***Survivor: Don't You Worry About Your Mind (Albums Rd 12)

[Canadiens1131]

I don't see why anyone's voting for Achtung Baby over The Joshua Tree. Let's do a quick track-by-track comparison.

1. Where The Streets Have No Name/Zoo Station - I don't eve need to argue Streets is better because we know that to be so.
2. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For/Even Better Than The Real Thing - A deep and insightful spiritual number with an outstanding display of singing versus a shallow rock-pop song. ISHFWILF by a mile.
3. With Or Without You/One - Equals. I personally prefer WOWY, especially live.
4. Bullet The Blue Sky/Until The End Of The World - Equals. And Bullet was far better live, especially on its ZooTV reinvention.
5. Running To Stand Still/Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses - The depth and beauty of RTSS leaves WGYWRH unable to even compete.
6. Red Hill Mining Town/So Cruel - RHMT is a beautiful, incredible song, while So Cruel is a distant song that is hard to relate to.
7. In God's Country/The Fly - I love In God's Country but I have to hand this one to The Fly.
8. Trip Through Your Wires/Mysterious Ways - As #7. I love TTYW but Mysterious Ways is better.
9. One Tree Hill/Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World - This competition is just plain embarrassing. The meander through b-side country that is TTTYAATW cannot even think of competing with the incredible, emotional, powerful, heart-wrenching beauty of One Tree Hill.
10. Exit/Ultra Violet - I may have come to enjoy Ultra Violet recently, but this semi-deep romantic song trying to sound shallow could never defeat with the dark despair and bleakness of Exit.
11. Mothers Of The Disappeared/Acrobat - Acrobat is the best song on Achtung Baby and the only AB song in my top ten. MOTD may be tremendously sorrowful, but it loses to Acrobat.

Love Is Blindness gets left out in the cold, but oh well.

The Joshua Tree wins by a freakin' mile. And praise AB however much you want to; it does NOT have the opening five like JT and it does not have the incredibleness that is One Tree Hill. Though I have to wonder sometimes whether you have to be a New Zealander to truly appreciate One Tree Hill. It's the first song to ever make me cry.

Track by track comparisons still can't determine the better ALBUM. Beyond the first three tracks, Joshua Tree lacks direction until it picks up with Exit and Mothers.

Achtung Baby is one large, sweeping story of disillusion, betrayel, redemption, and a solem conclusion.

Unmatched, absolutley unmatched.

 

[bathiu]

I'm using Firefox (mozilla) and the polls are working fine
--------------
JT:
01. Where The Streets Have No Name
.
something called "country music"
.
03. With Or Without You
04. Bullet The Blue Sky
.
something called "country music"
.
10. Exit
11. Mothers Of The Disappeared

VS.

AB:
01. Zoo Station
02. Even Better Than The Real Thing
03. One
04. Until The End Of The World
05. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
.
some song here
.
07. The Fly
08. Mysterious Ways
.
some song here
.
10. Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
11. Acrobat
12. Love Is Blindness

----
JT's 5 songs VS. AB's 10 songs

It's not a competition, it's JT's slaughter!

 

[beau2ifulday]

I love Achtung Baby

 

[U2_Guy]

So far i noticed that the notorius interferencers defenders of the post-2000 U2 prefer TJT over AB.

 

[D'oh!]

So far i noticed that the notorius interferencers defenders of the post-2000 U2 prefer TJT over AB.

i beg to differ........
i love ATYCLB and HTDAAB and defend them as hard as i can...... but i prefer AB to JT

 

[ZeroDude]

Achtung all the way but don't bash JT to further your claims

 

[D'oh!]

just thought i would join the track comparison bandwagon...but i will do it differently.... ill mark each track out of 10

1. WTSHNN - 10......... Zoo Station - 9
2. ISHFWILF - 10..........EBTTRT - 9
3. WOWY - 10......... One - 10
4. BTBS - 7............ UTEOTW - 10
5. RTS - 8.5 ......... WGRYWH - 8
6. RHMT - 8......... So cruel - 8.5
7. IGC - 9.......... The Fly - 9
8. TTYW - 7............. MW - 8.5
9. OTH - 9.5..............TTTYAATW - 9
10. Exit - 8............Ultraviolet - 8.5
11. MOD - 8.5............ Acrobat - 8.5
12. .............................LIB - 8


So, lets add up
JT - 95.5 / 11 = 8.681 (average)
AB - 106 / 12 = 8.833 (average)

so Achtung Baby just about came up on top ..... MO of course

 

[u2granny]

No surprise here, JT.

