The album with the best lyrics

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Seconds

The Fly
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Which one of these albums is your favorite when it comes to lyrics? I personally would pick

1. Achtung Baby
"Between the horses of love and lust,
We are trampled underfoot "

2. The Joshua Tree
"She stands with a naked flame, I stand with the sons of Cain"

3. ATYCLB
"I wasn't jumping, for me it was a fall, it's a long way down to nothing at all"

4. Rattle And Hum
"No man is my enemy, my own hands imprison me"
 
1. Acthung Baby- every single song, pure genius.

2. Pop

3. Joshua Tree (for nothing else, the imagry on this album)

4. ATYCLB

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And everyone needs the music 'cause everyone needs relief.

* U2 Take Me Higher *

[This message has been edited by oliveu2cm (edited 11-13-2001).]
 
Gotta go with Achtung.

"Time is a train, makes the future the past, leaves you standing in the station, your face pressed up against the glass."

"The sun won't melt our wings tonight...take me higher."

"Have you come here for forgiveness, have you come to raise the dead, have you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head?"

"In my dreams I was drowning in sorrows, and my sorrows they learned to swim."

"Took a drive in the dirty rain, to a place where the wind calls your name"

"The men who love you, you hate the most...they pass right through you like a ghost. They look for you but your spirit is in the air...baby, you're nowhere."

"One day you'll look back and you'll see where you were held there by this love while you just stand there and just move on this moment, follow this feeling."

"It's no secret that a liar won't believe anyone else. They say a secret is something you tell one other person, so I'm telling you...child."

"Sunrise like a nosebleed, your heart hurts and you can't breathe...been trying to throw your arms around the world."

"You bury your treasure where it can't be found, and your love is like a secret that's been passed around...when I was all messed up and I heard opera in my head, your love was a lightbulb hanging over my bed." (I love UV, can ya tell?
biggrin.gif
)

"And I'd join the movement if there was one I could believe in. Yeah, I'd break bread and wine if there was a church I could receive in..."

"Love is clockworks and cold steel, fingers too numb to feel, squeeze the handle, blow out the candle...blindness..."

biggrin.gif


I love Achtung Baby. Every song has strong lyrics, imo.

-sula
 
Originally posted by zoomerang II:
Agreed
1. Achtung Baby
2. Pop - again underrated however lyrically superb
3. Atyclb
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly.



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"It's no secret that our world is in darkness tonight..."
 
Achtung definitely.

Then JT and ATYCLB.

And I have to say I think the lyrics on Boy may not be their best but compared to most 18-year-old songwriters, the words on that album are absolutely amazing.

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"Things will not be the same in this city for us." -Bono, Dublin, February 1980
 
I can't decide!!!

I do agree that POP is very underrated lyrically though!


------------------
"I don't know you,
But you don't know the half of it..."
 
As always it's hard to list a 'best of' anything concerning U2. We always hear this when someone tries to compile a list of everyone's "favorites". Nevertheless, I'll go ahead and say it...

I can't really list ONE album that has superior lyrics (LOL). I will, however, list the albums that have great lyrics and those that leave something to be desired.

The Great Lyrics come from:

1)Achtung Baby...by far
2)The Joshua Tree...
3)Pop

The Good Lyrics come from:
1)Rattle and Hum
2)All That You Can't Leave Behind
3)War

The 'So-So' Lyrics come from:
1)The Unforgettable Fire
2)Zooropa
3)October
4)Boy
 
I'm surprised everyone is picking POP as one of their top albums. I always thought POP was a waste of U2's musical and lyrical talent.

I thought people who liked POP were fans who would pretend to like anything U2 put out.

Maybe I'm wrong. I should probably give it another listen.
 
My favorites are:

1. POP (MOFO, Staring at the Sun, Gone, Please, Wake Up Deadman)
2. Zooropa (Zooropa, Numb, Lemon, Stay, The First Time)
3. Rattle and Hum (God Part II, Heartland, All I Want Is You, Desire)

They are odd choices I know, but I think the lyrics on U2's most underrated albums are the best. Obviously Achtung Baby and The Joshua Tree are outstanding as well. I think U2's worst lyrics are on:

1. ATYCLB (this album just seems to have over simplified lyrics to me, maybe I am spoiled from POP, Zooropa, and Achtung Baby)
2. October (Bono lost his lyrics book, 'nuff said)
3. The Unforgettable Fire (some strong moments and some weaker moments)

------------------
"I swore to my father I'd never do hamster-style again."

