Rank the Album Among Others

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Achtung Baby
Pop
The Joshua Tree
The Unforgettable Fire
Zooropa
Boy
War
Songs Of Innocence
Rattle And Hum
No Line On The Horizon
October
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
All That You Can’t Leave Behind
 
Does anyone realise that more time has passed between ATYCLB and SOI than AB and ATYCLB??? When ATYCLB came out Achtung Baby was totally from another era, I was just a kid. Imagine that AB came out just 4 years after JT! Less time than we waited for SOI since No Line...

1 - The Joshua Tree - World Treasure
2 - Achtung Baby - World Treasure
3 - Rattle and Hum - Masterpiece
4 - War - Masterpiece
5 - The Unforgettable Fire - Classic
6 - Songs Of Innocence - Will be a classic
7 - Boy - Classic
8 - All that you cant leave behind - Almost a classic
9 - How to Dismantle an atomic bomb - Fine
10 - Zooropa - Interesting
11 - No Line on the Horizon - Weak
12 - Pop - Big on purpose, short on inspiration, poor in execution
13 - October - Very weak
 
1) AB
2) Z
3) JT
4) TUF

5) SOI
6) WAR
7) NLOTH
8) ATYCLB
9) POP
10) R&H
11) Boy
12) HTDAAB
13) October

This list reflects where I think SOI will end up for me in the near term until I get to see the songs live. Its been as high as 3rd best behind AB & JT as of a few days ago but I've gone on a bit of a U2 binge the last few days which caused Zooropa and UF to move up a couple spots at the expense of SOI and JT. Pop actually dropped quite a bit for me, hadn't listened to it in close to a year and just wasn't feeling it. It just goes to show how great a catalogue this band has.
 
stray dog said:
Yes you can't rank the album among others yet. I get it. So you are ranking the other albums. Just wait...you will rank something else. The name of the thread was to rank this album SOI among others...so don't if you can't. It wasn't a my favorites list.
Click to expand...

I'll post whatever I want here, but thank you for the advice.

I am well aware of what the thread title was.

Find me one thread here that stays on topic. This went off topic in a very minor way as it says to rank SOI "among others." So I discussed all the others, offered my initial thoughts on SOI and said I couldn't put it on the actual list yet. Notice many others did the same before me.

I don't know where your problem/arrogance/personal tone comes from.

Don't really care.
 
Nick66 said:
Yes...it's cohesively consistent and consistently cohesive. Not to mention very even & fresh. And one of U2's most "personal" records.
Click to expand...

I agree with all of this. But for me I'm not yet sure if this bodes favorably or unfavorably for where this album will sit long term. I've seen SOI as falling in the lower/middle of the pack to as high as 3rd in the U2 catalogue at times.

Glass half full: consistency = no clunkers
Glass half empty: consistency = no "transcendent masterpieces"

I love Troubles, Iris, and EBW but I'm not sure if they can be called "masterpieces". only time will tell. The flipside is just about every other song is good to very good.
 
I have been so engrossed in this new album, I'm not sure how my rankings will settle over time, but I think:

1. Joshua Tree
2. Unforgettable Fire
3. Achtung Baby
4. Songs of Innocence
5. Zooropa
6. Pop
7. Boy
8. No Line on the Horizon
9. War
10. All That You Can’t Leave Behind
11. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
12. Rattle and Hum
13. October
14. Passengers

I can't stop listening to SOI, and I keep on hearing new things. It definitely has kept me interested more than the past few albums, much as I may have liked them. Such a mature, expertly crafted record.
 
