My personal album summary

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CarpathiaMan

CarpathiaMan

Babyface
Joined
Jan 5, 2013
Messages
28
Location
Sterling Heights, MI, USA
Hi everyone. First-time poster here. I've been a big U2 fan since 1985 or so.

Anyway, I wanted to do one of those lists where I basically sum up how I feel about each album, in a nutshell, with feedback from the community if you agree/disagree.

Here goes:

Boy: Great
October: Great
War: Fantastic
Unforgettable Fire: Very good (I think Pride might be my favorite U2 song)
Joshua Tree: Phenomenal
R&H: Excellent
Achtung Baby: Phenomenal, again
Zooropa: Good
Pop: Very good, very underrated
ATYCLB: Good ... mostly (somebody please help me with this one!)
Atomic Bomb: Good ... mostly (again, a little help here)
Horizon: Very, very good (don't know about Boots, though)

Thanks for reading.
 
Here's my list:

Boy: Good, but kind of great
October: Ok, but on the verge of being kinda good.
War: Really good.
Unforgettable Fire: Kind of awesome
The Joshua Tree: Great, bordering on really great.
Rattle And Hum: Kinda good but sucks sometimes
Achtung Baby: Really Awesome
Zooropa: Neat
Pop: Awesome
ATYCLB: Good but not so good
HTDAAB: Good, better than ATYCLB
NLOTH: Very good bordering on very, very good.
 
this is a prank right? i mean, one word for each album after nearly 30 years of fandom?! :ohmy:
 
mama cass said:
this is a prank right? i mean, one word for each album after nearly 30 years of fandom?! :ohmy:
Click to expand...

Heh, I could definitely go into more detail, but I thought as an introduction of myself I'd keep it simple.

Thank you all for the welcome.

I can add this little bit about the genesis of my being a fan. I don't think I really knew who the heck they were aside from the fact that my older brother taped "Sunday Bloody Sunday" off of the radio onto a cassette. Then one time we're driving in his car, he was playing one of their albums, and he said to me, "They ARE your favorite band, right?"

From there, I started giving them a chance, and I was hooked.
 
CarpathiaMan said:
Heh, I could definitely go into more detail, but I thought as an introduction of myself I'd keep it simple.

Thank you all for the welcome.

I can add this little bit about the genesis of my being a fan. I don't think I really knew who the heck they were aside from the fact that my older brother taped "Sunday Bloody Sunday" off of the radio onto a cassette. Then one time we're driving in his car, he was playing one of their albums, and he said to me, "They ARE your favorite band, right?"

From there, I started giving them a chance, and I was hooked.
Click to expand...

hehe cool! i thought it was a nice introduction anyway! and, word of warning, you never know with this lot - it could have been a prank! ;)

welcome to the forum! :wave:
 
Boy- Good, but all the songs are better live, which puts me off from listening to it. Plus WTF wasn't "11:00 tick tock" on there?
October- Eh... some definite bright spots, but overall a mediocre album
War- Very good
UF- Very good, but would've been better with a few extra tracks (LCT, 3S, and Bass Trap in place of 4th of July)
JT- Epic
RH- Good. Subtract all the live stuff, and add in Room at the Heartbreak Hotel, Hallelujah and Dancing Barefoot and you've got a pretty good album.
AB- Epic. The most perfect album I've ever heard.
Zooropa- Very good. In my opinion, this feels more like a Passengers side project than a U2 album.
POP- Very good. I thought this was such a great record when it was released, and I still feel that way now.
ATYCLB- Great. Words cannot describe what this album means to me.
HTDAAB- Good, but as Bono said, it's not a cohesive album, just a collection of songs.
NLOTH- It's unfortunate that they abandoned their original concept for the album. You can ALMOST hear what they were going for, and it would've been awesome. I cannot express how bad I think GOYB is.
 
Welcome aboard! My viewpoints below...

Boy - Good for a debut.
October - Um... it has Gloria! :)
War - Good, with songs starting to border on very good.
UF - Very good in the first half... sort of loses me by the end though.
JT - One of their best, if not the best (obviously).
RH - Good in parts. Solid enough for a half-live, half-studio album.
AB - The best. ;)
Zooropa - Good, and probably pretty good for an album that was originally meant to be an EP.
POP - Not quite epic, but good despite being a bit schizophrenic in parts (which might be part of the appeal).
ATYCLB - Very good. A different approach in songwriting that led to some solid songs.
HTDAAB- Good, yet missing that spark to make the whole thing take off.
NLOTH - The top songs rank among their best in a long time, yet an average middle and some very weak songs make it a frustrating album at times.
 
Don't know how Rattle and Hum can be classified as "Excellent", but welcome anyway.

