U2 Best Of 2000-2010

[Bono's shades]

So is this supposed to be our own personal playlist of favorite songs from 2000-2010 or does it have to be something we think the band would realistically place on a hypothetical Best Of? In my case the first scenario would be wildly different than the latter.

 

[The Passenger]

Interesting thread. I've been batting around a playlist in my head but haven't come up with anything solid yet. I'd forgotten about Window in the Skies as I couldn't be bothered to buy U218. Now I wish I had as I'm dying of curiousity.

U218 is only $5.99 to download on Amazon right now. You should at least spring the 99 cents to download "Window In The Skies". It's a great track. I kind of wish they held it over for NLOTH. It would have been a better 1st single than "Get On Your Boots" IMO.

Edit-Sorry, I just took a look. You have to buy the whole album to get "WITS". :thumbsdown:

 

[The Passenger]

So is this supposed to be our own personal playlist of favorite songs from 2000-2010 or does it have to be something we think the band would realistically place on a hypothetical Best Of? In my case the first scenario would be wildly different than the latter.

Well, my original post was picking your favorite songs of the 2000's, regardless of what's on the Best Of's.

 

[Bono's shades]

Well, my original post was picking your favorite songs of the 2000's, regardless of what's on the Best Of's.

Okey-dokey!

1. No Line On The Horizon
2. Stand Up Comedy
3. Electrical Storm
4. Moment of Surrender
5. In A Little While
6. Wild Honey
7. Unknown Caller
8. The Ground Beneath Her Feet
9. Stateless
10. Love and Peace or Else
11. Fast Cars
12. Native Son
13. White As Snow
14. Levitate
15. Fez-Being Born
16. Cedars of Lebanon

 

[xana dew]

U218Edit-Sorry, I just took a look. You have to buy the whole album to get "WITS". :thumbsdown:

Thanks anyway Passenger! I'm sure I'll get a hold of it somehow. Maybe ask a few friends and see if they have U218.

 

[The Passenger]

Thanks anyway Passenger! I'm sure I'll get a hold of it somehow. Maybe ask a few friends and see if they have U218.

The video is pretty cool too...but it looks like you have to click the link to watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YCKS2xmWSk&feature=related

 

[xana dew]

Wow! Thanks again, TP. What a gorgeous tune. Now I see what you guys are talking about. Great video, too.

 

[U2girl]

Beautiful day
Stuck in a moment
Kite
City of blinding lights
Original of the species
Vertigo
Boots
Magnificent
Moment of Surrender
Stateless
Ground beneath her feet
Mercy
+ 3 songs off Songs of ascent.

 

[mikal]

i made best of 80's, 90's and 00's compilations featuring 20 songs from each period. here's my 00's in chronological order:

The Ground Beneath Her Feet
Beautiful Day
Elevation
Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of
Walk On
Kite
Electrical Storm
Hands That Built America
Vertigo
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
City Of Blinding Lights
All Because Of You (Single Mix)
Original Of The Species
Window In The Skies
The Saints Are Coming
Get On Your Boots
Magnificent
I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight
Breathe
Moment Of Surrender

 

[mikal]

i made best of 80's, 90's and 00's compilations featuring 20 songs from each period. here's my 00's in chronological order:

The Ground Beneath Her Feet
Beautiful Day
Elevation
Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of
Walk On
Kite
Electrical Storm
Hands That Built America
Vertigo
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
City Of Blinding Lights
All Because Of You (Single Mix)
Original Of The Species
Window In The Skies
The Saints Are Coming
Get On Your Boots
Magnificent
I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight
Breathe
Moment Of Surrender

edit. Replace "Saints" with "Mercy". wtf was i thinking...putting "Saints" in there?

 

[dexterror]

I bought their last two Best of albums, but I think i would give a 2000 - 2010 a miss. Nothing they've done in the last 10 years has really been anywhere near as good as their first 20 years!

 

[intedomine]

90-2000 was a total fuck up, one of the most regrettable things about U2's career.

So in trying to pretend that bollocks never happened:

1. Beautiful Day
2. Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of
3. Elevation
4. Walk On
5. The Ground Beneath Her Feet
6. Vertigo
7. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
8. Original Of The Species
9. City of Blinding Lights
10. Window In The Skies
11. Get On Your Boots
12. Magnificent
13. Moment of Surrender
14. I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight
15. Winter

16. Mercy (original) - promo single

This would encapsulate the aim to appeal to casual fans, as well as provide a pretty sufficient and relatively completist compilation of significant songs from the era.

