U2: Where do you get off?

Mine. I LOVE this album but it's the last U2 album I own.

For a long time for me it was The Joshua Tree. They had gone and trumped The Unforgettable Fire but then came Achtung Baby.

Did you check out after Rattle & Hum, or was it that album that appeared on your iPod in a non-consensual way the final straw?

Where do you get off?

Personally I gave Pop (1997) a try but didn't do much for me. I also gave ....Atom Bomb a spin and a few after that, but could not cannot garner much enthusiasm.

So everything up to and including Zooropa is essential for me.

 

Personally I think that "Pop" was the last truly ballsy album they came out with and I would love a U2 that creates an album with creative reckless abandon instead of chasing radio radio hits endlessly. That being said I do like moments from all their 21st century albums and Songs of Innocence as a whole is a fairly solid album as was most of Songs of Experience.

No matter what I will always be up for seeing U2 live too

 

I'll stop when they do or I die.

 

All That You Can’t Leave Behind was a cue

 

I thought All You Can Leave Behind was their last great album and tour. Atomic Bomb had some moments. But, nothing after that has done it for me.

 

Bomb for me. A safe LP, but the last time they came up with some genuinely solid tunes, and I still enjoy that album and tour.

 

Pop.

From 2000 forward, not only does the music sound virtually identical from album to album, the album covers/artwork look virtually the same too...

 

I have them all but Pop was the last one I really got into.

 

For me the last REAL album is Pop, then only Horizon is some kind of searching.
Other new records - only for money, like a better boysband or something.

 

I was hoping the thread title was a question directed at U2.

 

Wandering Off:

When 1st hearing 'Boots' seriously thought it was a joke:

"Get On Your Boots - U2" 2009
Guess should've heard it getting dropped, as "Vertigo" had been previously released in 2004. Both seemingly genres apart from "Beautiful Day" in 2000.
Though just maybe the [also in] 2000 release of "Big Girls Are Best" sealed U2's 21st Century's artistic output for me.

 

No Line on the Horizon.

Sounded like the beginning of their quest to be "relevant" again (instead of embracing dad-rock geezerdom).

At least with the ATYCLB and HTDAAB approach you could count on a couple of retro bangers.

Magnificent and Moment of Surrender are the last songs I would ever put on a U2 compilation.

 

I was never truly "on" wit U2 tbh. For me Simple Minds (up to NGD) and the Bunnymen were infinitely more interesting (especially lyrically) but Achtung Baby is a brilliant forward-looking rock album. Even the singles remixes are largely worth hearing.

 

Unforgettable Fire

 

I’ll let you know when it happens

 

That's exactly how I feel. Bomb is kind of overly safe and doesn't do anything they haven't done before, but the songs are just damn good. (I can't get enough of a song like 'Miracle Drug'. So good. On the other hand, I could live without the operatic ham of 'Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own'.) I really like the production, too.

I think everybody knows that almost everything U2 did from 1980 to 1993 is unique, timeless, and awesome, with the period roughly 1984 to 1991 being their absolute peak. Any track they recorded in that celestial 7-year period is tinged with genius.

This is how I feel about post-1993 U2 recordings on the 10-point scale:

2 / 10 (Passengers -- Original Soundtracks Vol. 1)
Waste of time. Eno, here's your one-way ticket out of Dublin...

7.5 / 10 Pop
Fine album based on songs, but it's confused and (as with nearly every record to follow) compromised by too much second-guessing and endless re-re-re-recording of tracks. (Bono's voice in notably weaker shape on this one.)

7.5 / 10 All That You Can't Leave Behind
Fine album of nice -- if slightly chirpy at times -- songs. New issues here are some Hallmark card lyrics showing up for the first time, and the strange "boy-band" mixing job, which left the bass and drums way too low. (Track selection could have been better, too.)

8.5 / 10 How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
I would have preferred 'Vertigo' to remain in its earlier form as 'Native Son', but U2 decided they needed an apolitical radio anthem. Besides that, not too much to complain about. This one comes off like a 'greatest hits' album, as big tune after big tune rolls off. Nothing new, artistically, mind you.

4 / 10 No Line On The Horizon
A piece of crap. Putting 'Get On Your Boots' out as the single defied belief, and other songs here (notably the worst-U2-song-ever, "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight") reach dark and scuzzy places where even 'Boots' feared to tread.

8 / 10 Songs Of Innocence
Great album! Finally, we have a late-era U2 album that doesn't sound like it was re-recorded a thousand times and has conceptual and sonic unity. The "lean and mean" approach of getting back to their late-70s' roots worked well ('Every Breaking Wave' is possibly their best studio track since the early-90s), despite the usual whiff of cheese added to the single ("The Miracle").

5 / 10 Songs of Experience
I haven't really come to final conclusion on this one, yet. It does my head in, though. From some of the best things they've done in decades ("The Little Things That Give You Away') to the absolutely unlistenable, where we get to hear Bono singing though auto-tune because, evidently, U2 thought the kids would think that was cool. Yes, it's come to that.

 

11 O'Clock tick tock

 

Love everything through Achtung Baby then back on for All That You Can't Leave Behind then that's it for me

 

Nothing. I am a big fan but I'm not a slavish fan. I can see good in a lot of recent releases but I know they are not it in any shape perfect. I was sceptical after the first two releases of this century but NLOTH revived my faith (it's a hugely underrated album) and the next two have been ok but anything is better than HTDAAB.

 

"October". I'm not kidding. I loved that album and then they lost me. I did like a lot of Zooropa and a bit of Achtung Baby though.

 

Good question. They were 'my band' growing up so I feel like I'll remain a lifetime fan, but any time anyone asks I tend to say "yeah, but their records have jumped the shark"

I agree that Pop was the last time they had that confidence and that sense of mission.

There have been great songs - and I still weep openly at their shows and their filmed concerts; they totally own the modern arena rock experience - but the albums since then have felt kinda tentative in their approach. They are solid and strong and front loaded on first listen, but I feel it all comes from a place of caution and defensiveness.

They've always been unafraid to tinker and rethink in the studio til McGuinness* had to wrestle the tapes out of their hands, but i feel like post-Pop the albums are designed by committee to be all things to all people. At the time there's chat about NLOTH being 'more experimental' or 'started experimental but got safe' or HTDAAB being a holding pattern, but listening back, it all feels buffed and polished and safe. I could happily make one balls-out classic from all the albums since Pop.

*I don't think McGuinness' departure is mentioned enough when discussing the trajectory of their later career.

 

I was done after Achtung Baby. Never went back.

 

Ooh edgy..........

 

Not stopping point for me, but I haven't liked anything after How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb as much as everything up to it, and even that was a bit of a step down from All That You Can't Leave Behind. However, the more recent albums could always still grow on me more--there's always a possibility for me that something will suddenly start clicking. It's happened countless times.

 

Funny how people see things differently. I saw All That You Can't Leave Behind and Atomic Bomb as their quest to be relevant again and No Line as a return to more sonic exploration. Sure Boots was pretty bloody awful but I love the rest of the album. The return of Eno/Lanois was very welcome. Unfortunately, this was definitely where I got off as the Songs albums were horrible.