Neon Lights

Total running time: 44:48

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The first act contains four powerful tracks, with Are You Gonna Wait Forever being the opener and then followed by Xanax and Wine.
A more emotional song like Winter (the Brothers version) slows it down a bit before continuing with Native Son and Children of the Revolution.

The whole act works fine together and it brings a lot of energy into the album.

The second act is a bit more "indie" than the first one.

It starts with the Ballad of Ronnie Drew and Don't Take Your Guns to Town (edited to remove the crowd noises at the beginning and at the end).
A more powerful song like No Line on the Horizon 2 changes the pace a bit before continuing the "indie" sound with Breathe (the Mandela version) and Fast Cars.

Fast Cars not only works as the last song of the second act, but it works as a bookend of an album that started with its sister song Xanax And Wine, making it a clean arc from Xanax to Fast Cars.

The only song of the third and final act -Neon Lights- works not only like a great closer, but also like an epilogue of the album.

ALIVE IN A CORNER OF THE WORLD
We're in an era of long names from whole lines in the songs, so I went looking for a line that I liked.
Xanax, Fast Cars and No Line were discarded since they already have an album named after them.
Children, Ronnie Drew, Guns to Town and Neon Lights were discarded since they're not really U2 songs.

That left me with only a couple of songs to choose from, and Winter was the winner.
"Trying to stay alive in a corner of the world with no clear enemies to fight" was the line chosen.

The cover is a picture of a corner of the world, hot as hell in a far-off land, with some footprints as proof of someone being alive in there.
The yellow son is there, although it's not really yellow. Oh, well. I didn't took the picture, and photoshopping it to make it look yellow was not a good idea.

Also, the long name matches the previous albums (Leave Behind and Bomb), but the cover matches the next one, the minimalistic No Line cover, with just a picture and no band picture.

21. NO LINE ON THE HORIZON

I've modified the track listing, it works better for me this way:

1. Fez / Being Born
2. Crazy Tonight
3. Moment of Surrender
4. No Line On The Horizon
5. Breathe
6. Unknown Caller
7. Get on Your Boots
8. Stand Up
9. White as Snow
10. Magnificent
11. Cedars of Lebanon

For me, Crazy Tonight works in there lighting up the mood against Fez and before MoS.
MoS works better for me between 2 uplifting songs like CT and No Line.
Breathe works better in the first half of the album.
Boots and Stand Up work fine (!!) after a stronger first half like this one.
Magnificent works a lot better for me as the second to last song of the album instead at the beginning of it.
 
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22.
RIPPING THE STITCHES


Ripping the Stitches is the 10th and last album of this collection, featuring tracks from the Bomb sessions, No Line and Songs of Innocence. I'm placing it between No Line and Songs of Innocence.

It contains arguably some of the best U2 songs of the last decade, and lucky for us they are all still available to create one amazing album.

1. Ordinary Love (Epworth)
2. Soon
3. Smile
4. Mercy
5. The Saints Are Coming
6. Every Breaking Wave (Acoustic)
7. Winter (Linear)
8. Window in the Skies
9. Invisible
10. Lucifer's Hands
11. The Crystal Ballroom (Long version)

Total running time: 50:13

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Ordinary Love (the Epworth mix) works as a light and catchy starter, which are nice qualities for an opener, specially considering that the second act will be huge.

The second act is probably the best in this collection of U2 Unreleased albums: 7 songs that blend together seamlessly including some of the best available tracks in the pool.

After Ordinary Love we start with a trio of amazing songs that work even better together: Soon, Smile and Mercy. It feels heavily and heavenly emotional, and surely it's one of the highlights of all these U2 Unreleased albums.

Right after that, the House of the Rising Sun snippet at the beginning of the Saints Are Coming makes a great transition between Mercy and the rest of Saints. And the heavy and sudden stop of Saints leads wonderfully into the acoustic version of Every Breaking Wave.

If this was not enough, the first chords of Winter (Linear) lift the mood again and after this epic song, the whole arc that started after Ordinary Love in the first act, ends up with Window in the Skies.