 

[theedge111]

Achtung Baby

 

[bsp77]

I'm using Firefox (mozilla) and the polls are working fine
--------------
JT:
01. Where The Streets Have No Name
.
something called "country music"
.
03. With Or Without You
04. Bullet The Blue Sky
.
something called "country music"
.
10. Exit
11. Mothers Of The Disappeared

[

I am sorry, but what the hell? Have you ever heard country music? Still Haven't Found is more gospel, Running to Stand Still is more blues (though there is a country vibe to it), One Tree Hill is more worldly (Pacific sounds).

 

[yimou]

ACHTUNG BABY

One of the greatest albums ever released.. And Beli !!, This time i got the voting right, since i took the time to read what i was surposed to do

BTW,, I think Zoostation is one amazing track. The perfect opener for the album.

 

[dandy]

some days i prefer achtung, other days i'm all about the joshua tree.

today is a joshua tree day, so i'm going with that (seeing that the unforgettable fire is sadly no longer around )

 

[*k_i_t_e_86*]

I The Joshua Tree!

 

[peach]

Achtung Baby

 

[U2democrat]

Go Achtung go!!!!!!!!!

 

[1stepcloser]

Achtung baby.

its the only U2 album where the lyrics really grabbed (im not much of a lyrics person) me. some of the lyrics about love and breakups i think a lot of people could relate with (e.g. One/WGRYWH). these lyrics set against a backdrop of new and awesome sounds that they had previously never been near.

the JT is a wonderful album but with AB they managed to push themselves even further and arguably extended their career another 10 years with the re-invention that came with it.

 

[Sleep Over Jack]

I honestly think having One and the fact that all the songs (can) tell a single story helps out with AB's status.
You'd think an album after first three opening songs like JT's would have no chance of keeping the quality, but it does. After that, you still get Bullet, Running..., Red hill town and One tree hill.

Streets vs Zoo station 1-0
I still... vs Even better 2-0
WOWY vs One a tie
Bullet vs The end 2-1
Running vs Horses 3-1
Town vs Cruel another tie
Country vs Fly 4-1
Trip vs Ways 4-2
Hill vs Arms 5-2
Exit vs Ultra 6-2
Mothers vs Acrobat 6-3

Heartland vs Blindess a tie

Trip Through Your Wires better than Mysterious Ways??


Personally, my run-through is this:

Streets vs Zoo station 1-0
I still... vs Even better 1-1
WOWY vs One 1-2
Bullet vs The end 2-2
Running vs Horses 3-2
Town vs Cruel 3-3
Country vs Fly 3-4
Trip vs Ways 3-5
Hill vs Arms 4-5
Exit vs Ultra 4-6
Mothers vs Acrobat 4-7

 

[miss becky]

And I strongly disagree with your interpretation. I see EBTTRT as a commentary on the shallowness of modern society, though that's probably not a common viewpoint. And I definitely don't see much of a theme through AB. Ultra Violet to Acrobat? That's totally unrelated. But I digress. The happy couple of WOWY? WOWY has to be one of the most desperate and painful songs U2 have written - there's nothing close to a happy couple there. I don't see it as being much connected to One and I don't see EBTTRT and One as having any relationship at all. Then the transition to UTEOTW? That didn't work until it was done live on ZooTV with the Unchained Melody snippet.

The album is choppy and disorganised. It's definitely no UF or JT when it comes to flow, particularly not atmospherically.

Achtung Baby choppy? Disorganized?

