SOE ranking in U2’s catalogue

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Why no love for Rattle and Hum. If you look just at the studio tracks it’s insanely amazing.....Desire, AOH, AIWIY, Heartland, God Part 2....

I agree, the studio tracks are amazing; some of my favorite U2 songs are on there. But the live tracks drag it down really badly. If they had just released it as a mini album of companion songs to JT, that would have been a lot better. But then we may have never gotten Achtung Baby, so we should be thankful that R&H is so flawed, or things could have been very different!
 
These are so fluid -- they are mostly an expression of how I feel at a particular time. For example, before NLOTH and SOI was pretty sure I liked POP more than anything. Now I find War up there because I'm listening to it a lot recently.

1. Achtung Baby (sonically and spiritually their finest masterpiece, and the sound of U2 chopping down that god forsaken Joshua Tree)

2. War (I mean it has The Refugee -- the song I blew my car speakers on)

3. Songs of Experience (Similar to but better than ATYCLB -- doesn't have the hits but the deep cuts are oh so good).

4. All That You Can't Leave Behind (because it hits me with the feels and tears)

5. Boy (the most important U2 album)

6. The Joshua Tree (nice picture of America, but my country pisses me off, and this puts it too much on a pedestal. Plus old folks still think it's their best work and that pisses me off too)

7. The Unforgettable Fire (A Sort of Homecoming, Pride, Bad, Wire, and Elvis Presley and America -- especially Elvis Presley and America because it just feels so good)

8. Songs of Innocence (as a narrative the most cohesive U2 album ever put together and it has some real gems)

9. Pop (less interesting to me these days, but still an album I listen through and through)

10. Zooropa (less interesting to me these days)

11. No Line on The Horizon (after SOI I realized how undisciplined U2's song writing was on this record. I used to hold it in higher regard but now it's just TUF without the greatness).

12. Rattle and Hum (these songs were cool when I was a teenager, but now sound too stuck in the past)

13. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (Vertigo will always make me rock, Original of the Species is one of the best U2 songs -- but the rest don't feel timeless)

Catorce. October (I still love you -- just not as much as the others, you unfinished sketch of a better album)

I think this is pretty similar to how I would rank them, although I wouldn’t put War that high. I’ve finally begun to appreciate Boy after owning it since 2005. I think I was overlooking it because it sounded dated to me for a long time, but it really is a great album!

I am really conflicted about TUF. It has some of the best U2 songs, but it also has Elvis Presley and America, the worst U2 song. After seeing Bad live in KC, I decided that it’s my favorite (I finally picked a favorite after 16 years!), but it’s on the same album as my least favorite song. So I don’t really know what to do with that! :lol:

And as for JT, I see it as the one that most U2 fans are nostalgic about, so they automatically put it at #1 all the time. So I ask myself, is it really that great, or are people just being nostalgic? I feel a sentimental attachment to ATYCLB and can’t judge it without bias, so maybe they feel the same about JT?
 
Changed my order to this:

1 Achtung Baby
2 The Joshua Tree
3 All That You Can't Leave Behind
4 How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
5 The Unforgettable Fire
6 War
7 Songs Of Experience
8 Songs Of Innocence
9 Pop
10 No Line On The Horizon
11 Boy
12 Zooropa
13 Rattle And Hum
14 October
 
1 AB
2 JT
3 Zooropa
4 NLOTH
5 UF
6 Boy
7 Rattle and Hum
8 Pop
9 SOI
10 ATYCLB
11 SOE (Early Days)
12 October
13 HTDAAB
14 War

If we are including Passengers, then I would rank it at 13.

SOE has moved up to fifth equal alongside UF for me. This album really is a grower.
 
I don't even know if I could rank the U2 albums anymore. I used to always say AB was my favorite, but now I think that's just something I've gotten used to saying and may not be exactly true. It's also hard to compare the quality of the music vs. your personal associations with them.

ATYCLB came out right in the middle of a very difficult time in my life. I was 18, had just graduated HS and rather than going straight to college, I decided to take a year off. So I was working in a soul sucking factory job. It was depressing in every way. My friends were all off at college, in the military, and generally everybody seemed to be having a much more exciting life than I was. I clung to ATYCLB like a lifeline. It really helped get me through. The following fall, I started college, and everything was set in motion to where I am now. ATYCLB is certainly not the best U2 album, but it got me through a rough patch, and it will always be one of my favorites for that reason.

