Rank the Album Among Others

[azraelsevaen]

Yes, way too early, but here goes

1. Achtung Baby
2. The Joshua Tree
3. War
4. The Unforgettable Fire
5. Boy
6. October
7. Pop
8. Songs of Innocence
9. Rattle & Hum
10. Zooropa
11. ATYCLB
12. Bomb
13. NLOH

And I'm in agreement with those on here who vastly prefer side 2 of Songs of Innocence (From Volcano onward) more than the first half, though I do like Every Breaking Wave quite a bit. If the first half was a bit stronger, or as strong as the second, this would be top 5 for me.

 

[BoyOnTheHorizon]

No Line was a letdown for me after just a few listens. SOI has been out a month and I haven't tired of it...no songs are really worth skipping. It might be overrated by some but for me personally it destroys No Line especially lyrically. Just compare the second half of SOI w No Line. Cedars better than the troubles? Breathe better than This is Where..? Not in my world, not even close.


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[purpleblackeye]

Although I have to give props to No Line the title track ...it's great.


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[Gonna Run 2 U]

There's many areas on the album that just beg for more aggressive drumming in the mix like in war. Especially on the intros of songs I just hear front mix toms and powerful snare. Larry has the idea in a lot of the songs. I think it could have been executed better.


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[mikal]

Overall I really like both NLOTH and SOI (yes it's actually possible) but I like both albums for completely different reasons. In a strange kind of way both albums provide something that their counterparts are lacking.

NLOTH provides 3 songs (NLOTH, MOS, Fez) that will always remain at the top of my rankings but SOI provides me the consistent front to back experience that I desperately wanted on NLOTH and quite frankly haven't experienced since POP.




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[purpleoscar]

Okay not much change after 98 votes except Zooropa and SOI are tied:

Achtung Baby
The Joshua Tree
The Unforgettable Fire
Zooropa tie Songs of Innocence
Pop
War
Boy
All That You Can't Leave Behind
No Line On the Horizon
Rattle and Hum
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
October

The pattern is also clear that the albums with their greatest hits are easily in the top 3 and experimental albums like Zooropa and POP are highly lauded in the forum.

 

[Rich79]

Currently:

Zooropa (dark, experimental brilliance. Can't say enough)
Achtung Baby (Industrial influence = pop/rock genius. Also...The Edge plays solos?)
POP (Electronic, dark, Heavy - let's party before the end of the world!)
Joshua Tree (Yes, it's a major pop-record, but nobody was doing pop this way or since)
WAR (A little bit of the angrier side of the band coming out; solid rock)
Boy (Energetic and fun)
October (The leftover energy from Boy, but not enough of it)
Rattle and Hum (Highly underrated. When narrowed down to the original material, it's fantastic)
All That You Can't Leave Behind (The sound of someone trying to cheer you up, when you're already happy. Surprisingly, grew on me, over the years)
No Line on the Horizon (Let's experiment. Oh, wait...no hits? Let's scramble and return to convention at the last minute. Oops! Incoherence? Oh well. Just release it)
Songs of Innocence (A great step in the right direction, but only a step. I'm actually surprised it placed this low on my list. It's a solid collection of powerfully personal songs, but let's face it. If you switched James Mercer for Bono and took out some of the Edge's guitar, you'd have the next Broken Bells album. The rhythm section is pretty standard Brian Burton influenced stuff; which means Adam and Larry didn't seem to get very creative on this one. Songs like "Raised by Wolves", "Sleep...", and "The Troubles" show promise of a newer, more interesting side of the band, but most of the rest of the tracks show that they can't quite break away from what I haven't enjoyed about them over the past 15 years or so. They want to be the anthems band and they want their songs to save the world, one listener at a time (or 500 million at a time))
The Unforgettable Fire (A fun experiment in atmosphere, minus one "We really really want to be on the radio" song that sticks out like a sore thumb and derails the mood. Strangely, the only album that sounds kind of "dated")
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (Very little of this record has stayed with me. I was super-excited when I first got it, but over half of it, I could take or leave)

 

[hasin73]

1. Achtung Baby 2. SOI 3. Pop 4. Joshua Tree 5. Zooropa

 

[LPU2]

1. AB
2. JT
3. TUF
4. SOI/Zooropa
5. War
6. Boy
7. ATYCLB
8. HTDAAB
9. Rattle and Hum
10. Pop
11. NLOTH
12. October

 

[Fumbleitis]

1. JT
2. AB
3. War- hooked on U2 starting here
4. SOI
5, POP
6. TUF
7. HTDAB
8. NLOTH
9. Rattle
10. Zooropa
11. Boy
12. ATYCLB
13. October

Really enjoying SOI, a very solid effort beginning to end.