The entire album tells a story. I would hardly call that disorganized.

As for your question about Ultraviolet and Acrobat... The man in the story, after becoming embittered and disillusioned (One through So Cruel) goes on the biggest bender of his life. He is searching desperately for all the things he needs but cannot find. This is told in The Fly and Mysterious Ways. But he does not find what he is looking for. After digging through the trash heaps of the world (metaphorically speaking) he comes crawling back home in TTYAATW. He is wasted, spent, exhausted.

Whereupon he looks at what he has. And he wonders if he will ever gain it back again. "I remember when we could sleep on stones/Now we lie together in whispers and moans."

From these questions, he thinks about the woman in question. "When I first met you girl/You had fire in your eyes/What happened (to) your face of melting snow?"

Ultraviolet and Acrobat are both ultimately about doubt. Can you ever get back what you once had? Can you move on and find new faith, new hope?

This is already way too long a post in a thread that's meant to be a ballot, so I'm stopping here. Suffice it to say, I believe Achtung Baby tells a very strong, emotionally powerful story. And that is one of the many reasons I love it so much.

 

[arcanum17]

IMHO, Actung Baby is the best album ever, by any band, at any time. I know that's saying a lot, but I have listened to this album literally thousands of times, and have never once gotten tired of it.

I have the original cd I bought the day the thing came out. It's battered and beat up, and just like an old friend to me. I could never part with it.

And thanks Miss Becky, for your thoughtful interpretations. I think you're right on the money!

 

[bsp77]

Ultraviolet and Acrobat are both ultimately about doubt. Can you ever get back what you once had? Can you move on and find new faith, new hope?

Exactly. To me the most devastating line is "What we do it's all been said, no new ideas in the house and every book has been read". Perfect encapsulation of a doomed relationship.

 

[anitram]

I don't see why anyone's voting for Achtung Baby over The Joshua Tree.

I don't mean to be rude, but who cares?

AB all the way.

 

[cardosino]

Trip Through Your Wires better than Mysterious Ways??


Personally, my run-through is this:

Streets vs Zoo station 1-0
I still... vs Even better 1-1
WOWY vs One 1-2
Bullet vs The end 2-2
Running vs Horses 3-2
Town vs Cruel 3-3
Country vs Fly 3-4
Trip vs Ways 3-5
Hill vs Arms 4-5
Exit vs Ultra 4-6
Mothers vs Acrobat 4-7

Streets 1-0
ISHFWILF 2-0
WOWY 3-0
UTEOTW 3-1
RTSS 4-1
RHMT 5-1
Fly 5-2
MW 5-3
OTH 6-3
UV 6-4
Acrobat 6-5

 

[lmjhitman]

Definitely Achtung Baby!
It changed the way I listen to music, not just U2's music, but music in general. It was influential at the time too. I remember other bands deciding to 're-invent' themselves as well after hearing Achtung Baby. I love The Joshua Tree too but somebody's gotta win!

 

[roy]

Joshua Tree every time.

AB has some great moments, but it has some truely awful (lets compensate for the cutting edge stuff) radio friendly songs:

UV,
WGRYWH,
MW,
TTTYAATW.

Industrial my ass....

 

[U2_Muse]

Achtung Baby.

No hesitation at all.

 

[Achtung Joshua!]

AB is great but it doesn't compare to JT at all. All singles from JT were much stronger than those released off AB with the exception of One (eventhough I've always hated that song myself). I don't skip any tracks from JT but I do skip a few off AB all the time. As a whole I feel AB lacks substance. I think they were more concerned with gaining a new audience and felt they had to be "cooler" or something.

 

[TheFly84138]

To all the people who said EITHER album is overrated:


It's obvious neither of them are overrated because they're the last two to survive!

The Joshua Tree is better, btw.

 

[ribbons&bows]

Gotta go with JT

 

[U2girl]

Trip Through Your Wires better than Mysterious Ways??

The other way around, first number I posted is for JT, the second number in votes is for AB.

 

[the tourist]

Joshua Tree.