Best Album Survivor: Round Seven

[digitize]

Sorry about the delay! Anyway, in the last round, both War and No Line on the Horizon were eliminated, and they shall share seventh place. Round seven begins now. You have 24 hours to vote for your least favorite remaining album.

The ranking as of now:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7 (tie). No Line on the Horizon
7 (tie). War
9. Rattle and Hum
10. All That You Can't Leave Behind
11. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
12. Original Soundtracks 1
13. October

 

[digitize]

My personal opinion: why the hell is Boy still here?

 

[Axver]

My personal opinion: why the hell is Boy still here?

Because it's better than every U2 album except UF.

I'll be voting for one of the nineties albums, but at this stage I'm not sure which. Pop has the lowest moments of all three, but it also has a bunch of really high moments - definitely more high points than Zooropa.

 

[LemonMelon]

Boy is toast. TUF is my least favorite of what's left because hardly anything in the second half engages me. The first half is 5/5, A+, golden, etc.

 

[lazarus]

Boy is more consistent, yeah. But come on. ASOH alone puts that whole thing to shame.

 

[bonocomet]

I really really hate to help vote off Boy But if it's me, a desert island, and one record... TUF has Bad, so.....

 

[the tourist]

Save boy!

 

[gvox]

Because it's better than every U2 album except UF.

I'll be voting for one of the nineties albums, but at this stage I'm not sure which. Pop has the lowest moments of all three, but it also has a bunch of really high moments - definitely more high points than Zooropa.

We're of pretty much the same mind. I can't believe people are bagging on 80s U2 so much. Boy is one of U2's best albums and I never get sick of it.

Zooropa, with the title track being one of my all time favorite U2 songs and Lemon right up there, just doesn't have the depth all the way thru the album, for me, that Pop does. Therefore Zooropa goes this time.

 

[LemonMelon]

Prediction:

1. Achtung
2. JT
3. TUF
4. Zooropa
5. Pop
6. Boy

 

[brooklynmike]

Seeyah Boy!

 

[Axver]

Save boy!

I'm going to be filthy with EYKIW if Boy goes.

Come on, there's not a single dud song on there. Most of the tracks are brilliant; I'd list them but I'd be listing nine out of eleven. And even The Ocean and S&TT are pretty decent. Light years ahead of the likes of So Cruel, Babyface, Miami, and Playboy Mansion, that's for sure!

 

[popacrobat]

My personal opinion: why the hell is Boy still here?

concur

 

[Nick66]

U2's debut classic going before Pop?

Pop is a bad joke that even the band has tried their best to forget and distance themselves from. It lives on, only on Interference.

 

[bonocomet]

... where you also live.

 

[Axver]

U2's debut classic going before Pop?

Pop is a bad joke that even the band has tried their best to forget and distance themselves from. It lives on, only on Interference.

I may think Boy is much, much better than Pop, but you can't call an album a bad joke when it has incredible songs like LNOE, Gone, Please, and DYFL.

 

[lemonfly]

Boy is the fourth (maybe even third) best album, so for me it's a choice beteen Zooropa and Pop. Lemon and Stay are better than anything on Pop, but Zooropa as a whole just feels too "lightweight" in comparison to Pop's dark undercurrent of angst. Plus songs like Babyface, Some Days and The Wanderer are crappy beyond belief.

 

[Salome]

I guess we already knew this when October was voted off first,
but the result of this survivor is going to be pathetically bad

 

[Salome]

but Zooropa as a whole just feels too "lightweight" in comparison to Pop's dark undercurrent of angst. Plus songs like Babyface, Some Days and The Wanderer are crappy beyond belief.

I think if I had recorded If God ... I would also be followed by a feeling of angst, sheer dread even

 

[nielsgov]

Boy. I really like the album but the others are just a bit/much better.

 

[Nick66]

I may think Boy is much, much better than Pop, but you can't call an album a bad joke when it has incredible songs like LNOE, Gone, Please, and DYFL.

Well, "joke" may be too strong of a term...when I think of Pop I don't just think of the music, I think of the stupid costumes, bad videos, K-Mart and the overblown tour. And yeah, I think all that is pretty much a joke. Bono dressed up as The Fly or Macphisto worked, but only because there was kick ass music to go along with that. With Pop they took it over the top, and didn't have the music to back it all up (as, again, they've admitted many times over the years).

There are a few good songs on Pop, including one of my all time U2 favourites, but as a whole, I think the album is a failure. I don't mind U2 experimenting and going in new directions...they did it with AB and it worked brilliantly. But I generally agree with the band when they said they probably went too far astray with Pop. Being "experimental" and "pushing the edge" is all fine and good, but that alone doesn't automatically make it good music (just as a more traditional U2 record is not automatically good music).

There's less "U2" in Pop than there is in any of their other records, and I just find it interesting how it can be a U2 fans favourite when it sounds less like U2 than anything else they've done. Just too many people involved in that one. Passengers, frankly, sounds more like a U2 record to me than Pop does, and it's certainly more creative and interesting.

Boy's a better U2 record. But since it's a question of art, there's no right answer and it is what it is.

 

[LemonMelon]

I guess we already knew this when October was voted off first,
but the result of this survivor is going to be pathetically bad

The U2iest U2 albums to ever U2 are not necessarily the best U2 albums.

The band's most creative and inspired releases are still up there.

 

[Axver]

The band's most creative and inspired releases are still up there.

You say that as if Passengers is still there.

 

[Axver]

And I guess I'll go Zooropa, just because Babyface is unforgiveable. With all due apologies to the perfection of the title track, the rest of the album - even its other high points - never even come close to that. In other words, Zooropa blows its load much too early.

I'll all of you for the rest of your days for this travesty unto Boy and Good U2 Albums.

 

[U2girl]

My personal opinion: why the hell is Boy still here?

While several better U2 albums are gone ?

Good question.

Pop has to go, and let the tightest U2 albums fight it out in the last four rounds.

 

[Nick66]

... where you also live.

Nah, I just stop by for tea now and then. It's your house.

 

[LUNEDEMINUIT]

U2 would sound silly performing "Boy" live in it's entirety today.While with "Pop",with a few arrangement changes ,they would come off way better.

 

[Salome]

The U2iest U2 albums to ever U2 are not necessarily the best U2 albums.

The band's most creative and inspired releases are still up there.

apart for No Line, yes
and unfortunately POP is still around, an album more confused about what it wants to be than R&H

and October is better than half of what is left
being the U2iest of all U2 albums, is not necescarily a bad thing either

well, outside of Interference

 

[Salome]

U2 would sound silly performing "Boy" live in it's entirely today.While with "Pop",with a few arrangement changes ,they would come off way better.

 

[schnumi]

They could release pop today and it would sell, that album has aged so well.

 

[Galeongirl]

boy oh boy oh boy.


It's a decent album, but no way better than the other albums.