Worst U2 band comparisons

[goincommando]

Excluding Coldplay since that comparison has been done over and over, what bands do you think have gotten very misplaced comparisons to U2?

I was watching TRL one day because a celebrity I liked was making an appearence, and they had a video for Good Charlotte that was very war-torn, and politically driven, and at the end of the video, the woman host said, "Wow, Good Charlotte is looking more and more like U2 every day."......At that moment I really thought I'd have to stab a bitch.

 

[Screwtape2]

1. REM, I don't really see where the musical likeness is.
2. The Police, just because Andy Summers and Edge have styles closer to each other than other guitarists doesn't mean these two groups sound alike.

 

[BVS]

1. REM, I don't really see where the musical likeness is.

I think for a long time REM and U2's careers were very similar, but as far as their sounds I agree with you.

 

[BVS]

I was watching TRL one day because a celebrity I liked was making an appearence, and they had a video for Good Charlotte that was very war-torn, and politically driven, and at the end of the video, the woman host said, "Wow, Good Charlotte is looking more and more like U2 every day."......At that moment I really thought I'd have to stab a bitch.

One of the best quotes I ever heard about Good Charlotte:

"Good Charlotte is like a popsicle that's been stuck up someone's ass. Hey, but if that's your thing"

Eddie Vedder

 

[coolian2]

I think we can officially label that as the worst comparison.


The only thing they have in common is they make music. One makes brilliant music, the other ones will be long forgotten in 25 years.

 

[BANZAI]

I think for a long time REM and U2's careers were very similar, but as far as their sounds I agree with you.

The only time their careers were a little bit similar was in the period Out of Time-Automatic for The People. Both albums were a big succes like U2's Achtung Baby. After that REM's commercial and artistic succes slowly faded away.

 

[U2 Bliss]

Simple Minds ...during the 80's.

 

[U2dork]

I think the REM/U2 comparisons stem from just the simple fact they are contemporaries of each other. That and the fact they were both kinda going for the "biggest band in the world" title at the same time during the 90's, until Bill left the band.

But, yeah, as others have said, their sounds really aren't very comparable.

I've never heard the Police comparison before, either.


The current one that bugs me is when that guy from Blink182 tries to describe his new band's sound. It still sounds like blink182 to me. I can't get past the snotty voice.

 

[U2Man]

Simple Minds does sound a little like U2 now and then.

 

[U2 Bliss]

Hmm thinking more pre '84 era ....

 

[LMP]

Taking Back Sunday lol.

 

[Canadiens1131]

Anytime someone compares Queen and U2. They're not even in the same league.

 

[SpaceOddity]

Pink Floyd, The Beatles, and I'd also agree with The Police and Queen. These bands are so completely different from U2 - it's like comparing apples and oranges.

 

[salim117]

If you read the reviews for Keane and Angels & Airwaves new albums, in both cases, virtually every review makes a "sounds like U2/Edge" comment!

A&A reviews:

Listening to all this Edge-y guitar doodling and whiny wailing, the question remains: Why mess with a fun, 20-million-album-selling formula for this ponderous prog project?

While Angels & Airwaves are pretty good, don't pick up We Don't Have To Whisper expecting a revolutionary sound designed to shatter your worldview and change your life. On the other hand, if you want something to fill the gap while U2 are recording are their new album, look no further.For this album is so close to Bono and the boys that it's a surprise to find it wasn't recorded underneath a Joshua Tree.

The lyrics and tone here are as positive and serious as Blink's were juvenile, and "Joshua Tree"-era U2 is an obvious sonic blueprint. It works best on "The Adventure" and "The War" with David Kennedy utilizing Edge-like echo-guitar effects miles away from punky power chords.

The resulting batch of songs... just pad out the duller bits of blink, then add walls of mid-'80s-era U2 guitar chimes.

Specifically, he layers delayed guitars ripped from U2 over soundscapes equally inspired by the Cure, New Order, Peter Gabriel, and The Unforgettable Fire, all in an attempt to fashion a modern-day protest record.

It’s a much more laid-back and 'mature' affair than we have seen played with both the impressive Box Car Racer material and also in the last Blink album but by aiming to sound like U2 and Pink Floyd, AVA ends up sounding like an emo version of an even more plodding Coldplay.

Keane reviews:

http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/music_review.asp?ID=879

Actually, "Is It Any Wonder" is a great song, although it sounds an awful lot like a song U2 recorded over a decade ago called "Zoo Station."

It would appear that Tim, Tom and Richard have spent some time at the U2 School of Squillion-Selling Records, their final project sounding more expansive and dramatic than Hopes And Fears ever did.

"A Bad Dream," an album highlight, borrows the drum-machine-fuelled groove of Aqualung's "Strange and Beautiful" and marries it with All That You Can't Leave Behind-era U2, complete with the Edge's trademark delayed guitar sounds.

No, Keane make sure that Iron Sea is filled with the sort of greeting-card poetry that would even give Bono pause.