 

[CosmoKramer]

Really enjoying SOI, a very solid effort beginning to end.

This seems to be the common theme, along with "most consistent" album since AB.

Also seems to be ranked in the top half of people's U2 albums, which given their discography, that's pretty impressive.

Still early though.


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[bobsaget77]

This seems to be the common theme, along with "most consistent" album since AB.

Also seems to be ranked in the top half of people's U2 albums, which given their discography, that's pretty impressive.

Still early though.


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I'd say middle is about right. I'd put in the same league as October, Boy and Zooropa. So a more 2nd tier album, but still very good.


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[xtrmx]

---Perfection---
1. Joshua Tree
2. Zooropa
3. Achtung Baby
4. The Unforgettable Fire
5. POP
-- Almost perfection------
6. ATYCLB
7. October
---Superb ---
8. War
9. Bomb
10. NLOTH
-- Great---
11. Boy
---Shit---
12. SoI
---Beyond Shit---
13. Rattle and a Hum

Usually a new U2 album is in my top5 for a few weeks at least, but this one hasn't been for a single second.

 

[prbiker15]

I'd say middle is about right. I'd put in the same league as October, Boy and Zooropa. So a more 2nd tier album, but still very good.

I agree. It's in my "middle 3", along with Pop and NLOTH.

 

[flukeson]

Achtung Baby
Songs of Innocence
The Joshua Tree
Zooropa
All That You Can't Leave Behind
No Line On The Horizon
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Pop
Boy
The Unforgettable Fire
Rattle and Hum
War
October

 

[BonoDude]

The Joshua Tree
Achtung Baby
The Unforgettable Fire
Boy
War
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Songs of Innocence
All That You Can't Leave Behind
Rattle and Hum
Pop
Zooropa
No Line On The Horizon
October

 

[HansaTonImbiss]

It's interesting- the new album has made me rehash the catalogue again and one thing really hit me. I currently have SOI tied for 5th on my list with War, ahead of ATYCLB and Pop. Pop strikes me as one of the only real instances in the band's past where I feel there was the potential for something interesting that was maybe pushed into too many independent pieces or releases. I combined the sketches from Zooropa that formed some Pop songs later, HMTMKMKM, and Passengers to form one cohesive album that would have notionally been released in 1994 and came up with this:

1. Slug
2. Discotheque
3. Do You Feel Loved?
4. Your Blue Room
5. Miss Sarajevo
6. Gone
7. If God Would Send His Angels
8. Last Night on Earth
9. HMTMKMKM
10. If You Wear That Velvet Dress
11. Please
12. Wake Up Dead Man

So I know "Staring" was also written by this time but it felt more like a B-side to me with this pack. If I was going to swap it out with any, it'd be "Blue Room". When I played this as an album I was blown away by how it "fit" as a theme, and frankly, it blew Pop out of the water for me. It also feels like a nice return punch after Zooropa and a true closing bookend to the AB/Zooropa aesthetic, keeping with the "Party at the End of the World" theme Pop explored. In fact, Gone or Last Night on Earth were the two possible album titles that stuck with me.

Not sure it fits here (apologies if it doesn't) but in this mood of ranking things it made think of how two sometimes underrated releases (not on this forum, but in a general sense) might have made one possibly more coherent thought.

 

[Babydoll]

Hard to say at this point, but as far as cohesiveness is concerned, it's right up there w/ AB.

I agree, it's lovely

 

[Aygo]

An interesting fact is that when NLOTH came out, in the first days, NLOTH was placed by most users in the 3rd/4th place (some obviously placed it #1, others very low, but I remember seeing a lot of 3rd/4th places). Now, I'm seeing a lot of 5th places of for Songs Of Innocence.

Songs Of Innocence for now is clearly my least favourite U2 album (for many reasons, not willing to describe all now). I initially rated it a 5 after the first couple two auditions. Now I rate it a 6. It may eventually grow. But it can also be rated lower... As it happened with the past 3 albums in my case.

My personal ranking:

1) Zooropa 9,6
2) Achtung Baby 9,5
3) The Joshua Tree 9,3
4) Boy 8,8
5) The Unforgettable Fire 8,4
6) Pop 7,8
7) October 7,7
8) War 7,3
9) How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb 7,1
9) No Line On The Horizon 7,1
11) Rattle And Hum 6,7
12) All That You Can't Leave Behind 6,6
13) Songs Of Innocence 6,0

Almost a month later, I have to admit that the album grew a little on me (as well as "Invisible"). Today's re-ranking would be:

