Poll--The Weakest Link: U2 POP, Round 1

U2's 1997 album gets the WL treatment this week. Pick two of these as weak links.

JcS

 

Mofo and Miami

Miami is possibly the worst U2 track ever (imho) and the real weakest link (imho) on an otherwise great album

 

I love it. To each ther own.

The album closer is the clunker.

 

There's not a single song on the album I think is a "clunker". "Playboy Mansion" is easily the weakest link for me, but I don't hate it.

After "Playboy", I had a really tough time picking a second song. Went with "Dead Man" but not with any enthusiasm...

 

I disliked "Miami" until I heard it live. The four-song set of "Miami"/"Bullet"/"Please"/"Streets" remains the best thing I ever heard at a U2 show. All these years later, I'm still mad they dropped "Miami" toward the end of the tour, especially since the official video comes from a "Miami"-free show!

 

Miami and Playboy Mansion, a deadly back-to-back pairing that throws the album off the rails...

 

Oh wow, great album so this will be fun & hard.

I voted Miami & Playboy Mansion, but honestly there's no songs here I don't love...

 

Yeah, that was disappointing. I didn't hear Miami live until years later & was amazed at how well it worked live.

 

I'm also of the "Miami is a recording and concert highlight" school, and was making a beeline to this thread to vote for the closer. Their albums have a distressing habit of ending on downers imo, and this might be the droopiest of them all, very much letting the air out of the album's tires.

I feel the same about Velvet Dress. Some of my favorite U2 songs are ballads, but my personal playlist always leaves these two tracks off, for what I think is a massive upgrade.

I gotta tell ya, though, looking at that list, I was reminded again what a terrific record this is. I say that after listening to it a couple of times last week and thinking, "Wow, this is a terrific record. " LOL

 

Pretty poor overall, but the last song is its nadir.

 

Even after all these years I still can't warm up to Discothèque, at least not to the studio version. Some of the remixes and the live version were great. But the studio one? Meh. Sometimes, when playing the album, I immediately skip the song to start with Do You Feel Loves (which is a great song).
Second choice, Miami. It was a toss-up between that one and If You Wear That Velvet Dress. Neither song is particularly bad, but compared to the others they're the weakest link.

This one will become pretty hard quickly though, as there are plenty of great tracks on this album. Though not as strong as the two albums before it, I still think it's better than any album they released in the Eighties (with the exception of The Unforgettable Fire).

 

Maybe I can't say "it never fails," but it SELDOM does--someone (and often more than one) has played the record we're doing in a game the week before. That is without me announcing what is coming.

JcS

 

No weak links here. Since this album and tour was so picked apart by a good friend and fellow U2 fanatic, I can't play. I can handle difference of opinion, but this guy would not let it go.

Really glad to see others hold the album in high regard here.

 

I love all things 1990s re: U2 (their best decade, in my estimation). However, The Playboy Mansion is one of their true stinkers on record, the worst kind of filler since War (Red Light/The Refugee). Chose Wake Up Dead Man as a limp closer, especially relative to other U2 closing tracks (at the time of release). After this round, selecting will quickly get more difficult. And what to do with songs like Please and Last Night on Earth, imperfect at best on record but later turned live powerhouses on PopMart? Or If God Will Send His Angels, whose single version was vastly superior? Hmm, going to be tough to slot them accordingly here as we're judging just the studio versions.

 

Agree on U2 in the '90s. I'm not familiar with IGWSHA as a single. Where would one find that one? Is it on one of those 4 to 5 song discs that were released in the summer of '97?

 

"Red Light," "The Refugee," and "Surrender" are among the highlights of War in my eyes.

 

Discotheque for the win

 

ah, will have look for some youtube clips. Never experienced a live rendition of "Miami"

 

Definitely Miami & The Playboy Mansion. This will get difficult in a couple more rounds as I love 7-8 of these songs on a fairly equal basis.

One great thing about listening to this album is that there wasnt a huge single on it. Kinda like Exile on Main St, no one song that has been played to death on the radio.

I'm surprised at all the dislike for Wake Up Dead Man. I absolutely love the sound of the guitar chords on it, simple but with great tone.

I have a playlist of the 6 songs that were redone or remixed from various cd singles and those sound wonderful, which really shows what a shame it is that they had to rush the recording of the versions on the original album because the tour was booked too early.

 

I joined the crowd at the Playboy Mansion in Miami.

JcS

 

Good album selection, Joey. Looking forward to seeing how this one comes out. Saw U2 for the only time in my life on this tour. Don't believe they've come back to San Antonio since then. My votes for round 1:

Staring At the Sun - hate this song. Hated it from the very first opening notes.
Do You Feel Loved - always felt this was a let down after the great opening track. And I couldn't wait for it to end so "Mofo" could start.

 

I voted for Mofo and Playboy. But I like those songs.

 

I've not played "Pop" proper in a while, but I did spin the 1990-2000 hits collection recently being prompted by a recent thread about it. It reminded how much I love the song that I want to win this thing but that I know won't!

 

You're correct! A search turned up this cool site that lets you search by cities U2 played:

http://www.u2gigs.com/city-San_Antonio-Texas.html

U2 only played San Antonio twice: 1997 and 1982...

 

I always skipped Dicotheque, and Please, but I dont think of them as weak tracks, voted Miami and the Playboy, but IMO this is their best album to date..
I imediattely start vomiting with any of their "classic" songs..