Saints Are Coming is a crap cover so I left that off. The next three songs that could be possibly interchangeable with songs in that above track listing would be Kite, Stateless and All Because of Eww

 

[kayley10]

Don't ask me for running order but these would be my picks:

CD:
Elevation
Walk On
Vertigo
All Because of You
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
City of Blinding Lights
Original of the Species
The Saints are Coming
Window In The Skies
Get On Your Boots
Magniificent
I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight
Unknown Caller (live)
Moment of Surrender (live)
Breathe (live)
Mercy
2 new tracks

DVD:
Elevation - 2 videos
Walk On - 2 videos
Vertigo - video
All Because of You - video
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own - 2 videos
City of Blinding Lights - live from Under the Brooklyn Bridge
Original of the Species - 2 videos
The Saints are Coming - video + live
Window In The Skies - 2 videos
Get On Your Boots - video
Magniificent - 2 videos
I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight - 2 videos + remix live from 360º tour
Unknown Caller - live from 360º tour
Moment of Surrender - live from 360º tour
Breathe - live from 360º tour
Mercy - live from 360º tour
2 new tracks - videos

EXTRA:

Making of Elevation, Vertigo, All because of You and GOYB.
What else will they pull out of the hat?

 

[The_acrobat]

I think a Best of 2000-2010 would probably be much better than the trainwreck that was 1990-2000. Talk about a terrible Best of. The representation of Zooropa and Pop is terrible, and including Beautiful Day and Stuck is a cop out to get more people to buy it, especially since Stuck was a single in 2001. And let's not forget the forgettable remakes of Discotheque, Numb, SATS and Gone. Why they thought that was needed I have no idea. And that b-sides disc... talk about a missed opportunity in a decade with an abundance of great b-sides!

And yes, Beautiful Day and Stuck would also be on a potential Best of 2000-2010, simply because they are both big hits from that decade, and some of U2's most recognizable songs in recent years. I'd hope that Mercy and North Star would just be released for that purpose and be left at that.

Also, Best of 1980-1990 is a masterpiece, both discs. Only wish Gloria, 2 hearts and Out of Control were also on there.

 

[trevgreg]

And yes, Beautiful Day and Stuck would also be on a potential Best of 2000-2010, simply because they are both big hits from that decade, and some of U2's most recognizable songs in recent years.

I always interpreted those two being included on the 1990-2000 CD as leaving Walk On and Elevation fot representing ATYCLB on the next greatest hits compilation. Obviously, a 2000-2010 CD is unlikely at this point, but I wouldn't see BD or Stuck being thrown on there for a second go-around.

I wasn't necessarily against the idea of alternate mixes for the Pop/Zooropa tracks, as that would have given an incentive to those people that didn't want the same exact tracks they already have. But aside from Gone, the originals were obviously superior. And yeah, a CD of b-sides instead of remixes would have been fantastic. At least it had the extended mix of LWTSH on there!

 

[nathan1977]

I always interpreted those two being included on the 1990-2000 CD as leaving Walk On and Elevation fot representing ATYCLB on the next greatest hits compilation. Obviously, a 2000-2010 CD is unlikely at this point, but I wouldn't see BD or Stuck being thrown on there for a second go-around.

I wasn't necessarily against the idea of alternate mixes for the Pop/Zooropa tracks, as that would have given an incentive to those people that didn't want the same exact tracks they already have. But aside from Gone, the originals were obviously superior. And yeah, a CD of b-sides instead of remixes would have been fantastic. At least it had the extended mix of LWTSH on there!

What other B-sides could they have put on? Sure, they could have put on some rare stuff like "I'm Not Your Baby", but that stuff was few and far between.

As I recall, in terms of non-remix material on the B side disc they had:
Summer Rain
North and South
Happiness is a Warm Gun
Salome (represented via a remix)
LWTSG (represented via a superior remix)

I guess they could have done a CD of just B-sides. That would have been:

Korova 1
LWTSH (original)
Night and Day
Salome (original)
Where Did It All Go Wrong?
Satellite of Love
Paint It Black
Fortunate Son
Viva Davidoff
Slow Dancing (original)
Holy Joe (guilty mix)
Holy Joe (garage mix)
North and South of the River
I'm Not Your Baby
Happiness is a Warm Gun
Two Shots of Happy
Slow Dancing (full band)
Stateless
Summer Rain
Always
Big Girls Are Best

That's a 21 song CD though, and while the B sides that were produced for the first best-of would have been album tracks for any other band, I'm not sure the band's B side output in the 90s was up to that same par. A lot of the songs on this list are either covers or demos, and while there were a few demos/covers in the 80s compilation too, most of those songs were fully produced, quality tracks. This bunch, not so much...