POP was my first new album as a U2 fan. I was 15 when it came out. I can acknowledge that POP is not their best album, but it will always rank higher than it probably should because of what it meant to me as a young man.
 
1. Achtung Baby

2. The Joshua Tree

3. Boy

4. Zooropa

5. Pop

6. The Unforgettable Fire

7. War

8. ATYCLB

9. Songs of Experience

10. Songs of Innocence

11. No Line on the Horizon

12. HTDAAB

13. Rattle & Hum

14. October
 
I love every U2 album except October and No Line... that's my ranking.
 
I love every U2 album except October and No Line... that's my ranking.

If I had to answer, mine would be something like this. October and No Line both have songs I love on them, but as an album they're just very lackluster. For October I give them a break; they were young, rushing against a deadline and risking being dropped by their label, having an identity crisis as a band, and not yet proficient enough to write the songs they were hearing in their heads.

But there's no reason for a band as accomplished as U2 to write an album as bland as NLOTH.
 
ATYCLB came out right in the middle of a very difficult time in my life. I was 18, had just graduated HS and rather than going straight to college, I decided to take a year off. So I was working in a soul sucking factory job. It was depressing in every way. My friends were all off at college, in the military, and generally everybody seemed to be having a much more exciting life than I was. I clung to ATYCLB like a lifeline. It really helped get me through. The following fall, I started college, and everything was set in motion to where I am now. ATYCLB is certainly not the best U2 album, but it got me through a rough patch, and it will always be one of my favorites for that reason.

I am attached to ATYCLB for similar reasons. I listened to it on the bus almost every day before school in 8th grade because it helped me with my panic attacks and depression.
 
I am attached to ATYCLB for similar reasons. I listened to it on the bus almost every day before school in 8th grade because it helped me with my panic attacks and depression.



In the past few months I have read stories from several (5 or 6) who have mentioned at one point or another (some currently) battling depression or a very difficult life event. I'm sad to here you went through depression at such a young age and I'm happy that U2 and ATYCLB in particular helped you through it to some extent as I too have a connection with those songs albeit for different reasons.

Herding these stories makes me realize the connection and more significantly the importance that some albums have for various people. It is one of the reasons that if I don't care for a particular U2 album(and there are a few) that I try not to "shit all over it" being someone else might have a strong connection, stronger than I could ever understand. When I do talk about those albums, I try to do so in a constructive manner or one that doesn't come off as a troll. I tend to cross that line only with Passengers (I really don't like it) but like to think I'm pretty good with the others.

With SOE, several posters have mentioned how it has been something of a godsend because they are going through difficult times and the songs have a lot of hope(Womanfish and Dan Smee have called this out amongst others). I think that is the ultimate compliment of an album, one that can help you personally through words/music and is more valuable and telling than any review I could read.

Anyway, I was always a fan of ATYCLB, especially Walk On....one of the most amazing songs U2 has ever created.
 
Not sure where to rank it yet, but I think it will end up being right in the middle and honestly right next to Songs of Innocence. Two very strong late-career efforts that are more cohesive than No Line on the Horizon.
 
1. Pop
2. Achtung Baby
3. The Unforgettable Fire
4. The Joshua Tree
5. All That You Can't Leave Behind (12 Track version)
6. Songs Of Experience
7. Songs Of Innocence
8. War
9. Rattle And Hum
10. Zooropa
11. How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (Deluxe)
12. No Line On The Horizon
13. Boy
14. October
 
I posted my full thoughts on SOE in another thread, but in general I'd place it towards the bottom, hovering around SOI & Bomb.

Doesn't make it a bad record. It just means that U2 has so many records that are better.
 
Zooropa
Achtung Baby
The Joshua Tree
Boy
The Unforgettable Fire
Pop
October
Songs Of Experience
War
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
No Line On The Horizon
Rattle And Hum
All That You Can't Leave Behind
Songs Of Innocence
 
01. Zooropa
02. The Joshua Tree
03. Achtung Baby
04. The Unforgettable Fire
05. Pop
06. Boy
07. War
08. All That You Can't Leave Behind
09. No Line on the Horizon
10. Songs of Experience
11. Rattle and Hum
12. Songs of Innocence
13. October
14. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

Something like that anyway. Based on how much I like each album as a whole, how much I like the individual songs, and sentimental value as well.
 
