October, R&H And Pop: The Best?

[digitize]

Pop is my favorite out of the three. However, I've really started liking R&H lately. It is a very close second. October... yeah, no thanks. Although Pop and R&H are seen as 'failures', at least by the media, I guess, I love them both... and both are better than the last two albums, IMO, probably (ATYCLB for sure).

 

[Aardvark747]

Pop. But Heartland is on R&H so it comes a close second.

 

[last unicorn]

Rattle and Hum is full of classics, I've always loved that album, but I don't like the movie much. It's the album that gave us the original Desire, Angel of Harlem and All I want is you, all classic and great U2 songs that are still standard repertoire at live shows today. For me, the album suffers a bit from the gap between the live and the studio tracks and there are some weak and filler songs on it, it's simply too long, IMO.

Pop has grown much on me, I love the album as a whole, Staring at the sun and Please are among my favourite U2 songs, but I could never get myself to like the tour or the band's image at that time. Even the PopMart DVD couldn't change that, it's simply not "my thing".

October is underappreciated as an album, Tomorrow is one U2 song that never fails to touch me. All in all, it's the U2 album I hardly listen to. But thinking about it makes me want to go back and listen to it again.

 

[U2DMfan]

Well this is one of those questions that sort of gets right down to it, doesn't it?

October is a piece of shit, honestly. Anyone who has read one of my rambles knows that I could spend 500 words describing to you in detail why I think this album is a turd. Let me just save the time and say it just sucks. U2's worst album, easily, no question about it. I bought that album on cassette (later CD) maybe 15, 16 years ago. If I've sat through the whole thing from front to end more than two times I'd be surprised. There are about 4 redeeming songs on the album, Gloria and Threw A Brick are great songs IMO but the valleys on that album are amazingly bad.

POP is 1/2 filler, 1/2 brilliant, overrated, underrated, extremely divisive and uneven and Rattle and Hum if taken on the strength of the original songs is pretty damn great. In fact it's probably U2's most underrated album here on Interference.

I'd take R&H personally.

 

[Salome]

Rattle and Hum if taken on the strength of the original songs is pretty damn great. In fact it's probably U2's most underrated album here on Interference.

I agree with that

 

[DrTeeth]

October is my favourite U2 record love. R&H has better songs than Pop, but the studio/live thing doesn't work for me so Pop wins that one.

1. October love
2. Pop
3. R&H

 

[WCF]

Hate to be acting like the devil's advocate around here, but I really like October. Gloria, I Fall Down, I threw a brick, rejoice, scarlet, it's beautiful and nostalgic and even peaceful. This album has one of my favorite themes out of all the U2 albums.

 

[gman]

I honeslty like all 3 albums and have weighed up the pros cons of each. I think Pop has more highlights. Still the other two tho

 

[LemonMelon]

Reading through these, I think the current count is:

Pop - 16
R&H - 11
October - 4

A bunch of people are undecided.

 

[CherokeeRose]

POP is 1/2 filler, 1/2 brilliant, overrated, underrated, extremely divisive and uneven and Rattle and Hum if taken on the strength of the original songs is pretty damn great. In fact it's probably U2's most underrated album here on Interference.

I'd take R&H personally.

That's exactly how I feel

 

[theFly51]

Pop for me

 

[MrPryck2U]

A tie between Rattle and Hum + Pop.

Ditto!

 

[zuropa_fit]

IMHO, each of these albums were trying sooooo hard to be something, trying too hard if you ask me. But I think Pop has the strongest songs (Please, IGWSHA, LNOE, Discotheque).

 

[bram]

Hate to be acting like the devil's advocate around here, but I really like October. Gloria, I Fall Down, I threw a brick, rejoice, scarlet, it's beautiful and nostalgic and even peaceful. This album has one of my favorite themes out of all the U2 albums.

I agree with this. If I started dissecting individual songs and components, Pop and R&H may come out stronger (even MUCH stronger), but the honest truth is that I find October much, much more pleasurable as a straight-through listening experience. Using my desire/ability to listen straight through the album as a stand-in for "favorite", October would probably be in my top 4 U2 albums while R&H and Pop are definitely near the bottom.

It's strange though, because if I used a different method (as many of you have) to assess which is the "best", I could easily have either of the other 2 win (based on individual song strength, band progression/experimentation, danceability, etc.). But for me the album is the ultimate art form in rock music, and thus I must consider October the best.