Up until 1998 before the release of the first of the dreadful compilations, I admired U2 for going so long without cashing in by releasing a compilation. Disappointingly, how times have changed. Now we have 3 complilations, each as shambolic as the other.
When it did come to the time of a compilation being released, I hoped it would have been tracklisted in chronicle order - my personal preference to a mixed up tracklisting. And instead of 2 seperate compilations, I would have released them both as one package - cd1 being called 1980-1989 and cd2 being called 1990-1999. I would also have held off for another year - until 1999 - before releasing them, of course.
My tracklisting would have been -
CD1 - 1980-1989
1. I Will Follow
2. A Day Without Me
3. Fire
4. Gloria
5. A Celebration
6. New Year's Day
7. Two Hearts Beat As One
8. Sunday Bloody Sunday
9. Pride
10. The Unforgettable Fire
11. Bad
12. With Or Without You
13. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
14. Where The Streets Have No Name
15. Desire
16. Angel Of Harlem
17. When Love Comes To Town
18. All I Want Is You
CD2 - 1990-1999
1. The Fly
2. Mysterious Ways
3. One
4. Even Better Than The Real Thing
5. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?
6. Love Is Blindness
7. Lemon
8. Stay
9. Babyface
10. Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me
11. Discotheque
12. Do You Feel Loved?
13. Staring At The Sun
14. Last Night On Earth
15. Please
16. If God Will Send His Angels
I included 3 album tracks to fill out cd2, although all worthy of inclusion on a best of compilation.
This would have been an ideal compilation to release instead of the 2 chaotic ones which ended up being released.
To get to the original point of this thread, if it was up to me to decide the tracklisting of a best of to be released this year, it would have to have also been over 2 discs.
My tracklisting would have been -
Disc 1 - 1980-1992
1. I Will Follow
2. A Day Without Me
3. Fire
4. Gloria
5. New Year's Day
6. Two Hearts Beat As One
7. Pride
8. The Unforgettable Fire
9. With Or Without You
10. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
11. Where The Streets Have No Name
12. Desire
13. Angel Of Harlem
14. All I Want Is You
15. The Fly
16. Mysterious Ways
17. One
18. Even Better Than The Real Thing
Disc 2 - 1993-2006
1. Lemon
2. Stay
3. Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me
4. Discotheque
5. Staring At The Sun
6. Last Night On Earth
7. If God Will Send His Angels
8. Beautiful Day
9. Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of
10. Elevation
11. Walk On
12. Electrical Storm
13. Vertigo
14. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
15. City Of Blinding lights
16. All Because Of You
I wouldn't have bothered including the 2 new songs. I also wouldn't have called the album"U218", which is an awful title. I would simply have called it, "The Best Of U2, 1980-06". Hopefully, when U2 eventually split up, there will be a defintive 3 cd collection running in chronicle order. Although, maybe U2 will be like the Rolling Stones, and go on forever...
Calum.