New Album Discussion 1 - Songs of..... - Unreasonable guitar album

[dan_smee]

I get everyone has reasons for their rankings. The big thing I take out of all this is that the last 5 albums are incredibly polarising and probably point to the band’s directions just not aligning with people’s expectations. Theres something for everyone I guess

 

[cobl04]

We're all allowed opinions, but that's one hell of a stinker you got there domcobb

 

[phommel]

Absolutely Go Fuck Yourself and Never Speak to me or My Son Ever Again

• Songs of Surrender

I wouldn't even mention it as an album!
Also annoyed they are calling something a 'new shadow album'

Come on, give us a real NEW album. It's been seven (7!) years since their last album...

My raking:

1. Joshua Tree
2. Achtung Baby
3. War
4. ATYCLB
5. Unforgettable Fire
6. Zooropa
7. Pop
8. Boy
9. SOE
10. Rattle and Hum
11. HTDAAB
12. October
13. SOI

 

[aMansAman]

They were chasing the "big music". I think they decided that the work of Danger Mouse was too subtle, a bit more challenging to listen to compared to Tedders' vision of the songs. Which is a shame , in my opinion

Rolling Stone article quotes 2014:

“We realized, ‘OK, we’ve actually not delivered what you might call the hallmarks of our work — the big music.” That’s when they contacted OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder, among others.

I have the utmost respect for Danger Mouse,” says Tedder. “Bono was very straightforward. He was like, ‘This is how we work. You’re going to do whatever you do and get it as good as you can and then more than likely your stuff is going to get messed with by somebody else.’ So I hesitated for like five seconds and then Edge was like, “Man, tear it apart. Do what you want.” Adds Danger Mouse, “They’re not my tracks. They’re U2’s tracks. I’m not happy about a song if they’re not happy.”

 

[cobl04]

To expand my ranking since I haven't done it in a good while,

The best Album ever made

• Achtung Baby

Among the best albums ever made Though I Sometimes/Often Prefer Pop and Zooropa

• The Joshua Tree

Fucking exceptional 9+/10 records that I Love Dearly Though There's Some Weaker tracks

1. Pop
2. Zooropa
3. The Unforgettable Fire

Very Very Very Good

1. Boy
2. Passengers
3. War
4. October

Very Very Very Good Though a Lot of That is Tied to Nostalgia

1. All That You Can't Leave Behind
2. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

Pretty Bloody Good Though An Unenjoyable f2b Listen

• Rattle and Hum

The Gap Between the Floor and the Ceiling is Astronomical But This is the Last Time They Really Had a Pulse and Made Some Interesting Shit

• No Line on the Horizon

A Fucking Absolute Mess With the Three Worst Songs They've Ever Written But Strangely it Does Contain a Few Mild Highlights Though I Will Never Listen to it Again

• Songs of Experience

Their Career Nadir and the Album that Completely Destroyed their Reputation With Maybe a Couple of OK Songs

• Songs of Innocence

Absolutely Go Fuck Yourself and Never Speak to me or My Son Ever Again

• Songs of Surrender

The records that I come back to the most often are Pop, Zooropa, Achtung, JT and Passengers, probably in that order. Also

 

[dan_smee]

To expand my ranking since I haven't done it in a good while,

The best Album ever made

• Achtung Baby

Among the best albums ever made Though I Sometimes/Often Prefer Pop and Zooropa

• The Joshua Tree

Fucking exceptional 9+/10 records that I Love Dearly Though There's Some Weaker tracks

1. Pop
2. Zooropa
3. The Unforgettable Fire

Very Very Very Good

1. Boy
2. Passengers
3. War
4. October

Very Very Very Good Though a Lot of That is Tied to Nostalgia

1. All That You Can't Leave Behind
2. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

Pretty Bloody Good Though An Unenjoyable f2b Listen

• Rattle and Hum

The Gap Between the Floor and the Ceiling is Astronomical But This is the Last Time They Really Had a Pulse and Made Some Interesting Shit