"looking for the sound thats gonna drown out the world
looking for the father of my two little girls
got the swing go the sway got my straw in lemonade
looking for the face i had before the world was made." - MOFO
 
Yes you most definetly cant go past Achtung Baby in the lyrics department, every song on that album is lyrically magnificent......fave lyric from this one would probably be,

Have you come here for forgiveness?
Have you come to raise the dead?
Have you come here to play Jesus?
To the lepers in your head?
Did I ask too much?
More than a lot?
You gave me nothing
Now it's all I got
We're one
But we're not the same
We hurt each other
Then we do it again

Now as for seconds, well I like of the lyrics to the Joshua Tree, and it does comprise what I think is the most beautiful of all U2 songs (lyrically speaking), the gorgeous One Tree Hill, but along with the Joshua Tree I am also going to suggest 'The Unforgettable Fire'. Now when you think about some of the songs that are on this album it is pretty damn good, such as....

This desperation
Dislocation
Separation
Condemnation
Revelation
In temptation
Isolation
Desolation
Let it go
And so fade away
To let it go
And so fade away
To let it go
And so to fade away
I'm wide awake
I'm wide awake
Wide awake
I'm not sleeping

When you think about what Bad is about and the way that Bono sings that last bit, wow!!!those words are just so powerful, I love that bit....anyway, just my optinion
smile.gif
 
Achtung has some amazing lines but I hate Tryin to Throw...in so many ways, both lyrically and musically. Sorry, I just always have. But the album does have great lyrics, possibly the best. I also like UF, JT and ATYCLB a lot. In some ways UF might be my favourite--very poetic.



------------------
You've got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice
 
Originally posted by U2Kitten:
Look at the album as a whole- the silliness of Discotheque, and the lameness of Miami and Playboy Mansion rival of surpass the output of some 'crap' bands. There is so much sorry lyrical work on that album it borders on disgracefulness for a band of U2's abilities.
Click to expand...

U2 has some songs which in terms of sound I find more irritating than Playboy Mansion, but Playboy Mansion actually makes me angry because I believe it is U2's most pointless song ever. Incredibly flat, dull music, and the lyrics represent what I dislike most about Bono's lyrics. "If Coke is a mystery, Michael Jackson history..." Bono is capable of so much more than this juvenile trying-to-be-relevant stuff.

*waits for flames*



------------------
You've got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice
 
1) AB
"She wears my love like a see through dress, Her Lips say one thing, her movements something else, oh love, like a screaming flower, love dying evrery hour."
"you're dangerous, cuz you're honest, you're dangerous, cuz you don't know what you want."
2)Pop
"Mama, am I still you're son? You know I've been waiting so long to hear you say so."
"She's not waiting on a saviour to come. She's at the bus stop with the news of the world and the sun, sun here it comes."
3) ATYCLB
"I am not afraid of anything in this world, there's nothing you can throw at me, that I haven't already heard."
4) Rattle and Hum
"Don't belive in excess, success is to give, don't belive in riches but you should see where I live. I, I belive in love."
5) Here I am going to actually go for Zoorpa. Yes I know that say "SOme Days" has very silly lyrics, yes yes all that BUT...
"I feel like I'm slowly slowly slowly slipping under, I feel like I'm drifting drifting drifitng from the shore."
Oh it's heart wreching.
PLUS
"Don't worry baby, it's gonna be alright, uncertainty could be the guiding light"
LOVE IT!


------------------
Please repeat the message, it's the music that we choose.
http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~kljense3/MrTvs.html
 
Originally posted by scatteroflight:
U2 has some songs which in terms of sound I find more irritating than Playboy Mansion, but Playboy Mansion actually makes me angry because I believe it is U2's most pointless song ever. Incredibly flat, dull music, and the lyrics represent what I dislike most about Bono's lyrics. "If Coke is a mystery, Michael Jackson history..." Bono is capable of so much more than this juvenile trying-to-be-relevant stuff.

*waits for flames*
Click to expand...

OK I will argue this one. I actually like Play Boy Mansion. The lyrics are actually about the consumerism and apathy of our times. "If perfume is an obsession" = if consumer goods are a priority. "If OJ is more than a drink" = If people care more about OJ Simpson than the multiple wars around the world. "And talk shows confession" = If TV is so all consuming that we feel Jerry Springer to be a part of our lives.
Besides think about "The banks feels like cathedrals" we've put money on a higher pedistal than tgod.
That song is great! Hooray for politics!