...Pitchfork assholes!

When they're not apeing War-era U2 ('Crystal Ball') they're apeing Achtung Baby-era U2 ('Is It Any Wonder?').

If you’re in a band and want a career, you have to look at the U2 blueprint: the consistency of sound, the constant hedging of bets and consolidation of victories with repetitions of formula; that peculiar strain of anthemic, everyman songwriting that constantly steps to the borderline between ecclesiastical joy and money-laundering conservatism.

...Ouch!

 

[bsp77]

Many Keane and Angels & Airwaves songs DO sound like U2. Not as good obviously, but the influence is obvious.

 

[Hoodlem]

Worst Comparison = Bon Jovi

 

[Bono's shades]

Worst Comparison = Bon Jovi

There are people who seriously compare Bon Jovi to U2??

If that's true, it's worst comparison of all time.

 

[Kildare]

Yeah, when I was living in Ireland I asked a girl I was talking to at a pub if she liked U2. She said something like "yeah, but I love Bon Jovi, do you listen to him?"She thought they were basically similar.

 

[Peterrrrr]

Modern Talking

 

[u2wildhoney]

Modern Talking

I hope, you're just kidding now...

Anyway, there is a similarity in Coldplay's music to U2's music style , but to tell the truth, I don't think they can ever write so great ROCK -songs (including their lyrics) that U2 did!
(PS.: I don't like Crhis Martin's voice...)

 

[Peterrrrr]

I hope, you're just kidding now...

Anyway, there is a similarity in Coldplay's music to U2's music style , but to tell the truth, I don't think they can ever write so great ROCK -songs (including their lyrics) that U2 did!
(PS.: I don't like Crhis Martin's voice...)

Well they are both from Europe, they have used the word love in their lyrics, they have guitars, the singer is a guy. The list can be long

 

[Ellay]

Bon Jovi, you've gotta be joking..


I remember when people used to compare Simple minds to U2 .. Shes a River and Belfast child are reasonably similar musically..

but where simple minds left the big time, U2 stayed on top of their game.

 

[u2wildhoney]

Well they are both from Europe, they have used the word love in their lyrics, they have guitars, the singer is a guy. The list can be long

Well, when I was a little girl - only 9-10 year-old in 1982-1983- then I rarely listened to some Modern Talking-songs. I must say, their music style is very far from U2's style....

 

[AtomicBono]

Taking Back Sunday lol.

they've been compared to U2?

yeah I never got the REM comparison either, they don't sound too similar. I've also heard people compare DMB and U2 and again I hear no similarity

also I feel that early 80's U2 often gets lumped in with bands like The Cure and Duran Duran. U2 even then sounded way different, imo.

Television is another comparison I don't get. Obvious influence yes, especially in really early U2 (Street Mission, for example), but people have said that Edge copied Verlaine's style. Er...I've never heard Edge play a solo anything like the one on Marquee Moon...

 

[LMP]

they've been compared to U2?

I've heard it from the dumbasses on the radio, and definitely one shitty online publication.

 

[LMBLover]

Something interesting I've noticed is that many alt, pop punk bands on the radio now echo early U2 (I'm not saying they are as good as U2, just saying the influence is obvious).

 

[monke]

yeah, thats true, and a starnge one ive found is, "The Killers" i like their music, love the new single "When you were young", but i just cant see u2 in them, i see other more "american" bands and singers, but not u2

EDIT: i just heard Angels and Airwaves, and yeah i can see a little u2 in there, a mediocre u2, but u2 non the less

 

[AtomicBono]

yeah, thats true, and a starnge one ive found is, "The Killers" i like their music, love the new single "When you were young", but i just cant see u2 in them, i see other more "american" bands and singers, but not u2

I don't think every Killers song sounds like U2, but I get a definite U2 vibe from songs like Somebody Told Me, On Top, and Midnight Show. especially the guitar.

 

[GibsonGirl]

Television is another comparison I don't get. Obvious influence yes, especially in really early U2 (Street Mission, for example), but people have said that Edge copied Verlaine's style. Er...I've never heard Edge play a solo anything like the one on Marquee Moon...

I think the aspect of Verlaine's style that you can hear in Edge's early playing is the simplistic approach. Forget the solos, just focus on the riffs. But I agree - Television, on the whole, sounds absolutely nothing like U2. If you want to hear a band that sounds like U2 (or rather the other way around, a band that U2 sounds like) listen to Echo And The Bunnymen's debut album. Crocodiles, 1980. It doesn't have anywhere near the same amount of passion as Boy, but musically it sounds like it could be a U2 album. Guitars, bass, drums, all eerily similar in style. Even Ian McCulloch's singing style is almost identical to Bono's. Which is interesting, because Crocodiles came out before Boy.

 

[annie_vox]

I hate it when people compare U2 with Rolling Stones... It really pisses me off because they're so different and people around me are always comparing them... I've seen both live and I can say that there's nothing in common between them...