• No Line on the Horizon

A Fucking Absolute Mess With the Three Worst Songs They've Ever Written But Strangely it Does Contain a Few Mild Highlights Though I Will Never Listen to it Again

• Songs of Experience

Their Career Nadir and the Album that Completely Destroyed their Reputation With Maybe a Couple of OK Songs

• Songs of Innocence

Absolutely Go Fuck Yourself and Never Speak to me or My Son Ever Again

• Songs of Surrender

The records that I come back to the most often are Pop, Zooropa, Achtung, JT and Passengers, probably in that order. Also

I think people can get lost in the extremes, and while I’m not shitting on your opinion DJP, I will gently posit that the GOOYOW>AS debacle and the general neg vibes for the die hard of the years around that time may have caused people to over dramatise the situation and therefore not give the highlights their due.

We’ve been maligning them for decades about returning to more heartfelt, genuine and atmospheric tunes. Little Things is a better track than I thought we’d ever get from them again. 13 fixed all that was wrong with SFS. LIAWHL avoided turning a catchy melody into an overblown mess and stayed true to its dreamy, pseudo electronic vibes, Red Flag Day had swagger we thought they lost years before. The Blackout, while admittedly having some clunky lyrics had an edge (haha) that all of SOI and NLOTH lacked. Landlady is about as honest and gentle as they’ve been in a long time. Love is Bigger is the best attempt at bigger schmaltz since ATYCLB. Book of Your Heart sounded like it came from the MDH sessions in the best way possible.

I haven’t mentioned Lights of Home because while strong, is creatively uninspired built around a fairly well known riff from Haim, and Summer of Love for similar reasons.

Probably the most polar record of their career. But I will defend those 8 tunes to anyone. I think it all depends on what you want from this band at this stage, but getting 8 songs I’ll gladly leave on when they show up on shuffle, with three of them being ones I actively seek out is massive.

Edited to say that if this era of the band started and ended in the 2013/14/15 era and was built around a double album of SOI/SOE shortened, we’d have been talking about the late career gem they’d put together.

Songs of Innocence…
1. Invisible
2. The Crystal Ballroom
3. Raised By Wolves
4. Iris
5. Cedarwood Road
6. This is Where You Can Reach me Now
7. Sleep Like a Baby Tonight
8. Every Breaking Wave
9. The Troubles

And of Experience
1. Love is All We Have Left
2. Lights of Home
3. The Blackout
4. Landlady
5. Love is Bigger
6. Red Flag Day
7. Book of Your Heart
8. There is a Light
9. Little Things

My release strategy for that double album would have been to release pairs of a sides as EPs with an extra track:

Introduce the concept with Invisible at the Super Bowl, and after a few days of selling it as a charity single, announce the album with it and Love is Bigger, and Lucifer’s Hands as a b side.

Then a month later I’d drop Every Breaking Wave and Red Flag Day, with Summer of Love as a b side.

Finally a few days before the album I’d drop The Crystal Ballroom and Little Things with Volcano as a b side.

The Miracle, California, SFS, Best Thing, GooYow, Ass, Showman all die in a fire.

 

[ascender_RS]

To expand my ranking since I haven't done it in a good while,

The best Album ever made

• Achtung Baby

Among the best albums ever made Though I Sometimes/Often Prefer Pop and Zooropa

• The Joshua Tree

Fucking exceptional 9+/10 records that I Love Dearly Though There's Some Weaker tracks

1. Pop
2. Zooropa
3. The Unforgettable Fire

Very Very Very Good

1. Boy
2. Passengers
3. War
4. October

Very Very Very Good Though a Lot of That is Tied to Nostalgia

1. All That You Can't Leave Behind
2. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

Pretty Bloody Good Though An Unenjoyable f2b Listen

• Rattle and Hum

The Gap Between the Floor and the Ceiling is Astronomical But This is the Last Time They Really Had a Pulse and Made Some Interesting Shit

• No Line on the Horizon

A Fucking Absolute Mess With the Three Worst Songs They've Ever Written But Strangely it Does Contain a Few Mild Highlights Though I Will Never Listen to it Again

• Songs of Experience

Their Career Nadir and the Album that Completely Destroyed their Reputation With Maybe a Couple of OK Songs

• Songs of Innocence

Absolutely Go Fuck Yourself and Never Speak to me or My Son Ever Again

• Songs of Surrender

The records that I come back to the most often are Pop, Zooropa, Achtung, JT and Passengers, probably in that order. Also

I think that matches my list almost 100% although I think I'd be less harsh on SOI and SOE.