1) Zooropa 9,6
2) Achtung Baby 9,5
3) The Joshua Tree 9,3
4) Boy 8,8
5) The Unforgettable Fire 8,4
6) Pop 7,8
7) October 7,7
8) War 7,3
9) How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb 7,1
9) No Line On The Horizon 7,1
11) Songs Of Innocence 7,0
12) Rattle And Hum 6,7
13) All That You Can't Leave Behind 6,6

 

[CosmoKramer]

Almost a month later, I have to admit that the album grew a little on me (as well as "Invisible"). Today's re-ranking would be:



1) Zooropa 9,6

2) Achtung Baby 9,5

3) The Joshua Tree 9,3

4) Boy 8,8

5) The Unforgettable Fire 8,4

6) Pop 7,8

7) October 7,7

8) War 7,3

9) How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb 7,1

9) No Line On The Horizon 7,1

11) Songs Of Innocence 7,0

12) Rattle And Hum 6,7

13) All That You Can't Leave Behind 6,6

That's why I haven't rated it yet, most U2 albums either grow on you over time or fall apart(NLOTH for me). I wanted to wait at least 1 month but now I'm going to wait to hear TCB and LH before my final review and ranking. 5 weeks should allow for an accurate rating for me.


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[womanfish]

Almost a month later, I have to admit that the album grew a little on me (as well as "Invisible"). Today's re-ranking would be:

1) Zooropa 9,6
2) Achtung Baby 9,5
3) The Joshua Tree 9,3
4) Boy 8,8
5) The Unforgettable Fire 8,4
6) Pop 7,8
7) October 7,7
8) War 7,3
9) How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb 7,1
9) No Line On The Horizon 7,1
11) Songs Of Innocence 7,0
12) Rattle And Hum 6,7
13) All That You Can't Leave Behind 6,6

Wow, below Bomb and No Line...

I must say, I knew the album was a grower. But damn if it doesn't keep on growing. I had about a week where I was getting burnt out, but then bam, back into it and songs like Iris that were just ok to me are really growing.

Did a rework of the acoustic/piano SFS, and now that one makes me like it more as well.

Just a great album.

 

[Moser]

Songs of Innocence: How would I rank it now that I remember my early and current impressions of their previous work?

Hmm...

1) The Joshua Tree
2) Achtung Baby
3) Songs of Innocence
4) Boy
5) War
6) All That You Can't Leave Behind
7) Zooropa
8) Pop
9) Unforgettable Fire
10) NLOTH
11) Rattle and Hum
12) HTDAAB
13) October

It's damn shame having to rank these. They are all really close to my heart.

 

[bobsaget77]

1 JT
2 AB
3 SOI (inc. TCB, Invisible, and LH + rearranged track list)
4 TUF
5 October
6 Zooropa
7 Boy
8 Pop
9 ATYCLB
10 No Line
11 War
12 Rattle and Hum
13 Atomic Bomb


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[U2BROTHR]

All I know is NLOTH is 2nd last on my list....with October being last.

Top of the list would be AB, JT, UF, SOI.

Yeah... I think SOI is that good.

 

[MadForIt]

There are only 2 decent songs on the album.
Miracle and Cedarwood. Rest is filler.
Poor effort from the lads.

 

[gvox]

Stick to Oasis..or what's left of 'em lol


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[bobsaget77]

There are only 2 decent songs on the album.
Miracle and Cedarwood. Rest is filler.
Poor effort from the lads.

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[lazarus]

Stick to Oasis..or what's left of 'em lol

 

[CosmoKramer]

There are only 2 decent songs on the album.
Miracle and Cedarwood. Rest is filler.
Poor effort from the lads.

Sounds like you favor the guitar driven songs. I usually go for them also but this is more of the Adam and Larry show than the Edge.

That's not to say Edge is absent because he's not, he has a huge impact on this album but in a more subtle way than albums past.


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[BANZAI]

I'm gonna make two lists... a list based on the quality, creativity, cohesiveness etc. of albums (List 1) and a list of albums I listened to the most the last decades (List 2, I'm not gonna count SOI yet).

LIST 1

1. Achtung Baby
2. The Joshua Tree
3. The Unforgettable Fire
4. Boy
5. Songs of Innocence
6. All That You Can't Leave Behind
7. War
8. October
9. No Line On The Horizon
10. Zooropa
11. Pop
12. Rattle and Hum
13. How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb


LIST 2

1. Achtung Baby
2. The Joshua Tree
3. No Line On The Horizon
4. How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
5. All That You Can't Leave Behind
6. The Unforgettable Fire
7. Rattle and Hum
8. Zooropa
9. Pop
10. Boy
11. War
12. October

It's a strange thing no. 13 on List 1 is no. 4 on List 2. It all has to do with the HTDAAB-NLOTH-era being one of the periods in my life I listened to U2 a lot.

I think SOI can take the third spot in the near future...