U2 - Rockers, Mid-Tempos, or Slow Ballads?

[namkcuR]

I've been thinking about this for a week now, if U2 excels at one type of song over another. To start with, I've compiled three lists consisting of what I think are some of U2's best rock, mid-tempo, and slow songs:

Rock:
I Will Follow
Out Of Control
The Electric. Co
Gloria
Fire
Sunday Bloody Sunday
New Year's Day
Like A Song
Wire
Bullet The Blue Sky
Exit
Desire
God Part II
Zoo Station
Even Better Than The Real Thing
Until The End Of The World
The Fly
Mysterious Ways
Acrobat
Numb
Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car
Dirty Day
Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me
Discotheque
Do You Feel Loved
Mofo
Staring At The Sun
Last Night On Earth
Gone
Miami
Elevation
New York
Vertigo
Love And Peace Or Else
All Because Of You
Crumbs From Your Table
No Line On The Horizon
Get On Your Boots
Stand Up Comedy
Breathe

Mid-Temp:
A Sort Of Homecoming
Pride(In The Name Of Love)
The Unforgettable Fire
Where The Streets Have No Name
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Red Hill Mining Town
One Tree Hill
Angel Of Harlem
When Love Comes To Town
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World
Ultraviolet(Light My Way)
Zooropa
Lemon
Stay(Faraway, So Close)
If God Will Send His Angels
Please
Sweetest Thing
Stuck In A Moment
Walk On
In A Little While
When I Look At The World
Miracle Drug
City Of Blinding Lights
A Man And A Woman
Window In The Skies
Unknown Caller
I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight
Fez-Being Born

Slow:
October
Scarlet
Drowning Man
"40"
Promenade
Elvis Presley And America
With Or Without You
Running To Stand Still
Mothers Of The Disappeared
Heartland
All I Want Is You
One
So Cruel
Love Is Blindness
The First Time
The Wanderer
Your Blue Room
Miss Sarajevo
If You Wear That Velvet Dress
The Ground Beneath Her Feet
Stateless
Kite
The Hands That Built America
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
One Step Closer
Moment Of Surrender
White As Snow
Cedars Of Lebanon

So, I present you with two questions:

1. Which category are they the best in?
2. Have any of these three categories shown a noticeable drop OR rise in quality as the years have progressed?

I want to know what you think they're best at and if you think there's any area they've gotten better in over the years or worse in over the years?

 

[the tourist]

All I can say is that I think a lot of the songs you placed in the "rock" section really belong to the mid-tempo section. Just my two cents.

 

[phanan]

All I can say is that I think a lot of the songs you placed in the "rock" section really belong to the mid-tempo section. Just my two cents.

And some vice versa.

 

[LemonMelon]

1. Mid-tempo
2. Increase in quality: slow ballads, Decrease in quality: rockers

 

[MMP]

Hmmm... I think they're pretty damn good at those three. But I guess I must say that Rockers have been better and better with time. Elevation and GOYB are two of the best things they ever done, especially the former.

 

[LemonMelon]

Oh, and Fez - Being Born is completely out of place in the slow ballads section. Should be midtempo.

 

[the tourist]

Elevation and GOYB are two of the best things they ever done, especially the former.

More proof of what I mentioned last week.

 

[the tourist]

Oh, and Fez - Being Born is completely out of place in the slow ballads section. Should be midtempo.

And A Man And A Woman, too.

 

[MMP]

More proof of what I mentioned last week.

Meh.
You're not the first and you won't be the last to say that.

 

[namkcuR]

Point taken on AMAAW, but Bono's vocal on Fez-Being Born is actually slower than his vocal on Moment Of Surrender, that's why I put it in the slow column, thought I could see why some would disagree with its placement there.

 

[corianderstem]

I don't know that I'd take the pace of the vocal to determine the tempo/feel of the whole song.

I can sing three words per verse and stretch them out to fit over a whole verse of a mid-tempo rocking beat, but that still makes it a mid-tempo rocker.

 

[namkcuR]

I don't know that I'd take the pace of the vocal to determine the tempo/feel of the whole song.

I can sing three words per verse and stretch them out to fit over a whole verse of a mid-tempo rocking beat, but that still makes it a mid-tempo rocker.

Ok, it's moved

Can we get back to the questions now(that's not just directed at you, Cori, I'm not singling you out)?