I don't mind SOS but I also don't consider it an album, its basically a greatest hits which has a handful of interesting versions and the rest I can quite happily have on as background music when working or studying.
I'm not even cross now that it stopped them from recording something new because as we've seen, that was never going to happen anyway due to Larry's injuries.

 

[mikal]

The 90’s are my favorite period of U2 by far, to the point where my own personal ranking puts all 4 of them ahead of every other album, even The Joshua Tree, and everything else is some version of good to great. Once I get past the 90’s, I don’t even try to rank them. Takes the enjoyment out of it.

 

[Catman]

I can agree that w/ the criticism of SOI feeling compromised due to the band shifting gears and scrapping (or heavily editing) a large portion of the Danger Mouse material. But still... I dunno, the album just works for me. I know it's not exactly the same thing, but it's kinda like when a movie studio interferes w/ a director's vision--and usually the film is just worse than the original artistic vision--but every now and then the end product is actually pretty damn good.

Now obviously we don't have the whole story with SOI (and the Danger Mouse stuff that is on there are among my favorite tracks on the album, so I'm kinda going against my own argument lol), but I will say that--as a whole--the album doesn't feel compromised in the sense of its cohesiveness (unlike, say, NLOTH).

 

[mikal]

I can agree that w/ the criticism of SOI feeling compromised due to the band shifting gears and scrapping (or heavily editing) a large portion of the Danger Mouse material. But still... I dunno, the album just works for me. I know it's not exactly the same thing, but it's kinda like when a movie studio interferes w/ a director's vision--and usually the film is just worse than the original artistic vision--but every now and then the end product is actually pretty damn good.

Now obviously we don't have the whole story with SOI (and the Danger Mouse stuff that is on there are among my favorite tracks on the album, so I'm kinda going against my own argument lol), but I will say that--as a whole--the album doesn't feel compromised in the sense of its cohesiveness (unlike, say, NLOTH).

Yeah, after I heard SOI, I really didn't care about the fact that they scrapped some of the Danger Mouse stuff. The album hits so in this case, I actually think they made the right decision not going all in there.

 

[aMansAman]

When it comes to ranking it's hard for me to separate the studio recording of the album from the tour or the snapshot of time in my life around the album.

Regarding the 90s output of U2s records everything blends together perfectly and represents the peak of my fandom.

80s records are a retrospective for me, I wasnt impressed with the anniversary tour.

00 onwards sees a decline of interest in U2s music because they changed in a way I couldnt't connect to.

But i like some songs on every record from ATYCLB to SOE.

But what I miss for a long time now are songs that surprise me. Everything is ok and nice and within expectation.

There won't be another The Fly or Discothèque video premiere where I watch and... just watch in silence

 

[Rich79]

I could drone on and on about how much I dislike SOE; probably my least favorite from them. Yet there are still a handful of songs that came from it or alternate versions of those songs that I consider "great" and I'm very happy to still be getting that from my favorite band.

That's pretty much where my expectation of any new album from them lies (lay(s)?). My hypothesis is they have two more albums in them before they go into a semi-retirement phase that'll include even more nostalgia/legacy stuff ("ATYCLB celebration tour 2030-31, y'all!"). I'm not trying to rain on any parades. It just feels like they're trying to complete an arc that ends with SOA and I think it comes after this "Songs for Fighting" stuff is out of their system. Anyway, I digress. What I'm getting at is that I think a band of their caliber still releasing new material where I end up liking maybe 5-6 songs on an 11-12 track album. That's wonderful.

