What do you REALLY think of U2?

[Fall of Epic]

Inspired by a co-worker telling me he's excited to see U2 live at the Garden this Friday, what do people actually think of U2's music? All the negativity I've heard about the band over the years is about Bono's arrogance or how their latest album was automatically downloaded on their apple devices (which you know, can be deleted in seconds but people would rather complain about it, I guess) and not their actual songs.

I'm not a huge U2 fan myself but they did write some damn good tunes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdmNC8ylrXI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM4vblG6BVQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RQrhFlnkD0

So thumbs up, down, or in the middle?

 

[Gary]

Used to hate them. I ended up revisiting their earlier work, and I found it to be pretty damn good ("War" is a fucking great album) I don't really care for most of the material they did after "Achtung Baby" though I think "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" is the last worthwhile song they did.

"Pop" is...interesting. It's not a very good album, but a part of me wants to respect it for at least trying something new (unlike say, "Load" and "Reload", which just sound like a band further watering down their sound) I think Captain of Outer Space was right when he mentioned it alongside "Mechanical Animals" in that it was considered a flop and lead bands to stop experimenting and deciding to play it safe (it wouldn't be until "Kid A" and "White Pony" that we got a return to mainstream bands experimenting and said experimentation paying off commercially) That and the fact mainstream Alternative had changed so much (what with the rise of Nu Metal and Creed just on the horizon) by the time it came out.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Some songs are good. Most are shit.

 

[Precious Roy]

U talkin U2 2 Me?!!

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Easily hateable band but I only really don't like Pop and the last ten years of their discography. And the former is more of an interesting misfire as Gary said than something I actively hate. Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree are fuckin' great albums. All That You Can't Leave Behind and War are pretty close to fuckin' great too. Bono's proselytizing and the pomposity of their stage shows for the past 25 years or so has made it hard for them to like. And I say that as a hardcore KISS fan!

They were my favorite band during a very, very brief "serious classic rock" phase (with Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan) during my junior and senior year of high school. That somehow coincided with the period when I thought they jumped into boring dad rock territory.

 

[Edwin]

They were my favorite band the whole time I was in high school, and a bit beyond. Getting into the middle of the heart-stage on the floor of their Elevation Tour in 2001 was my favorite concert experience for a long time. Now that my tastes have broadened, I think everything up through The Joshua Tree is still great, and after that is hit or miss. Gary is dead-on about War. Achtung Baby was my favorite album for an eternity, and it's still pretty good, but I don't know that it's aged as well as their 80s stuff. The whole thing comes off as a bit too dramatic, and starts to reveal some of the overblown treacle that characterizes all their 21st century work. Zooropa is half of a great album. Pop has aged terribly except for "Please," but I'll still ride for the absurdity of stuff like "Discotheque," and I give them credit for trying. Everything after All That You Can't Leave Behind--and too much of that album, too--is hot, generic, dad-rock poop.

EDIT: Kamala and I both dropping the dad rock realness simultaneously. Clearly a consensus has been reached.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

I was in the middle of the heart stage during the How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb Tour in 2005! It still might be the best non Prince or KISS related concert experience for me.

 

[BurningPirateShipSex]

Tripartite consensus with Edwin and Gary on the U2 discography up to and including Joshua Tree.

My personal favourite U2 song remains "I Will Follow"; the energy of the song, the rawness (particularly compared to the level of production of later U2), and the really obvious punk influence make it stand out for me, even though it's a 35(!) year old song.

From the YouTube videos I've seen, they appear to be playing it about a half-step slower now in concert, which ruins it ever so slightly for me.

 

[Haws Bah Gawd]

Bono as a person, is a self-righteous uppity douche, but the band has put out a few good songs. I'm particularly fond of Bullet the Blue Sky and Holy Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me. The last track of theirs that I really remember liking was The Sweetest Thing.

 

[Bored]

U talkin U2 2 Me?!!

Hey...you poppin' my stones?

Seriously, U Talkin' U2 To Me? is quite possibly the best podcast ever. I just started doing a re-listen of it.

 

[CBright7831]

The last album that I liked from them was All That You Can't Leave Behind (I realize that I'm in the minority on this and that's okay) and anything after that is downhill.

 

[Richard]

"Sunday Bloody Sunday" is one of my top 3 favorite songs written about the troubles.

 

[Precious Roy]

U talkin U2 2 Me?!!

Hey...you poppin' my stones?

Seriously, U Talkin' U2 To Me? is quite possibly the best podcast ever. I just started doing a re-listen of it.

http://www.earwolf.com/episode/episode-22/

U2 talkin 2 U

 

[Fall of Epic]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1834347882528580063

NEVER FORGET

 

[BUTT]

I saw them in Newark in 2018. Decent show but they didn’t play anything from the Josh Tree because they had already played the album in full the year before. I had considered going to the 2017 MetLife show but I had to work the next day and it would have been a hassle and I probably wouldn’t have bought the ticket for the 2018 Newark show if I had known how weak the setlist would be but…oh well, I saw them once.

 

[Valeyard]

Never, ever understood how a band as mediocre got as huge.