What is U2's strongest album Lyrically?

[sue4u2]

"She's living, living next week now.
You know she's gonna pay it back somehow.

She hasn't been to sleep in weeks,
She'll be dead soon, then she'll sleep"

These lyrics just hit too close. I don't know who Bono was talking about but, I knew this person. I can relate to almost all the lyrics in the U2 collection since I've lived through most of them at some point in my life.
They are the only band I can say this about.

I have a great deal of personal reflection from AB but I have to say POP has the most profound lyrics, for me.

anyway we all know music is all relative. No one could possibly have the same attitude, love, feeling for one album as someone else has for another.
Therefore it doesn't make any one album better lyrically than another except for the one who love's that albums lyrics, more.

With that said, I still listen in amazement to both POP and AB. Both of them just blow me away.

Regardless, U2 "you've got my head filled with song"

 

[Dalton]

To me Playboy Mansion is Bono's best song as far as lyrics go.

Breath taking.

 

[U2utah2U]

As far as taking a concept and developing it through the entire album, Achtung, Baby! has my vote for best lyrics. Pop is very interesting and JT is just plain earthy but AB is transcendental.

 

[glenn]

I'd have to say Atchung Baby. One and Until the End of the World.

 

[Aardvark747]

Pop for me.

 

[boystupidboy]

"take these hands , don't make a fist".i think there are some great lyrics on the latest album

 

[girlhappy]

I also agree about Ocotber lyrics. But i recently read Spanish eyes lyrics after long time, and i thought: so beautiful

 

[1stepcloser]

'She wears my love like a see-through dress
Her lips say one thing,
Her movements something else'

if only all his lyrics were as good, as personal and as universal as the ones found on Achtung Baby. probably the best album i've ever heard lyrically.

 

[phommel]

P O P for sure. No other album has so strong lyrics!! (Achtung Baby comes close...)

P O P rules!!!!

 

[edge_2125]

Hard to say. Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby and Pop are all outstanding.

JT is extremely poetic - Running to Stand Still and One Tree Hill especially stand out for me. AB is just brilliant all the way through and Pop is almost as good. Some of Bono's lyrics are so introspective.. it's almost uncomfortable listening to them.

For me Bono isn't close to his songwriting best on the last 2 albums, although they're both very decent despite the fact.

 

[financeguy]

Joshua Tree for me, no question

 

[annabelle]

Unforgettable Fire

Exhibit one:

Promenade

Earth sky sea and rain
Is she coming back again
Men of straw sneak a whore
Words that build or destroy
Dirt dry bone sand and stone
Barbed-wire fence cut me down
I'd like to be around
In a spiral staircase
To the higher ground

And I, like a firework, explode
Roman candle lightning lights up the summer sky

In the cracked streets trampled under foot
Sidestep, sidewalk
I see you stare into space
Have I got closer now
Behind the face

Oh...tell me...
Tell me you'll dance with me
Turn me around tonight
Up though spiral staircase
To the higher ground

Slide show sea-side town
Coca-cola football radio radio radio...

 

[AcrobatMan]

POP or TJT

 

[ZeroDude]

So Cruel

Her skin is pale like God's only dove
Screams like an angel for your love
Then she makes you watch her from above
And you need her like a drug

This one of the best stanza's ever imo, best line, "Then she makes you watch her from above" I find it painful, If someone you've loved ever left for someone else this hits you so fucking hard, I mean I seriously hate that line it's a contradiction that excerpt is painfully beautiful, Bono is great at imagery but keeps it revelant to us the basic human emotions, he's an abstract genius in that while using great diction he can manage to keep it universal and straightforward, amazing and good night/ day

 

[adam3000]

"If coke is a mystery
micheal jackson history
if beauty is truth
and sugergy
the fountain of youth
what am i to do
have i got the gift to get me through
the gates of that mansion

if oj is more than a drink
and a big mac bigger than you think
and perfume an obsession
and talk shows confession
what are we to lose
another push and we'll be though
the gates of that mansion

never bought a lotto ticket
never parked in anyone's space
the banks they're like cathedrals
and casinos take their place

chance is a kind of religion
your damned if you play hard luck
i never did see that movie
i never did read that book
love come on down
and let my numbers come around

don't know if i can hold on
don't know if i'm that strong
...."

truly a 'pop' song

 

[ElectricalVoice]

Agree with those who mention POP. Not only are they original lyrics, but they are poetry in some sense.

 

[phommel]

POP is so great! amazing! To be honest....maybe I liked it even better than HTDAAB...

I hate it evrytime when members of U2 are saying they don't feel good about that album...WHY? because it sold not so well? It's really great, original, surprising...

 

[solar]

I know POP was discussed way back at the beginning of this thread, but I wanted to point out a couple lines:

"Lookin' for a sound that's gonna drown out the world/lookin' for the father of my two little girls"

Is there any other line that so clearly encapsulates the two driving forces in Bono's life? Absolutely fucking brilliant. And then in Gone:

"You wanted to get somewhere so badly/You had to lose yourself along the way/You changed your name/Well that's okay, it's necessary/And what you leave behind you don't miss anyway"

How often do you see artist self examination like this? It's one of the biggest rock stars looking back on his youth, the beginning of his career. It's a lot more effective than City of Blinding Lights, for example.

And to get back to the "tape recorder" stuff from Wake Up Dead Man, you're missing the point of the verse by not including the beginning:

"Jesus/were you just around the corner?/did you think to try and warn her?/or were you working on something new?"

This is clearly about his mother, and possibly the most poignant lines he's ever written on the subject. He's asking Jesus why his mother had to die, but on top of that, asks if life is a like a tape recorder so he can go back and be with her again.

I don't think you need any more evidence to prove that POP is Bono's finest hour. The man tackles pop culture, the elasticity of image, crisis of religious faith, the struggle of the artist, the Irish conflict, society's need for instant gratification, etc. What other album has him tackling this range of topics (and I'm not even including the two odes to sex or the portraits in LNOE & Miami) with such originality.

fucking masterpiece of writing


laz

AMEN #2

 

[tiny dancer]

For me,
AB and next JT