HTDAAB was the start of having that expectation and NLOTH solidified it for me. I figured I'd probably never get that full album magic feeling from them again. SOI proved me wrong. That album really resonated with me and still does. Despite it's stew of producers, I feel it holds together nicely as a cohesive unit (though I do skip listening to Iris a lot. I know, U2 blasphemy). If they're able to pull off something like that again, I'll be absolutely surprised, but pleasantly so.

 

[david]

The only thing about Songs of Surrender that I like is that it actually has some songs from the two previous albums in acoustic format that I prefer over their original versions. Lights of Home and The Miracle. Aaaannd that’s about it.

 

[lazarus]

5. ATYCLB

Yep.

It's funny that this is the least-interfered with album, and with their best producers, giving it some automatic integrity, and yet I strongly disagree with Eno's mission statement this time, and it simply has less songs that I love than the rest of their 21st century output.

 

[Achtung Ya'll]

Oh man I just go an email from the U2 store "we'd like to let you know which items are trending." They have officially become what they made fun of. Life imitating Pop imitating Life.

 

[DomCobb]

Yep.

It's funny that this is the least-interfered with album, and with their best producers, giving it some automatic integrity, and yet I strongly disagree with Eno's mission statement this time, and it simply has less songs that I love than the rest of their 21st century output.

Hypothetically I should love a 21st century U2 album that is almost exclusively Eno/Lanois, and in fact if they were to do that again I'd be over the moon. But, I dunno. The sound of that record just feels so stale to me. Maybe it just feels dated in a way other U2 records aren't.

But that's only half the issue, the more important part is that the songs just aren't there. Some good ones sure, but it doesn't have any real all time U2 favorites of mine, which is something every other 21st century album has. So the ceiling is lower, and so is the floor. It's got a few true stinkers, and I mean it's not like it's the only one that has stinkers but just on average the song quality on the album just isn't there.

To me this is why SOI is the unquestionable champ of the past couple decades, it has the most consistent quality. Sonically it's maybe not completely cohesive, but it makes up for that thematically, and I think even though there's a lot of different sounds, they're all pretty good ones. Worst I can say is don't like the production on The Miracle, but even then that's a pretty good song at its core.

We're all allowed opinions, but that's one hell of a stinker you got there domcobb

Funny, I thought the exact same about yours. Bizarre choices.

 

[david]

Yep.

It's funny that this is the least-interfered with album, and with their best producers, giving it some automatic integrity, and yet I strongly disagree with Eno's mission statement this time, and it simply has less songs that I love than the rest of their 21st century output.

Same. I was never big on Walk On but that first 7 song stretch is a good run for an album and I kind of checkout after that. Wild Honey is just a guilty pleasure of a track for me.

 

[aMansAman]

Another thing is the "fan - artist" age development over time. As I was 15 when Achtung Baby came out, U2 members were im their early 30s. Its a different thing from fan perspective as a teenager and of course I guess U2 were in their creative best form between 30 and 45. Which covers AB - HTDAAB?

Now I am 48. If a new album gets released in 2025 I slowly approach 50. U2 their mid 60s.

So being a fan of U2 for decades there happen things along the way. I for myself have to remind myself to not compare U2 to the band I loved.
If this approach works for me I can appreciate new material more relaxed... I am not ready yet to totally leave U2 behind.

 

[Rich79]

Can I just add that in X&W, even way back to the original outtake, I can't not hear "I go out on my bell-eesh crawling" and I keep wondering who accidentally Sean Connery'd on this track and why on this re-release when you had the perfect chance to edit that out or redo it, you wouldn't take the opportunity. It's such an oddity. I also just went on Spotify to listen again and they try to cover it in the written lyrics with "bellies" but that implies the singer has multiple of those...