 

[corianderstem]

No worries, namkcuR. I didn't have a lot of thoughts about the topic, but when you said that about the vocal, it just struck me as odd and I wanted to comment.

 

[Tyagu_Anaykus]

The rockers

 

[the tourist]

I have to agree with cori on this. Also, I'm not sure of bpm, but is Dirty Day really faster than Pride? What about Staring At The Sun, or New York? Bullet The Blue Sky may be a rock song, but it's also slower than a lot of the labeled mid-tempo songs. I dunno.

Back on topic, I think some songs are excellent in each category, and that song songs are duds in each category. The way they're categorised above, I'd have to say that the rock category has the higher excellent : dud ratio.

 

[namkcuR]

I have to agree with cori on this. Also, I'm not sure of bpm, but is Dirty Day really faster than Pride? What about Staring At The Sun, or New York? Bullet The Blue Sky may be a rock song, but it's also slower than a lot of the labeled mid-tempo songs. I dunno.

You know, maybe 'mid-tempo' wasn't the best choice of label...I just needed a label for songs that were neither rockers or lighter-holding ballads. Perhaps speed isn't the correct distinguishing factor here.

 

[the tourist]

You know, maybe 'mid-tempo' wasn't the best choice of label...I just needed a label for songs that were neither rockers or lighter-holding ballads. Perhaps speed isn't the correct distinguishing factor here.

Could be.

 

[FitzChivalry]

1. Rockers
2. Slow/Ballads
3. Mid-Tempo

I'm SO not a fan of most of U2s mid-tempo songs, even though this is what Bono says they're best at. 'Kite' belongs in the mid-tempo category, not the slow category. And 'Kite' and 'Miracle Drug' are perfect examples of why this is my least favorite song tempo.

Also, I'd have to say that the Mid-Tempo songs are the ones that have suffered and definitely declined the most over the years. I love 'Pride', 'A Sort Of . . . ', 'I Still Haven't . . . ', 'Angel of Harlem', etc. Really, Pop is where they started to go downhill and fast: 'Staring At The Sun', 'Last Night On Earth', etc. Mid-Tempo songs up until Pop were mainly good and since they've mainly sucked. I still love the Rockers and Slow songs.

Rockers and Slow songs

 

[adypole]

I like their rock out songs the most. especially if they feel raw. electric co, the fly, no line on the horizon and sunday bloody sunday. They're good at that. In fact, their good at mid tempo and slow.

 

[Muldfeld]

Mid-tempo and slow, but songs like Love is Blindness have more amazing and rough guitar than Vertigo or Elevation or GOYB ever will.

 

[powerhour24]

They are the best emotional mid-tempo songwriters out there, "Walk On", "Streets", "Magnificent", etceteras, that's what endears me to them the most, I love their rock energy when it comes, but its not usually evidence of what makes them so special to me. Not that there aren't also quite slow U2 songs that are worthy. Answer is I'm an all around fan of their work.

 

[Screwtape2]

So, I present you with two questions:

1. Which category are they the best in?
2. Have any of these three categories shown a noticeable drop OR rise in quality as the years have progressed?

I want to know what you think they're best at and if you think there's any area they've gotten better in over the years or worse in over the years?

I think they are best in the mid-tempo category.

I think the rock and slow-ballads showed a drop in quality in the 2000's before NLOTH.

 

[kingofsorrow]

i like them all. of course you have some "hit and miss" creations in each category, but overall u2 does job of delving into each category.
some artist can only tackle 1 or 2 of those categories, but not all 3 and have at least a few gems from each.

 

[RobH]

"Pride" in the mid-tempo section? Hmmmmm....

 

[dal975]

this is a diffcult exercise with U2 songs
there should or could be subcategories for live v. studio, esp. w/ songs from Pop. question- is "rocker" here being used in the traditional "rock and roll" or as a more encompassing high energy, frenetic sound?
b/c to me studio discoteque and studio mofo are not rock songs, but live discoteque morphs into a pop-rock song, while live mofo is kind of a hybrid synth-pop-rock thing. (I am purposely avoiding the word "techno"). Gone is another weird hybrid example, it is kind of a mid-tempo pop-rocker, and I can't define it as one or the other. There are many crossovers like that. WOWY to me is a tale of two songs as well.

maybe better categories would be based on "visible energy level" needed to perform the song onstage or something of that nature.