Boy: Excellent
October: Excellent
War: Good
Unforgettable Fire: Excellent
Joshua Tree: Masterpiece
Rattle and Hum: Average
Achtung Baby: Masterpiece
Zooropa: Very Good
Original Soundtracks #1: Very Good
Pop: Outstanding
ATYCLB: Very Good
HTDAAB: Very Good
NLOTH: Excellent
 
trevgreg said:
Welcome aboard! My viewpoints below...

Boy - Good for a debut.
October - Um... it has Gloria! :)
War - Good, with songs starting to border on very good.
UF - Very good in the first half... sort of loses me by the end though.
JT - One of their best, if not the best (obviously).
RH - Good in parts. Solid enough for a half-live, half-studio album.
AB - The best. ;)
Zooropa - Good, and probably pretty good for an album that was originally meant to be an EP.
POP - Not quite epic, but good despite being a bit schizophrenic in parts (which might be part of the appeal).
ATYCLB - Very good. A different approach in songwriting that led to some solid songs.
HTDAAB- Good, yet missing that spark to make the whole thing take off.
NLOTH - The top songs rank among their best in a long time, yet an average middle and some very weak songs make it a frustrating album at times.
Click to expand...

I agree with most of this, especially calling NLOTH "frustrating." I like it, but the inconsistency is a challenge sometimes.

I would only disagree with 2: Zooropa- I'd call it an inspired experiment that worked beautifully, although it does have its weaknesses; and ATYCLB- I agree with your assessment, but I'd call it OK instead of very good.

And to the original poster, welcome!
 
Boy: solid debut
October: very good
War: very good
The Unforgettable Fire: excellent
The Joshua Tree: amazing
Rattle and Hum: messy
Achtung Baby: masterpiece
Zooropa: great
Passengers: very good
Pop: awesome
All That You Can't Leave Behind: lifeless
How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb: dull
No Line on the Horizon: underwhelming
 
Boy - stunning, unique debut.
October-underrated gem, again, quite unique.
War- v good album, the departure towards more mainstream that they probably needed.
TUF- 1st masterpiece, dream partnership with Eno/lanois formed.
TJT- 2nd masterpiece, perfect album and b-sides.
R&H- v underrated, great studio songs, only live cuts spoil it.
AB- my favourite album of all time
Zooropa- great record, only took 6 months? WOW!!!
Passengers- one of my top 5 for U2, never fails to move me.
Pop- good album, though patchy.
ATYCLB - good album but weak(by their standards) in places.
HTDAAB - Some very good/great songs, couple of poor ones, v patchy.
NLOTH - great effort, could have been one of their best if not for Crazy and SUC- add winter soon and EBW and you have a near masterpiece.

Welcome to Interference, please stick around.
 
Boy: Very good
October: good
War: very good
The Unforgettable Fire: excellent
The Joshua Tree: excellent
Rattle and Hum: good
Achtung Baby: masterpiece
Zooropa: excellent
Pop: excellent (so close to a masterpiece)
All That You Can't Leave Behind: very good
How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb: good/very good
No Line on the Horizon: very good/excellent

The 1st 4 tracks on NLOTH are an awesome sequence and then it just crumbles. I love Breathe, WAS, & Being Born but it doesn't save it from the Crazy Tonight/GOYB/SUC sequence.
 
CarpathiaMan said:
I might as well mention, I don't have Passengers yet, but it's on my to-get list. What can you guys tell me about that?
Click to expand...

It's about 6 songs too long, but the highs are very impressive. Uneven but fascinating.
 
I wouldn't consider Passengers essential except for the songs with Bono's vocals. Definitely an album you should be in the mood for.
 
Yeah Passengers is very much a "mood piece". Albums like Kid A and Dark Side Of The Moon on certain days sound like the best music ever recorded to me. On other days, I can't stand them. (I'm not suggesting for a second Passengers is at the same level as those two albums - it's not - but is well worth giving a few spins. Noodling of the highest calibre).
 
Boy: Fantastic debut, but all the songs are improved live, like someone else said
October: Passable, at best
War: Very good, but I only mainly listen to New Year's Day and Sunday Bloody Sunday
Unforgettable Fire: Great
The Joshua Tree: Super great
Rattle and Hum: Good, but had a lot more potential
Achtung Baby: Best album I've ever heard
Zooropa: Good follow up to Achtung, and definitely has some great tracks
Passengers: Alright, I guess
Pop: Quite good again, with some strange sounds
ATYCLB: Quite great, and underrated in my opinion
The Bomb: Very good, but the production drags it down for me on quite a few songs
No Line: Great record, and I would be happy if the next album was like it
 
I guess I'll give my thoughts.