SeattleVertigo said:
I have been so engrossed in this new album, I'm not sure how my rankings will settle over time, but I think:

1. Joshua Tree
2. Unforgettable Fire
3. Achtung Baby
4. Songs of Innocence
5. Zooropa
6. Pop
7. Boy
8. No Line on the Horizon
9. War
10. All That You Can’t Leave Behind
11. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
12. Rattle and Hum
13. October
14. Passengers

I can't stop listening to SOI, and I keep on hearing new things. It definitely has kept me interested more than the past few albums, much as I may have liked them. Such a mature, expertly crafted record.
Click to expand...

great list...it almost mirrors mine, although I would swap Joshua Tree and place Achtung Baby on top.

agree with your comments on SOI too. Just took a long drive and listened to it again front to back and had no desire to skip anything.
 
dan_smee said:
I finally feel able to do this after a good few more listens today:

The Unforgettable Fire
The Joshua Tree
Achtung Baby
Songs of Innocence
Boy
Pop
Zooropa
No Line on The Horizon
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
All That You Can't Leave Behind
War
October
Rattle & Hum


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
Click to expand...


1%! You lied!

I was looking for a thread that had my initial thoughts on NLOTH. I found a thread named something along the lines of "I don't like this album". It was interesting reading how much people initially loved the album, similar to SOI. Your post stuck out because you wrote "99% chance this ends up in my top 4". It's now 8 and ironically, SOI is 4!

I kid of course, I think its cool to go back and compare. My initial thought of NLOTH were that it was a very good album. Now I think it is just an okay album. The songs I liked then, I still like and the songs I didn't like, I still don't.

I really think it takes at least 6 months before you can really rate an album.


Sent from my iPad using U2 Interference
 
I never liked NLOTH. I really wanted to though, and I think there are some really good songs on there. Early on I loved the first 5 songs and white as snow, but wasn't digging the rest. I hadn't listened to the whole album straight through in probably a year or two. But I listened to it again recently to compare it to SOI. My impressions were....
No Line is still great, Magnificent was better than I remembered, MOS and UC were about the same. I honestly really like Crazy Tonight studio version, not a big fan of the live version, though. Then GYOB was slightly better than I remembered but I'm still not a fan, Stand Up Comedy is the worst U2 song ever put on an album and it's not even close. Fez is really cool, WAS is really good, Breathe lacks the "it" factor for me, had the potential to really be something special but holds back. And cedars is pretty good too.
Overall though, I'd still say it's neck-and-neck with Atomic Bomb for their worst album. However the production of NLOTH is 1000x better. If I did a No Line-SOI mashup, I'd have maybe 2-3 songs from No Line on there. It's early to judge SOI, but I think in time we'll settle that Cedarwood Road and Raised By Wolves are clearly the two weakest on the album. The rest is pretty dang good, though. I think This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now and Invisible are future U2 classics. Sleep Like A Baby, Iris, and The Troubles have potential to be considered greats down the road, as well. Invisible is my favorite song from the 2000s, even though its not technically on SOI. I consider it part of the album in my heart. But it's hard to judge an album till they start cranking this stuff out live. Obviously Invisible should open and close every show, but the rest have a lot to prove live.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
 
bobsaget77 said:
I think in time we'll settle that Cedarwood Road and Raised By Wolves are clearly the two weakest on the album.
Click to expand...

Nah. I'm not sure I've ever been more bored listening to a U2 album for the first time than I was with those first four tracks of SOI. It wasn't until tracks like Iris, Volcano, Raised By Wolves and Cedarwood that the album came to life and showed me something different. EBW (which I really like), California and Song for Someone sound like another day at the office. Which is better than Stand Up Comedy, I'll grant.
 