Not to say that the remixes were any better, but given where the band's head was at in the 90s, remixes might have felt like a closer representation of what the band was up to!

 

[An Cat Gav]

I think a Best of 2000-2010 would probably be much better than the trainwreck that was 1990-2000. Talk about a terrible Best of. The representation of Zooropa and Pop is terrible, and including Beautiful Day and Stuck is a cop out to get more people to buy it, especially since Stuck was a single in 2001. And let's not forget the forgettable remakes of Discotheque, Numb, SATS and Gone. Why they thought that was needed I have no idea. And that b-sides disc... talk about a missed opportunity in a decade with an abundance of great b-sides!

And yes, Beautiful Day and Stuck would also be on a potential Best of 2000-2010, simply because they are both big hits from that decade, and some of U2's most recognizable songs in recent years. I'd hope that Mercy and North Star would just be released for that purpose and be left at that.

Also, Best of 1980-1990 is a masterpiece, both discs. Only wish Gloria, 2 hearts and Out of Control were also on there.

My biggest problem with the 1990-2000 best of was the omission of The Fly.

 

[The Panther]

The problem with the 1990-2000 disc was that it wasn't a timeless, time-honored, withstood-the-test-of-time sort of 'Greatest Hits' disc. You know, the kind of Greatest Hits one would compile 20 years after the fact.

Instead, it was an "of-its-time" Greatest Hits. In other words, The Best of 1990-2000 is less an album of U2 in the 90s than it is an album revealing U2's mind-set in 2003 (or whenever it came out). The whole thing smacks of revisionism and calculation. 'Revisionism' because they're pretending, as 'Cat Gav' says, that "The Fly" wasn't a hit, or that tracks from 2002 were from the 90s; and "calculation" because previously good tracks like 'Discotheque' are re-mixed/recorded/whatever to sound like U2 in 2002.

Horrible album, full of great songs.

 

[trevgreg]

What other B-sides could they have put on? Sure, they could have put on some rare stuff like "I'm Not Your Baby", but that stuff was few and far between.

As I recall, in terms of non-remix material on the B side disc they had:
Summer Rain
North and South
Happiness is a Warm Gun
Salome (represented via a remix)
LWTSG (represented via a superior remix)

I guess they could have done a CD of just B-sides. That would have been:

Korova 1
LWTSH (original)
Night and Day
Salome (original)
Where Did It All Go Wrong?
Satellite of Love
Paint It Black
Fortunate Son
Viva Davidoff
Slow Dancing (original)
Holy Joe (guilty mix)
Holy Joe (garage mix)
North and South of the River
I'm Not Your Baby
Happiness is a Warm Gun
Two Shots of Happy
Slow Dancing (full band)
Stateless
Summer Rain
Always
Big Girls Are Best

That's a 21 song CD though, and while the B sides that were produced for the first best-of would have been album tracks for any other band, I'm not sure the band's B side output in the 90s was up to that same par. A lot of the songs on this list are either covers or demos, and while there were a few demos/covers in the 80s compilation too, most of those songs were fully produced, quality tracks. This bunch, not so much...

Not to say that the remixes were any better, but given where the band's head was at in the 90s, remixes might have felt like a closer representation of what the band was up to!

That's all true. I suppose some of just look at it from a 'purist' standpoint as compared to the 1980-1900 CD, but there were some very good remixes from the band during that era as well. I'm not sure if all of them made the cut myself, although the CD did have a few decent ones on there.

 

[Van Cleef]

The problem with the 1990-2000 disc was that it wasn't a timeless, time-honored, withstood-the-test-of-time sort of 'Greatest Hits' disc. You know, the kind of Greatest Hits one would compile 20 years after the fact.

Instead, it was an "of-its-time" Greatest Hits. In other words, The Best of 1990-2000 is less an album of U2 in the 90s than it is an album revealing U2's mind-set in 2003 (or whenever it came out). The whole thing smacks of revisionism and calculation. 'Revisionism' because they're pretending, as 'Cat Gav' says, that "The Fly" wasn't a hit, or that tracks from 2002 were from the 90s; and "calculation" because previously good tracks like 'Discotheque' are re-mixed/recorded/whatever to sound like U2 in 2002.

Horrible album, full of great songs.

Perfectly said.

 

[An Cat Gav]

The problem with the 1990-2000 disc was that it wasn't a timeless, time-honored, withstood-the-test-of-time sort of 'Greatest Hits' disc. You know, the kind of Greatest Hits one would compile 20 years after the fact.