 

[cobl04]

We’ve been maligning them for decades about returning to more heartfelt, genuine and atmospheric tunes. Little Things is a better track than I thought we’d ever get from them again. 13 fixed all that was wrong with SFS. LIAWHL avoided turning a catchy melody into an overblown mess and stayed true to its dreamy, pseudo electronic vibes, Red Flag Day had swagger we thought they lost years before. The Blackout, while admittedly having some clunky lyrics had an edge (haha) that all of SOI and NLOTH lacked. Landlady is about as honest and gentle as they’ve been in a long time. Love is Bigger is the best attempt at bigger schmaltz since ATYCLB. Book of Your Heart sounded like it came from the MDH sessions in the best way possible.

I actually agree with most of this. I really really like Red Flag Day and Landlady and for some reason I actually adore Love is Bigger

 

[lazarus]

Can I just add that in X&W, even way back to the original outtake, I can't not hear "I go out on my bell-eesh crawling" and I keep wondering who accidentally Sean Connery'd on this track and why on this re-release when you had the perfect chance to edit that out or redo it, you wouldn't take the opportunity. It's such an oddity. I also just went on Spotify to listen again and they try to cover it in the written lyrics with "bellies" but that implies the singer has multiple of those...

To be fair, Bono’s belly is the equivalent of several normal-sized bellies so the confusion is warranted.

 

[dan_smee]

I actually agree with most of this. I really really like Red Flag Day and Landlady and for some reason I actually adore Love is Bigger

I probably over correct and rate SOE as an album higher than I should. I think it is an anomaly in that it is the antithesis of the Unforgettable Fire.

TUF is far greater than the sum of its parts. SOE somehow is much worse than the sum of its parts. Its highs are clipped by the depths of its lows.

The reason the good SOE songs hit better than most of their 00s outputs for me is that there is an honesty, vulnerability and genuineness to the introspection. And it’s why the tracks 3-5 run sticks out like dog’s balls.

 

[JWR1992]

I don’t get all the hate for SOI and SOE. Maybe it’s because I’m a younger fan those albums just resonate with me more? Every Breaking Wave, Little Things and Invisible are some of their greatest songs and would’ve been hits in an earlier era. There are also so many others great songs from those albums: Cedarwood Road, The Troubles, California, Iris, Raised By Wolves, Red Flag Day, The Crystal Ballroom, Ordinary Love, Lights of Home, Love is All We Have Left, The Blackout…

Folks talk about HTDAAB being their last big album and honestly if it wasn’t for Vertigo and COBL it isn’t that great. I’ll take all of the songs I listed above over Yahweh, A Man and Woman, All Because Of You, Crumbs From Your Table, etc any day.


EDIT: Also, I was listening to Cedarwood Road for the first time in a while the other day and holy fuck that is the sound of U2 getting the rawk they want to be so badly right. This song is cool as fuck and actually has some integrity. It doesn’t make me cringe like American Soul and Atomic City does

 

[dan_smee]

It’s an interesting point to think about how much of U2 can ire for the last three albums is old people raging against the direction of modern music vs u2s actual output. And before anyone responds with lists of modern artists they like, I think it’s worth thinking about thinking more about popular music and the spheres u2 want to see themselves in.

 

[DomCobb]

I don’t get all the hate for SOI and SOE. Maybe it’s because I’m a younger fan those albums just resonate with me more? Every Breaking Wave, Little Things and Invisible are some of their greatest songs and would’ve been hits in an earlier era. There are also so many others great songs from those albums: Cedarwood Road, The Troubles, California, Iris, Raised By Wolves, Red Flag Day, The Crystal Ballroom, Ordinary Love, Lights of Home, Love is All We Have Left, The Blackout…

Folks talk about HTDAAB being their last big album and honestly if it wasn’t for Vertigo and COBL it isn’t that great. I’ll take all of the songs I listed above over Yahweh, A Man and Woman, All Because Of You, Crumbs From Your Table, etc any day.

Spot on. There’s a hell of a lot of good songs on those two, a lot more than their other more recent efforts.