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Zooropa
Joshua Tree
Achtung
Unforgettable Fire
War

Pop
Songs of Experience
Boy
Songs of Innocence
OST 1

Rattle and Hum
October
ATYCLB
NLOTH

HTDAAB
 
^ Including myself, the last three put Zooropa in the top spot... Interesting, I knew that it is well regarded on the forum, but didn't know it was that much.
Still think that it includes the biggest group of songs that better stood the test of time: many of those songs could've been recorded and released today exactly as they are by many indie/alternative bands of the current days (same goes for a third of Pop).
 
I just completed the catalog survey. By using the averages of my song rankings for each album, I figured my own mathematical ranking of the albums.

WITHOUT using math, only my gut, this is how I would rank them:
01. Achtung Baby
02. The Joshua Tree
03. The Unforgettable Fire
04. Zooropa
05. Songs of Experience
06. Pop
07. Songs of Innocence
08. Boy
09. Original Soundtracks 1
10. Rattle and Hum
11. All That You Can't Leave Behind
12. No Line on the Horizon
13. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
14. War
15. October

However actually considering the ranking of each song and figuring their averages, this is how the albums actually rank:
01. Achtung Baby
02. Joshua Tree
03. Pop
04. Songs of Experience
05. Songs of Innocence
06. Zooropa
07. Rattle & Hum
08. The Unforgettable Fire
09. Boy (tie)
09. All That You Can't Leave Behind (tie)
11. War
12. Original Soundtracks 1
13. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
14. October
15. No Line on the Horizon

Some surprises, to be sure. #1 and 2 are solid, but I was surprised to see Pop at 3, and TUF down so low. I guess I don't like the atmospheric as much as I thought. I think the issue is that for TUF's amazing highs, I don't really dig the songs that meander. Pop may also have the nostalgia factor- I was in college when Pop came out. I was also surprised to see NLOTH so low—I think I like the idea of NLOTH more than the actual songs.

To be honest, I think my actual ranking is somewhere between these two. A gut feeling about an album goes a lot further than a math equation sometimes.
 
Achtung Baby
Joshua Tree
Zooropa
Pop
Rattle and Hum
Unforgettable Fire
War
NLOTH
Boy
ATYCLB
HTDAAB
SOI
October
SOE

I see that I'm one of the few to put SOE at the bottom. There's sadly not a lot there that I enjoy, which is weird to experience (ha!).

Rattle and Hum is always hard to rank - I counted only the studio songs. Counting the live tracks as a cohesive whole I'd probably drop it two slots. Even as it is I could easily swap it with UF.
 
all that you can't leave behind
no line on the horizon
pop
achtung baby
the joshua tree
songs of experience
how to dismantle an atomic bomb
songs of innocence

zooropa
the unforgettable fire
rattle and hum
war
boy
october
original soundtracks 1
Swapped Innocence with Bomb.
 
Why no love for Rattle and Hum. If you look just at the studio tracks it’s insanely amazing.....Desire, AOH, AIWIY, Heartland, God Part 2....

R&H makes my Top 5. Great record, and if you just take the studio tracks + b-sides from that era it's like a coda to Joshua Tree (ala Zooropa to Achtung Bay) and is easily one of their best albums.

My dream for the R&H reissue is one disc of the studio stuff + b-sides and one disc of the live stuff (including the tracks from the film that didn't make the album). Call the studio disc "Rattle & Sun" and call the live disc "Outside it's America". Throw in a Lovetown show and you're good to go.

U2: Rattle & Sun
  1. Van Diemen’s Land
  2. Desire
  3. Heartland
  4. God Part II
  5. Hawkmoon 629
  6. Angel of Harlem
  7. Love Rescue Me
  8. When Love Comes to Town
  9. Dancing Barefoot*
  10. A Room at the Heartbreak Hotel
  11. Hallelujah (Here She Comes)
  12. All I Want is You

How many U2 records are better than that? Not many.
 
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If that is your actual ranking......it’s unique and I appreciate it.

It is mostly. I'm unsure about the middle section (zoo, uf, r&h) because those albums seem like just great collections of songs rather than cohesive statements, so it's hard to rank them. The bottom four I just don't listen to as much. U2 really begins with UF for me.

But the first 5 are set. They've changed over the years. Pop used to be #1. But Leave and No Line affect me more emotionally now.
 
Achtung Baby
The Joshua Tree
All That You Can't Leave Behind
Songs Of Experience
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
The Unforgettable Fire
Boy
War
Pop
Songs Of Innocence
Rattle And Hum
Zooropa
No Line On The Horizon
October
 
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