------------------
Please repeat the message, it's the music that we choose.
http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~kljense3/MrTvs.html
 
Absolutely has to be POP. And here's why:

"You get to feel so guilty got so much for so little
Then you find that feeling just won't go away
You're holding on to every little thing so tightly
Till there's nothing left for you anyway"

"Take this tangle of a conversation
And turn it into your own prayer"

"I'm not just deaf and dumb
Staring at the sun
Not the only one
Who's happy to go blind"

"So love is big
Is bigger than us
But love is not
What you're thinking of"

These are just some standouts. I love the lyrics on the album, and they all just stick out so well. I can hardly explain it, but they flow, and manage to convey a sense of hopelessness at searching for happiness in this world, but coming up empty. Where the Joshua Tree was idealistic and almost naive, Pop is harder, edgier, and gives you a punch in the face. It's quite a bit more pessimistic, and continues along that path through the pleas for help in Wake Up Dead Man.

I always pictured Pop as the struggle of a girl wandering through the world, trying all the wrong ways to find happiness--sex, drugs, materialistic pleasures, trying to look beautiful. In the end, she gets nowhere, and is all the more miserable. All she has is God and Jesus, to whom she calls when there is no more hope.

I love it, and if you haven't given it a fair shot, I urge you to. You just might discover something you never heard before.

After POP, I would have to go with Achtung Baby and The Joshua Tree, which both have great imagery and do a great job with their lyrics.



------------------
Change is the only constant
 
Originally posted by notiti:
OK I will argue this one. I actually like Play Boy Mansion. The lyrics are actually about the consumerism and apathy of our times. "If perfume is an obsession" = if consumer goods are a priority. "If OJ is more than a drink" = If people care more about OJ Simpson than the multiple wars around the world. "And talk shows confession" = If TV is so all consuming that we feel Jerry Springer to be a part of our lives.
Besides think about "The banks feels like cathedrals" we've put money on a higher pedistal than tgod.
That song is great! Hooray for politics!
Click to expand...

I just hate the way it comes across, it's like he's trying so hard to be clever. But that's just my opinion. Some people think it's one of their best lyrics, and some don't get anything from the poetic meandering of UF, which represents my favourite of Bono's lyrics.



------------------
You've got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice
 
It took me a long time to come to a decision for this question, but I believe the album that hosts the best lyrics would have to be POP. Achtung Baby is close, but songs like: "mofo", "if God will send his Angels", "Gone", "if you wear that velvet dress", "please", and "wake up deadman" just highlight career peaks with Bono(and Edge)'s lyrics.

An album full of erotic mystery, agony, and pain. But also the few "fun" tunes like "discotheque" and "miami". This album gets better everytime I listen to it.

~Zoo~

------------------
" You love this town - even if that doesn't ring true. You've been all over, and it's been all over you " - Bono

" Don't you know there ain't no Devil, that's just God when he's drunk " - Tom Waits
 
Don't worry Scatteroflight, this is INSANE! I guantee any survey of U2 fans anywhere else but here would rank Pop last or close to it. You have to consider too, Seconds, that of the 5000 people registered to Interference it looks like Scatteroflight and I may be the only ones to have the guts to tell it like it is. Most people who don't like it won't diss Pop in fear of flames, so they just don't post at all. I really don't care because it's an inferior album and even the band knows it. Please take this into account before you believe by the percentages here that over 85% of U2 fans believe it's among the top works! Give me a freakin' break. What a joke. LMAO!! I'm not even coming back to this ridiculous thread.
 
Originally posted by U2Kitten:
Don't worry Scatteroflight, this is INSANE! I guantee any survey of U2 fans anywhere else but here would rank Pop last or close to it. You have to consider too, Seconds, that of the 5000 people registered to Interference it looks like Scatteroflight and I may be the only ones to have the guts to tell it like it is. Most people who don't like it won't diss Pop in fear of flames, so they just don't post at all. I really don't care because it's an inferior album and even the band knows it. Please take this into account before you believe by the percentages here that over 85% of U2 fans believe it's among the top works! Give me a freakin' break. What a joke. LMAO!! I'm not even coming back to this ridiculous thread.
Click to expand...

