Boy versus How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb

[Axver]

The first album versus the latest album. Bono likes to compare these two in interviews.

Which do you think is better?

 

[Axver]

Tough one for me as I quite like both albums, but some of HTDAAB's songs have really dropped off for me lately (SYCMIOYO especially), while Boy never really stops growing on me.

 

[heyho_letsgo]

Electic Co (on its own) > everything on Bomb.

IMO

 

[Zoots]

Wow! Boy is already beating the bejesus out of the Bomb!

 

[MrBrau1]

Electic Co (on its own) > everything on Bomb.

IMO

It's a damn good thing you put that IMO in there.

Otherwise, the "slow" people here might think you were proclaiming fact.

 

[Axver]

It's a damn good thing you put that IMO in there.

Otherwise, the "slow" people here might think you were proclaiming fact.

You forgot to say that's your opinion, in my opinion.

 

[Zoots]

You forgot to say that's your opinion, in my opinion.

Obviously Boy is better than the Bomb!!!! It's so obvious, it's practically fact! The opinion word doesn't even apply here! Heck, anything is better than ATYCLB and HTDAAB.. even Spice Girls! It's so obvious!

 

[Axver]

Obviously Boy is better than the Bomb!!!! It's so obvious, it's practically fact! The opinion word doesn't even apply here! Heck, anything is better than ATYCLB and HTDAAB.. even Spice Girls! It's so obvious!

I played songs on the xylophone and triangle when I was three that were better than Achtung Baby and Pop. That's objective fact. Anyone who disagrees with me has no taste.

 

[KiteKate]

It's hard for me, since I can't get over how much I like Original of the Species and Miracle Drug, while every time I hear An Cat Dubh and Out of Control, I feel like I can die happy.

Since HTDAAB seems to be losing, I'll help it out. I like it just a *tiny* bit better.

 

[catlhere]

hay guyZ, wut is goin on in dis topiX?!11?

-votes HTDAAB-

While I find IWF, and Electric extremely amazing u2 tracks. The album as a whole doesn't do it for me. Twilight, ocean, and shadows make me throw up in my mouth a little. and thats NO good. HTDAAB is a more consitantly fun to listen to album all the way through. Plus Love/Peace love = Instawin/10

and thats teh actual and teh factual. IMO.

 

[thelaj]

I personally think Bono's "post punk warbling" is kinda annoying on Boy, as well as the tracks seeming overall weaker than Bomb.
How to Dismantle an Atomic Boy wins!

 

[Axver]

Woah, it's gone from 8-0 to Boy to 12-11 to Bomb, and the thread's not even an hour old.

 

[Zoots]

hay guyZ, wut is goin on in dis topiX?!11?

Is that your standard greeting?

 

[MrBrau1]

and thats teh actual and teh factual. IMO.

you've opened a pandoras box with this statement.

I think the universe is imploding.

 

[Zoots]

How to Dismantle an Atomic Boy wins!

Not 'All That You Can't Leave To Dismantle An Atomic Behind'?

 

[catlhere]

Is that your standard greeting?

YEP!

j00=WINNAR!

I just like to pretend its a house i'm barging into when i'm not invited. just to see what everyone's up to.

on a side note.

HTDAAB beating Boy isnt too surprising. I'm sure more people in general KNOW about HTDAAB over Boy. and know vertigo, city, original etc. over songs like electric co. I think the 00's really got a lot of new blood into u2s fanbase (me included) and perhaps they havent ventured into the earlier albums before JT maybe.

or HTDAAB could just be a better album

ill go with the latter.

 

[MrBrau1]

Hmm?

1.AB
2.JT
3.HTDAAB
4.Boy

 

[GibsonGirl]

This was actually a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. In the end, I had to go with HTDAAB. Based purely on musical quality.

You can't deny it that U2 have learned how to better use their music to support their message over the years. I'll take A Day Without Me and One Step Closer for instance. Both songs deal with the idea of mortality, but you wouldn't think so, based upon the musical style of A Day Without Me. ADWM is kind of cool in the sense that it doesn't sound as you'd expect it to, but it doesn't really invoke as much emotion as it should (for me, in any case.) While I love the song, it sounds too "happy" for me to feel anything. So I think U2 have really matured in that department - using the music to reflect the idea.

Next, the flow. Boy flows really well...because a lot of the songs sound similar. Almost all of the Boy songs follow the format of slightly distorted guitar plus delay, fast bass lines, and loud drums. The only exceptions to that are An Cat Dubh/Into The Heart (EDIT: forgot The Ocean) and Shadows And Tall Trees. HTDAAB, on the other hand, has bad flow...but at least there's a discernable difference between the style of most of the songs. Vertigo is very different to Love And Peace Or Else, which is very different to A Man And A Woman, which is very different to One Step Closer, etc. It's a little more interesting, that way, so HTDAAB gets the upper-hand in that respect.

