The Joshua Tree vs. Achtung Baby -- Which do you prefer?

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The Panther

The Panther

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Just curious as to how the devoted internet-U2 fan feels about this. Which of the two albums do you prefer?

(By the way, I'm interested in only the studio records. Not the live shows. Not the outtakes. Just the official, original albums.)

The_Joshua_Tree.png
Achtung_Baby.png
 
It’s like the difference between the best movie and your favourite movie - rarely is your answer the same for both.

I think AB is actually a better album - has thematic alignment, quality throughout, good flow, massive sleeper hits.

JT is my favourite of the two, but it is top heavy and has a clunker (Trip).
 
Achtung, and comfortably. Which is crazy to say, as JT would also be in my all-time top 10. But AB fucking absolutely slaps from back to front, it's fun, it's sexy, it's cool, it's has a super interesting story, amazing lyrics, refreshing sound. JT is none of those things. It is many other things, but it's no AB.
 
Joshua Tree is the better album, as close as one can get to a perfectly achieved soundscape and collection of masterful songs. It really sounds like absolutely nothing else made before it or after it and it very nearly doubles as a greatest hits because the songs are so strong. It's a cleansing, life-affirming masterpiece.

Achtung Baby, on the other hand, has been by my side all this year and I've never understood it better than I do right now. I've been listening to it since I was 11, that's 20 years now, and I still feel like I'm unlocking new truths from that album. It's a remarkable work, very honest and creative. I would say it's less perfect than Joshua Tree, a little less stoic and iconic, but it's easier to bring in close and experience personally.

I guess I prefer Joshua Tree, but they're not particularly similar and I'm grateful for both.
 
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For me they're about equal but the tiebreaker is that I think the live versions of Joshua Tree songs are for the most part better than the studio versions. Great examples are: Streets, Bullet, One Tree Hill, and Exit.

With Achtung Baby, I consider most of the studio tracks as good or as equal as the live versions.
 
I recognize JT’s greater importance to history, but AB changed my life and is my most essential album ever.
 
I was 12 when JT came out and was just getting in to music. JT, Rattle & Hum, Lovetown were when I fell in love with the band, but Achtung Baby is probably my favourite album of all time from anyone.
 
The two previous posts sum up pretty much my feelings exactly. JT was the real breakthrough album for them. I appreciate it greatly and understand its importance.
Going by quality song for song, it is my second favorite U2 album, although not in the top 5 that I listen to the most.

I also was also 12 when JT came out. I had been listening to songs off of October and War mostly, with some UF thrown in. So this album hit me pretty solidly, and I was an uber-fan by the time R&H came out.

But nothing prepared my for the arrival of AB. I was 16, had just moved to a new state in my sophomore year. This album did change my life, and saved my life in some ways, during that first year of shittiness. I wouldn't change a note from beginning to end.
 
Both are absolutely perfect for different reasons.

I know this is kind of a cop out, but I've always had them in a tie at the top because they are just too different to rank fairly.

Even looking beyond what The Panther asked for, which is to stick to studio albums only and ignore everything else, I can't break the tie. They will both be remembered as vital to U2's legacy- JT for being quintessential U2 that put them in that exclusive tier- AB for being a stunning, likely unprecedented reinvention for an act of that stature. Both tours were iconic- JT for the overnight superstardom and nightly buzz and Zoo TV for the obvious.

I guess if I Iook at my personal experience as a U2 fan, I can say that JT was more immediate by a little. I grew up with all the hits as background noise. My Mom and aunt were big fans, but I never paid much attention to them until ATYCLB. Became a big fan after the Super Bowl halftime show. I'd never heard Streets before and thought it was new. Haha. I think I discovered JT right after that. I obviously knew Still Haven't Found and WOWY but couldn't place them on an album until then.

When I really got into them, after HTDAAB, I wanted to go over the back catalog. JT got better and better, whereas AB, I just remember doing enough research to find out it was the album Mysterious Ways and One were on. I distinctly remember my Mom playing AB a lot in this time and thinking "okay, good, but where's JT?" Only Whos Gonna Ride really stood out to me. The entire album clicked for me and never looked back only after I saw the ZOO themed encore on the Vertigo Chicago DVD and got on an AB kick after that.

Ever since then, around Christmas 2005, I've been unable to pick a favorite personally or come up with a less personal way of saying one is better than the other.

They're the masterpieces for a reason. Pretty undisputed at that. The only real discussion I've ever heard from fans or just music people in general is over what should be #3.
 
For me, no contest AB all the way. I love JT, but AB is simply something else. It sounds how I want U2 to sound.
 
mikal said:
For me they're about equal but the tiebreaker is that I think the live versions of Joshua Tree songs are for the most part better than the studio versions. Great examples are: Streets, Bullet, One Tree Hill, and Exit.

With Achtung Baby, I consider most of the studio tracks as good or as equal as the live versions.
Click to expand...

Until the End of the World and Love is Blindness are better live. and One, Mysterious Ways, and The Fly were all better at one point. Not sure if they would be anymore.

Exit :drool:
 
womanfish said:
Until the End of the World and Love is Blindness are better live. and One, Mysterious Ways, and The Fly were all better at one point. Not sure if they would be anymore.

Exit :drool:
Click to expand...

I love those live versions but equally love the studio versions, where with JT I'd pick a live Bullet, Exit, and even Streets over the studio any day.
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
Fine.

Joshua Tree.

Side A is absolute perfection that I would put against any Side A of any album ever.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, for sure. I got the JT cassette tape for Christmas 1987. My aunt passed away from cancer on 1/2/1988. We had to drive to Corona, Queens for the wakes and the funeral. It's about an hour drive. The whole time I'm listening to JT on my Sony Walkman. JT helped me to escape during that awful time. My aunt who died was the "cool" aunt.
 
If I recall from that time we did a survey (or LN7 did the survey rather)... The two albums were virtually tied. I think Achtung May have been ahead by like .00000002 percent.

I also think Joshua Tree had more perfect 10s - which tracks.

So, yea, I'm glad I don't actually have to choose. They're both amazing and both on a level all their own when compars to U2,'s other work. And that's not an insult to U2's other work.
 
Yeah. AB might be my #1, but it's by a hair. JT holds a special place in my heart, being 16 when I first heard it at a neighbor's house on a nice stereo system via CD - one of my first CD listening experiences. Can't think of a better album for that.
 
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