Boy: Decent, but somewhat forgettable.
October: Similar to Boy. I'm not sure which I like better... that changes. October has more duds, but I like my favorite song on October (Tomorrow) better than anything on Boy. It's great to listen to the whole album on a cool fall day.
War: Very good album. The "lesser" tracks are more interesting to me than Boy and October's "lesser" tracks, and it has higher highs (to me).
The Unforgettable Fire: Beautiful.
The Joshua Tree: Fantastic, but I've never been able to connect with it as much as some people. Maybe it's because I live in the South and I detest everything about deserts. Also, I don't think it's as thematically strong or focused as it could be.
Rattle and Hum: I like it better than I used to, but I'm still not a huge fan. The non-studio songs are, to me, pretty terrible. I like the studio songs better, but not enough to put R&H above the lower-middle tier of my preferences. I think that Heartland is criminally overrated on this forum.
Achtung Baby: Perfect.
Zooropa: Perfect, except for Some Days Are Better Than Others.
Original Soundtracks 1: Beautiful.
Pop: Nearly perfect.
All That You Can't Leave Behind: Decent, but not nearly as interesting as the 90s stuff. It does have some great songs, though.
Bomb: Whatever. I love COBL, like OOTS, tolerate Vertigo, occasionally remember that AMAAW exists and is a decent song, and generally ignore the rest. Oh, and I loathe All Because of You.
No Line: Excellent, excellent, excellent. I am one of the rare few who likes the middle three.
 
Ha! What an idea for a thread.

Boy: good, boyish stuff
October: some great stuff, some average stuff, a couple of bummers
War: fantastic
Unforgettable Fire: fantastic
The Joshua Tree: super-fantastic
Rattle and Hum: studio tracks = amazing; live tracks = no thanks
Achtung Baby: super-fantastic
Zooropa: enjoyable, different, lighter than usual
Pop: compromised album = dissatisfying whole
ATYCLB: nice pop album, vocals too high in mix
The Bomb: brilliant songs, slightly annoying production
No Line: compromised album = quite dissatisfying whole
 
digitize said:
I guess I'll give my thoughts.

The Joshua Tree: Fantastic, but I've never been able to connect with it as much as some people. Maybe it's because I live in the South and I detest everything about deserts. Also, I don't think it's as thematically strong or focused as it could be.


Oh, and I loathe All Because of You.
Click to expand...


You just summed up what I could never put my finger on about JT. It's always been a great album to me, but something about it has always been lacking to me and I could never figure out what it was. Maybe Bono's original idea for making it a double album would bring focus to the context he was going for.

And yes ABOY is a horrible song. Not as bad as GOYB, but should never have been a single, let alone released at all.
 
Nick66 said:
Interesting. What does one have to do with the other?
Click to expand...

That thought isn't fully coherent, I guess. I live in the South(ern United States), which means that it's hotter than hell in the summers. Furthermore, I live in a place in the South that's in the middle of a prolonged drought. The heat and the drought reinforce each other, so we get things like the summer of 2011 where temperatures reach 112 degrees Fahrenheit (44.4 degrees Celsius) and there isn't a single drop of rain for four months straight. In other words, I live in a place that feels dangerously like a desert, at least in the summer (it's cold and rainy right now, at least). And in the summer, I am constantly nauseous, I don't go outside for more than five minutes at a time, and I get scared that our water supply will cease to exist. I think my hatred of deserts stems from that.
 
digitize said:
That thought isn't fully coherent, I guess. I live in the South(ern United States), which means that it's hotter than hell in the summers. Furthermore, I live in a place in the South that's in the middle of a prolonged drought. The heat and the drought reinforce each other, so we get things like the summer of 2011 where temperatures reach 112 degrees Fahrenheit (44.4 degrees Celsius) and there isn't a single drop of rain for four months straight. In other words, I live in a place that feels dangerously like a desert, at least in the summer (it's cold and rainy right now, at least). And in the summer, I am constantly nauseous, I don't go outside for more than five minutes at a time, and I get scared that our water supply will cease to exist. I think my hatred of deserts stems from that.
Click to expand...

EDIT: Oh, Austin. Yeah, that's fucking hot.
 
The Panther said:
Ha! What an idea for a thread.

Boy: good, boyish stuff
October: some great stuff, some average stuff, a couple of bummers
War: fantastic
Unforgettable Fire: fantastic
The Joshua Tree: super-fantastic
Rattle and Hum: studio tracks = amazing; live tracks = no thanks
Achtung Baby: super-fantastic
Zooropa: enjoyable, different, lighter than usual
Pop: compromised album = dissatisfying whole
ATYCLB: nice pop album, vocals too high in mix
The Bomb: brilliant songs, slightly annoying production
No Line: compromised album = quite dissatisfying whole
Click to expand...

:up: Perfect critique in my opinion...
 
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