Finally, I looked at the number of good songs on each album. This is how it panned out for me:

Boy: I Will Follow, Twilight, Out Of Control, A Day Without Me, The Electric Co.
HTDAAB: Vertigo, Miracle Drug, Love And Peace Or Else, City Of Blinding Lights, Crumbs From Your Table, Original Of The Species, Fast Cars.

HTDAAB has more, so it's ranked a little higher. I wanted to look at lyrics as well, but... I think Bono's lyrics suck on Boy and I think they suck on HTDAAB. Not much to say, really.


I really do think this sort of poll is far more interesting than 90s era U2 versus 00s era U2. When it comes to 90s U2, I just automatically vote for whichever album HTDAAB/ATYCLB is being pitted against in the poll, because there really is no question for me as to which era is better. Musically and lyrically, I think U2 were on a planet of their own in the 90s. But this kind of poll actually requires some thought!

 

[Axver]

You can't deny it that U2 have learned how to better use their music to support their message over the years. I'll take A Day Without Me and One Step Closer for instance. Both songs deal with the idea of mortality, but you wouldn't think so, based upon the musical style of A Day Without Me. ADWM is kind of cool in the sense that it doesn't sound as you'd expect it to, but it doesn't really invoke as much emotion as it should (for me, in any case.) While I love the song, it sounds too "happy" for me to feel anything. So I think U2 have really matured in that department - using the music to reflect the idea.

As far as A Day Without Me goes, I like the juxtaposition of cheerful music with depressing lyrics. Sure, it's not quite as developed as the juxtaposition in Dream Theater's Solitary Shell, but I still quite like it.

 

[amerrydeath]

I actually... can't... decide. Boy, on one hand... well, I think that if they played all the songs from Boy again now I would probably have a greater appreciation for Shadows and Tall Trees and Another Time, Another Place. For some reason I feel like the melodies of Boy stand up better than the melodies of HTDAAB...

I think AMAAW and Yahweh might make Boy win for me, though. There's nothing I dislike so much as those two songs on Boy.

 

[the rockin edge]

Boy...close though

electric co

 

[heyho_letsgo]

It's a damn good thing you put that IMO in there.

Otherwise, the "slow" people here might think you were proclaiming fact.

Heh, I'm a literature major. Nothing is fact, everything is just

Also, I feel like I should be pulling out Kant's Critique of Judgement in these threads.

Does U2 have purposiveness without purpose? Hmmm...

 

[tommycharles]

Bomb is my second favorite U2 album period, although both records are part of the better half of their cannon, for me (it's a shame they kinda lost the plot until Joshua Tree....IMO, of course).

 

[Axver]

Heh, I'm a literature major. Nothing is fact, everything is just

It's a fact that I just quoted a portion of your post stating that nothing is fact.

So there!

 

[-macphisto-]

This one was a fast go for....
Boy

I love the simplicity and uniquness in U2's earlier music.
I like the lyrics, I dont know why that is, but there just cool lyrics.

 

[heyho_letsgo]

HTDAAB has more, so it's ranked a little higher. I wanted to look at lyrics as well, but... I think Bono's lyrics suck on Boy and I think they suck on HTDAAB. Not much to say, really.

Heh. Well it depends on what kind of crappy lyrics you'd rather have: simplistic and repetitive, or just kind of bizarre. I still say "Freedom has a scent like the top of a newborn baby's head" is one of the worst lyrics I've ever heard. And then when I popped in the Bomb DVD, and Bono was just raving about it?

Again IMO.

 

[nightninja56]

I think AMAAW and Yahweh might make Boy win for me, though. There's nothing I dislike so much as those two songs on Boy.

whats wrong with those two songs?

 

[the rockin edge]

Heh. Well it depends on what kind of crappy lyrics you'd rather have: simplistic and repetitive, or just kind of bizarre. I still say "Freedom has a scent like the top of a newborn baby's head" is one of the worst lyrics I've ever heard. And then when I popped in the Bomb DVD, and Bono was just raving about it?

Again IMO.

i think there's some lyrics on da bomb that are better than anything on Boy but overall the lyrics aren't that good on either & Boy rocks more

 

[rock888nwo]

really tough one here...love both...voted for boy though

 

[LuvandPeace1980]

I would Choose Boy if it was Re-mastered
But it's not so I choose HTDAAB.