Final ranking for me. I've finally gotten through to listening to all the albums since SOI came out so I think I can do this.
1. The Unforgettable Fire
2. JT
3. Achtung Baby
4. October
5. Boy
6. Song Of Innocence (inc. Invisible)
7. Zooropa
8. Pop (inc. North and South)
9. Rattle and Hum (studio tracks only + the b-sides(heartbreak hotel, here she comes, etc.)
10. ATYCLB (inc. Ground Beneath Her Feet)
11. War
12. OST1
(Huge gap here)
13. No Line/Atomic Bomb (equally horrible)

1-3 are neck-and-neck. 4-7 are pretty interchangeable and all about even for me. 8-12 is pretty close as well. 13 is well behind everything else by a few miles. They will never even come close to even coming close to anything else. They are buried in the dirt and will never ever move up.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
 
I've come to the conclusion that I don't think that SoI is a particularly good album among U2 albums. It's fine, it doesn't hurt U2's legacy, and it doesn't have any terrible songs, but I don't find it nearly as interesting, inspired, inspiring, or just generally good as No Line. In fact, I'd say that it's U2's second-worst album since Rattle and Hum.

New ranking:
1) Achtung Baby
2) Zooropa
3) The Unforgettable Fire
4) The Joshua Tree
5) No Line On the Horizon
6) Pop
7) All That You Can't Leave Behind
8) War
9) Songs of Innocence (tie)
9) Boy (tie)
11) How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
12) Rattle and Hum
13) October

However, I am thankful that a halfway-decent U2 album came out at all this year. And I'm also thankful that Songs of Innocence has caused me to revisit No Line a lot, and remember why I really love that album. Perhaps, however, the fact that I connected with the No Line songs when I was a teenager, and that they were so important to me at that age, will always bias be in favor of that album, and I am just judging SoI because it's a lot harder for me to have the sort of relationship with an album nowadays that I had with No Line when I was sixteen.
 
digitize said:
I've come to the conclusion that I don't think that SoI is a particularly good album among U2 albums. It's fine, it doesn't hurt U2's legacy, and it doesn't have any terrible songs, but I don't find it nearly as interesting, inspired, inspiring, or just generally good as No Line. In fact, I'd say that it's U2's second-worst album since Rattle and Hum.

However, I am thankful that a halfway-decent U2 album came out at all this year. And I'm also thankful that Songs of Innocence has caused me to revisit No Line a lot, and remember why I really love that album. Perhaps, however, the fact that I connected with the No Line songs when I was a teenager, and that they were so important to me at that age, will always bias be in favor of that album, and I am just judging SoI because it's a lot harder for me to have the sort of relationship with an album nowadays that I had with No Line when I was sixteen.
Click to expand...

While I like SOI more than you do (I think I put it right in the middle), it's good to hear a dissenting voice amidst all the near universal praise for the record we're getting around here...and a defence of NLOTH, which has gone from being loved to being slighted to bizarre outright hostility around these parts...despite being a much more ambitious record (albeit one of extremes) than this one.

I do think we're in a bit of a bubble at Interference on SOI, which is easily one of U2's lesser received records (according to Metacritic), and certainly the least praised post-2000. Like Pop, we're sort of at a place where the rest of the world doesn't seem to quite love something U2 has done as much as we do (questions about Metacritic's methodology and anecdotal "my kids love it" stories aside).

I still think it's funny that, despite all the wishes that U2 would do something "experimental", and stop trying to be the biggest band in the world, stop trying to make radio hits, etc...all that's now forgotten and we've gone head over heels for what is essentially just a collection of mainstream pop/rock songs (albeit a pretty good one).
 
1. No Line on The Horizon
2. Songs of Innocence
3. Achtung Baby
4. Joshua Tree
5. All that you can't leave behind
6. How to dismantle an atomic bomb
7. Zooropa
8. The Unforgettable Fire
9. Pop
10. War
11. Boy
12. Rattle and Hum
13. October
 
U2 couldn't play the NLOTH songs very well for the most part (eg Breathe) in a stadium. If these new songs are played well live and well received the estimation of the new album will increase or decrease depending on that.
 