And even the bad - I’ll take American Soul over SUC or Boots. I’ll take GOOYOW over Peace on Earth or Wild Honey.

Generally over the past ten years I’d say the consensus on SOI at least has been consistently pretty positive. I think had they put Invisible and Crystal Ballroom on there there’d be little debate that it’s the best this century.

 

[DomCobb]

As much as I don’t like U2 following trends, I do hope they take a look at the kind of guitar based music being made today. The days of the crunchy guitar are over, I feel like the classic U2 approach of more minimal, bright, and echo-y guitar sounds.

That’s probably counter to the “songs of rawk” album they want to make, but hey hopefully they stick to the post-punk angle and take a cue from something like Fontaines D.C., now that would be an interesting approach.

 

[lazarus]

I probably over correct and rate SOE as an album higher than I should. I think it is an anomaly in that it is the antithesis of the Unforgettable Fire.

TUF is far greater than the sum of its parts. SOE somehow is much worse than the sum of its parts. Its highs are clipped by the depths of its lows.

Yeah, you kind of nailed it here. SOE is a harder album to sit through in its official version, but I reach for my custom tracklist of it far more often than I listen to TUF.

 

[namkcuR]

I wrote up a post responding to a bunch of stuff here(mostly to Laz), but it was way too long, so I broke it up into four different posts.

Unless you're one of those weird old-timers fixated on early U2, October is without a doubt near or at the bottom. Last-minute lyrics to replace the stolen ones, and it's bookended by two far superior, landmark albums of college rock. I guess it has consistency on its side but too few high points.

No one said it was horrible. But it's clearly a step down from Boy, and doesn't ascend the heights of War. Yes, it has a few amazing tracks. But most albums have twice that number of bangers, and there are like 4-5 pretty forgettable songs.

Beyond the title track, Gloria is clearly a classic and I also love I Threw a Brick... and Tomorrow. But Fire is hands down the least iconic of their 1980s singles (at least When Love Comes to Town has a legendary guest), and for the life of me I couldn't hum Stanger in a Strange Land if my life depended on it, maybe I'd have luck with Rejoice on a good day. So it's not so much that there are outright stinkers, and it does have a lot of energy, but it's rather anonymous overall compared to every other album this decade. Aside from adding piano to their palatte there isn't enough growth from Boy or something to set it apart sonically, it's just a general downgrade in terms of personality and writing.

I might sound of two minds here; I agree that Boy and War are superior to October, and U2 has enough great albums that I'd hard-pressed to not put October in the lower half, but with that said, I still love October. I like pretty much all of it. You're right that Fire is probably their least iconic single of the 80s, but it's got a catchy vocal hook, great atmosphere, and I've always dug that little guitar solo in the bridge. Rejoice is frenetic in its energy and unrestrained in its earnestness - "I can't change the world/but I can change the world in me/rejoice". I've always loved the build-up and ultimate crescendo of I Fall Down too - the melody when the full chorus breaks out at the end is just great. Scarlet is really pretty too and I still can't quite believe the band made it a regular part of their 360 setlists.

It's maybe a little rough around the edges, but that's sort of its identity - faced with all the challenges you alluded to(having lyrics stolen, and struggling with their newfound faith), they had neither the money nor the time to overthink and rework it to death like they would do too much in their later career, so they just had to do it and get it out, and the result is a really raw and impassioned look at their psyches at the time.

But yes, it is probably ultimately the weakest of the first three records. War is home to too many important tracks - SBS, NYD, THBAO, 40 - and other great tracks like Drowning Man, Like A Song, Surrender, Seconds, etc.

And Boy has only gone up in my album rankings over the years. It is incredibly consistent, cohesive(how many of those tracks flow into each other seamlessly), and well-crafted for a debut, especially considering how young they were, and I still think it's genuinely one of Edge's greatest pure guitar albums. And I know the popularity of a lot of those tracks - not just IWF and OOC - endures for a lot of old school fans. I remember how genuinely exciting it was when the Vertigo tour started and they were playing ACD/ITH and EC and The Ocean, when most thought they would never play those tracks again.