But even as we approach the end, we still have some aces up our sleeve.

The third act contains a trio of great songs that works more as an encore than just a simple closer.

This encore starts with Invisible, follows with Lucifer's Hands, and then The Crystal Ballroom closes both the third act and the album.

When I play Crystal Ballroom in the middle of an album, I prefer the short version, but as a closer you want the 12" version… that long ending is spectacular to close the album.

It'll be hard to top this one.

RIPPING THE STITCHES
The album name was between "Soon", a line from Mercy and a line from Crystal Ballroom, "Ghosts of Love", which sound great and imho fitted right there with the sound of the album… but then I realized that out of context it sounds really cheesy.

And then "Soon" sounded like it was an unfinished album, which was really unfair considering how good this one I think it is.

So in the end I went with the Mercy line, which I think sounds great and thematically fits with several of the songs.

The album cover is based on the "Complete U2" cover, it looks classy, and this is one classy album. I know that the picture is from a different era, but I really liked that photo.

23. SONGS OF INNOCENCE
 
Yep. That's it.

So... what do you think?

Oh, one more thing. These are the songs that I KNOW I didn't included in the albums:

1. Two Shots of Happy One Shot of Sad (I'm not particulary fond of this song, sorry, so I couldn't find it a place).

2. Most of Passengers album. (I'm not that much into it -yet?- sorry).

3. American Prayer (not sure if it counts as studio or live. Anyway, I didn't thought it would fit).

4. Save The Children (I find it too late in the process, by then there really wasn't room to fit it).

5. Slow Dancing -Willie Nelson version (I had both versions and I decided to use the Stay b-side one, I liked it better).

The songs I didn't used because I don't know they exist are the following:

1.

Well, obviously, there's nothing in here, because I don't know that they exist. So if you find something I'm missing, please let me know about it.
 
Wow! Great job, man... I'm really digging a few of these album covers. It is all too much to take in right now :lol: so will have to respond later after reading it all.
 
This is pretty neat. At the very least, I'll check out Angels.

I'm a little surprised by what songs it seems you DID like from Passengers. But overall, cool stuff.
 
I'm a little surprised by what songs it seems you DID like from Passengers. But overall, cool stuff.

:hmm: not sure... I think Miss Sarajevo and Blue Room are pretty straight forward, they're the more conventional songs.

The weird one is Elvis Ate America... I didn't like it at first, then one day it popped out in shuffle right after Dirty Day and I loved how it sounded after that.

Eventually I included it (along with I've Got You Under My Skin) as the closer of Zooropa instead of The Wanderer.

I've liked it since then.

The rest of Passengers... is way too much Enoish and too little U2ish to me; but probably I need to give it more chances, I gave up on that album too easy.
 
You know that Wave Of Sorrow, Disappearing Act, Heaven and Hell, and Oh Berlin all feature new Bono vocals, right?

No, didn't knew that, thanks for the info.
I'd wish they do something like that to some "unfinished" songs of their early years.


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And thanks everybody for the comments!
 
Wow. Many, many kudos to you! What a labor of love, and the graphic design is tremendous. Are you interested in providing files? Because I would love to listen, but at this point can't make time to recreate the track listing myself.
 
Wow. Many, many kudos to you! What a labor of love, and the graphic design is tremendous. Are you interested in providing files? Because I would love to listen, but at this point can't make time to recreate the track listing myself.

Thanks!
Sure I would... just wait a bit since I'm reworking a couple of these to include more Passengers and SOI disc 2, so it'll end up in 25 albums.

Also, just a reminder, my goal with this was not create "the best album possible", but to take my first step to help me organise the whole u2 collection... it's easier (at least for me) to remember (and listen) the songs of 25 albums than to remember 13 albums plus 100 or so lose/random songs.
 
I don't mind waiting. I prefer listening in album or complete show mode too, rather than shuffle, and I never get my playlist shit together. This looks like so much fun.
 
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