Nick66 said:
I still think it's funny that, despite all the wishes that U2 would do something "experimental", and stop trying to be the biggest band in the world, stop trying to make radio hits, etc...all that's now forgotten and we've gone head over heels for what is essentially just a collection of mainstream pop/rock songs (albeit a pretty good one).
Click to expand...
I had low expectations, so SoI was a pleasant surprise. I never really connected with NLOTH (although a few songs have grown on me), though it's still good enough to be placed in my "middle 3", along with Pop and SoI.
 
purpleoscar said:
U2 couldn't play the NLOTH songs very well for the most part (eg Breathe) in a stadium. If these new songs are played well live and well received the estimation of the new album will increase or decrease depending on that.
Click to expand...


I just think they didn't play the NLOTH songs good period. Bono wouldn't shut up in Magnificent. Totally drowned out the guitar intro. Breathe again, Bono destroys. Especially with the way sing the chorus, it's just terrible. He pronounces it like breee-aaaaayyth instead of breeeth. It's really annoying, even though Edge's guitar is great and shouldve just let him go on a crazy solo. UC, Boots and I'll Go Crazy were a hit or miss. No Line and MOS were the only consistently good live performances of the NLOTH songs. Should've played White As Snow and Fez.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
 
Nick66 said:
While I like SOI more than you do (I think it put it right in the middle), it's good to hear a dissenting voice amidst all the near universal praise for the record we're getting around here...and a defence of NLOTH, which has gone from being loved to being slighted to bizarre outright hostility around these parts...despite being a much more ambitious record (albeit one of extremes) than this one.

I do think we're in a bit of a bubble at Interference on SOI, which is easily one of U2's lesser received records (according to Metacritic), and certainly the least praised post-2000. Like Pop, we're sort of at a place where the rest of the world doesn't seem to quite love something U2 has done as much as we do (questions about Metacritic's methodology and anecdotal "my kids love it" stories aside).
Click to expand...
While I agree with you on NLOTH being under- and SOI being overrated over here at this point in time (I'm sure it will change), I don't think you can compare the Metacritic scores of SOI with those of say ATYCLB and even NLOTH. With U2, the whole climate that surrounds them before the album is even released, influences the reviews they get so much. It's basically inevitable that the next album gets an even lower score than this one. I mean, Bomb has a score of 79! That's crazy.
 
nielsgov said:
While I agree with you on NLOTH being under- and SOI being overrated over here at this point in time (I'm sure it will change), I don't think you can compare the Metacritic scores of SOI with those of say ATYCLB and even NLOTH. With U2, the whole climate that surrounds them before the album is even released, influences the reviews they get so much. It's basically inevitable that the next album gets an even lower score than this one. I mean, Bomb has a score of 79! That's crazy.
Click to expand...


Agreed. You can't look to metacritic as an accurate barometer considering external factors.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
 
No Line was a letdown for me after just a few listens. SOI has been out a month and I haven't tired of it...no songs are really worth skipping. It might be overrated by some but for me personally it destroys No Line especially lyrically. Just compare the second half of SOI w No Line. Cedars better than the troubles? Breathe better than This is Where..? Not in my world, not even close.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
 
purpleblackeye said:
Just compare the second half of SOI w No Line. Cedars better than the troubles? Breathe better than This is Where..?
Click to expand...

Yes and yes.

Only real strength that SOI has over NLOTH is a far superior midsection. But then all of the album's real clunkers are at the beginning IMO.
 
purpleblackeye said:
No Line was a letdown for me after just a few listens. SOI has been out a month and I haven't tired of it...no songs are really worth skipping. It might be overrated by some but for me personally it destroys No Line especially lyrically. Just compare the second half of SOI w No Line. Cedars better than the troubles? Breathe better than This is Where..? Not in my world, not even close.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
Click to expand...


Same for me, a month after NLOTH, I was only listening to 4 songs and skipping the rest(on occasion I would give Boots a spin just to see if it grew on me). With SOI, a month in and I only skip Raised by Wolves and Troubles on occasion but they are definitely not bad songs.

I have not rated this album yet because I tend to overrate new material but so far.....I'm REALLY liking this album. Ill rate it soon, perhaps once we hit one month on 10/9.




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