GypsyHeartGirl said so several times, but those threads usually turned kind of ugly...

There does seem to be a disproportionate number of people here who think POP is one of U2's greatest albums. I think it's partly because there are a lot of somewhat younger fans here--there tend to be younger people on the Net, period--and many of them got into U2 because of the 90's stuff. I am in the peculiar position of being a 22 year old U2 fan who became a major fan not that long after Zooropa--and Zooropa is my least favourite U2 record. I have never cared if music was "current" or not, and the stuff I loved when I was 15 was the 80's stuff. Zooropa is still my least favourite, I think POP has a few good songs but some of their worst work, and I love ATYCLB. I also love Achtung now.

To each their own. I just think that sometimes the POP admirers can get waaayyy too superior.

I should add that I do find the lyrics to Gone very moving. That was the only song off POP that got played at my concert. Except for maybe Please, definitely the best choice if they were going to play something from that album!

------------------
You've got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice

[This message has been edited by scatteroflight (edited 11-13-2001).]
 
I'm also a Playboy Mansion fan. It's a long shot from their best lyrics, but its far from the worst. What actually makes me like the song is the song itself--I don't find it "dull" at all, but somehow completely entrancing. I'm not very articulate when describing music, but something about the tone and feel of the music itself just grabs me.

Otherwise:
1) AB
2) Pop/Zooropa
3) The Joshua Tree

I love ATYCLB (think it is a classic), but as Skeek said I'm not so fond of the direct lyrics-I like to work a bit to decipher a song. (I even get a bit embarrased by some of the lyrics!). Still a great albun.
 
Although I'm not a POP fan, I actually like Miami more than Playboy Mansion. I think that puts me in a minority--so many people hate Miami with a vengeance! I really don't like Miami much but last time I listened to it (a long time ago) I remember a few things about it I found mildly compelling, whereas Playboy Mansion--that song makes me MAD just to think about it! It's crazy.



------------------
You've got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice
 
U2Kitten, sorry if you took my comment the wrong way, it was meant to be tongue in cheek and I didn't actually want to piss you off. Unfortunately it looks like it "worked" to a certain extent. Placing Pop 4th as I did was an honest opinion, although depending on my mood I might put it 3rd even.


Looks like this thread is gonna turn into another Pop argument, so I might as well enter my 2 cents into the fray.

I have to say that I disagree very strongly that people are being dishonest and jumping on the Pop "bandwagon" so as not to appear unhip or something like that. It's a little ridiculous to believe your opinion so much that you assume that since you seem to be in the minority everyone else must be lying. I'm not sure if that's what you were saying, but that's how it came across.

Pop was the first NEW U2 album that I ever got, having become a fan after Zooropa, and I also wasn't online at all at the time so I had no access to other people's opinions about it, and guess what... I liked it. So there.

So why do so many people like Pop/its lyrics?
a) it is a good album with good lyrics.
b) it is the epitome of what would be described as a "grower" there are still people realizing the depth and power of Pop today after having it for four years.

I agree that there is a very big rift between people who like Pop and those who dislike it. I found it intersting that you said "I just think that sometimes the POP admirers can get waaayyy too superior."
It definately works both ways as well, when U2Kitten says that if people like Pop they have to be kidding themselves, it comes over as a little superior too.

My official stance on Pop is this: Great, underappreciated, experimental album. I love it, but it's definately not for everyone, and if people don't like it that's their business, but everyone should still give it a chance. And since I think it's really good, and did take time to grow on me, I assume that everyone will come to like it if they open their eyes. But of course I'm wrong... 'different strokes for different folks' as they say.

And btw, the lyrics for Pop are very good, even Discotheque.. which to me is much more meaningful then some people would have us believe.
 
Okay, so I said I wouldn't be back, but Skeek's obviously in the minority' comment burned me up.

As I stated before, I am SURE to be in the 'minority' among those who WILL POST but I KNOW I am not in the minority overall of U2 fans all over the world, or even on this forum if an entire poll could be taken.

Scatteroflight, you are right, they are just waaaayyyyy too 'superior' (especially since they defend and INFERIOR album) and the fact that it is constantly justified and glorified BEYOND REASON 'ad nauseum' makes me dislike it even more. I am confident of the inferiority of POP so these comments don't upset me. This is insane. Much of U2's finest work hasn't even been discussed here. I don't even know why I'm wasting my time. Now I'm really not coming back to this thread.
 
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