Rate the Song: Zooropa

[digitize]

Today ushers in voting for the first half of Zooropa.

Please rate Zooropa on a scale from 0 to 10, using whatever criteria you feel allows you to best evaluate the song as a whole. I will not set criteria for people to based on, but if you feel like your best evaluation of the merits of a song comes from voting only based on, say, the studio version, go right ahead and vote that way. Full information on the Rate The Song series may be found in this thread.

Have fun! This poll will close in 96 hours.

 

[LemonMelon]

Pull your head out of the mud, baby.

Dream out loud.

U2's finest hour.

10.

 

[corianderstem]

A gajillion.

It's bliss.

 

[Galeongirl]

I still cannot believe I actually saw this live. Was absolutely flabbergasted. Fuckin' amazing. Pure brilliance. I'm lacking superlatives here. 10.

 

[ElectricalStorm]

Certainly in my top 10 of favourite U2 songs. It's brilliant, and probably the best thing they've done after Achtung Baby.

 

[JoRu]

How is it even possible to write songs like this one? Breathtaking, stunning. Sonically it's U2's finest work if you ask me. They've always been good at opening-songs for their albums (although I must admit that they haven't done it nearly as well the last 15 years as previously), but this might the very best. Streets is a better song per se, if you ask me, but thinking of it as just as something to open an album with Zooropa exceeds it.

Can't possibly give it any less than 10!

 

[An Cat Gav]

Pull your head out of the mud, baby.

Dream out loud.

U2's finest hour.

10.

It's three finest hours rolled into one!

10

 

[LadySpinHead]

Love love love love love. One of my favorites. A breathtaking 10.

 

[flybabe]

Awesome. Mind blowing. Creatively Sexy. It was a wonderful thing for U2 to crank out two fucking awesome albums, one... right... after... another. 10. No less should be allowed.

 

[waynetravis]

10. 10. 10. 10. 10. 10. 10. 10. 10. 10. 10. 10.

 

[theedgeu2]

Fuckin brilliant. 10.

 

[trevgreg]

Always liked it. Intro's a tad long on the studio version, but it sounded phenomenal this summer on the summer tour.

 

[coolian2]

55.

and one of gthe few songs getting massive love on here that would still be getting it if they hadn't played it on the most recent tour.

 

[LemonMelon]

Yeah, the tour will just afford it a couple extra 10s. Like anyone would have given it less.

 

[prbiker15]

I had always wanted to hear Zooropa live - and thankfully I did last summer on U2360. Epic and incredible, just like the album version. One of my all-time favorite U2 songs.

Easy 10 - and the second-best track on Zooropa.

 

[silkensky]

What an otherworldly, magical song. In my top 10 for sure, and being lucky enough to experience it TWICE on the last tour just had me over the top. Zooropa is more than just a song, it's an anthem. May it always have a place in U2's live set.

 

[trojanchick99]

Last year, this song would have rated an 8. Then I heard it live. It was sublime. I just freaking worship it now.

 

[The_acrobat]

The whole song is really good, but the 2nd half is perfection. I always feel so "ALIVE" when that is playing.

 

[lemonfly]

Musically flawless. It really is a 90's version of Streets in many ways, anthemic and soaring. Lyrically suspect. "Get your head out of the mud baby/ Put flowers in the mud baby". Really? If Bono wrote that line now, we'd be laughing about what a typical Bono clunker it was. Also alluding to certain well known brands might have come off clever at the time but seems a little ham-fisted to me now. So I'm gonna mark it down slightly. 8

 

[popacrobat]

change my 9 to a 10 please, I misclicked.

 

[Globo14]

Meh.









10.

 

[digitize]

change my 9 to a 10 please, I misclicked.

Sure, no problemo

 

[Scorpionac]

One of their very best.

 

[God Part III]

Best U2 song.

 

[LemonMelon]

Lyrically suspect.

No.

"Take your head out of the mud, baby/Put flowers in the mud, baby" is 10 trillion times more evocative and gripping in its optimism than anything Bono is writing today. I mean, seriously, what an image. The fact that it even puts an image in your head means it has a leg up on a lot of his present writing.

I find the namechecking in the early verses to be extremely clever, not hamfisted. I had no idea what he was referring to when I first heard the album and the lines worked extremely well on their own terms. The reality of the situation just added an extra layer to it.

Interference's top 5 kicks ass right now.

 

[The Sad Punk]

10 so hard.

Just love this album so much, and have recently been having a major revival on it. I can honestly say that I like every song on it.

 

[The Panther]

Not one of my favorites. It works well enough as an album-opener with the cool build-up (done rather better on The Stone Roses' first album four years earlier), but the middle part of the song I don't really like. I do greatly like the final part where Bono finally gets into full voice, but it seems like it arrives to late to totally salvage the track.

Basically, I don't particularly enjoy prog-rock type songs like this. I mean, this kind of song wouldn't be out of place on a Genesis or Yes album of the mid-70s (and I don't mean that as a compliment).

Still good because it's U2, but nothing special.

 

[Nick66]

Basically, I don't particularly enjoy prog-rock type songs like this. I mean, this kind of song wouldn't be out of place on a Genesis or Yes album of the mid-70s (and I don't mean that as a compliment).

This is an interesting, and insightful, comment. U2 has always slammed "progressive rock" and described it as "the enemy". In fact Bono has said he thought they had become a bit too "progressive rock" in describing their relative dissatisfaction with this album and in particular its follow up.

 

[coolian2]

In fact Bono has said he thought they had become a bit too "progressive rock" in describing their relative dissatisfaction with this album and in particular its follow up.

which i find a bit of a shame, because i really enjoyed what they were doing at that time.

 

[LemonMelon]

I don't disagree with the idea of Zooropa being influenced by ambient (intro), and perhaps space rock (midsection), along with the euro-dance they were absorbing at the time (closing verses). I must say, however, that broadly labeling the song as progressive rock (because it's longer than 6 minutes) and saying it sounds like Yes or Genesis reveals that you are aware of about 5 prog rock bands. It couldn't sound less like either of them, and I'm a big fan of both.

I'm always miffed when long rock songs are dismissed as progressive rock. Bono used the tag quite ignorantly too. I don't think U2 has ever come close to prog, frankly. If creativity and ambition are the two defining characteristics of prog, I think it's the best genre in the world, and I hope they make their own Tales From Topographic Oceans soon.