Instead, it was an "of-its-time" Greatest Hits. In other words, The Best of 1990-2000 is less an album of U2 in the 90s than it is an album revealing U2's mind-set in 2003 (or whenever it came out). The whole thing smacks of revisionism and calculation. 'Revisionism' because they're pretending, as 'Cat Gav' says, that "The Fly" wasn't a hit, or that tracks from 2002 were from the 90s; and "calculation" because previously good tracks like 'Discotheque' are re-mixed/recorded/whatever to sound like U2 in 2002.

Horrible album, full of great songs.

Horrible album, full of great songs, well said!

 

[cobl04]

Indeed, and weren't those new mixes just absolute shite.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

The new mix of "Gone" was a little better...the rest were all significantly worse, particularly that awful rendition of "Discotheque"...

Where they really dropped the ball was including all of that new material. Four of the 16 songs aren't from the 90's and the two new ones weren't even from the time period that was being covered. A 2000-Present compilation would have been a much stronger CD if "Beautiful Day" and "Stuck In A Moment" where available for inclusion...now, it's likely never going to happen since 18Singles exists and they'll likely do some other career retrospective once they call it a day in the next 5-10 years.

 

[lemonfly]

It certainly was a chemically neutered representation of 90s U2. Anyone who was a fan during that decade should be aghast at the bullshit revisionism at play. It's a hodgepodge collection with zero cohesion. I'd go so far as to say it is the absolute worst compilation package by a major group. If it had been a record company thing with minimal input from the band, that'd be slightly more palatable. What truly sucks is that the U2 themselves clearly toiled over those crusty turd new mixes, and the appalling track selection. Ok rant over. As for a Best Of 2000-10...I don't think it is ever likely to surface coz a) the 18 collection already includes the best stuff and b) their non-singles output from that decade is mostly utter shit on a cracker.

 

[The Panther]

I'd go so far as to say it is the absolute worst compilation package by a major group.

It certainly does suck. I always thought Springsteen's first Greatest Hits majorly sucked itself some bone. Completely ignored his first two albums, left off some major songs/hits, and included 4 or 5 new/non-hits of crap that nobody wanted.

What truly sucks is that the U2 themselves clearly toiled over those crusty turd new mixes, and the appalling track selection.

You are so right. I recall a radio interview in 2003 with Larry (he was on vacation in the US at the time) where they asked him about the compilation and the new mixes on it. He defended the album by saying (get this) that it was good because the members of U2 themselves had done/overseen the mixes -- i.e., they hadn't just farmed it out to some name producers to do (!). Nice one, Larry.

...their non-singles output from that decade is mostly utter shit on a cracker.

I did try shit on a cracker once, and it didn't taste good. But indeed, the experience of downing that biscuit was akin to listening to those 2003 mixes.

 

[Vlaco]

I highly doubt there are enough quality post 2000 songs to fit on a new Best Of. Best Of 1980-1990 was my first U2 record, back in 1999 or 2000, and they did a great job with that. Best Of 1990-2000 was much worse despite I love most of their nineties work. It's just not a great album, as some of you already mentioned. I don't want to think about a new Best Of....We'd probably end up with songs like All Because Of You and Original Of The Species on it....

Best Of 1980-1990 is just My only main issue is that they didn't put A Sort Of Homecoming and maybe Gloria on it.

 

[rennowba]

1 vertigo
2 elevation
3 magnificent
4 stuck in a moment
5 sometimes you cant make it on your own
6 kite
7 get on your boots
8 city of blinding lights
9 breathe
10 all because of you
11 crazy tonight
12 walk on
13 (new single)
14 orginal of the species
15 moment of surrender

 

[Vlaco]

^^We'll probably end up with something like that. Very, very weak album.

 

[nathan1977]

1 vertigo
2 elevation
3 magnificent
4 stuck in a moment
5 sometimes you cant make it on your own
6 kite
7 get on your boots
8 city of blinding lights
9 breathe
10 all because of you
11 crazy tonight
12 walk on
13 (new single)
14 orginal of the species
15 moment of surrender

Probably the best guess.

One wonders what the b-sides would be.

 

[2861U2]

I actually think 1990-2000 is very good, though it does have a lot of sentimental value to me. It was the first U2 album that I bought the day it came out. The only albums I owned before that were ATYCLB, Joshua Tree, and TUF, so this was my first taste of anything from the 1990s, and I was hooked for good after hearing it.

1980-1990, on the hand, is lacking. Only having 3 songs from the first 3 albums disqualifies it from being anywhere near great.