I'm always irked that it never seems to pop up on the various 'greatest debuts' lists that pop up because I really think it deserves recognition. I realize the album didn't do anything commercially, but neither did REM's Murmur and that album routinely makes those sorts of lists(deservedly).

Anyway, minds can change, but Boy is a top 5 album for me right now.

 

[namkcuR]

I suppose I have my own hot take, which is that TUF doesn't rate too highly for me. I appreciate the new aesthetic direction and its overall sound/atmosphere, but song-wise it's less consistent to me, including a couple tracks that are barely even songs (4th of July, MLK), so it feels more slight than other albums. Even Bad isn't a highlight for me because it pales in comparison to the live version released just a year later and makes the studio take a tough sit.

Yeah, I can't agree with this. TUF showed such growth for the band into something more cinematic and atmospheric than they'd been up to that point and Bono into a more poetic lyricist("to lose along the way/the spark that set the flame/to flicker and to fade/on this the longest day", "carnival/the wheels fly and the colors spin/through alcohol/red wine that punctures the skin/face to face/in a dry and waterless place", "and you know it's time to go/through the sleet and driving snow", "if you twist and turn away/if you tear yourself in two again", etc), and the album works incredibly well as a cohesive whole. Throw in how much I love the "deep cuts" - Wire, Promenade, Indian Summer Sky - I'm a big fan.

Also, while live Bad from WAIA is obviously a career highlight, I've still always found studio Bad to be mesmerizing and captivating in its own unique way, atmospheric and hypnotizing where the live version is explosive and anthemic.

 

[namkcuR]

And I've never particularly cared for ATYCLB; it's a pleasant enough listen but not one that impresses me much on an artistic level.

Yep.

It's funny that this is the least-interfered with album, and with their best producers, giving it some automatic integrity, and yet I strongly disagree with Eno's mission statement this time, and it simply has less songs that I love than the rest of their 21st century output.

You've been consistent on this over the years, and I guess what I find somewhat perplexing is that you've also always been fairly complementary of HTDAAB. To me, those two albums seem like two halves of a whole, and I wouldn't think one's opinion on one would be so far away from the other.

Anyway, I have a huge soft spot for ATYCLB(it was the first "new" U2 album of my fandom, which started in 1998), I just think it's such a warm, joyous, earthy record. I think it's kind of ingenious how they managed to appeal to the 'pop explosion' zeitgeist of the time while still remaining distinctly U2. The singles are all classics, Kite is perhaps the album's best song(the Vertigo Tour live versions are incredible), In A Little While is comfy groove with one of the album's best stanzas("A man dreams one day to fly/A man takes a rocket ship into the sky/He lives on a star that's dying in the night/he follows in the trail, the scatter of light"), and...

Same. I was never big on Walk On but that first 7 song stretch is a good run for an album and I kind of checkout after that. Wild Honey is just a guilty pleasure of a track for me.

People have said this about the back end of ATYCLB for years and years and I just have never fully understood it. Wild Honey isn't just a guilty pleasure for me, it's a fantastic, melodic, effortlessly joyous piece of music akin to something a 1960s folk singer might compose. And those vocal harmonies. The lyrics aren't the best, but whatever.

When I Look At The World is a great song. Great lyric, great vocal delivery, great atmosphere, really unique guitar solo. Love it. One of his best 21st century lyrics - "when the night is someone else's/and you're trying to get some sleep/and your thoughts are too expensive/to ever want to keep", "I'm in the waiting room/can't see for the smoke/I think of you and your holy book/while the rest of us choke".

New York is one of the band's best rock songs of the 21st century, and the live versions were killer. They should bring it back to their live sets.

I've even come around on POE after years of not loving it, after the SOS version(I know I'm in the minority in thinking Edge nailed it).

I don't know, it's an intensely nostalgic album for me, but I genuinely think it holds up as a very enjoyable record. Not top 5, but perhaps top 10.